Light, Life, Fellowship
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Light is what God is. God is also life. God is also love. These are not just attributes of God, but who He is. This may be difficult for us to understand but the Word of God says this is so. When God reveals Himself, its always in light, life, and love. When you experience God’s presence, its always uplifting, always edifying always full of light, it’s never the opposite. If your experience with God is not edifying, or uplifting, or is not full of light and comfort, then you haven’t experienced true fellowship with the Father. John said if we walk in the light as He is in the light we will have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
The word fellowship in one dictionary says communion or sharing,
W.E. Vines dictionary says Fellowship -- partnership, i.e. (literally) participation, or (social) intercourse, or (pecuniary) benefaction:
Strong’s dictionary say it means -- make alive, give life, quicken.
One dictionary says this Word is zoopoieo -- Sharing Zoë. Sharing the very life of God with one another. Have you ever noticed that when you go to church you can just sense that life, you get edified and you edify others. This is that intimate sharing of the very life of God. The Word of God tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together,
there is a good reason for this. Hebrews 10:25
Fellowship infers an intimate sharing of the life of God. Sharing of that life one with another. The same kind of intimacy as when the Word says Adam knew his wife.
That is very weak in the King James English. One definition says social intercourse.
I’m only saying this bluntly to get the importance of this across, so that you understand
the true significance of what is being said, the real importance of this truth.
You can not separate, these things, God is, all these things, all the time. If you are walking in the light as He is, then you are walking in love and you are walking in life. You can not walk in light and darkness at the same time, you cannot walk in life and death at the same time, you cannot walk in love and hate at the same time, it is impossible.
2 Corinthians 6:14. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
The answer to that is none, absolutely, positively, none !!!!
God does not fellowship or have communion with darkness --- ever.
So when you are walking in darkness, where are you? You’re totally out of fellowship, or communion with the Father, you are walking in death.
Just as light and darkness have no communion, you can not have light in a totally dark room can you? Life and death have no communion or sharing, you can’t be alive and dead at the same time. These things are polar opposites. There is not sharing of any of these things.
However, when you are walking in the light as He is in the light, then you have fellowship, or communion, and also that is when the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin. You can’t even have your sins cleansed when you are walking in darkness. You have to step into the light for that to happen. It happens when you walk in the light, God’s wonderful light. Fellowship is part of the process to cleansing. It is the flowing of life to you, and from you, What a truly awesome privilege.
1st you have to walk in the light, 2ndly this enables you to be in a place where you can have fellowship, or the sharing of life, and if you confess your sin he is faithful and just to forgive your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. The literal translation says, if we continue walking, the blood of Jesus, the Son of Him, continues cleansing. This is an on going process that happens as we are sharing God's life. As we are walking in that light, the blood of Jesus is cleansing us. There is very good reason not to sin, not just because it is wrong, and not pleasing to God. This is a very good reason in itself, but there are consequences when we don’t walk in the light. The blood of Jesus never looses it’s power, however, if we take ourselves out of the light, we take ourselves out of the place of cleansing, we take ourselves out of the Zoë. We literally step out of God’s life and place ourselves into a place of darkness where we are fair game for Satan. This is a very good incentive for walking in the light isn’t it? Aside from that, I love to be in fellowship with my Father, I love to partake of His life, and share that life with others.
God is always faithful to do his part when we do our part. If you confess your sin, He forgives you and your fellowship is restored.
If you think you have no sin, the Word says you are deceiving yourselves and you don’t know the truth. In other words, you have stepped out of the light and broken fellowship with God, and aren’t acknowledging your sin. This is a very dangerous place to be in.
1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a good place to be in. I don’t want to be deceived, I want to know the truth. For in knowing the truth is what makes you free.
John 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Have you ever been out of fellowship with someone close to you, someone you know well, whether it be a family member or a coworker? You know immediately sometimes that something is wrong, even without a word being said. You get that way around people you know well. It should be the same way with our Heavenly Father, when we step out of the light, or another way of saying it is when we step out of fellowship, we should know immediately that something is wrong, and its not God’s fault. We should want to immediately correct it, so that our fellowship can be restored. We hinder that fellowship or the sharing of life.
You can often tell people who are hard to get along with, you know they don’t have right relationship with people, you know their relationship can’t be right with God as well.
If your fellowship with one another is broken then your fellowship with the Father is broken as well. You can not have fellowship or communion or the sharing of the light and life and love of God, if you are not walking in love, or in other words, walking in hate the opposite of love.
The Word tells us if that is the case we’re walking in darkness.
1 John 2:8-10. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.
He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
This is not saying you are not born again, but that you have broken fellowship, and need to correct it by asking forgiveness and making things right. This is much more important than most people realize, broken fellowship causes all kinds of problems in our life, as well as the lives of those you have the broken fellowship with. Broken fellowship is walking in death, and if left uncorrected, it will manifests itself in health and emotional problems as well as possibly shortening your life on the earth. It pays to fix these things while we can. We can not walk in light and darkness at the same time.
Light and darkness, life and death are our choices to make. We want to put the blame off on God, when He’s already moved on our behalf, He asks us to choose. -- Choose life.
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
God is giving us instructions and telling us to choose life! If you want life and life for your descendants, then you have to choose it. God will not override your will.
We will be judged by our decisions, so choose life.
The Word also says in; 1st John;
1Jn: 1:5: 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.
Many times as believers we stumble off into the darkness, sometimes by accident or out of ignorance to the Word of God. When we do, we get in trouble, you see God can not step off over into the darkness to help us, He’s telling us to step back into the light. It’s not God’s fault, it is ours. He’s given us a way out. We have the power to step back into the light, by being obedient to His Word. By confessing our sins and restoring fellowship and we will have right standing with the Father again. This is good news. Walking in fellowship with the Father is the greatest privilege that there is. You can get to know Him and have true fellowship with Him. If you are not a Christian, you have to take the first step and make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. If you are a Christian, then you need to start spending time in His Word, for you can’t really get to know him outside of the written Word of God. I encourage you to make a commitment to start reading the Word of God, and to get to know Him, for it is the written revelation of the life of God. That’s the beginning of knowing Him, and the start of true fellowship.
If you don’t know Him, I would like to invite you to meet Him by earnestly praying this prayer, it is the first step we all must take, it is the first choice, -- to choose life.
Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus.
Your word says, “…him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (Jn.6:37),
So I know You won’t cast me out, but You take me in,
And I thank you for it. You said in your Word, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Ro. 10:13).
I am calling on Your name, So I know You have saved me now,
You also said, “…if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Ro.10:9,10).
I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
I believe He was raised from the dead for my justification.
And I confess Him now as my Lord,
Because Your Word says, “… with the heart man believeth unto righteousness…” and I do believe with my heart,
I have now become the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:21),
And I am saved! Thank You, Lord!
I can now truthfully say, I see myself as a born again child of God!
Glory to God!!!!