Philippians 2:1-2

Fellowship in the Spirit

Philippians 2:1-2-"Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose." (NLT)

Obviously the Philippians has some disagreements among them. Paul reminds them of the way that they should be acting because they "fellowship together in the Spirit". As we already noted, the book of Philippians is really about fellowship; not friendship but fellowship. Just from reading this passage of scripture the only thing that my mind is capable of thinking about is salvation. I know this seems weird but let me share with you where my mind is going on this.

Philippians 2:1, Paul ask the question is there any "fellowship together in the Spirit?" Obviously in Paul's mind in order for there to be fellowship in the Spirit, the Spirit must be active in a persons life. So how do we get this Spirit? So that we might be able to experience this "fellowship in the Spirit".



Romans 8:9-"But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all). From this scripture we see that there are obviously people who do not have the Spirit, therefore they would not be eligible to "fellowship in the Spirit".

As Peter stands and delivers his message on the Day of Pentecost (the day the first church started) the people listening ask Peter what they must do in order to obtain this amazing grace and how can we get to know this awesome Jesus? Peters answer is found in the scripture below.
Acts 2:38-"Peter replied, 'Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" Peter says at the point that someone is baptized, its at that point in which you receive the Holy Spirit.

Please remember that baptism is but one part of the salvation plan, there are other which I will not go into detail but have listed below, but the issue of baptism seems to be greatly debated, so I wanted to give my two cents worth.

Salvation:
Belief
Confession
Repentance
Baptism
Faithfulness