1 John 1
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” (1 John 1:1-10 NKJV)
Are we in a
personal relationship or in fellowship with God? A relationship means the only tying bond or
connection is my choice to love. There is no other binding thread to one
another. That doesn’t mean we have things in common it just means your action
and mine don’t bind us together. I can accept or not accept anything about you.
Yet fellowship is a much deeper meaning. Fellowship means we have a bound that
binds us together outside of our emotions.
What we abide by, hold ourselves to, puts in communion and a partnership
with one another. Can this be a deep partnership because of the love that comes
from what we abide by or in and hold ourselves too? Yes. Let us take a moment,
if you would and look at the two words.
In I John, John jumps off the starting line strong. Writing to believers, John talks about fellowship. He discusses a fellowship with them, the Father, and with Christ in verse 3. John then continues on to talk about walking in the light. Now we know that to be able to walk in the light one must be saved. John makes it clear we cannot have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness lest we lie and do not practice truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with each other and we are cleansed from all our sins by His blood. He is faithful to forgive and cleanse us of all unrighteousness, if we confess. If we say we have not sinned we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us (1 John 1:5-10)
Simple enough, to have fellowship with Him and each other we must walk in the light. But does that mean we have a relationship with Him? Isn’t this fellowship based of off love? 1 John 4: 8 God is love. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Jesus spoke of this love in John 14:15 that “If you love me, keep my commandments.“ Later on in the same chapter Jesus speaks saying “He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21). Aren’t relationships about love? So when we read things like when he calls us friends John 15:15, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3:26, and the fellowship with God mentioned in 1 John 1:5-10 then we must have a relationship with Him. Not to mention Matt 22:37-40 “Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind’ This is the first and great command. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’. Only these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
That sums it up we have a relationship with Him. Or do we?
Relationships suppose that there is a building of strong emotion toward someone. Meaning that the more you are together the more the love the more love the more you’re together. Right? I mean no one has ever dumped a friend whom they loved dearly because their actions didn’t line up any more. Friends for instance, the longer you have a relationship the stronger the bond. Yet it doesn’t mean you’re in a partnership. In fact two friends can live two separate lives worlds apart and still be friends. Yet, would they have things in common (Acts 2:40-47)? So does this mean that the word relationship may not be the right term to explain what happens at baptism and after? We do have communion with Christ, God, The Holy Spirit, and each other. We also have a partnership with each. Relationship doesn’t mean partnership or communion with. If it did why did John use fellowship? Why does the inspired word of God not just say relationship? There is a difference. You can have fellowship that is a close tight nit partnership and communion. I mean a business can run like a well oiled machine but that doesn’t mean every one there loves or has a relationship.
Let us look at this the word fellowship used in 1 John 1:3 is the Greek word koinonia. Koinonia means communion, a joint participation. There is a union of faith, practice, and worship that is established when we are baptized. Fellowship signifies this common joint participation we have. God has done His part and is in continuation of His part. We have to hold up our end. We can’t walk in darkness and be in fellowship with the God head or our brethren. Being one with God in Christ is the basis of Christian fellowship. That is why the doctrinal and ethical nature of the Christian message should continually be stressed from the pulpit. This essential basis is the principle of cohesion that binds Christians first to God in Christ and then to each other. Those who obey the gospel are all bound. Whether we like or not we must love each other, as Christ. This doesn’t mean we are in relationship with one another. Any congregation or church that depends upon a superficial social camaraderie to replace the word and doctrine as its cohesive power, blunders fatally. If there is to be fellowship the ethical behavior of Christians must be restored, first let the heresies be denied and tossed out. This fellowship stands for membership in the corporate spiritual body of Jesus Christ.
I want to dig a little bit deeper for just a moment. To be in Jesus Christ we must be saved. To be saved we must obey His command to be immersed into the water of baptism. The earlier scriptures often used to solidify the sandy stance of relationship with Christ states the needs to observe these commands. Why is this? Christ cannot forgive unless you are in His authority. The only way to get into His authority is by baptism (Matt. 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-16, Acts 2:38, Romans 6:1-4 etc.). The first step is obedience and carries there forth. We are to live faithfully. We can’t have the love of God or experience it outside of Christ. We have to walk in the light. In the context of 1 John and scripture this concept is never thwarted. Looking in the text 1 John 2:1-6, we see that we know Him if we keep His commandments. Anyone who keeps His word in him, truly the love of God is perfected. Whoever says he abides in Him out to walk in the same way in which He walked. To know God is to be in fellowship and obedience, to abide in Him.
Relationship means we are bound together because we love. Fellowship means we are bound together because we obey and we love because we are commanded (Matt 22: 37-40). We are not bound together because we love and obey because we love. We obey and then know love and love because we obey. With obedience to God comes the actions that show love, with our obedience we learn how to love God and love others. Matthew 28:18-20 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the names of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.“ Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you means we must observe commands. To walk in the light is to walk in obedience. This obedience put us into fellowship and keeps us in fellowship with the God head and each other. Without obedience we have no idea what love is and the love of God can’t be perfected in us (1 John 4:7-21 *11)
In conclusion, there is something to be understood. There are some inherent issues that arise from the “relationship with Christ” thought. Fellowship means partnership, meaning I must help you get where you’re going and you me (Phil. 3:12-16). Not to accept everything because I love you, but to encourage obedience. Just because you’re in Christ doesn’t mean you have a personal relationship with everyone in the world that is a believer. Eph. 4:1-5 “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” So a relationship with one another would mean with all believers and it is impossible to have a relationship with all. We can all be in communion and partnership with one another. To say you have personal relationship with God because of 1 John you must say the same for all believers also. That is not possible. However we can be in fellowship, in one mind with all things in common (Acts 2:40-47 and Phil. 2:1-4). There is no possible way that 3,000 souls could, on the day of Pentecost, have entered a personal relationship with each other. Yet they had all things in common and devoted to the same things. They were in fellowship because of their obedience.
In I John, John jumps off the starting line strong. Writing to believers, John talks about fellowship. He discusses a fellowship with them, the Father, and with Christ in verse 3. John then continues on to talk about walking in the light. Now we know that to be able to walk in the light one must be saved. John makes it clear we cannot have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness lest we lie and do not practice truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with each other and we are cleansed from all our sins by His blood. He is faithful to forgive and cleanse us of all unrighteousness, if we confess. If we say we have not sinned we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us (1 John 1:5-10)
Simple enough, to have fellowship with Him and each other we must walk in the light. But does that mean we have a relationship with Him? Isn’t this fellowship based of off love? 1 John 4: 8 God is love. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Jesus spoke of this love in John 14:15 that “If you love me, keep my commandments.“ Later on in the same chapter Jesus speaks saying “He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21). Aren’t relationships about love? So when we read things like when he calls us friends John 15:15, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3:26, and the fellowship with God mentioned in 1 John 1:5-10 then we must have a relationship with Him. Not to mention Matt 22:37-40 “Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind’ This is the first and great command. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’. Only these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
That sums it up we have a relationship with Him. Or do we?
Relationships suppose that there is a building of strong emotion toward someone. Meaning that the more you are together the more the love the more love the more you’re together. Right? I mean no one has ever dumped a friend whom they loved dearly because their actions didn’t line up any more. Friends for instance, the longer you have a relationship the stronger the bond. Yet it doesn’t mean you’re in a partnership. In fact two friends can live two separate lives worlds apart and still be friends. Yet, would they have things in common (Acts 2:40-47)? So does this mean that the word relationship may not be the right term to explain what happens at baptism and after? We do have communion with Christ, God, The Holy Spirit, and each other. We also have a partnership with each. Relationship doesn’t mean partnership or communion with. If it did why did John use fellowship? Why does the inspired word of God not just say relationship? There is a difference. You can have fellowship that is a close tight nit partnership and communion. I mean a business can run like a well oiled machine but that doesn’t mean every one there loves or has a relationship.
Let us look at this the word fellowship used in 1 John 1:3 is the Greek word koinonia. Koinonia means communion, a joint participation. There is a union of faith, practice, and worship that is established when we are baptized. Fellowship signifies this common joint participation we have. God has done His part and is in continuation of His part. We have to hold up our end. We can’t walk in darkness and be in fellowship with the God head or our brethren. Being one with God in Christ is the basis of Christian fellowship. That is why the doctrinal and ethical nature of the Christian message should continually be stressed from the pulpit. This essential basis is the principle of cohesion that binds Christians first to God in Christ and then to each other. Those who obey the gospel are all bound. Whether we like or not we must love each other, as Christ. This doesn’t mean we are in relationship with one another. Any congregation or church that depends upon a superficial social camaraderie to replace the word and doctrine as its cohesive power, blunders fatally. If there is to be fellowship the ethical behavior of Christians must be restored, first let the heresies be denied and tossed out. This fellowship stands for membership in the corporate spiritual body of Jesus Christ.
I want to dig a little bit deeper for just a moment. To be in Jesus Christ we must be saved. To be saved we must obey His command to be immersed into the water of baptism. The earlier scriptures often used to solidify the sandy stance of relationship with Christ states the needs to observe these commands. Why is this? Christ cannot forgive unless you are in His authority. The only way to get into His authority is by baptism (Matt. 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-16, Acts 2:38, Romans 6:1-4 etc.). The first step is obedience and carries there forth. We are to live faithfully. We can’t have the love of God or experience it outside of Christ. We have to walk in the light. In the context of 1 John and scripture this concept is never thwarted. Looking in the text 1 John 2:1-6, we see that we know Him if we keep His commandments. Anyone who keeps His word in him, truly the love of God is perfected. Whoever says he abides in Him out to walk in the same way in which He walked. To know God is to be in fellowship and obedience, to abide in Him.
Relationship means we are bound together because we love. Fellowship means we are bound together because we obey and we love because we are commanded (Matt 22: 37-40). We are not bound together because we love and obey because we love. We obey and then know love and love because we obey. With obedience to God comes the actions that show love, with our obedience we learn how to love God and love others. Matthew 28:18-20 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the names of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.“ Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you means we must observe commands. To walk in the light is to walk in obedience. This obedience put us into fellowship and keeps us in fellowship with the God head and each other. Without obedience we have no idea what love is and the love of God can’t be perfected in us (1 John 4:7-21 *11)
In conclusion, there is something to be understood. There are some inherent issues that arise from the “relationship with Christ” thought. Fellowship means partnership, meaning I must help you get where you’re going and you me (Phil. 3:12-16). Not to accept everything because I love you, but to encourage obedience. Just because you’re in Christ doesn’t mean you have a personal relationship with everyone in the world that is a believer. Eph. 4:1-5 “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” So a relationship with one another would mean with all believers and it is impossible to have a relationship with all. We can all be in communion and partnership with one another. To say you have personal relationship with God because of 1 John you must say the same for all believers also. That is not possible. However we can be in fellowship, in one mind with all things in common (Acts 2:40-47 and Phil. 2:1-4). There is no possible way that 3,000 souls could, on the day of Pentecost, have entered a personal relationship with each other. Yet they had all things in common and devoted to the same things. They were in fellowship because of their obedience.
A personal
relationship with Christ soon endangers the preaching of and obedience of the
word we are to have. Yet fellowship does nothing but encourage what God
commands. We are to be in fellowship with the God head and others, not a
personal relationship. Are you in fellowship with Christ or a relationship with
Christ?
[See "One Heart and One Soul" http://stevelynnjohnson.blogspot.com/2014/09/one-heart-and-one-soul.html]
"Fellowship vs. Personal Relationship Defining The Terms"
[See "One Heart and One Soul" http://stevelynnjohnson.blogspot.com/2014/09/one-heart-and-one-soul.html]
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