Partnership In Christ
(3) I thank my God every time I remember you. (4) In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy (5) because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, (6) being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:3-6
The church at Philippi was a cut above. The Apostle Paul seemed to have special feelings for this church family. It seems that they were the type who went above and beyond the call of duty to help see that the message of the Lordship of Jesus was proclaimed all over the world.
In fact, he uses the word “partnership” to illustrate and define their participation. This word comes from the Greek word “KOINONOS”, which is from the base work “KOINONIA”, the word for communion.
We have taken the word communion and applied it to a single event. Communion is an environment, not an event. When we in the religious world take the Lord’s Supper, we call it communion, because it is communing with the Lord. We have made it an event instead of an environment.
Koinonos, or partnership, is a communing together in something. It is sweeter and deeper than just doing stuff together. It has roots that link back to the presence of Christ in our lives and finds its power and energy there.
When we link our hands together to accomplish a task in God’s name, it is sweet communion. It does not take the place of the Lord’s Supper, for that is a time when we are called to remember how He served us and how we are to serve one another in the same way.
Partnership carries the idea that we have a common goal in a matter and that we also have a willingness to participate together to see that the goal becomes a reality.
This church at Philippi was a living example of seeing something through and reaching the goal set before them. As a matter of fact, Paul’s praise of them in this matter was a high tribute to their dedication to Christ.
In a church family, we are not individuals working alone. We are all for one and one for all. We all have the responsibility to see that what we set out to do comes to a completion with every person sharing his or her respective God given talent to bring it to pass.
It is not about me. It is not about you. It is about US bringing ourselves in a Holy state of Communion (partnership) to get the work God puts before us done.
Think about it. If we really worked at it this way, would the outcome be better or worse? Would it change the way we have to think about something? Would we have to consider each other more if we did it this way?
Now, the echos of other Scriptures start to pour through and make all of this make more sense.
Here is the partnership. God plus me plus you. I like this setup. What about you? We are in this together.