FELLOWSHIP
W. Carl Ketcherside

My position on the fellowship we enjoy in Christ underwent a dramatic change when, in a foreign land, I traveled my personal “Damascus Road,” and, taking Jesus at his word, opened the door of my inner self at his insistent knock and invited him in to commune with me. When the love of God was poured out in my heart by the Holy Spirit, and I knew that I had crossed the frontier from death unto life because I could love all of the brethren, I was forced to evaluate anew all that I had ever believed and taught. And today I praise his name for the wonderful deliverance from the sectarian spirit which he wrought in my unworthy life through his marvelous grace.

Prior to that time I was in the vanguard of one of the two dozen factions into which our once glorious restoration heritage had fragmented. I equated our party with the kingdom of heaven on earth, and regarded conformity with us as faithfulness to the Lord. All of you were “brothers in error,” and categorized as either sectarians or hobbyists. In our arrogance we thought of ourselves as “the faithful church,” and in our narrow and bitter exclusiveness we confused fellowship with partisan recognition and acceptance, to be withdrawn in pharisaic self-righteousness when one, in deference to his conscience, could no longer acquiesce in the theological molehills elevated to spiritual mountain status, and whose tongue could no longer pronounce our shibboleth.

When Jesus struck the sectarian shackles from my soul I came to see that the only brethren I have are “brethren in error.” As Will Rogers put it, “We are all ignorant, but just about different things.” All of us are caught up in the human predicament. None of us knows all there is to know. Every person among us is a sectarian to some and a hobbyist to others. There are no exceptions! A sectarian is one who has something we oppose, and a hobbyist is one who opposes something that we have. And yet no one is a liberal or conservative because of where he stands, but because of where we stand as we look at him.

I am ashamed of my previous littleness and bigotry. I have repented of it and claimed the forgiveness of the Father. I no longer think that I best serve him by fighting with his other children. I receive every child of God as God received me, in spite of my hangups, mistaken views and misunderstandings. So whatever may be your personal position on any of the so-called “issues” which have been hammered and pummeled into prominence, you are my brother. I love, welcome and receive you, whether you concur with my views or not. You are in the fellowship of the saints. Wherever my Father has a child there I have a brother or sister. And I regard none of you as half-brothers or stepbrothers. I have no “brothers-in-law” but only brothers in grace!

The word koinonia, commonly translated fellowship, is a term of majesty and magnitude. William Barclay asserts there is no single English word which can fully represent it. Literally, it means “the sharing of a common life,” and the New English Version is to be commended for so rendering it. John declares that it is the sharing of eternal life, the life of God, made possible by the incarnation and manifestation of the Living Word, who came and brought his own tent with him, to share our nomadic life as foreigners and pilgrims.

When he besought the Father to give us the other Helper to abide with us through the age of his absence, fellowship became the sharing of the life of the indwelling Spirit. It is called “the fellowship of the Spirit” in Philippians 2:1 and in 2 Corinthians 13:14, where it is associated with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God. All of these are divine gifts. Not one is a human achievement. The fellowship of the Spirit is not something men can extend or withdraw. It is a state or condition created by God which they can enjoy and in which they share through divine grace and marvelous love.

We are called into this fellowship of the Son, by God, who is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9). The call is issued in the Good News, the factual Message concerning the Son, which makes it possible for us to share in his life of suffering here and in the glory of his life over there (2 Thess. 2:14). The proper response to the Good News introduces us to the fellowship of the Father and Son by the power of the indwelling Spirit. And that response is made by the belief of one fact and the obedience of one act. That fact is the noblest proposition ever affirmed in a universe defiled by sin, that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Son of God. The act, validating his lordship over the whole scope of surrendered existence is immersion in water. No other creed except Christ must be confessed, no other act than baptism must be performed, in order to be translated into the fellowship of the redeemed of all ages.

It is my conviction that every sincere believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, on the face of this earth, who is immersed upon the basis of his faith, is in the fellowship of which God’s precious revelation speaks. I do not receive him into the fellowship. I receive him because he is in it. And I receive him as God received me, in spite of my ignorance, shortcomings and immaturity. Fellowship is not something to be negotiated or arrived at through argument, debate or conformity to orthodoxy. It is the gift of God through a love so powerful as to be almost incomprehensible to a weak mortal like myself.

The fellowship is the vitalizing principle of the one body, and that body is not composed of sects, splinters, or segments of believers. It is constituted of individuals joined to Jesus as head, and joined to one another only because they are joined to him. Fellowship is first vertical, and then horizontal. So our unity is not based upon conventional conformity but upon covenantal community. Every saved person on earth is in that body and in the fellowship. In our present state of schism and division, no faction or movement has all of God’s sheep in its partisan corral. I am in the fellowship with saints of God who never heard of Barton W. Stone or Thomas Campbell. Some of them have never heard of Alexander Campbell and the Christian Baptist. They have not even heard of W. Carl Ketcherside and Mission Messenger.

It is a stern indictment against us that we have confused fellowship with other things and have promoted division while proclaiming unity. Fellowship is not endorsement of the views, opinions, or interpretations of another. Fellowship is a transcendent relationship to provide community. Endorsement, on the other hand, is the sanction of, or assent to the ideas expressed by another. All of us endorse some views of those with whom we are not in the fellowship; all of us are in the fellowship with some whose views we do not endorse.

The brethren in Jerusalem did not all endorse Peter’s conduct at the house of Cornelius, but it was precisely because they were in the fellowship that they questioned him (Acts 11:1-8).

Paul did not endorse the judgment or opinion of Barnabas in his desire to have John Mark accompany them, but it did not affect their fellowship (Acts 15:39).

Paul did not endorse the action of Simon Peter at Antioch but he did not sever him from the fellowship (Gal. 2:11), unless you have one of the apostles excluding another.

The scrupulous vegetarian did not endorse the act of eating meat but was forbidden to judge the one who did so, for God had received him (Romans 14:3). This shows that God receives men whose opinions, habits and actions others cannot endorse in good conscience.

The Bible teaches that individuals may live worthy of Christ and be saved even though in a congregation, the majority of whose members neither God nor themselves can endorse (Revelation 3:1-6).

Jesus said that a minority group will not be charged with endorsement of doctrine which they do not sanction or hold, even in a congregation which tolerates it and allows it to be taught (Revelation 2:18-29).

It is silly to equate fellowship with endorsement. Not one of us who has learned anything in the last twenty years, endorses all he believed that long ago. The ghost of fellowship present (to borrow a page from Charles Dickens) would need to withdraw from the ghost of fellowship past. We would be forced to exclude ourselves retroactively, for if we could be in the fellowship twenty years ago and hold our mistaken views, others can be in the fellowship today with the same views. If not, God is a respecter of persons. To argue that fellowship is contingent upon endorsement would mean that God could not be in fellowship with any of us, unless that which is perfect can endorse that which is not.

Again, fellowship is not conditioned upon harmony, but harmony is a goal, or fruit, of fellowship. We are in the fellowship not because we are in harmony, but because we are in the fellowship we strive to attain unto harmony. Not one injunction encouraging concord as found in the apostolic letters was written to produce fellowship. Every such statement was addressed to those who were in the fellowship and because they were in it. A good example is found in Philippians 2:1, 2, where the apostle cites “the fellowship of the Spirit” as his ground for urging the saints to “fill up my cup of happiness by thinking and feeling alike, with the same love for one another, the same turn of mind, and a common care for unity.”

Certainly the congregation at Corinth lacked harmony. Paul postponed visiting them because he said, “I fear I may find quarreling and jealousy, angry tempers and personal rivalries, backbiting and gossip, arrogance and general disorder.” Still, he regarded them as called saints, in the fellowship of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were God’s building, God’s garden, God’s temple. They belonged to Christ. And it was because of this he urged, “Mend your ways; take our appeal to heart; agree with one another; live in peace; and the God of peace will be with you. Greet one another with the kiss of peace.”

But I am asked upon what grounds a congregation may dissociate itself from one who is recognized as a brother. There is no scriptural basis for one congregation excluding another congregation. No discipline can be exercised beyond the grounds of jurisdiction, without a gross usurpation of power and the exercise of tyranny. No coalition of congregations in an area can, through elected delegates or self-appointed representatives excommunicate another congregation. All such pressure groups are spawned by the spirit of Rome and not by the Spirit of Christ. If we proclaim congregational autonomy let us also practice it!

I hold that the scriptures teach that there are only three basic reasons for delivery of one unto Satan. All three have a common root. Since fellowship is established upon a covenantal commitment, only the renunciation or repudiation of that relationship can bring about a rupture of the fellowship. The common life is entered by an acceptance of the Lordship of Jesus over our earthly existence, and it can only be disrupted by a renunciation of our pledge of allegiance to him as our sovereign.

One may deny the Lordship of Jesus in two ways — by what he does, or by what he says. If he adopts a life-style or engages in a course of conduct in defiance of the moral and ethical values associated with Jesus, he ruthlessly violates the covenantal relationship. His behavior constitutes a public and blatant declaration that he will not allow Christ to reign over him. Thus, one ground for dissociation from a brother is moral turpitude, and this is discussed at length in 1 Cor. 5.

Another basis for congregational action is the advocacy of doctrines which separate from God. One may be mistaken about many things, but erroneous opinions will not necessarily sever him from God, else God would have no children left. The Father loves his children. He will no more cast them out because of faulty spiritual vision or inability than I would drive out a physically retarded child. And God has a lot of such children. The body of truth is like the human body, in that it has many members. Not all of these are essential to being, some are essential only to wellbeing. All truths are equally true but not all truths are equally important.

What one must believe in order to enter into the fellowship of life is more important than what one may believe while in that life. Thus, a denial of the facts related to Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God will destroy the relationship created by acceptance of those facts. Such a denial separates from God exactly as such acceptance unites with God. If one is right about Jesus he can be wrong about a lot of things and still be saved. If he is wrong about Jesus, he can be right about everything else and still be lost. Fellowship is not conditioned upon being right about a given number of things, but upon being in the right One who was given for our sins.

The third basis for such actions as I am discussing is the factional spirit. This motivates one who is subverted and self-condemned to ignore all entreaty and admonition and to pursue a course of fragmentation of the body. To erect a “pro” or “con” party about any opinion or secondary matter, even if it is a truth, is a work of the flesh. It is a sign of deep-seated carnality and childish immaturity. Thus, the apostle says, “Avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile. As for a man who is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him”. No one ever started a faction until he enticed others to sympathize with and follow him. “It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit” (Jude 19).

These three destructive tendencies are the only tests of union or communion for the community of the reconciled ones. A consistent course of conduct which denies that Jesus is the source of life, advocacy of those doctrines which deny that Jesus is the foundation of life, and fragmentation of the body which expresses on earth that Jesus is the life — these constitute the sole scriptural reasons for a refusal to welcome, walk and work with our brethren.

No honest opinion arrived at from personal study of the sacred volume, and held in good conscience, can ever be made a test of fellowship without first becoming an unwritten creed. Regardless of whether one’s deductions may be right or wrong about cups or classes, music or the millennium, he must be received and retained, recognized and respected. No personal experience to which he testifies, whether we regard it as valid or invalid, can be made the excuse for driving one forth from under the umbrella of our congregational love.

It is at this point we reveal the tragedy growing out of our mistaken view of the glorious fellowship of the Spirit. Although we began historically as “a project to unite the Christians among the sects,” we are now one of the most schismatic religious movements on the contemporary American scene. We are divided over missionary societies, instrumental music, centralized control, colleges, orphan homes, the support of national and international radio and television programs, the right to own television sets, leavened bread, unleavened bread, the manner of breaking the bread, fermented wine, individual cups, Bible classes, uninspired literature, the work of evangelists, the pastor system, marriage of divorced persons, speaking with tongues, divine healing, the charismatic renewal movement, foot-washing, the hour of meeting to eat the Lord’s Supper, and a host of other things too numerous to mention, as they say in auction bills and posters.

Not once in all of God’s word is division of God’s children authorized as an approach to problems within the body. Every time division among the saints is mentioned it is condemned, and yet we could not be more divided if it were commanded of God. The fact is that we have had only one approach to differences when they arise — partisan debate, and only one solution where debate failed — division. Yet the first is discouraged and the second is condemned as contrary to the will of God.

And now, that we have splintered and fragmented ourselves until our very plea for unity makes a laughingstock of our radio broadcasts, we are told that we must thresh out every angle of every wrangle, and argue to a standstill every action of every faction, before we can ever have the satisfaction of a combined effort for our precious Lord. I deny that. And I have renounced partisan debate with any of my brethren as holding out any hope for a return to sanity of a movement madly tearing at its own flesh and consuming its own offspring.

I want to be clearly understood. I ask no one to see things as I see them. I solicit no one to work as I work. I shall love you as much if you disagree with me as if you agree. My love is not based upon your mental assent to my views but upon what Jesus did for us all. But I want to serve notice here and now that I reject our whole sectarian approach to the brotherhood of the ransomed and redeemed. My brethren are not limited to the confines of one narrow partisan corral. I am sick of the whole hypocritical partisan approach and I never intend again, so help me God, to sell my soul to any group whose price for their love must be my hatred and hostility to other brethren.

I have brethren who believe that Bible classes are wrong and other brethren who have educational wings which look like state office buildings. I have brethren who use only one container for the fruit of the vine and other brethren who use hundreds of little plastic glasses to serve the multitude. I have brethren who oppose Herald of Truth and never miss seeing it, and other brethren who support it and never look at it. I have brethren who would never allow an electric organ on the premises even for a wedding, and others who play on one every time they assemble to sing God’s praise. But not a one of these has anything to do with the fellowship which is in Christ Jesus!

All of these I have mentioned are my brothers and I love them all. I do not agree with them upon everything they think, say or do. Certainly I cannot condone or endorse that with which I do not agree. But they are not answerable to me. They are answerable to the same Father who will also judge me. And I shall never again set at nought a brother for whom Christ died, over such matters. I will allow him to stand or fall to his own Master. I will not play God with the lives and thoughts of God’s other children.

It is not easy to take the road of love for all of the brethren. It is the most difficult thing I ever sought to do. It makes you vulnerable, naked in spirit and open to attack. But I am committed to trudging this road into the sunset glow because it is the one which He asked me to walk. If it means crucifixion at the hands of those whom I love, the cross is not too great a price to pay for the crown.

What does this mean spelled out in terms of our practical problems of today? It means that the brethren who labor, teach and study at Abilene Christian College are my brethren. It also means that those who are associated with Florida College occupy the same spot in my heart. But it also means that the brethren at Cincinnati Bible Seminary and Ozark Bible College are just as much my brethren. I love them all. They are all God’s children. They are all members of the royal family. I will go among them all, sharing with them my concepts as they will allow, and when they will not allow, then listening to them that I may learn and grow in knowledge as well as grace.

It means that Pat Boone is my brother and Shirley Boone is my sister. Whether the personal experience to which they testify is the work of the Spirit as they interpret it, or an emotional and psychological projection, as others interpret it, has not one thing to do with fellowship in Christ Jesus our Lord. I have all my life put up with people who had difficulty with English and I am not about to run someone off who says he can speak something else. My real trouble is not with brethren who claim to speak in tongues and don’t know what they are saying. It is with those who claim to speak English and I don’t know what they are saying!

The brethren who produce and propagandize the Herald of Truth programs are my brethren. The brethren who take to the air waves and support radio programs to attack their means of support are my brethren. The brethren who would not allow a television set on the place, and have to go over to a neighbor’s place to watch the election returns, are my brethren. If I have to wait until everyone is consistent before I can have a brother, I will never have one, and if they all become consistent, they might exclude me.

So I propose to allow my brethren to go their way, blasting and bombarding one another as antis and liberals, but I will receive them all as long as they seek to cleave to Jesus as their prophet, priest and king. And I think all of them earnestly seek this. I no longer carry a pocket-full of labels and tags. And I have resolved never again to be boxed up in a neat factional package as a public display of loyalty. Pigeon-holing is for the birds!

Centuries before our Lord made this “the visited planet,” God used the tongue of a herd man from Tekoa to thunder his wrath upon the people of Tyre because they “remembered not the brotherly covenant.” Will the divine censure poured out upon a people who once united to erect an earthly temple, be less severe upon those who were incorporated as living stones in a spiritual temple, and who have trampled under their factional feet the covenant of brotherhood? Will we be forgiven if we take the keen sword handed us to vanquish a malevolent foe, and bathe it in the warm spiritual gore of God’s other children?

I know not what course others may take, but I am resolved to ignore the cold and cruel fences and barriers our fathers erected to separate and segregate members of the divine family. I refuse to perpetuate the senseless feuds which originated in passion and have been kept inflamed by the tongues of bitterness and haughty pride. The dynamic of love has transformed into glowing transparency those walls which previously were opaque and I can now see my brethren on both sides of them. Praise God for such wonderful love — love which can melt hearts of stone — love which can span the frightful chasms eroded by hostility and bitterness.

Regardless of your personal feeling toward me, regardless of our divergent views, you are my brethren. All of you. We are in the fellowship of the divine. And I have been blessed above measure by a recognition of this wider, broader, and greater fellowship which makes possible soul-expansion in the pure atmosphere of the abundant life. I have learned the meaning of the poetic words:

He drew a circle and shut me out,

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout;

But love and I had the wit to win,

We drew a circle, and took him in. —139 Signal Hill Dr., St. Louis 63121

(Following the presentation of this paper, it was responded to by Harold Hazelip, Dean, Harding College Graduate School of Religion, Memphis, Tn., whose paper immediately follows this one. —Ed.)