The principles of all genuine fellowship with God
Today I’d like to look at the letter John wrote to Christians who were being confronted with many false teachers and heresy just as we are now.
1 John 1:1-4 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.We write this to make our joy complete.
John wanted to both warn them about these false teachers and to assure them that they had indeed been taught the Truth, as had their pastor who had been charged to continue to teach and lead them. This is why he reminds the readers that he himself personally knew Jesus, saw Him with his physical eyes, touched Him, both before and after His resurrection. He was an eye witness to all the events and could therefore easily show that these heresies they were hearing about were false teachings. His intent was to both warn them that these false teaching would put them out of fellowship with the Lord and show them how to remain in fellowship with the Lord. Anyone that is in fellowship with the Lord is also in fellowship with other believers including the apostles.
Since this letter shows us how to remain in fellowship with the Lord, it’s a very important one for all of us.
I’d like to first look at the definition of fellowship to make sure that we’re all on the same page when this word is used:
In the Gospel of John Christian fellowship is characterized by a perfect oneness grounded in the closest of relationships with the Father and the Son ( John 17:11, John 21-23; see also 1 John 1:3, 6, 7). Jesus is the true vine in which believers must ‘remain’ if they would bear fruit—which is, above all, love for one another (John 15).This fellowship of believers is dependent on—and an expression of—their fellowship with Christ.[1] Harper's Bible dictionary
Now let’s look at how John begins his letter after the introduction:
1 John 1:5-7 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
John starts again by reminding us that he personally heard this from our Lord, and is now telling us about it. He tells us that if we claim to have fellowship with God and still walk in the darkness, then we have to be lying as there is no darkness in God. This doesn’t mean that when we are saved we don’t sin, it means that we don’t live in unrepentant sin. It means that when we sin, we confess and repent of that sin, admitting that it’s a sin, and intending not to commit it again. That is walking in the light. Walking in the light also involves who we fellowship with here, and once again we are told to fellowship with others who are saved, not the unsaved. We are to witness to the unsaved, not fellowship with them, for they are walking in the darkness. When we are walking in the light in this way, confessing and repenting of sin, fellowshipping with God and one another, then we know that the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin. We cannot have fellowship with God if we are not living in the light and continually having our sins cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
The terms, “living in the light” or “walking in the light” are simply metaphors for “living” or “conducting our lives”. So he is saying how we live our lives matters. We are not to continue to live the way we did before we were saved.
In the above verse John is showing us the difference between saying and doing. He is showing us that our actions must back up our words—we must live what we believe. He tells us that when we are not doing that, then our lives will contradict what we say we believe making us hypocrites.
1 John 1:8-2:2 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Here John is saying that he knows that we all sin every day, as he does himself. (notice that in the above verses he uses the word “we” when talking to us which includes himself) He is saying that if anyone tries to tell you that when you are saved you will not ever sin again that they’re full of bologna! It’s a lie! We ALL sin every day! Those who believe that lie and try and pretend that they don’t sin will lose their fellowship with the Lord and with each other until the repent and confess their sins. At that time they will once again be in close communion or fellowship with the Lord and with other believers.
Basically what this is showing us is that when we sin and don’t confess our sins, we are out of fellowship with the Lord. Things start going wrong for us, and we can tell that something just isn’t right. Once we confess though, we are once more cleansed and can once again be in fellowship with the Lord and each other.
What are the important things for us to remember from this?
First that we need to always walk in the light and not have anything to do with darkness. Now that sounds good and biblical but what exactly does it mean? To walk in the light is to live the way God commands us to. Who walks in darkness then? Anyone who is unsaved walks in darkness, for they do not have the Light within them because the Light is God. So when the bible talks about walking in darkness, it’s talking about doing things the way we did before we were saved. Walking in darkness would be living in sin rather then living in Christ.
Secondly that as long as we confess our sins we will be cleansed of all unrighteousness and will be able to continue to be in fellowship with the Lord. The opposite is also true; if we do not confess our sins, or if we say we don’t sin or try to hide them from the Lord, then we will no longer be in fellowship with Him. Keep in mind that losing our fellowship with God is not the same thing as losing our salvation. We cannot lose our salvation. We can fall out of fellowship with Him though, meaning that we can lose that close personal connection with Him. The good news about that is that it can easily be gained back through simple confession of our sins.
Tomorrow will pick up where we left off today. I hope this is as helpful to others as it has been for me!
