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Importance of fellowship

 The Word for Today.     The importance of fellowship Mar 2, 2025 ‘All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship,’ Acts 2:42 NLT Euclid was a Greek mathematician who lived about three hundred years after Christ. He is best known for his thirteen-volume series of books called Elements. Two of his axioms of geometry have been revised to produce the modern saying: ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.’ Another way of saying this would be ‘something happens in a group that doesn’t happen alone’. That ‘something’ is called ‘synergy’. It comes from the Greek word sunergia, meaning cooperation and working together. The New Testament church practised it: ‘All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer’ (Acts 2:42 NLT). Jesus described spiritual synergy in these words: ‘“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth con...
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Show compassion to everyone (1)

 ‘Whenever you give a banquet, invite people who are poor, who have disabilities, who are limping, and people who are blind.’ Luke 14:13 NASB20

Luke writes, ‘It happened, that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely’ (Luke 14:1 NASB20). That day He turned one of their most prized religious traditions on its ear by saying, ‘“But whenever you give a banquet, invite people who are poor, who have disabilities, who are limping, and people who are blind; and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous’ (Luke 14:13-14 NASB20). Anything defective was considered by the Pharisees as unsuitable to reflect the perfect holiness of God. Consequently, they allowed nothing malformed within the boundaries of the temple. Furthermore, since they believed the temple had been degraded by Rome, they believed they could honour God by treating their homes as small temples.

For Jesus to tell this well-known Pharisee to intentionally invite malformed, defective human beings into his holy little temple was a deliberate slap in the face. Jesus was instructing him to place on his guest list people whose defects offended him. Jesus’ compassion came from His love for all individuals and His pain when anyone is devalued. In Scripture, we are never told that Jesus had compassion for someone because they deserved it but because they were in need.

Don’t miss the point Jesus made. He promised that you will be blessed in this life and rewarded in the next one when you show kindness and compassion to those who ‘cannot repay you’. Keep this in mind when you’re tempted to overlook someone because they have a particular problem you don’t like.

SoulFood: Isa 34-37 Luke 2:21-33 Ps 71:17-24 Pro 2:3-5

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