"God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord"  

(1 Corinthians 1:9).

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14).

"What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. ... If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:3-4, 6-7).

For Christians, Greek words have a certain attraction. When better understood, they can make even familiar passages come alive. But like the ebb and flow of fads and baby names, some Greek words are popular for a season, only to eventually give way to another. There was a time when "maranatha" was exceedingly popular. Even today, there is MARANATHA! MUSIC,¹ Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference,² Maranatha Baptist University,³ MaraNatha Foods™,⁴ Maranatha Volunteers International,⁵ Maranatha Ministry;⁶ and so many more. Most of these names can likely be traced to an earlier time when maranatha was particularly popular. Another very popular word was "koinonia." Today you can find, Koinonia House,⁷ Camp Koinonia,⁸ Koinonia Institute,⁹ Koinonia Academy,¹⁰ Koinonia Christian Fellowship,¹¹ the Koinonia Foundation,¹² Koinonia Family Services.¹³ Koinonia was particularly popular when I was a teenager. It was everywhere. I especially remember youth groups adopting it as their new title: Koinonia Youth; Koinonia Fellowship; or simply, the Koinonia. And although many organizations still use the term, it's lost some of its pizazz. That might be because it was overused and became pass�. But I think there is another reason; it raised expectations that were never fully met. As it says in Proverbs 13:12, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." When that happens, we can lose the power of a truly transformational word. 

Koinonia means, fellowship, even intimacy. It's a powerful word when we hear that we can have fellowship with the Lord Himself (1 John 1). As young people, we were told this was what we could expect if we got serious about God. It was built up really high. We sang songs about it, we talked about it. But when nothing changed in our lives, it became just another word, like all the others that had come and gone before it. It seemed like mere hype, more hope unrealized. Many of us wanted that kind of fellowship, but didn't know how to get it. I suspect our leaders didn't know either. That is likely why the word's use began to fade away. But like all good words of the Bible...read more here 

Send this writer a Note of Encouragement:  Click Here

PDF Version of this Article:  Click Here

   

1 MARANATHA! MUSIC http://www.maranathamusic.com/ 

2 Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference www.vacationwithpurpose.org/ 

3 Maranatha Baptist University http://www.mbu.edu/  

4 MaraNatha Foods™ http://www.maranathafoods.com/  

5 Maranatha Volunteers International https://maranatha.org/ 

6 Maranatha Ministry (several different ministries with Maranatha "Ministry" or "Ministries" in their name)

7 Koinonia Househttp://www.khouse.org/ 

8 Camp Koinonia (several different "camps" with Koinonia in their name)

9 Koinonia Institute (several different "institutes" with Koinonia in name)

10 Koinonia Academyhttp://www.koinoniaacademy.org/ 

11 Koinonia Christian Fellowship (several different "fellowships" and "churches" with Koinonia in their name)

12 Koinonia Foundation (several different "foundations" with Koinonia in their name)

13 Koinonia Family Services http://www.kfh.org/ 

 

David McCarthy (Washington state, USA) is a contributing writer for IOM America - Transformational Biblical Worldview & Exchange Life Development.

 

Permission obtained from author to republish Divine Fellowship. Copyright � 2015 David McCarthy. Editorial changes by IOM America approved by author.

 

All Scriptures, unless otherwise stated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, � Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Parenthesis/brackets are for clarification by this author.

 

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version, public domain.