Fellowship - 1 John
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In this programme I am going to look at the subject of fellowship as it relates to believing in the Son of God - our Lord Jesus Christ. For this we shall look at John’s First Letter chapter four and verses nine to fifteen.
Last time we tried to understand the reason for John’s emphasis on fellowship and what it means in our daily experience as Christian believers. This time we will look at these things a little more closely.
One thing we must do is distinguish between the personal, private aspects of our fellowship with God, those things that are between you and the Lord and so no one can judge you over them, and the open, clear evidences of this fellowship which should be quite obvious to fellow believers. They are the things that show you have a genuine, saving faith.
The apostle James, in his very practical letter, makes clear his concern over such matters. This is what he writes in James chapter two verses seventeen and eighteen: “….faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith, I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” James is saying that if faith is genuine it will produce good works, otherwise it is a dead faith. He emphasises this point in verse twenty-six where he says: “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” So you see there has to be firm evidence of the faith we profess to have. That evidence is seen in the good works that we do, but always keep in mind that we are not saved by our good works. Salvation is by faith in Christ alone. As Paul reminded the Christians in Ephesians chapter two verses eight and nine: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works so that no one can boast.” Good works are to be an evidence of salvation, not the means of salvation.
Much earlier in the New Testament, even before the Lord Jesus began his public ministry, John the Baptist made exactly the same point. In Matthew chapter three and verse eight we find him telling the proud, hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees who came to him to be baptised in the River Jordan, that they had to show evidence of repentance - of their genuine desire to turn from their sinful ways - if they were to be baptised as those who desired to obey God. He said to them: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”
Such a requirement is still necessary today, to test the genuineness of those seeking baptism.
So, let us consider two inward evidences or personal experiences that stand at the very gateway of this ‘fellowship’ of which John writes in this letter. The first is that saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which we have already touched on. The second is the reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
First of all then: What does it mean to “believe in the Son of God”? Sadly, there are many who would claim to believe in the Son of God but whose Christianity is based on the observance of rituals and church attendance rather than a personal experience of and trust in Christ as their Saviour and Lord. They think that all this well help them to gain eternal life and a place in heaven. John says in chapter five and verses eleven and twelve: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” All other hope is built on a false foundation which will crumble to dust when the final judgement takes place.
True fellowship with God the Father only comes through a genuine belief in the Son of God. So verses nine and ten say: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. This is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” This glorious fellowship with the Father through the Son begins with God Himself and it all began because of his love for us. It was that love that sent his son into the world to die for our sins. God loved us long before we ever loved Him.
Christ’s death was no ordinary death. It was “an atoning sacrifice” that blots out our guilt and makes it possible for those who believe to be “at one” with God, to know fellowship with Him because in Christ his righteous demands have been met and He can look on us in mercy.
There is something else to be discovered in these verses. In both of them it states that God sent his Son. This shows us that the One who was sent existed before He appeared in human form. In John’s Gospel chapter one verse one and verse fourteen we read these words concerning this event: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning … The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the only begotten who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” This is why we speak of his ‘incarnation’ or appearing in the flesh as a man. The eternal Word became the eternal Son - God manifest in flesh, born of the virgin Mary.
Incidentally, the Lord Jesus Himself, on a number of occasions, spoke about his coming from the Father and going back to Him again. Read through John’s Gospel and you will discover this for yourself. The apostle Paul sums this up concisely in his letter to the Galatians chapter four verses four and five: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full right of sons.” This shows that Jesus’ birth was natural and that he was born into a home and family that honoured God’s Law as we find it in the Old Testament of the Bible.
There is something else of great importance to be noticed in verse 9. The Lord Jesus is described as God’s “only begotten Son.” Although Jesus’ birth was natural, by his human mother Mary, his conception was supernatural, by the Holy Spirit. So He has both divine and human natures. The fact that He is God’s “only begotten Son” brings home to us how immense was the sacrifice involved in God giving up his beloved Son to die for our sins on the cross. Not only John, but the apostle Paul also writes, in Romans chapter 8 verse 32, about God not sparing his own Son but giving him up for us all.
There is another vital truth to be discovered in this ninth verse of 1 John chapter 4 and it should cause every one of us concern. Here is the verse again: “”This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” This makes it alarmingly clear that if we do not know Christ as Saviour then we do not live. We are, spiritually speaking, dead, just existing and having no fellowship with God. The Bible makes this quite plain in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 where it describes the natural state of mankind as being “dead in trespasses and sins”. It was to put this right that Christ came into the world so that those who place their faith in Him might have spiritual, abundant, eternal life. Saving faith in Christ, then, is one of the inward evidences or experiences of true fellowship with God Himself.
Now we need to move on to look at verse 14 which says: “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world.” This statement lies at the heart of Christianity and therefore needs to be clearly understood. Being “Saviour of the world” does not mean that Christ has or will save everyone in the world. What it does mean is that He is the Saviour of the world in the sense that wherever you are in the world, whatever your nationality or background, He is the only one to whom you must look for the forgiveness of your sins and being put right with God. It is made very clear in Acts chapter 4 verse 12 that Jesus is the only Saviour where it says: “Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Paul helps us in our understanding of this when he writes in 1 Timothy 4 verses 9 and 10: “This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance, that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, and especially of those who believe.” It is belief in, trust in, Christ that makes salvation effective in each individual person who believes. Matthew’s Gospel chapter 1 verse 21 tells us that the Son of God would be called ‘Jesus’, which means God is saviour or deliverer, because He would save his people from their sins. Every mistaken idea about him that makes him simply the greatest example of upright manhood, or a great moral philosopher or teacher and nothing more, must be set against the Bible’s definition of Him as the Son of God, the Saviour of lost men and women.
Belief in such a Saviour is the first evidence of sharing in the fellowship of which John writes in this First Letter of his. Do you share in it? Is such a belief in Christ your experience? I pray that it may be so for on it depends your eternal security and happiness.