Open your Bible to the Epistle of 1 John, and I would like for you to follow with me as I read from chapter 1 verse 3 to 8 “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out 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, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:3-8)
Three things are highlighted for us in this passage: A relationship, a fellowship, and a joy that follows. Here John comes to the most beautiful thing about life -- fellowship, companionship: When you have something in common with another you can have fellowship with him. If you have nothing in common, you have no fellowship. We all have things in common. We have many things in common. But John is talking about that unique fellowship which is only the possession of those who share life in Jesus Christ together, who have this different kind of life, this new relationship. We share the life of the Lord Jesus, and therefore we have fellowship with one another.
The Bible informs us that there are two dimensions to the Christian life. The First and foremost is the vertical dimension, the relationship that has now been established between the believer and God by virtue of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary. Now the believer’s sins have been forgiven, divine justice has been satisfied, and he is received into fellowship with God whom he now knows as his heavenly Father.
The Bible also enlightens us that there is also a horizontal dimension to the Christian life, our relationship with fellow believers. The apostle John (in 1 John 1:3) tells us that when we receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior we are brought into fellowship not only with the Father, but also with all fellow believers who likewise belong to the family of God. There is not only the horizontal relationship but that, in turn, depends upon a vertical one. He goes on, "and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." We shall discover, as we go on as Christians, that the horizontal relationship is directly related to the vertical one. If the vertical is not right, the horizontal one will be wrong, and, if it is wrong, it is because something is wrong between us and the Father. If we want to straighten out the horizontal relationship, that of getting along with our fellow Christians and fellow men, we must be sure that the vertical one is straight. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
When a person is born again a new relationship is formed; he becomes a child of God. By virtue of birth you have a relationship with Him. It is your right and privilege to take advantage of that union. However there is another level that we are called to that makes all the difference in the world, a level beyond relationship; and that is fellowship. Salvation is being in the family of God. But fellowship is being in relationship with God. To all who received him, who believed In his name, he gave power to become children of God John 1:12.
When we invite Jesus into our hearts, and ask Him to be our Lord and Savior -- we have established relationship with Him and to our heavenly father through, in and by Him. But to have fellowship with Him takes more effort on our part. Fellowship with the Father is the utmost invitation that anyone can have.
Once we understand and experience the reality of our salvation through faith in Christ, the most important thing to comprehend is the issue of fellowship with God. Fellowship comes from the Greek word, koinonia, which indicates fellowship, association, communion, joint participation, contact, rapport, sharing and partnership. The word, fellowship, then, entails all of these factors and is used in the Bible to indicate the experience of a quality of life that operates on the same as God’s will, accomplishing what He wants us to do here on earth, pleasing Him and being pleased in every area of life.
Fellowship with God is "getting along with God" and enjoying His presence and be a blessing in your life. We must take a step to get to know Him and understand just how great His love for us really is. We have been invited in to fellowship, associate in joint participation and partnership with God the Father. That happens during the communion, prayer and meditation and practice of God’s word. The greatness of God, the wisdom, the power, the glory of his might -- all is made available to me, when I make myself available to him. This is the great secret of fellowship. That is what Paul says: "I can do all things, through Christ who strengthens me," Philippians 4:13).
Fellowship is not only partnership, there is also friendship. Friendship and partnership together spell fellowship. Have you ever thought of this, that God desires you to be his friend? What do you do with a friend? You tell him secrets. That is what friends are for. You tell them intimate things, secrets. And God wants to tell us secrets. Jesus said to his disciples, "I have not called you servants, but I have called you friends," (John 15:15). He said this in a context in which he was attempting to impart to them the secrets of life. Now God will do this, he wants to do it. This is what that wonderful word, fellowship, means. The fellowship is based upon the relationship. You cannot have the fellowship until you first come to Christ and receive him. When you have the Son you are related to the Father, and when you are related to him, you can have fellowship with him. Then, when you have fellowship, you have the third thing that John mentions. These things we are writing, he says, "that your joy may be full." Joy is a kind of quiet inner excitement and this is what results when we really experience the fellowship that John is talking about.
The word Fellowship used in Early Church, went far beyond occasional or regular gatherings, even though they met because of their common bond in Christ, and met at the same place and time, for a unified purpose. We learn in God's word that fellowship is a HEART issue, something to be felt and expressed, and something very important to be a part of. It should occur apart from any program, schedule, or activity. It is to be a way of life for believers in Jesus Christ to want to be in each other's company, to share things together and to help and support each other both physically and spiritually. If one of the members hurt we share that burden. So let us look at the biblical use of the word and its use in Scripture and let it edify us to have a true fellowship that God would have us to experience.
1 John 1: 3-7 says “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out 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, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”
According to the above text walking in darkness is equivalent to walking in ungodliness, obscurity and immorality. Walking in darkness does simply not know where you are going. Jesus said that we don’t have to be that way (John 8:12). Walking in darkness simply means the absence of light; the need of practicing the truth. Verse seven exhorts us that as we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have the capacity to have fellowship with one another. Our fellowship with one another is drawn from our friendship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit (John 15:13-15; James 2:23). Our fellowship with one another speaks volumes about our fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It will be extremely hard to have fellowship with one another without first of all having a fellowship with all three personalities of the Godhead. How can we say we love God whom we can’t see, yet be unloving to our brother or sister who we do see? (1 John 4:20-21)
Amos 3:3 says Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
Without fellowship with God, any relationship is tenuous, weak, narrow, flimsy, inconsequential, trivial, shaky, loose and delicate. However before fellowship, there has to be a relationship but a relationship which matters depends on fellowship. God cannot walk in fellowship with His children when they sin. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" 1 John 1:5. He cannot enjoy communion with those who are hiding evil in their lives. Fellowship remains broken as long as sin is unconfessed and unforsaken. And broken fellowship is very serious. Broken fellowship brings the chastening of God. In the Old Testament, David is a classic example of a saint whose fellowship with God was broken by sin. We read of his confession and restoration to the Lord in Psalms 32 and 51. So look at your relationships and identify where you have fellowship and with who and assess the strength of those relationship on the basis of your fellowship. Which of these relationships do you think are important to you and which you should invest in? Every relationship can be improved with fellowship but it is not every relationship that should be improved. You need to prioritize your relationships on the basis of your relationship with God and allow Him to order your steps in your relationships in a way to enable you to fulfill your reason for being.
The Christian life starts with a relationship with Christ. But fellowship is experiencing Christ daily. Relationship is accepting Christ; fellowship is practicing His presence daily. You can never have fellowship until you have established relationship, but you can certainly have relationship without fellowship. This is what John’s letter emphasizes for us. Relationship puts us into the family of God, but fellowship permits the life of that family to shine out through us. Relationship is to be "in the Lord" but fellowship is to be "strong in the Lord and in the power of his might," as Paul so beautifully expresses it in his letter to the Ephesians. (Ephesians 6:10) Relationship means that all God has is potentially yours, but fellowship means you are actually drawing upon that, and his resources are visible in your experience. Relationship is you possessing God; fellowship is God, possessing you. Fellowship, then, is the key to vital to Godly life. It is somewhat similar to the one on position and the other is practice. If we are born-again, we were birthed into a relationship with our Heavenly Father. On the other hand, there is a higher calling on our lives; it is the inheritance of fellowship. We inherited the right to have fellowship with God the Father. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Cor. 1:9)
God Bless you
