Definition · Webster 1828 · Scriptures · Corruption · Roots · Usage · Related
📖 Biblical Definition
Communion with God is the believer’s living fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—the mutual giving and receiving of love and grace between the redeemed soul and the triune God, which is the very heart and end of true religion. It is the great privilege purchased by Christ and bestowed by the Spirit: ‘truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ’; ‘the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.’ The Puritan John Owen, in his classic treatise, defined communion with God as consisting in God’s communicating Himself to the soul, and the soul’s returning to God what He requires and accepts, flowing from that union which is the foundation of all. Communion presupposes union: those joined to Christ by faith are brought into living fellowship with God, the estrangement of sin having been removed by reconciliation. It is distinctly Trinitarian, the believer holding communion with each person according to His distinct work—with the Father in His love, with the Son in His grace, with the Spirit in His comfort—yet with the one God in all. This communion is exercised through the appointed means: the Word, in which God speaks to the soul and the soul hears its God; prayer, in which the soul speaks to God and pours out its heart; the sacraments, in which Christ is sealed and received; meditation, in which the soul ponders and enjoys its God; and all the ordinances of worship. Its marks are love returned for love, delight in God, the enjoyment of His presence, freedom and intimacy in approaching Him, and a heart that finds its rest and satisfaction in Him. Communion with God is to be distinguished from mere duty or activity: a man may perform all the outward forms of religion and yet have little communion, the heart far from God even while the lips draw near. The cultivation of communion—the actual enjoyment of God, not merely the service of Him—is the highest exercise of the Christian life and the foretaste of heaven, where the redeemed shall enjoy God fully and forever. To know God is eternal life; to commune with Him is the soul’s true home and chief joy, for whom have we in heaven but Him, and there is none upon earth that we desire beside Him.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Webster 1828 defines COMMUNION as fellowship; intercourse; mutual participation; and notes union in religious worship and the fellowship of believers with God.
expand to see more
COMMUNION, n. — 1. Fellowship; intercourse between two persons or more; interchange of transactions, or offices; a state of giving and receiving; agreement; concord. 2. Mutual intercourse or union in religious worship, or in doctrine and discipline. 4. Union of professing Christians in a particular church; fellowship.
Communion with God is the fellowship of the soul with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
📖 Key Scripture
1 John 1:3 — "...that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."
2 Corinthians 13:14 — "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen."
Psalm 73:25 — "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee."
Revelation 3:20 — "...if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Communion with God is corrupted by the dead formalism that performs the outward duties of religion without the heart drawing near—and by a subjective mysticism that seeks bare experience and feeling detached from the Word and the appointed means.
expand to see more
Communion with God is corrupted first by the dead formalism that mistakes the performance of religious duty for fellowship with God. A man may attend worship, read his Bible, say his prayers, and observe all the outward ordinances, while his heart is far from God and he has little or no actual communion—drawing near with the lips while the heart is withdrawn. This is the great peril of settled religious habit: the forms persist after the fellowship has evaporated, and the soul may go through the motions of devotion for years while a stranger to the living enjoyment of God. Communion is not the mere doing of religious things but the actual meeting of the soul with God in them—and where that is absent, the most diligent religion is hollow.
Communion is corrupted on the other side by a subjective mysticism that seeks bare experience, feeling, and ecstatic sensation as though these were communion itself, detached from the Word and the appointed means through which God has promised to meet His people. This pursuit of unmediated experience easily drifts into self-absorption or delusion, mistaking the soul’s own feelings for the presence of God. True communion is exercised through the means God has appointed—the Word in which He speaks, prayer in which we answer, the sacraments in which Christ is sealed, meditation in which we ponder and enjoy Him—and is marked not chiefly by intensity of feeling but by love returned to God, delight in Him, and the heart’s rest in His presence. The recovery of the doctrine restores the very heart of religion: not the cold performance of duty, nor the pursuit of bare experience, but the actual enjoyment of God—fellowship with the Father in His love, the Son in His grace, and the Spirit in His comfort—cultivated through the means of grace, and forming the soul’s true home, chief joy, and foretaste of heaven.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
The doctrine rests on koinōnia (fellowship, communion) with the Father, Son, and Spirit—the soul desiring none beside God in heaven or earth.
expand to see more
['Greek', 'G2842', 'koinōnia', 'fellowship, communion, participation']
['Greek', 'G3326', 'meta', 'with (fellowship with the Father)']
['Hebrew', 'H2654', 'chāphēts', 'to desire, delight in (none I desire beside thee)']
['Greek', 'G4906', 'sundeipneō', 'to sup with (I will sup with him, and he with me)']
Usage
"Communion with God is the soul’s living fellowship with the Father, Son, and Spirit—the very heart of true religion."
"Owen defined it as God communicating Himself to the soul, and the soul returning to God what He accepts."
"Dead formalism performs religion’s duties without the heart drawing near; true communion is the actual enjoyment of God."