The following passage should give us pause. The apostle John, a disciple of Christ, one of the three closest disciples to Christ (along with James and Peter) and perhaps Christ’s closest companion while He was on earth is telling you “…this is the message that we have heard from him and we declare to you”. There is so much weight in just that one statement. Think about it. This man that traveled with Christ every day for three years, he listened to him preach, he walked where he walked, slept when he slept, ate what he ate and he is about to tell you what he took from that experience. I don’t know about you but I am ready to hear what the man has to say.
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous 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. – I John 1:5-10 (New American Standard Bible)
This part of the passage tells us something about God’s nature; that He is light. It also tells us that there is no darkness present in God. He is a pure luminescent light; exposing all sin and filth in the lives of those that are in fellowship with Him. Thus anyone claiming to fellowship with God will display certain characteristics in their life. It isn’t that these characteristics save you; rather they indicate whom you are fellowshipping with. It sort of like telling someone you just got done swimming yet your clothes and hair are not wet. Likewise you cannot claim fellowship with God, who is light, and walk in darkness. The story doesn’t match with what we would see in front of us.
As we study the passage the fruits of fellowshipping with God are plain. Those in Fellowship with God: 1) Do not walk in the darkness. 2) Do walk in the light.3) Enjoy fellowship with other believers. 4) Are cleansed from sin in their lives by the blood of Christ. 5) Are confessing their sins. 6) Are having their sins forgiven. 6) Will acknowledge their sin. This, my friends, is what true fellowship with God looks like. On the other hand those that claim to have fellowship with God yet walk in darkness: 1) Are lying about it. 2) Are not practicing the truth 3) Are deceiving themselves 4) Have no claim to the truth being in them 5) Are making God out to be a liar by claiming they are without sin 6) Have no claim to the Word being in them. These are people claiming to be in fellowship with God without evidence of it in their lives. Our Lord warned us about such people. John’s teaching here echoes what Christ said on the Sermon on the Mount:
"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” – Mathew 7:15-23 (New American Standard Bible)
Notice the correlations between those in I John who walked in darkness and those in this passage that practice lawlessness. Note their claims of Christ being their Lord, their claims of works done in service to God and in I John their claims of being without sin. They claimed fellowship with God but how they walked told a different story. It seems they believed that since they could perform these great spiritual feats that it was proof enough that they were in fellowship with God. Yet when they finally meet Christ they were told to depart from him because they practiced lawlessness. May these passages cause us to keep our eyes fixed on Christ; being in fellowship with him.
I do want to finish up and say this. Our works does not save us; there are not enough good deeds that you could ever perform that would buy you a ticket into heaven. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone by Christ alone. Do not mistake what John is saying here. He is not teaching salvation by works but rather showing us what fellowshipping with God looks like. You will know a tree by its fruits indeed.
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I've made it to Chapter 11 in the Gospel of John. I'm going to put that to the side and catch up on I John to keep pace with your blog.
ReplyDeleteAlso wrote this on facebook about this passage: By this time John was one of the only Apostles left and Gnosticism was just beginning to creep into the church. The Gnostics taught that flesh in and of itself was evil thus Jesus must have been a spirit. It just seemed that he had a body. (This teaching is called Docetism). It was also being taught at the time that "this spirit of Christ" came upon Jesus at his baptism and left him before hew as put to death on the cross. That is why you get John emphasizing touched with our hands ect ect because these false teachers were teaching the above. They would justify their sinful acts by saying that the body was sinful and the only thing that mattered was one's spirit. It didn't matter if you sinned, that was expected since flesh was evil. This reasoning led them to teach that one did not have to be moral in their conduct. Here you see John teaching the opposite; showing that being in fellowship with God did affect one's actions. Yes, we are trapped in this body but Christ cleanses our sin if we are in found in him. By providing the contrast John shows exposes the false teachers for who they are. They had no claim to the truth; they showed by their conduct that they were not in fellowship with God.
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