The Place of Fellowship

14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
    and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
17 Therefore go out from their midst,
    and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
    then I will welcome you,
18 and I will be a father to you,
    and you shall be sons and daughters to me,says the Lord Almighty.”

(II Corinthians 6)

The Church is the place for fellowship - not in some buildings, but in the midst of God's people gathered with Him.  It's like the new Garden - not in the sense of beautiful surroundings - but walking and talking together with God.  The "outside" of the garden is not the world outside the four walls of a building, but when our affections, affiliations and affinities with the things of this world are stronger than those for God and His people.  It is when we walk in darkness, instead of the light of God's Word and will a willingness to trust in Him and one another. The darkness is "out there" in the same sense Adam and Eve felt it at the Fall - they had touched and tasted an unclean thing, wanting it more than walking with God.  True Fellowship is walking together accepting God's truth and being willing to tell the truth about ourselves; it is also trusting in God, His Word, His Will, and learning to trust one another as His family, beginning to look more and more like Him as we spend time together.