That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life
(and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us);
that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
And these things we write, that our joy may be made full.
And this is the message which we have heard from Him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we have read Thy Word, and now we ask that Thy Holy Spirit will open Thy Word to our hearts, that we may hear Thy voice, that we may be drawn into Thy fellowship, and that Thy name may be glorified. So we commit this time into Thy hands and ask Thee to do the work that Thou dost desire to do this morning. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
The Apostle John wrote three letters: the first letter of John, the second letter, and the third letter. Chronologically speaking, these are among the last writings of the New Testament, written after the Gospel according to John and the book of Revelation.
The first letter of John is not addressed to any particular church. The second and third letters are addressed to individuals. Yet, when you read these three letters written by the Apostle John, you can very easily see that there is something common in them. They are dealing with one essential issue: fellowship.
This morning we will focus our attention on the first letter of John: seeing Christ in Christian fellowship.
This letter is rather unusual. Usually, when you write a letter, you have an opening address, a salutation, and then closing greetings or remarks. But when you read this letter, you find there is neither beginning nor end in the formal sense of a letter. Yet there is no mistake that it is a letter, because you find such a personal, intimate atmosphere and tone throughout the writing.
This letter of the Apostle John was probably written about A.D. 95 to 98. In the original, the writer is not mentioned. It is just like the Gospel according to John: no name of the writer is given. Yet there is such a similarity and connection between the Gospel and the Epistle.
In John 20:31, the writer gives the reason for writing the Gospel: that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, we may have life in His name. In 1 John 5:13, he says that he writes to those who have believed in the Lord Jesus so that they may know that they have eternal life.
So you find a connection between the Gospel and the first Epistle. It is commonly accepted—and I do not think there is any doubt about it—that the One who wrote the Gospel is the One who wrote this letter. We believe that the writer of the Gospel was the Apostle John, and therefore we believe that this letter was also written by the Apostle John.
John was among the first who followed the Lord Jesus. Do you remember that he was one of the disciples of John the Baptist? One day, while he and Andrew were with John the Baptist, Jesus was passing by. John said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples left their master and followed the Lord Jesus, and they stayed with Him that night.
One of them was Andrew, who is mentioned in the Gospel according to John. The other is unnamed, but we know that it was John himself. He was the disciple whom Jesus loved. He was the one who lay at the breast of our Lord Jesus during the Last Supper. He was the one who followed the Lord to the cross. When our Lord Jesus was crucified, none of the twelve was there except John.
Among the apostles, John was the one who lived the longest. The others died, but John lived on almost to the close of the first century. We may say that his life spanned the first century.
If you study this man, you find that he was unusual because in him there was a combination of opposing temperaments. On the one hand, John was reserved, an introvert, a deep thinker, one who meditated much and contemplated. Yet, on the other hand, he had a fiery passion. It was for this reason that our Lord Jesus gave him and his brother James the name “sons of thunder.”
These two opposing temperaments seemed to find a home in John. Under God’s sovereign control and discipline, he was greatly used by the Lord.
Although John did not write to any particular church, we believe that he was addressing the churches in Asia Minor. In his later days he labored among the churches in Asia—not Asia as the continent, but the Roman province of Asia. Since he labored in that area, it is evident that these churches were in view when he wrote his letter.
We need to understand the condition of the early church at the close of the first century. The church had a wonderful beginning on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down from heaven and one hundred and twenty believers were baptized into one body. That was when the church was formally brought into being.
It had such a glorious beginning. Within one generation—thirty years—the gospel was preached to the end of the world: from Jerusalem, to all Judea and Samaria, and even to Rome, which was considered at that time both the center and the end of the world.
In the beginning, when God’s people were together, they were with one accord. They loved one another, had everything in common, and their testimony was so strong that the Lord added to their number daily. There was a glorious beginning to the church.
At first they were opposed by the Jews, then by the Gentiles, and later the Roman Empire persecuted the church. But by the time John wrote this Epistle, there was evidently a lull in the Roman persecution of believers.
By the close of the first century, the Christians were probably in the second or third generation. The glory of the fresh discovery of the gospel of Jesus Christ seemed gradually to be passing away. The vision of the Lord Jesus had become dim. Since there was no persecution, people began to relax, and their lives became looser.
Then the enemy was able to use that condition to creep into the church, and many false teachings began to appear.
If you take Revelation 2–3 with a prophetic approach, then we may say that the church had entered the Ephesian period—the period represented by the first of the seven letters, the letter to the church at Ephesus.
Outwardly, everything continued as usual. There was work, labor, endurance, knowledge, and discernment. Everything seemed to go on as though nothing had happened. But the Lord said, “I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.”
Outwardly, nothing seemed wrong, but inwardly the change had come. They had left their first love. They did not love God with all their heart. Their love toward the Lord Jesus was divided. They loved God, but they also loved the world. Because of this, their love for one another was weakened.
They did not love one another to the extent that they were willing to lay down their lives for one another. They became more self-centered than Christ-centered. Therefore, the Lord called them to repent, to remember from where they had fallen, to return, and to do the first works.
That was the situation of the church at that time, and it was to that kind of situation that John addressed himself when he wrote this letter.
The first letter of John is about fellowship—Christian fellowship. Dear brothers and sisters, the church is a fellowship. Ekklesia is the called-out ones; koinonia is fellowship.
God has called people out of every tribe, tongue, nation, and people, and gathered them together unto His name. They become a fellowship, a living fellowship.
This fellowship is based upon the fellowship of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Or, to put it another way, the fellowship of all believers is an extension of the fellowship of the Father and the Son in the Spirit.
There is fellowship between the Father and the Son. The word itself means sharing in common. In the Godhead there is perfect fellowship. The Father shares everything with the Son, and the Son shares everything with the Father, and all is done in the Spirit.
The Father and the Son share everything in common. In the essence of the Godhead, They are one.
You remember that our Lord Jesus said in John 17:10:
All things that are mine are thine, and thine are mine.
Then He said:
Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee.
They share everything in common. All that belongs to the Son belongs to the Father, and all that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son. Why? Because They are one. One is in the Other, and the Other is in the One. Their oneness is based upon indwelling. It is not an external matter; it is an inward reality.
Because of this, Their fellowship is perfect harmony and sweet communion. There is no shadow, no shade, no darkness. It is the perfect fellowship in the universe.
Dear brothers and sisters, we cannot imagine how joyful and glorious that fellowship is between the Father and the Son. The Son always pleases the Father, and the Father always finds His delight in the Son. That is fellowship: sharing in common in the Godhead.
But thank God, because of His great love, He desires to extend that fellowship to mankind.
We must remember that the fellowship which the Father and the Son have with one another in the Spirit is something that no one else can demand or ask to join. We have no right to demand that we be accepted into that fellowship. We are completely unqualified and undeserving. Yet it is the good pleasure of the Father to extend that fellowship to mankind.
He calls us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. In 1 Corinthians 1:9 we read:
God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
How we thank God that we, who have no right whatsoever and are completely unqualified and undeserving, have nevertheless been called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The fellowship of God’s Son is that the Son shares the Father with us. The Father is His exclusively from eternity. He is the only begotten Son, and He alone has the right to fellowship with the Father and to share everything with the Father in common. All that the Father has is His, and all that He has is the Father’s.
But thank God that He has called us into the fellowship of His Son. In other words, His Son is willing to share the Father with us. That is why God can bless us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Our fellowship with the Father is through the Son. Today, brothers and sisters, we are called into that fellowship. We now have fellowship with the Father and with the Son.
How does this come about? In order to extend Their fellowship to us, God had to do something. Fellowship is a very costly thing. In order to draw us into His fellowship, it cost God greatly. To put it more plainly, it cost God His own beloved Son.
In the passage our brother read this morning in Hebrews 2, it is said:
For both He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one.
He that sanctifies is the Lord, and those who are sanctified are ourselves. How does that oneness come into being? We are not one. He that sanctifies is the Son of God; those who are sanctified are fallen human beings. Yet the Bible says that He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one.
Hebrews 2:14 explains how this oneness came about:
Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
We, His children, partake of flesh and blood. The word “partake” speaks of sharing in common. This is our common lot: we are born of flesh and blood. But because we are flesh and blood, and because we are in bondage to sin, He also in like manner took part in the same.
The word used of Christ’s taking part in flesh and blood is not the same word. It means that He took upon Himself something outside of Himself. He was not originally flesh and blood as we are, but He deliberately took upon Himself that which was outside of Himself.
In His incarnation, the Word became flesh. God came in the flesh, and in His incarnation He identified Himself with us who are flesh and blood. That is the first step.
Being made a man, He humbled Himself, obeyed God, and died on the cross. He took upon Himself all our sins and died in our stead so that we might be freed from death. Then, in His resurrection, He released His own life to us. He gave His life to all who believe in Him, and in this manner we are made one with Him.
He identified Himself with us in His incarnation, and we are identified with Him in His death and resurrection. His death is our death—death to the old creation. His resurrection is our resurrection—we are raised into newness of life. We are made one with Him.
So, brothers and sisters, it cost God tremendously to bring us into the fellowship of His Son.
You can see immediately that the fellowship into which we are drawn is not an outward thing. It is an inward reality. In other words, it is a matter of life.
This fellowship is based upon life—the life that is given to each one of us. Because we have received His life, we are in that fellowship of the Son with the Father.
What, then, is the principle of fellowship? Fellowship is based on life. Fellowship is the sharing of life.
Anything that is not life, anything that is not the sharing of Christ, cannot be considered fellowship.
Today we often think of fellowship as an outward thing, just as we think of the church as an outward organization. But the church is the called-out ones, gathered together to be a living fellowship: to share Christ and to minister Christ together. This is what the church really is—a living fellowship.
Sometimes we say, “Let us have some fellowship together.” What do we do? We share our problems. Is that fellowship? The more we fellowship in that way, the more depressed we become.
Worse than that, sometimes we say, “Let us have fellowship,” and then we talk about politics, social problems, and all these things. Is that fellowship? That is social interchange.
Or we may try to teach one another doctrines concerning the Lord Jesus and different interpretations of the truth. Is that fellowship? It can be, if Christ is being shared. But if it is only a matter of our mind being shared, where is Christ?
You may have a very clever, analytical, penetrating mind. You may think you see something in the Bible that others have not seen, and you share it. But if you only share your mind with others, where is Christ? Their knowledge may be increased, but their life may not be increased one inch. Do you call that fellowship?
Fellowship is the sharing of Christ, the sharing of life. Anything that is not of life is not fellowship.
Our fellowship with one another is measured proportionately by our fellowship with the Father and with the Son. You cannot have uninterrupted fellowship with the Father and with the Son while having interrupted fellowship with your brothers and sisters. That is impossible.
The degree to which you can share with your brothers and sisters is measured by the degree to which you have fellowship with the Father and with the Son. How much you have known and experienced of the Father and the Son is the measure of your fellowship with your brothers and sisters—and no more.
Let me repeat: koinonia means fellowship, sharing in common. It is because we have something in common, and that something is the life of Christ. Therefore, when we fellowship, we fellowship His life.
Because fellowship is based on the life of Christ, it is all-inclusive among God’s people. All who have the life of Jesus Christ are in that fellowship.
Today people may speak of this fellowship or that fellowship, but that is unscriptural. There is only one fellowship: the fellowship of the Father and the Son in the Spirit; the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord; the fellowship of the apostles.
Acts 2:42 says that the believers continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship. What is the fellowship of the apostles? It is the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. As it is extended to us, it is the sharing of Christ with us. There is only one fellowship in the universe.
This has a practical application. We have to receive all who have the life of the Lord Jesus. We cannot be exclusive. If we exclude anyone who has the life of the Lord Jesus, we become a sect, a party, a division, and it displeases the Lord.
This fellowship includes all who know the Father and all who know the Son—all who have the life of God in Christ Jesus. Yet, on the other hand, this fellowship is extremely exclusive: anyone who does not have life, no matter how good he may be, is not in the fellowship.
It is not because certain people are moral, have good social standing, or have a good name in the world that we draw them into fellowship. No, we cannot do that. This fellowship is based on life.
Even Nicodemus had to be born again to belong to this fellowship. Thank God, we are born again into this fellowship. There is no way to join it except to be born into it.
The membership roll is not on earth. You cannot find it anywhere on earth. The book of life is in heaven. That is where your membership is. All who believe in the Lord Jesus, all who have the Son, have life—eternal life—and belong to this fellowship.
We have something in common: God has shared with us His beloved Son, His own life. Because of this, we have fellowship with the Father, with the Son, and with one another.
Fellowship is not based on light; it is based on life. By light, I mean the light people claim to have concerning the Word of God. We believe the Word of God, but there are many different interpretations.
Some say that they have light on a certain portion of Scripture, while others think they have different light on the same portion. Among God’s people there are many different interpretations, and because of this they divide God’s people. They say, “If you do not believe my interpretation of this portion of Scripture, you are out.”
Remember: you may have different light, as it were—different interpretations of Scripture—but if you have the same Christ, you have fellowship with one another. All the differences should not affect our fellowship.
I do not mean that light has nothing to do with fellowship; I will explain that later. But fellowship is based on life. Thank God, it is not based on how much you know about Scripture. It is based upon the life of Christ that you have received by grace through faith.
Now we can return to 1 John. The Apostle John begins his letter with this matter of fellowship:
That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life.
Fellowship is very personal. It is experiential. You cannot report to others what you have not seen or heard. Fellowship is based on seeing and hearing. You have seen, you have heard, and therefore you can report it and share it. When you share it, others will see what you see and hear what you hear. That is the joy of fellowship.
Who is that which was from the beginning? The Word.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John is sharing with us the Word, the Word of life. He is from the beginning. He is eternal God.
“That which we have heard”—where did they hear? They heard through the prophets of old. That which was from the beginning had been unknown, but God spoke through the prophets to the fathers in many portions and in many ways.
“That which we have seen with our eyes”—when? When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The apostles saw Him with their eyes.
“That which we beheld” means that they gazed upon Him. In other words, they gazed upon Him until they saw what others did not see. There was revelation. John 1:14 says:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us
(and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father),
full of grace and truth.
As they contemplated Him, the Spirit of God revealed what He really was to them. They received revelation concerning this Man, Jesus.
“And our hands handled”—when? After the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. The Lord told Thomas to touch Him, to put his finger into the print of the nails. They handled the risen Lord.
Here you find the whole history: the Son of God became man, He died for us, He was raised from the dead, and He is the Word of life. The life was manifested.
This life was manifested in the flesh, in the person of our Lord Jesus. The apostles saw, bore witness, and now report to us the eternal life.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is life. What is eternal life? Eternal life is not something outside of God. It is not merely something that God gives. Eternal life is His Son; it is God Himself. He is the eternal life. He is the true God and eternal life.
Eternal life is more than endless duration. Eternal life is a quality of living, and God is eternal life.
The apostles had personal experience of this eternal life. Because they had this personal experience, they reported it to us; they shared it with us. As they shared it, we received eternal life. We saw and heard the Word of life.
The apostle says, “We report to you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.” We share with you what we have so that you may have in common with us. But what we share has its root somewhere else: our fellowship is indeed with the Father and with His Son.
We are not sharing ourselves with you. Peter is not fellowshipping Peter to you; he is fellowshipping Christ in him to you. Our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son. Therefore, as you receive this fellowship and are drawn into fellowship with us, you enter the fellowship of the Father and the Son.
“These things we write, that our joy may be made full.” There is nothing that can bring us more joy than real fellowship. When you can fellowship with your brothers and sisters, and through that fellowship are actually fellowshipping with the Father and the Son, can you find anything more full of joy?
As you fellowship with your brothers and sisters, you fellowship in Christ. As you fellowship with Christ, you fellowship with your brothers and sisters. How full must this joy be. Fellowship is heaven upon earth.
Having laid down the principles of fellowship, we need to consider its practice. Fellowship is based on life; therefore, it must be practiced according to the life line—the line of life. You cannot practice fellowship outside of life.
When you enter into fellowship, you must enter along the line of the nature of this eternal life. Life has its nature, its character. Only when you develop according to that character and nature does your fellowship increase. When you violate that nature of life, your fellowship is hindered.
That is what 1 John is about. Because the church had a dim vision of Christ, it began to lose its first love. Therefore, fellowship among the believers was weakened, interrupted, hindered, and damaged. John sought to help them see how their fellowship could develop and increase.
Fellowship is living. Anything living will grow. When it stops growing, the process of death begins. Christian fellowship is a growing process. We never arrive at a point where we cannot grow anymore.
The fellowship between the Father and the Son is ever-growing and never-ending. Is that not wonderful? Our fellowship is the same.
In 1 John, the character or nature of God is mentioned along three lines:
After John makes the introduction, he says in 1 John 1:5:
This is the message which we have heard from Him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
The light here is different from the light I mentioned before. The previous light was the interpretation of Scripture. The Word of God is indeed a lamp and a light, but that is not what we are speaking of here.
Fellowship is not based upon what light you claim to have concerning the Word of God—your interpretation. Fellowship is based upon light in another sense: God is light.
God Himself is light. This is His nature, His character. He is pure, brilliant, glorious. There is no darkness, shadow, shade, or change in Him. God is full light.
John 1:4 says:
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.
In Christ is life, and in the Son is light. That light is the light of men. Then, in John 8:12, the Lord says:
I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Brothers and sisters, the life we receive is Christ, and this life has the nature of light. The life that you have in Christ is the light of life. This life in you will shine.
We cannot walk in darkness; if we do, we stumble. But how do we walk as Christians? Not by outward rules or regulations. No. We walk by the light of life.
As you follow the Lord, the light in you shines and shows you the next step ahead. It may not give you light for your entire life’s journey, but it will give you light for your next step. If you obey the light of life, you walk with the Lord; you go a step further, and then the light of life shines another step before you. That is Christian growth.
We walk in the light. The “if” in 1 John 1:7 does not mean that we may or may not walk in the light. As believers, we must walk in the light. Where is this light? Again, it is not merely interpretations of the Word, because there are too many different interpretations. The light is the light of life. Follow life.
To put it another way, Romans 8 teaches that the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. If you follow the life within you, as it shines upon your path, and obey it, then you walk in the light as God is in the light.
There is a difference between our walking in the light and God’s being in the light. God is light. He Himself is light, and He dwells in unapproachable light. His life is full, perfect, complete, holy, and glorious.
But we walk in the light of life as it shines upon our path. If we do, then the wonderful thing is that we have fellowship with God.
There is no fellowship between light and darkness. As 2 Corinthians 6:14 says:
What fellowship hath light with darkness?
How can God, who is light and in whom there is no darkness, have fellowship with us, though we have the light of life in us but still have so much darkness surrounding us? This is where mercy and grace come in.
God is in the light, and we have the light of life in us. As His life shines a step, we walk a step. The difference between the degree of our light and the degree of God’s light is immeasurable, but the quality and nature of the light are the same.
Therefore God says, in effect, “As long as you are walking in the light, I will have fellowship with you.” Even though there is still much darkness in you, it does not interrupt fellowship because you are obeying the light of life that you have today. Is that not grace?
But if you do not walk in the light of life that has been given to you, then you walk in darkness, and there is no fellowship between you and God until you confess your sins.
Brothers and sisters, in order that our fellowship with God—the Father and the Son—may be uninterrupted, it is extremely important, fundamental, and basic that every believer learn to walk faithfully in the light of life given to him.
There will, of course, be differences. Some people are like little children. The life within them is young, and so the light is only a little. But if they obey that light, they are all right, and their fellowship with God is not interrupted.
Then they grow into young men. Their life grows, and as their life grows, their light grows. If they obey that light, they have fellowship with God. Then they grow to be fathers, and the light becomes brighter still. They need to obey. If they do not, they are in darkness, and fellowship is interrupted.
This fellowship with the Father is living. That is why we cannot judge one another. You cannot use your standard and impose it upon another brother or sister. He may be a child, and according to the light given to him, he has obeyed. You may be a young man, knowing more and needing to be more faithful. If you do not obey, you are worse than the child.
If we walk in the light as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another. The phrase “one another,” strictly speaking, refers to fellowship with fellow believers.
Certainly, when we walk in the light, we have fellowship with the Father and with the Son. And because of this, we have fellowship with one another. If you do not walk in the light, your fellowship with the Father and the Son is not right, and you have no fellowship with your brothers and sisters.
Then comes the wonderful statement:
And the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Think of that. As you fellowship with your brothers and sisters and exchange light, the light grows. Perhaps I am one candle, and my brother is another candle. When we fellowship, there are two candles, and the light increases.
When the light increases, you realize darkness that had never been exposed before. Thank God, the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin. He cleanses us, and we increase in life.
When you fellowship with your brothers and sisters and nothing happens, something is wrong with that fellowship. Often, when you fellowship with your brothers and sisters, you are convicted. The light of life in another begins to shine upon you, and you discover an area where you are in darkness.
Then you begin to see. And because you see, you confess. The blood of Jesus cleanses you. He not only forgives you, but cleanses you, and your character is purified.
This is the glory of fellowship. Do not think fellowship is cheap, merely having a good time. No. Fellowship can be very costly.
If you dare to fellowship with your brothers and sisters, you open yourself to be exposed—but exposed in order to be delivered. Just as when you dare to fellowship with God, it is not all roses. There are many thorns, many purgings, much emptying, and much work to be done.
But thank God, nothing is more glorious than what fellowship can give.
I cannot go on because my time is already over. But remember: you move along in this matter of fellowship according to the line of life.
God is light: walk in the light. God is righteous: practice righteousness. God is love: love one another. As you do that, fellowship increases.
May the Lord bless us. Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, what can we say? We have no right; we do not deserve it. Yet Thou dost extend Thy wonderful, glorious fellowship to us. Thou dost share Thy Son with us, and Thy Son shares Thee with us.
Oh, we praise and thank Thee that today we are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Our fellowship is with the Father, with the Son, and with one another.
Father, we pray that we may truly understand what fellowship is, that we may treasure it, and that we may be willing to pay any cost for it. We pray that our fellowship may increase and grow, that Thou mayest be glorified and that our joy may be full.
We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.