“…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.” 1 John 1:3
When John the Apostle was an old man, having walked with the Lord for many years, God gave him several books, or letters, which reveal to us that which is not only basic to the knowledge of what the Christian life is, but that which is the essential daily calling of God to every believer in Christ. This is why in John’s first letter, he begins by bringing before all believers, not only then in his lifetime, but also today, that communion, or fellowship with God in Christ, is not only essential, but man’s highest privilege and calling on this earth. “To know God, and to make Him known,” is a phrase that encapsulates the great truth of abiding in Christ, and Him abiding in the believer, and the church. The natural result of such an experiential knowledge of Christ will have its repercussions, or effects, even to the ends of the earth. The truth of Christ will be spread, but the very life of Christ in the hearts of believers will be seen and known. This is what John is concerned about when he writes this epistle, that Jesus Christ will not only be shared by the objective truth of Scripture, but that the Life of Christ will be perceived, and recognized in the believer, confirming to the unbeliever that He is God, the Savior of the world. For the aroma of Christ’s life, and the authority of Christ given by the Spirit, to be known and recognized, the believer must be walking WITH Christ, BY the Spirit, living for the glory of God according to the will of God. To this one who lives in consistent communion with Christ, comes the promise, “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing.” (Jn.15:5) The intellectual knowledge of the truth concerning Christ is not enough to bear fruit, or produce the evidence that Christ is the Lord and Life. There must be the abiding in His Life by the Spirit. This is only possible as John writes, when one walks in the light as He is in the light. It is only then in fellowship with Christ, with nothing between, no cloud, or discord, that we can have fellowship with God, and with one another, where “…the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 Jn. 1:7)
When the Apostle Paul wrote his first letter to the believers living in Corinth, he made this statement: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1:9) In this one statement Paul puts before all believers the great issues at hand then, and today, regarding the basis for the believer’s relationship with God, and what must be attended to with utmost care for the realization of it. First, he deals with the very basis of this relationship with the believer, and it all rests, and depends upon, the faithfulness of God, that very central characteristic of the unchanging God to BE and to DO all that He declares. The word “faithful” means that He, God in Christ, cannot deny Himself, for He IS God. Secondly, it means that He cannot lie, for He IS the truth. And thirdly, by virtue of Christ’s finished work on Calvary, there is the promise that He WILL finish the work that He has begun in the life of every believer.
The second thing that Paul deals with is the “calling” of men to God. God calls men, not to do some great thing FOR Him, for all things are possible to God. His objective in providing sinful, and lost man with a perfect salvation, is to bring him into a living, true and experiential, knowledge of Christ by the Spirit. Walking with, and abiding in Christ, results in Christ being truly known, seen and heard.
Dear Father, Strengthen us to abide. In Jesus’ name, Amen.