But this fellowship is no isolated commune or static, mutual-admiration society. It is a “partnership in the gospel” (Phil. 1:5), among those giving their everything to “advance the gospel” (1:12), knit together for “progress and joy in the faith” (1:25). It is the fellowship in which, as Paul says to Christians, “you are all partakers with me of grace . . . in the defense and confirmation of the gospel” (1:7). In such a partnership as this, we need not worry too much that we will forget the lost and sequester the gospel. Real fellowship will do precisely the opposite. It must. The same Jesus
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