What Do We Study the Bible for? An Introduction to KOINONIA.

What Do We Study the Bible for? An Introduction

Why do we study the Book of Revelation (or any other biblical studies course offered in our curriculum)? What is knowledge of the book for? What should we seek to get out of engaging with Scripture?

How we respond to these questions will depend, in part, on the vantage point from which we read Revelation (or any other biblical text). If you consider yourself to be a follower of Jesus, the life you have been called to is a life in which you have been invited to receive and enjoy God's love and in which you have been called upon to faithfully participate in God's life of love for the sake of the church and the world. And that reality undergirds, shapes, and animates how we read the Bible.

We catch a glimpse of this life we have been invited into in what is perhaps an unexpected place, the prayer life of Jesus. Prayer is often where we find one's deepest expressions of want, longing, and desire, where we learn what matters most. In John 17:24-26, we listen in on Jesus as he expresses to the Father what he wants, what he is seeking to accomplish, what is mission is--and ultimately what he wants for us:

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.

These three verses wrap up a longer prayer of Jesus that concludes with a petition followed by a declaration of the purpose for the work which Jesus came to accomplish. The petition is deceptively profound: "that those you have given to me may be with me where I am to see my glory." Where is Jesus? In the Gospel of John, from the onset, Jesus is presented as being at the Father's side (1:18), near to God in a relational sense, enjoying being loved. This becomes more clear when we attend to the clause that follows the petition. The "because" of "because you loved me before the foundation of the world" in John 17:24 is what is called an epexegetical hoti in Greek (the original language of the Gospel of John). It functions to signal to the reader that the "because" clause explains or unpacks further the phrase that Jesus uttered just before it ("I desire that they...may see my glory that you have given me.") In other words, the epexegetical hoti ("because") tells us that the "glory" that Jesus is referring to is the glory of being loved by the Father from before the beginning of time. The eternal belovedness of Jesus is ultimately what makes him glorious. And it is what propels him to come into the world, as we will see.

In the last verse of the prayer (17:26) we get a glimpse of Jesus' self-understanding of his purpose: "that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." The one who is identified as "at the Father's side," who has been eternally loved, and now who has come into the world as a human, has done so, he tells us this prayer, so that (purpose) others may join him in in his "next-to-the-Fatherness," in his belovedness. Perhaps to our surprise, what Jesus wants for us more than anything else is that we might enjoy what he enjoys, that we might be where he is, at the side of the Father.

There is much to be said about this prayer of Jesus, but what is often missed is that it reveals that God is an eternal life of love--Father loving the Son from eternity. There was never at time when Jesus was not loved by the Father. Jesus' prayer doesn't tell us everything about what we call the Trinity, but it opens us up to thinking of God as something more than a monad. And when we tend to the other ways in which Father and Son are joined together with the work of the Spirit, what the early church called the economy of God in salvation, we see that the way that God loves the world is by calling us to participate in his life of love. In other words, if we were to take a panoramic view of the New Testament and trace the pattern that emerges between the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, this is what emerges:

1. The Father loves Son and wants the world to enjoy that love.

2. The Father loves the world by sending the Son into the world.

3. Jesus loves the world by pointing to the Father and administering His justice, love, and will.

4. The Spirit empowers Jesus to love the world, and enables those to whom Jesus is sent to understand the things freely given to them by Father through Jesus.

5. The Spirit works in those who recognize this love to make them more like Jesus in His love, faithfulness, and obedience to the Father

6. The Father sends us out in Christ-like love, faithfulness,  and obedience to work alongside Jesus, empowered by the Spirit, to love the world like Jesus does.

God, Father, Son, and Spirit, fully participates in our salvation so that we can fully participate in God's life (and mission) of love.  This becomes part of the way that God loves the world. For this reason, in that same prayer Jesus, the Beloved One, says to the Father, "As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world" (John 17:18).

This life that Jesus has invited us into can be captured in one word, koinonia. It’s a Greek word, and it does a lot of work! When koinonia is translated into English, depending on context, it takes a number of different English words. In other words, if you were to look in your English Bible for the representation of the Greek word koinonia, you would find words like fellowship (close relationships), communion,  partnership (working on a team toward a goal), contribution (your part in a larger goal or project), sharing, generosity, or participation. We need all these English words to express what this one word, koinonia, means in its context. And this one word represents the life that Jesus has invited us to participate in.

The gospel—the news about what Jesus has accomplished through His life, death, resurrection, and ascension—has as its ultimate goal koinonia in all of its layers of meaning. Koinonia is the end, but it is also the means of a faithful life in Jesus. For example: 

• Through Jesus Christ, we have been reconciled and united to the life of God; we share in fellowship with God through the Son (John 3:16) and by the Spirit (Rom 5:5). This is koinonia.  
• When we are connected to God’s life, we are transformed by the Spirit to look more like Jesus so that we can partner with God, participate in His mission of bringing healing and life to the world, just like Jesus did. This is koinonia. 
• When we join with God in what he is doing in the world, we are joined with others who are also called to share in God’s mission–we partner together to further God’s will and purposes. This is koinonia.  
• Each of us has been given unique and special gifts, some spiritual, some by virtue of our            background, experiences, intellect, and training, and we are called to share those gifts (contribute    to the mission of God) with one another and with God for the sake of His kingdom.  We each have    a contribution to make to the larger work that God is doing in this world. This is koinonia.  

 So the end (or goal) of life with Jesus is koinonia: fellowship with the life of God and with his people; deep, rich enjoyment of his presence in the midst of his people. And the means to this end is also koinonia. In other words, the way that God gathers people to himself and empowers them to participate in his love for the world is through fraternal fellowship, through each member contributing his or her gifts to the building up of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:15-16).  

 

You have been called to koinonia in all its fullness. You have been invited to enjoy what Jesus enjoys, the delight and love of the Father. You have been invited into fellowship with God and his people. You have been asked to bring your unique gifts and to participate in this unique expression of God’s mission in the world in your local church. This is what you were made for: koinonia. Fellowship with God, participating in His mission, joining with others who are engaged in various ways in God’s mission for the world, bringing your unique contributions to further the kingdom of God.  

So what do we study the Bible for? The Scriptures are given to us in order to equip us for koinonia. Ultimately, the Bible invites us to receive the life and love of God, and to join God in what he is up to in the world. This is what we should seek to get out of it. Scripture engagement (e.g. Revelation) helps us pay attention to koinonia in all its layers. We study the Bible not just for facts and information, but more foundationally in order to be attentive to how we can participate in God’s mission with God’s people for the sake of God’s world. This class intends to help you learn how to read the Bible to that end!