What does it mean to have the communion of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14)?

But even where such extremes are not reached, how many twist the thought of communion into a certain state of feeling, or into certain strange and rare experiences. Many would say they have no time for communion; business or family cares press too much. But how unhealthy all this! How forced and unnatural! Whereas the communion of the Holy Spirit is simply sharing in His thoughts. If the word of God engages us, if the love of Christ attracts us, if the will of God controls us, that is participation with the blessed Spirit. We are often too much engaged with the results of communion, rather than the fact. Joy, freedom, exultation — all flow from communion. The great thing is to be practically sharing with that blessed One what He is ever ministering to our souls.

The word occurs in a number of passages through the New Testament, and in various connections. Thus we have fellowship or communion (the same word in the Greek) of God's Son, of His body and blood, of His sufferings; with the Father and His Son. Here evidently the thought is sharing in the benefits, or in the experiences, or in the companionship. Similarly we have the same root used in such passages as "they were partners with Simon," "partakers of the altar," "companions of those who suffered," "partaker of the glory," "partakers of the divine nature." The liberality of the saints was called fellowship.

Now the meaning all through is clear and consistent. Communion means sharing or participating. So the communion of the Holy Spirit means sharing or participating in His thoughts, affections, purposes. I may sit on the same seat with a person on a train, riding miles side by side, and yet have no communion, because we are strangers. Or I may know him to be an ungodly, worldly person, and therefore have no communion with him, because we have nothing in common. On the other hand, I may meet a perfect stranger, and in a few minutes find we can enjoy full communion, because he is a child of God and one who loves His word. We have a common life and common objects, and that makes communion.

Thus we have life by the Spirit and a common object with the Spirit — Christ; so we share and participate with Him in our little measure. That I believe to be the main factor in communion. Many Christians have a very unhealthy, distorted idea of communion. They think of a dreamy sort of life, elevated far above its common duties and affairs, the soul in rapt gaze looking heavenward, the body chiefly prostrate in the attitude of prayer. This thought has peopled the convents and monasteries with those who thought communion too holy a thing to come even in outward contact with this world.

The benediction that closes all has the same suitability which we see in each epistle, admirably adapted to the state of the Corinthian saints, and of course not only to all others in similar experience but instructive and wholesome for all that believe. Yet for this very reason one feels the unintelligence which turns such pointed words of blessing into a standing invariable form for all sorts of different occasions, as if we were reduced to one such mode of dismissal, or that it was of the Spirit of God to select that which might seem the most comprehensive and comforting. As God gives no licence to confusion in the assemblies, so does He not sanction those who walk in pride and passion, in self-will, railing, and contention, however graciously He may act, when they begin to judge themselves. We need, not the word of God only, but His Spirit to apply it aright: else we may unwittingly pervert even that word to real mischief, with cheer where reproof is rather called for, and rebuke where consolation would be more seasonable. But what grace is told out in this inspired servant sending under all the circumstances such a parting message to all the saints in Corinth! "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all." Poor, weak, unworthy, what can saints lack to help them when this is made good? and what simple soul among the faithful would on such a warrant doubt it? or desire less or different for himself and his brethren? The free and full favour of Him who for us died and rose; the love of that God against whom we had without cause sinned to our utter ruin, yet who sent the Saviour to redeem us; the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, the power and seal of this infinite blessing, who gives us a common and abiding share in it all, yea, with the Father and the Son: what a portion to be with us all, and assured for ever!

The communion of the Holy Ghost is something to be greatly prized and cherished; it is outside all the parties and divisions in Christendom, for they are carnal works, and can only grieve Him. It would deliver us from all our opinions and prejudices and narrowness of heart, for these have no part in this communion, and it would lead us into the joy of that threefold oneness of which Ephesians 4 speaks: "One Spirit, one body, and one hope of your calling." It means that we have communion one with another as He takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us, and guides us into all truth (John 16), but it means also that we have communion with God Himself, for truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. It is outside all the fellowships of the world, and unlike them, it stretches out into eternity, indeed it concerns eternal things brought to us now in this temporal and changing world. What serenity and stability it imparts to the soul, even when all around is strife, confusion and decay.

We come now to the last chapter, and there find a lovely word about the Spirit. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen." That is a formula which I fear is often lightly used. But think of it! Look at the blessedness of the statement — the grace of the Saviour, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost. What is the communion of the Holy Ghost? Is it not the beautiful in-breathing of all the love of the Father, and the glory of the Son — the breathing of these thoughts into the soul by the Holy Ghost that we have dwelling in us? I fear we know little of it. And that is why we ought to feel desirous of having more of it.

And if the grace of the Lord does preserve us, then the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit may have full course and be with us all. The Spirit being holy the communion which He inspires must be holy. We shall be found in happy partnership and fellowship as to the whole range of things which He reveals to us, even the deep things of God.

The power for the enjoyment of this fellowship is the Spirit of God, given to dwell within us. Hence, 2 Corinthians closes with the words, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." And Philippians 2:2 gives us to see the practical bearing of it, on the walk of the saints, as the Apostle so touchingly refers to it in his appeal, "if there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, of one accord, of one mind." This is the normal effect of the power of the Spirit, where He is ungrieved in us. He produces this unity among Christians, where self can have no place.

Before exhorting the saints to unity, Paul wrote to the Philippian saints, "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit" (Phil. 2:1). True Christian fellowship is "fellowship of the Spirit." In the Christian circle the motives that control our actions lie in the divine nature, and the Spirit of God gives character and power to all true fellowship. In the world fellowship is governed by similarity of outlook, and mutual interest; but in the assembly of God the Spirit of God binds the saints of God together, and enables them to express their feelings and desires towards one another in a way that gives pleasure to God.

The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is also referred to by Paul in the closing words of 2 Corinthians, where he writes, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." Grace, love and fellowship belong only to one circle on earth, a circle in which the whole Trinity is interested, and for which it cares; the circle that has been formed by the Spirit, through the work of the Son, for the pleasure and worship of the Father.

On the one hand there is a uniting power to the individual believer; namely, fellowship with the Father and with the Son, by means of the Holy Spirit, who reveals the things of God and His Son to and in each, and so produces also fellowship among them through the objects of the faith common to them all, on the other hand, it is of the assembly that its unity is called "the unity of the Spirit."*

Then there is communion of the Holy Spirit. Think of the marvellous condescension He shows to come and dwell in such close proximity with evil, for we have to remind ourselves that, although transferred from Adam to Christ, the law of sin is still in our members. Doubtless, this was the cause of His appearance as cloven tongues of fire at Pentecost. He dwells in us in that which He Himself has formed in us by new birth and here it is, His communion with us. Surely in coming to our side, it is that He may bring us to His, in all the blessed consciousness of divine favour within the sacred enclosure of His own domain, where all things are of God. It is thus as the Spirit He enters into the closest intimacy with us in our spirits. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." Rom. 8:16.