One of the things the young church devoted themselves to was fellowship. Fellowship means holding all things in     common — in other words, sharing together. They began   to know and to love one another. Here are 3,000 people  suddenly  added to a little band of twenty. Most of them probably were strangers before this time. Many of them had come from   other parts of the world into Jerusalem for that occasion. They did not know each other. But now they are one in Christ, and they begin to love each other and start to talk to each other, to find out what each   other has been thinking and how each has been reacting, and to share their problems and burdens and needs, to talk about these together and pray together about them. There was a wonderful sense of community, of commonality, of belonging to each other. That is the fellowship which is the intended life for the body of Christ.

   God has designed that his life should be manifest through a body. If the body is not operating, then the life is not manifest. That means there is no power, because the life of God is always power. The reason the church has been so powerless lately is that it has been so fragmented and  broken. We have estranged ourselves from each other. In Ephesians, the   Apostle Paul says, And do not grieve the   Holy Spirit of God... (Ephesians 4:30). Then he lists the things that grieve him: Get rid of all bitterness, rage and  anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of  malice. Be kind and  compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in

Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:31-32)

   If that is not happening, then the Spirit of God is grieved. When he is grieved, he does not act. There is no life. The church becomes dull and dead and sterile and mediocre. All this is manifest in an empty ritual, with no vitality in it. God intends that Christians should have fellowship, should share one another's lives and thoughts and problems .