Description
Sharing Faith (Koinonia) That Becomes Effective
This episode reflects on Philemon verse six, highlighting Paul’s prayer… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
We have to work a bit to extract the goodness out of the verse we’re meditating on today. It’s Philemon verse six. And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.
This sharing of faith, sharing is quite a beautiful word in the Greek; it’s koinonia. It’s partnership, it’s generosity. Paul is saying that the way faith should be shared by Philemon and by us needs to be generous, overflowing, abundant.
And that in that process we will see that the faith becomes effective. Effective in what? Full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. So this amazing gift of faith, fills us and others with this vast treasury of knowledge of good, the good that comes from Jesus Christ and all that he did for us.
Paul says that this is manifest through not just us having faith, but sharing faith. Sharing faith in partnership. And please don’t take this to mean just one thing and one thing only. The sharing of faith is a common phrase, used to mean telling others about Jesus, but it’s broader than that. It’s also interacting with one another in our faith, in our mutual faith. So it’s all aspects of how faith is expressed and shared and how it grows in us, in others, and in new converts.
Paul is praying that this process will be effective. And we can adopt this prayer ourselves. God wants to pour down on us abundantly things that we can’t even ask or imagine.
It takes us pressing into this faith. It takes us sharing this faith, not keeping it private, not keeping it to ourselves, but making it a living thing that affects our lives and affects the lives of those around us, those who do know Christ and those who don’t yet. May our faith be effective in that way, my friends.
