We are a fellowship of believers in Christ. That’s what it means to be a Christian. But how does this play out in a local church? We should eat together, serve together, study together, and so forth. But if we stop and think about it, these are the products of fellowship. What happens when something happens that is potentially divisive. We may just decide not to go to the next potluck or church event. But wait. We all share the same life, the eternal life, that is the life of Christ. That relationship is not severed just because we aren’t eating together.
That paragraph was designed to get us to this
question: how do we come to enjoy this joyous fellowship that John wants us to
have, the fellowship that every believer has with “the Father and with His Son
Jesus Christ.” You might say we have
this fellowship as we read the Bible and pray, when we are listening to God and
talking to God. Good fellowship depends
on good communication, to be sure.
But again, reading the Bible and praying are
activities, essential activities to be sure.
But fellowship is deeper than that.
It has to do with sharing the same life.
And the life we share is not our life, the one that was immersed in the
darkness of sin. It is His life, eternal
life, the life of the Word of Life, the life that was manifested by Christ in
the Incarnation.
Think about our Lord and His fellowship with
His Father. Jesus was full of the word
of God. This is evident as you seen Him
thrusting the “sword of the Spirit” into the devil in Matt. 4:1-11. Frequently, in the Gospels, we see Jesus
praying. He enjoyed good communication
with His Father. Do you remember His
disciples asking Him to teach them to pray?
His answer was what we call “the Lord’s Prayer,” perhaps the most quoted
words of Jesus in many churches today. Just
saying the words is not fellowship. It
provided a framework for the conversation.
But certainly, Peter, James and John, who accompanied Jesus deeper into
Gethsemane, learned more about fellowship with God as Jesus poured out His
troubled heart to His Father.
In the end, the answer to our question about
enjoying fellowship with the Father and the Son, is the subject of this entire
letter. So we need to begin our study,
which, Lord willing, we will our next post.
We have said that 1 John is hard to outline but we have one that we
think will help us along the way.
1:1-4: Introduction
to the Word of Life
1:5-2:27: The life
of righteousness
2:28-3:22: The life
of confidence
3:23-5:11: The life
of abiding
5:12-21: Conclusions for the Believer
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