Lesson 5: Fellowship 61
serve others, but we must avoid misdirecting our energy to ensure that
we are helping, (not hurting), those we intend to serve.
12:12. The next three exhortations provide encouragement to persevere
through difficult times. We rejoice in the hope that we have in Christ.
Our hope brings joy despite challenging circumstances and setbacks. We
must be patient and persevere through times of trouble. Prayer is essen-
tial to the Christian life, especially when facing aff lictions. Therefore, we
must put forth the effort to devote ourselves to prayer.
12:13. Paul used the verbal form of the word for fellowship (koinonia) to
show the deep level at which we should meet the needs of the “saints,”
(nasb) the term used to describe fellow believers. We are to share, or
fellowship, with Christians who are suffering from a lack of basic needs.
We are to join together with them to care for their physical well-being.
Moreover, we are to “pursue” hospitality. Christian hospitality implies
much more than social entertaining, which often focuses on the host.
Hospitality within the Christian community focuses on the guests,
caring for those within the local body of believers and others that we
encounter as we go about our daily lives.
Focusing on the Meaning
In both of these passages, we see how the local body of believers ought
to function and how church members should relate to one another. In
Acts 2:42–47, the Church was in its infancy, and the believers who gath-
ered together in Jerusalem displayed an incredible love for one another
as they grew in their knowledge of what it meant to be followers of
Jesus. This young church would soon face harsh challenges from within
and outside of their community of faith, but their deep support of one
another garnered the admiration of those who observed the way they
related to and cared for each other.
In the Romans passage, we see a ref lection of another church in
the mirror of Paul’s words of advice. Having both Jewish and Gentile
Christians, the church in Rome was more culturally diverse than the
one in Jerusalem. Such diversity tested the depth of the members’ love
for one another and revealed the quality of their fellowship.