1 João 1

1 João 1:3

Hughes has a fascinating insight on the truth of our fellowship with God - Fellowship God is faithful; you were called by Him into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.—1 Corinthians 1:9 Seek fellowship with other Christians. Daniel Rowlands, a famous Welsh revivalist of a past century, said: "The whole purpose of the Christian message can be summarized in a single word—fellowship." What did he mean? First John 1:3 spells it out clearly: "And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." Listen to it as it appears in The Amplified Bible: "What we have seen and ourselves heard, we are also telling you, so that you too may realize and enjoy fellowship as partners and partakers with us. And this fellowship that we have ... is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, the Messiah." At first, John seems to say that the fellowship is "with us," but he hastens to add that our fellowship "is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." Follow me carefully now, for what I am about to say can be easily misunderstood: the person who does not know fellowship with God can never know fellowship with anyone else. It must be noted that I am here using the word "fellowship" in its highest possible sense. The one who does not know fellowship with God will feel, consciously or unconsciously, that he is cut off from the very roots of his being. He will feel like a spiritual orphan. This is why our horizontal relationships—that is, our relationship with ourselves and with others—can never be fully realized until we experience a vertical relationship, a relationship with God. Only when we are reconciled with God do we have the potential for experiencing true fellowship with ourselves and with others. Prayer - Father, I see that I cannot experience true fellowship with myself or with others until I have known it with You. Help me to deepen my fellowship with You so that I might deepen it with others. In Jesus' name. Amen. (Every Day with Jesus) Vance Havner - Back to the Spring! I have heard somewhere of a spring whose waters had certain medicinal properties so that those who drank from it were helped in the case of various infirmities. In the course of time, homes sprang up around the spring, then a hotel, stores, and eventually, a town that grew into a city. But there came a day when visitors would ask, "By the way, where is the spring from which this grew?" and dwellers in the city would rub their hands in embarrassment and say, "I am sorry that I cannot tell you, but, somehow, in the midst of all our progress and improvement we lost the spring and no one knows now where it is." There is a sad application here for the church. Under all our ecclesiastical superstructure today we have lost the spring. We have been lost on the circumference and need to get back to the Center. We are out on the periphery and must needs find the Person by whom all things consist. We are majoring on the minor and minoring on the major. We need to relocate the Spring. Paul stayed at the Spring, he never left the Center. There was plenty of sin in the New Testament days, but the early Christians did not busy themselves organizing anti-slavery societies and anti-Rome clubs. They gloried in Christ. Jesus Christ is the issue. He always made Himself the issue. "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." It is Christ or AntiChrist. Theoretically, we all agree to that. Ask any comfortable Sunday morning congregation and they will nod approval. But it is not as simple as it looks. Break up that congregation into individuals and you will get a different story. Some are more interested in being vice-president of a club or circle than in all-out loyalty to Jesus Christ. They are interested in projects and preachers and movements, but their primary devotion is not to Jesus Christ. If He Himself were supreme our hearts and homes and churches would not be as they now are. Our sole business is to glorify Jesus Christ. Someone has said, "There is only one thing in which God is interested and that is the exaltation and glorification of His Son. He is not interested in glorifying any individual, group movement, or body of people, or ecclesiastical system apart from Christ. He is interested in these only to the extent they exalt and glorify His Christ." We agree to this theoretically, but actually our loyalty is to men and movements and systems, however loudly we may protest that such is not the case. Paul did not say, "To me to live is Christ first." He said, "To me to live is Christ." Christ was everything, first and last, Alpha and Omega. The Christian experience may be set forth in four F's: Faith in Christ, Fellowship with Christ, Faithfulness to Christ, and Fruitfulness for Christ. Certainly it begins with Faith in Christ. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." "I know whom I have believed." Everything else grows out of relationship with Christ and identification with Him. Think of the thousands who are depending on church or creed or character to save them. Thousands of church members have never been saved. We are trying to win to fellowship with Christ and faithfulness to Him many who need first to come to faith in Him. We beg backsliders to dig up musty church letters from the bottoms of trunks, join the church and go to work, with the idea that it will straighten them out spiritually. But we have reversed God's order. A man in proper relationship and fellowship with the Lord will be both faithful and fruitful all along the line, self, service, substance; but to reverse the procedure will not bring him into proper relationship and fellowship. These grow out of identification with Christ, they do not produce it. Joining church, attending church, tithing, and all the rest of it will follow getting right with Christ. "He that is not with me is against me"—there is position, relationship, identification: "He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad"—there is practise, faithfulness, fruitfulness. "Lovest thou me? Feed my sheep"; "He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit"—there is the proper order. Americans are notorious joiners. Give them a red button and a certificate and they will join anything. But joining a church does not join them to Christ. We must begin with that personal faith in Him by which we become members of His body. We need to get relocated these days. To use the story with which we began, we need to find the spring somewhere among the skyscrapers we have built over it. Every great revival has begun with someone rediscovering the spring. The Quakers, Moravians, and Methodists began with someone finding the spring. But, like Ephesus, we get away from it. The great campaigns of Moody, Torrey, Chapman, Gypsy Smith and Billy Sunday brought the saints together around the spring again. Now and then in church history the city becomes too big, the ecclesiastical superstructure too complicated, and God starts out another man looking for the spring—faith in and fellowship with the living Christ. Dr. Torrey used to give as the first step toward a revival: "Let a few members of any church get thoroughly right with God." Lenin said, "It is better to have a hundred fanatics than a thousand placid followers." The children of this world are wiser on this point than the children of light. Let a nucleus of real Christians thoroughly right with God start from Center, start from the spring, and expand, winning lukewarm Christians into fellowship and unsaved sinners into relationship with the Living Christ. In geometry we use a compass with one prong stationary while we describe our circle with the other. Christ is the fixed center: "All power is given unto me"; our circumference is the world: "Go ye into all the world." And if we do not expand, the world, the flesh, and the devil will contract. If we do not push out, the devil will push in! It is too late in the day for many of our vast projects and programs. There is time just to be Christians and to win others to be Christians. The issue is Jesus Christ, faith in and fellowship with the Living Christ that issues in faithfulness and fruitfulness. The Christian experience may be set forth in four Fs: Faith in Christ, Fellowship with Christ, Faithfulness to Christ, and Fruitfulness for Christ. 1. Faith in Christ. Certainly it begins with Faith in Christ. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." "I know whom I have believed." Everything else grows out of relationship with Christ and identification with Him. In geometry we use a compass with one prong stationary while we describe our circle with the other. Christ is the fixed center: "All power is given unto me"; our circumference is the world: "Go ye into all the world." And if we do not expand, the world, the flesh, and the devil will contract. If we do not push out, the devil will push in! 2. What about fellowship with Christ? Is our fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ? (1 John 1:3). Is it the fellowship of the Spirit? (Phil. 2:1). Is it fellowship in the Gospel? (Phil. 1:5). Are we walking in the light so that we have fellowship one with another? (1 John 1:7). Do we know anything about the fellowship of His sufferings? (Phil. 3:10). Do we have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness? (Eph. 5:11). There can be no heavenly fellowship if there is a hindering fellowship. 3. Along with fellowship with Christ goes faithfulness to Christ. "It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful" (I Cor 4:2). Mind you, it is not optional, take-it-or-leave-it; it is required. We have been espoused to one husband and married to Christ, and unfaithfulness is adultery. John wrote to Gaius, "Thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest. " Do we work faithfully or is it flashily or fitfully? Shall we merit one day the final commendation, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant"? 4. If we are in fellowship and faithful, we shall be fruitful. We are married to Another, even to Him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God (Rom. 7:4). If we abide in Him we shall bring forth much fruit. There is the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal. 5:22, 23). Pity the Christian who claims to be living in the land of Canaan, with its figs and pomegranates, if all he has to show is crab apples! Faith in Christ, Fellowship with Christ, Faithfulness to Christ, Fruitfulness for Christ-here is the heart of the matter. (Vance Havner Hearts Afire) Vance Havner - By Him Christian fellowship consists. "Our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3). I have heard of a church with a "Jesus Only" sign in front. One night a storm blew out the first three letters and left "Us Only." That has happened in more ways than one these days. The basis of fellowship is Jesus Christ. You cannot get the saints together at any other point. We are already one in Him. We have so many cliques now that an appropriate greeting would be, "How are you clique-ing?" Some saints have no testimony, only an argument. The mark of true fellowship is "love to all the saints," which springs from "faith in Christ Jesus" (Col. 1:4). (Jesus Only - Devotional Meditations) W H Griffith-Thomas - (From Peniel - The Face of God) Peniel was a noteworthy landmark in Jacob's spiritual history. It was the third occasion and culminating-point of a special Divine revelation. The first was Bethel, where 'the House of God' reminded and assured him of the Divine Presence. The second was Mahanaim, where the 'Host of God' taught him the Divine Power. The third was Peniel, where he was led beyond the ideas of God's presence and power to that of Divine Favour and Fellowship. The 'Face' of God is used constantly in Scripture as a symbol of favour, friendship, fellowship (Exod. 33:11, 20; Deut. 34:10), and in the believer's life fellowship is the highest of our spiritual privileges (1 John 1:3). God desired and purposed to bring Jacob into this position of blessedness and power; and all the Divine dealings, from Bethel onwards, were intended to lead up to this. So it is now; everything that God has for us is expressed in terms of union and communion of which the New Testament is so full. What, then, will this fellowship accomplish? Fellowship with God changes Jacobs to Israels 1. The 'Face of God' is the place of transformation of character.—Fellowship with God changes Jacobs to Israels. 'Beholding... we are being changed.' From this time onward there was a very distinct change in Jacob; and although the old nature was still there, Peniel had its effect and exercised transforming influence. There is nothing like fellowship with God to change and transfigure our nature. 2. The 'Face of God' is the place of power for daily life.—Like Jacob, we have to meet our Esaus and we are afraid. We strive, plan, struggle, and all to no purpose. But we see God's Face, and all is changed. Power with man comes from power with God. We have, it may be, a crisis to-day; but first of all we pray, and the victory is gained. We wonder who will roll away the stone, but find that it is already gone. Fellowship with God gives insight and foresight, peace and patience, calm and courage in every emergency, and enables us to become 'more than conquerors' over every foe. Just as power with God came by surrender, so also will power with men come by willing self-sacrifice on their behalf. Self is the greatest foe to blessing from God or influence with men. We must see the Face of God. 3. The 'Face of God' is the place of spiritual blessing.—In the presence of God it is impossible to use carnal weapons. 'If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.' When Jacob came to an end of struggling and commenced clinging, the blessing quickly came. Jacob hitherto had no idea of a blessing obtained by passive receptiveness. But in the life of a true believer God's best gifts come that way. Gain comes by loss, gathering by scattering. So it must be always. Fellowship with God dispenses with subterfuges, natural craft, and clever resourcefulness. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Blessing must be obtained in the right way or not at all. The supreme need of man is the grace of God, and this is not only independent of, but opposed to all that is merely earthly and human. Just as salvation is of God by grace, so is every spiritual blessing derived in the same way. Whether we think of the individual believer or the community of God's people, all grace comes through fellowship with God. Not by unworthy expedients, not by mere human effort, not by natural energy, but in union and communion with God all grace and blessing become ours. We must see the Face of God. Paul Enns - FAMILY FELLOWSHIP What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:3) I well recall my early days as a Christian. How important the fellowship with other believers was to me! Discussing biblical truths on the steps of the church building until 11:00 P.M., laboring together in feeding the hungry with food and the gospel at the rescue mission, traveling together to rural areas to minister the gospel-fellowship was vital to me then and still is. We have been called into a greater fellowship-with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Fellowship (koinonia) means "association," "communion," "a close relationship," and "sharing." God made our heavenly fellowship possible when He called us into fellowship with Christ (1 Corinthians 1:9). Even though we have divisions on earth, God is faithful in bringing us into fellowship with Christ. At the Communion table, where we remember Christ's death, we fellowship with Him (1 Corinthians 10:16). Since the Holy Spirit is "another Comforter" like Christ, we are also brought into fellowship with Him (2 Corinthians 13:14; Philippians 2:1). What shall we do to foster fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? We cannot have intimate fellowship with unbelievers who loathe the Christ we love (2 Corinthians 6:14). Light and darkness are not compatible. We may also need to suffer. Paul desired to know Christ intimately through the power of His resurrection but also through fellowship with Christ's sufferings, "becoming like him in his death" (Philippians 3:10). This may mean ostracism and rejection for the cause of Christ. It means walking in the light and confessing our sins (1 John 1:6, 9). Christ has made our heavenly fellowship possible. He brought us eter-nal life and revealed the Father, that we might have fellowship with God the Father and the Son. John saw and heard the eternal Life, proclaiming it that we may have fellowship with Him. This fellowship is our destiny, and in it our joy becomes complete. LESSON: Through Christ, believers have been brought into fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (See Approaching God - Page 5) C H Spurgeon from sermon Fellowship with God - Among the rich dainties....of which his soul was a partaker, we must number first and foremost, unbroken communion with God, his Father and his Friend FELLOWSHIP with God was one of the richest privileges of unfallen man. The Lord God walked in the garden, and talked with Adam as a man talketh with his friend. So long as he was willing and obedient, Adam ate the fat of the land, and among the rich dainties and “wines on the lees well refined," of which his soul was a partaker, we must number first and foremost, unbroken communion with God, his Father and his Friend. Sin, as it banished man from Eden, banished man from God, and from that time our face has been turned from the Most High, and his face has been turned from us; — we have hated God, and God has been angry with us every day. Christ came into the world to restore to us our lost patrimony. It was the great object of his wondrous sacrifice to put us into a position which should be equal and even superior to that which we occupied in Adam before the fall; and as he has already restored to us many things that we lost, so among the rest— fellowship with God. They who have by his grace believed, and have by the precious blood been washed, have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord; they are “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God,” and they have access with boldness into this grace wherein we stand. (Ro 5:1-2) So they who are in the kingdom, and under the dispensation of the second Adam, have restored to them in all its fullness that fellowship which was lost to them by the sin and disobedience of their first federal head. John was among the number of those who had enjoyed this privilege with Christ in his flesh. He had been Christ's chosen companion, elect out of the elect to a choice and peculiar privilege. During the incarnation, he was one of the favoured three who had enjoyed the closest intimacy with the Redeemer; he had seen Christ in his transfiguration, had witnessed the raising of the dead maid, had been with the Lord in the garden, and he had lingered with him even when the thrust was given after death, and the blood and water flowed from his pierced heart. John had the nearest, the dearest, the closest fellowship with Christ in the flesh. As he had laid his head upon Christ's bosom, so had he laid all his thoughts and all the emotions of his mind upon the heart’s love and divine affection of his Lord and Master. But Christ was gone; it was no more possible to hear his voice, to see him with eyes, or to handle him with hands; yet John had not lost his fellowship, though he knew him no more after the flesh, yet he knew him after a nobler sort. Nor was his fellowship less real, less close, less sweet, or less divine, than it had been when he had walked and talked with him, and had been privileged to eat and drink with him at that last sacred feast. John says, “Truly our fellowship is”— not was— “is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” G Campbell