Fellowship with God
Fellowship with God
by Jason Neill
Scripture reading: 1 John 1:1-4
If you are married, it is a fair assumption that you know your spouse very well. You know their habits, likes such as their favorite foods, dislikes such as the foods they won’t eat, whether they tend to be messy or tidy, tend to be punctual for appointments or late, and books and/or tv shows they gravitate towards. Friends can also share this kind of closeness with one another. If we spend a significant amount of time with another person, the obvious consequence is we get to know them fully. This is especially seen when in a social context, you, your friend or spouse, and fellow friends are palling around and you look at one another and without saying a word, you know what each other is thinking. You truly know one another.
What about our spiritual walk? Can we know God that well?
Since the Gospel of John was written to tell non-believers how to receive everlasting life, then is there another book in the New Testament that is instructive on how to have fellowship with God? A book that tells Christians how to know God deeply? Absolutely! The same Apostle John, who wrote the gospel that bears his name, wrote 1 John to tell believers how to have fellowship with God.
A few clues that indicate John the Apostle wrote 1 John are as follows: (1) the author of 1 John claims to be an eyewitness of the life and ministry of Jesus (see 1:1-4; 4:14), (2) the author demonstrates he knows his audience and had a ministry among them (see 2:1, 12, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21), (3) early church leaders identified the Apostle John as the author of 1 John including Polycarp (A.D. 69-155), who knew the Apostle John personally, Papias (A.D. 60-130), and Irenaeus (A.D. 140-202).
The distinctive issue when it comes to knowing God, after we have believed in Jesus alone for everlasting life, is the fact He is invisible. Relating to God is not the same, in some regards, as relating to your best friend and/or spouse. You can see, hear, and reach out and touch your best friend and/or spouse; you cannot do so with God. Despite that, we can still grow in our relationship with God and the Apostle John tells us how.
There are three key ideas I want to focus on which will enable us to have a closer fellowship with God through His Son, Jesus of Nazareth.
First, we need to renounce our sins (see 1 John 1:8-2:2; 3:4-9). * The moment we believe in Jesus alone for everlasting life, we receive that life and are, consequently, forgiven of all our sins (see Ephesians 1:7-10; Colossians 1:13-14). This is often called “positional” or “judicial” forgiveness. It is the language of a court whereby the accused is declared free because someone else paid their debt. Even so, believers still sin after believing in Jesus for everlasting life and need to address those sins. How do we do that?
When we become aware of a sin we’ve committed, we confess it to God. The word “confess” means we say the same thing about it that God does; namely, it was a violation of the law of God in thought, word, or deed. We don’t try to fudge it by saying “we made a mistake.” We must call it what it is, sin. An example of such a confession might sound like this: “I admit to you Jesus that I sinned against you by ______ (specific sin), and I was wrong.” Again, no explanations or excuses or rationalizations. When we do that, we are brought back in fellowship with God.
An example may help clarify this point. A son disobeys his father by not taking out the trash. The dad is obviously upset, and the disobedience disrupts the fellowship. It is hard to “get along” until the violation is addressed. Does the son cease to be a son because he failed to take out the trash. No. His “sonship” is not in question, but his fellowship with his father is. The son confesses to his father that he didn’t take out the trash, the father forgives him, and the fellowship is restored. Likewise, our eternal life is never in danger when we sin after we trusted in Jesus alone for everlasting life. Our fellowship needs to be restored.
Second, we need to obey God (see 1 John 2:3-11; 3:10-24). The phrases “having fellowship with God,” “knowing God,” “and “seeing God” are synonymous concepts for John. If a person claims they know God intimately, but do not obey what scripture teaches, then they are deceiving themselves. To know God in fellowship, we must obey the teachings of scripture.
Third, we need to reject worldliness (see 1 John 2:12-17; 4:1-6). The word “world” here does not represent the physical world but an invisible system that opposes God. Any ideology, values, and/or behaviors that are antithetical to what the scriptures teach are to be rejected by the believer. It should cause no one to be caught by surprise that Satan is called the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). He is hostile toward anyone who aligns themselves with God.
For this reason, if we are to maintain our fellowship with God we must confess our sins, obey the teachings of scripture, and reject worldliness. I pray you may continue to grow in your fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ!
*I owe a special thanks to Dr. Thomas Constable for shaping my thoughts about how to develop our fellowship with God from his book Nelson’s New Testament Survey.