The Greek word behind fellowship and communion, and why in Paul’s letters it is often about money
Koinonia: The Sharing That Has a Bank Account
Fellowship, in English church use, means coffee after the service. The Greek word behind it in your New Testament means having something in common — a share in a thing — and the thing is sometimes the body of Christ, sometimes the gospel, and sometimes a collection of coins for the poor in Jerusalem. The word does not distinguish, which is the lesson.
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Lesson 12 of 12 · Greek
Koinonia is a share held in common: participation in something with others, and the bond that participation makes. The New Testament uses it for the church’s life together, for the believer’s share in Christ, for the cup and the bread, and — repeatedly — for money given to people in need, because to the Greek mind a share is a share whether it is in a cause or in a purse. English broke the word into fellowship, communion, contribution and partnership, and lost the fact that they were one thing. Read fellowship in your New Testament as "what we hold in common," and expect it to cost something.
The first church’s four things
Luke describes the first congregation with a list, and the word is second in it.
They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer. — Acts 2:42 · WEB
Read the comment on What the first church did all day
The apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, the prayers. Two verses later Luke says what the fellowship looked like: all who believed were together and had all things in common — the adjective from the same root — and sold their possessions to give to any who had need. The word had a bank account from the beginning.
κοινωνία koinōnía G2842
from κοινωνός; partnership, i.e. (literally) participation, or (social) intercourse, or (pecuniary) benefaction:--(to) communicate(-ation), communion, (contri-)distribution, fellowship.
From koinos, common, shared: the state of having something in common, a share in it, the association of those who share it, and the act of sharing — a contribution. Ordinary Greek used it for business partnerships and for marriage. The New Testament uses it some twenty times, and the range is the point: the church’s common life, the believer’s participation in Christ and in his sufferings, the Lord’s Supper, and the collection for the poor, all under one word.
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The cup and the collection
Paul uses the word for the most sacred thing in the church and for a fundraising letter, within a few chapters of each other, and means the same word both times.
“The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ?” 1 Corinthians 10:16 · WEB
The cup of blessing, is it not a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread, a sharing of the body? The word English churches render communion.
“begging us with much entreaty to receive this grace and the fellowship in the service to the saints.” 2 Corinthians 8:4 · WEB
The Macedonians begged for the favor of taking part in the service to the saints: the word, here, is the offering for Jerusalem.
“For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem.” Romans 15:26 · WEB
Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a certain contribution for the poor: koinonia again, and it is money.
“for your partnership in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now;” Philippians 1:5 · WEB
Your partnership in the Good News from the first day: the church that funded Paul, thanked with the word for what they held in common with him.
The cup and the collection are the same word because they are the same act seen from two sides: a share in Christ, and a share given to his poor. Paul would not have understood a communion that stopped at the table.
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Fellowship with the Father
John lifts the word as high as it goes, and keeps it plain.
that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. — 1 John 1:3 · WEB
Read the comment on Fellowship, and Joy Made Full
That you also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son. The sharing among believers and the sharing with God are one word in one sentence, and John goes on to say that walking in the light is what keeps it; a claim to the second without the first is a lie he names.
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The right hand
The word also names the moment the church nearly divided and did not.
and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, those who were reputed to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. — Galatians 2:9 · WEB
Read the comment on The Right Hand of Fellowship
James, Cephas and John gave Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship: an agreement that the mission to the gentiles and the mission to the Jews were one thing held in common. The next sentence says the one condition attached — remember the poor — which Paul was eager to do, and which the collection in the chain above was. Even here the word has its purse.
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What is not settled
Whether Acts 2 and 4 describe a rule or a moment has been argued since the monasteries. Some readers have taken "all things in common" as the church’s intended shape; most read it as what one congregation did in one season, recorded without being commanded, since Peter tells Ananias his field was his own to keep. The word does not decide the question. What it does insist on, everywhere it appears, is that a share in Christ shows in a share given, and that a fellowship which costs nothing has borrowed the word.
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What the word asks
It asks what you hold in common, and whether it reaches your money. That is the plain sense of the word in most of its New Testament uses, and it is the sense English has most completely lost. The series ends here on purpose: twelve words, and the last one asks for the hand and the purse, because that is where the others were heading.
Read Acts 2:42-45 and 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 in one sitting. Write down what the first church held in common, and what you do; then name one thing that the word, read honestly, would move from the second list to the first.
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