fellowship - Jeremiah's Vow

1 John 1:7 | Walking in his light

Missing by an inch or missing by a mile is still missing the standard that John establishes here.

⁷ 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 cleanses us from all sin.

John returns to the subject of light in verse 7. As he does it augments what he means by the relationship that we have with God. There is a particular characteristic to our journey in the light. That characteristic is that it is, or should be, the same light that God is in, or rather that God produces from himself. In other words, when we say that we are in the light, that we are walking in the light, then what we are saying–or should be saying–is that we are living out and embodying and reflecting God’s love and life in our own. Continue reading “1 John 1:7 | Walking in his light”

1 John 1:4 | The Joy of Fellowship

⁴ And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Verse 4 is the final statement given by John in the opening paragraph of his letter. John speaks of the truth of his witness regarding who Jesus is. He extols the readers to remember that Jesus is the life that they are to seek and he points to the fellowship that is produced as a result of the unifying power of the Gospel.

In these short verses, John has pointed to the undeniable truth that the reason the foundation of our faith is firm and unmoving is because Jesus is the one who holding it all together. It can be easy to forget this. Jesus is the only one capable of sustaining the fragility of our lives and faith. He alone can see into our hearts and into our futures and decisively lead us into the next moment. But, why does any of this matter? John makes an amazing confession. He writes about these things so that “our joy may be complete.”

The second truth that we find here relates to the nature of the joy John says is available to us. John says that our joy may be complete or mature or full. When we come together around the truths of the Gospel we are closer to the kind of life God desires for all his children. Joy is not dependent on the circumstances of life. Many of us have heard this description/definition of joy. What makes this reality so wonderful is that it means that God’s steadfastness is the guarantee for my joy. In other words, that regardless of what happens in life we have the inward assurance that we are secure and safe in God’s arms.

Application

Whenever we find our joy waning let us look to our connection with our local church. John wrote to the church to remind them that it is in community and in fellowship that our joy as God’s people is sustained. We each may have the joy of the Lord within us, but this inward presence is multiplied when we gather together to worship God and are immersed in the gospel of Jesus.

1 John 1:3 | The Gospel Produces Fellowship

that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:3)

Fellowship is the center of Christian Relationships

Here at the beginning of the letter John repeats the word fellowship in two distinct contexts. It appears from the general context of the first three verses that the gospel of Jesus Christ has (among other realities) a binding effect among the community of faith and between the individual believer and the Father and Son. Let’s look at this more closely.

John has made an important point by saying that the proclaiming of the Gospel (i.e., “that which we have seen and heard) is a prerequisite fact to what is to follow. This is why he starts with the proclamation in order to get to the “so that”. This short phrase tells us the purpose of the proclamation. So, what is the purpose? It is so John and those who believe the Gospel that is proclaimed might have fellowship. The unity of the body is vitally important to John because it is eternally important to Jesus. Jesus prayed in John 17.

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. (John 17:20-23a NIV)

The Gospel brings believers together because it has brought those same individuals closer to God. When a person hears the Gospel and believes their relationship with God through Jesus has begun. Now that the vertical relationship has been established, the horizontal relationship must be initiated. The reason that believers in Africa can have fellowship with Christians in China and in North America is because of the unifying power of our common faith in Jesus. According to John, his is one of the main reasons we should proclaim the Gospel.

Application

Fellowship is not just what happens during potlucks at church. Fellowship is the family connection that is forged because of our faith in Jesus. As individual believers, we should seek to grow in our fellowship with those who are members of our local congregations, not look for excuses to not show up. The gathering of God’s people is a gift from God for the benefit of His children. Let’s not take it for granted.

Growing Pains, Pt. 1 | “Fellowship”

What is Fellowship?

Fellowship is more than just being in the same room as someone else or even saying “hello” to those that are around us. Fellowship is found not in the halls that we meet nor in the restaurants that have great atmosphere. Fellowship is the sharing of lives. It is coming to a place where those that at one time were strangers to us have now become family. When those people that before we would have seen only once in a while, now for some reason we find yourself thinking about and wanting to be around them more and more. Fellowship is the process where two or more people’s lives becomes a part of our own life.

I do not mean that another person is being nosy or trying to run or ruin our life. But, when another person becomes a loved one, so that you hurt because they hurt, that is fellowship. It is not an easy road to travel, the one called fellowship. It is a slow and sometimes hurtful journey to bring people in that close. It is not easy, but there is something about being able to share with someone, about having that outside influence and strength. Will we be able to have fellowship with everyone in the church? The truth is no, that is not possible, but what are we doing to reach out and invite in those that we can?

Why Is Fellowship Important?

Growth only happens in an environment where trust exists. If we do not trust those that are around us will we be able to grow and feel safe? One of the most difficult things about growing in faith is being able to share our genuine concerns and know that they will not become the talk of the town, or worse the church. We cannot worship in an environment where we feel that we are being singled out. Trust is built by being trustworthy. Love is known by being loving. Fellowship comes when we are neighbors to strangers and family to friends. This may seem like a difficult way of doing it but that is what Jesus did for us. The apostle Paul writes it this way, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8; NKJV).

A large part of what makes fellowship what it ought to be comes from the way that we react to the people and circumstances that are around us. Do we want fellowship to exist? Then let us be the first to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. These are the tools that we are to use to create an environment that will produce fellowship. To answer the question a little more direct, “Why is fellowship important?” we need to understand that it is in the context of fellowship that we love one another and that people will know that we are Christ’s disciples (John 13:35; NKJV).

How Do We Sustain Fellowship?

Here is where the rubber meets the road so to speak. How do we go about sustaining fellowship within a body? The word that comes to mind is sincerity. If true and lasting fellowship is going to exist there has to be sincerity among those that are acting and doing within the body. If what you do is half-hearted or selfish, fellowship will not grow and it will die quickly if these things come into the body of Christ.

Fellowship will happen when we decide that we are really going to care about those that come to our church, whether visitor or member, and we will love them with the love of God.

“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 12 | Faith is… Caring for the People of God

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:10, ESV, emphasis added)

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. (1 John 3:11, ESV)

Faith is not just what we have inside of us. Faith must find its way out of us into the world in which we live. One of the areas where we must not forget to extend the grace that we have received is to those who are a part of our community of faith. Paul plainly tells us that we should love one another and that we must not miss the opportunities to do good to those of the “household of faith.” It would seem that Paul believed that it was easy to miss. As in most cases, the most familiar things are most often taken for granted.

If we cannot help one another, whom we know and see on a regular basis, how are we ever going to convince anybody else that we care for them? What we will create is a consumption-based relationship. People will come and receive from us because we are willing to give, but true and deep relationship will not be a part of our time together. The heart of the church is the joining of the hearts of its members.

This truth of our faith is an outgrowth of what Jesus taught the disciples. Without a caring church there will be no power in the testimony of the church in and to the world. Jesus’ clearest example shows that if we are not growing and participating in loving actions toward one another, our witness will amount to nothing.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35, ESV)

Paul also joins in and expands on this point and lets us know that it is possible to fulfill God’s law when we love one another as Christ loves us. The idea here is not that we can do now what we could not do before without Jesus. What this next statement points to is that the purpose of the law was to help us love one another. Unfortunately, the law had the opposite effect on us.

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8, ESV)

And again Paul says,

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. (Romans 12:10, ESV)

John goes so far as to say that our love for one another is evidence of the very existance of God when he says,

No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. (1 John 4:12, NLT)

God has chosen to use the bonds of love between members of the body of Christ as evidence of the Gospel, his existence and his ability to change the human heart. Too often we stop short of saying this. If we accepted this as a part of our faith and calling much of the bickering that we see in our churches would have to stop. But, this would mean that we had to live out the love that Jesus demonstrated toward us. We cannot fake this kind of love. We cannot behave our way into loving people like Christ loved the church. That is impossible.

Genuine love can only come by a radically changed heart. Only when we are willing to surrender our own desires to do what we want and to choose whom we will love can we begin to love biblically. An this may be where many of us falter. We want to be able to choose whom we love. But, Jesus had something to say about that (Matthew 5:43-48).

There is a question that I now find myself asking regularly. It is based on a Paul’s declaration in Galatians 2:20. This is the question:

Whose life am I living?

If I cannot answer this question I will not be able to move forward into what God desires for me in my life. What is worse is that if I cannot answer this question I have to ask some other questions about the “change” that was borne as a result of my profession of faith. There is a struggle to live a life of faith. This is natural, but which side appears to have the upper hand? Who keeps winning?

The second verse that started our discussion makes a subtle claim that I do not want us to overlook. John is declaring that the message that he and the other disciples took to the world and the nations was and is the same message that was delivered “from the beginning.” It would be somewhat naive to believe that John was thinking only of Jesus’ ministry. John, in his Gospel and in the letters, tends toward an eternal perspective. John, I believe, is pointing us toward the fact that God has always desired to express his love toward his creation. But, that is not enough. An important component of God’s plan was also to have love be the defining reality of all relationships.

The way that the Bible seems to describe the connection between our faith in Christ and our love for one another, there does not appear to be a way to separate the two. If we claim to have faith in God and there is little-to-no evidence of love for those that are also God’s children, then we are walking on dangerous ground. John said in his first letter that this is, in essence, an impossibility. If we love God then we must love one another.

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20, ESV)

Read that verse again. John calls us liars for saying that we love God and then fail to show love toward our brothers!

Based on this verse, how are you doing? You cannot at the same time love God and hate your brothers in the faith. Love is a positive, intentional action toward those you see. There is no such thing as “passive” love. Love is action. Love is movement. Love is alive. Anything less than this betrays the condition of our own hearts.

In closing, I want to offer this prayer for you to consider and pray for yourself. Let it be a guide.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Your love for me is perfect. You demonstrated your love by sending Jesus to live, die, be buried and to rise again on the third day. Help me to feel deep within my heart the weight and power and breadth of your love in Jesus. Help me to take what you have put within me by the power of the Holy Spirit and share it with those who are a part of my family of faith. I know that I may not always like or approve of what they do, but that does not change that I should love them as Christ loved the church.

Father, help me to prove your love for me by loving others. I no longer want to be a liar. I desire for my life and testimony to agree. The only way that this will happen is by trusting in you to transform my heart. I recognize now that this is a daily act and a life-long process. Give me the strength and courage to surrender to your will, your plan and your purposes for my life.

In the name of Jesus the Savior I pray, Amen!