That which was from the beginning,
That which we have heard,
That which we have seen with our eyes,
That which we contemplated,
And our hands handled,
Concerning the Word of life—And the life has been manifested,
And we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life,
Which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us.That which we have seen and heard we report to you,
That ye also may have fellowship with us;
And our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.And these things write we to you,
That your joy may be full.And 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.If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness,
We lie, and do not practise 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If then there be any comfort in Christ,
If any consolation of love,
If any fellowship of the Spirit,
If any bowels and compassions,
Fulfil my joy, that ye may think the same thing,
Having the same love, joined in soul, thinking one thing.Let nothing be in the spirit of strife or vainglory,
But in lowliness of mind each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves,
Regarding not each his own qualities, but each those of others also.For let this mind be in you,
Which was also in Christ Jesus.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for gathering us together here in Thy presence. We want to thank Thee for Thy precious Word. Now we do look to Thy Holy Spirit to open Thy Word to us and lead us into Thy truth, that Thy name may be glorified. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Last Sunday we began to share together on this matter of fellowship. Fellowship is sharing in common.
Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, we did have something in common, and we did share with one another. But what we shared was of ourselves, of the world, of sin, and of death.
But thank God, He saved us. In saving us, He has delivered us out of the power of darkness, and He translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. You see, He has delivered us out of one fellowship—the fellowship of the world, the fellowship of death. He delivered us out of that kind of fellowship and has called us, brought us, into a new fellowship: a heavenly fellowship.
It is called the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Now, brothers and sisters, we need to understand what is meant by the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
It is none other than the divine fellowship between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. Before time began, in eternity past, there was a fellowship, and it was the fellowship of the Father and of the Son in the Spirit.
It was a very sweet, wonderful, harmonious, glorious fellowship. The Father and the Son are completely one. Their fellowship is a fellowship of life. They share life together, and they share everything together. There was no reservation of any kind. There was perfect agreement. It was a fellowship of love, a fellowship in the Holy Spirit.
But that fellowship was divine. In other words, no one can join that fellowship—only the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
But God is love, and because of His love, He extends His fellowship to man. But for man to join in that fellowship, you have to have divine life. In other words, life is the condition for joining their fellowship.
And thank God, He gave us life. Because of that, we are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
What does the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, mean? Our Lord Jesus, the Son, has fellowship with His Father, and His Father has fellowship with His Son. Now this fellowship is extended to all who have His life in them.
In other words, the Father shares the Son with us. He does not withhold anything from us. Since He has given us His Son, with Him He gives all things.
And so is the Son. The Son shares His Father with us. All that He knows of the Father, He shares with us. He draws us into fellowship with Him and with His Father.
Brothers and sisters, if we only can see what a beautiful, wonderful, glorious, heavenly fellowship we are now in! God shares His Son with us. Everything that is of God is in the Son, and He shares His Son with us.
He reveals His Son to us. It is His good pleasure to reveal His Son in us, that we may know His Son. Likewise, no one knows the Father but the Son; and whatever the Son may reveal—thank God, the Son does not withhold anything of His Father from us. He shares His Father completely with us.
It is such a blessed fellowship that we are in.
Of course, we find this fellowship is also called the fellowship of the apostles. In Acts 2:42, they persevered in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles.
Why is this fellowship called the fellowship of the apostles? Because in 1 John, John said, “Our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son.” That which they had seen and heard and contemplated, handled—that which they knew personally, in personal experience—all that they knew of the Father and of the Son, they reported and shared with us, that we might have fellowship with them.
The mystery of God has been revealed to the apostles and the prophets. What they received, they did not withhold from us; but the whole counsel that came from God, they delivered to us. So this is called the fellowship of the apostles.
Not that the apostles have their own teachings—they do not. Not that the apostles have their own fellowships—they do not. Their teaching is the teaching of Christ that has been revealed to them, received by them, and delivered to us.
Their fellowship is simply that which they have in fellowship with the Father and the Son, opened to us that we too may be in that fellowship. So the apostles do not have their own fellowship. There is not the fellowship of Paul. There is not a fellowship of Apollos. Paul says, “Is Christ divided?”
We have only one fellowship: the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Because all who have received the fellowship of the apostles have received the fellowship of the Father and of the Son, we are all in one fellowship. It is the fellowship of the body of Christ.
We are all members of that body, and there we fellowship with one another as we fellowship with the Father and with the Son. So, brothers and sisters, remember that we are called into that wonderful fellowship.
This morning we would like to go a little further. We would like to see the principles that govern this fellowship. Since this fellowship is so wonderful, so heavenly, so spiritual, and so glorious, we need to know: What are the principles that govern that fellowship? In other words, how can we really be in that fellowship?
You know, brothers and sisters, the word church is so abused. When that word is mentioned, it does not give you the right impression. When you mention the church, probably some people think of a building on the corner of the square. Probably you think of a religious organization.
It does not give you the right impression that it is the called-out ones, gathered together unto the name of the Lord.
So sometimes we try to avoid the use of the word church. Sometimes we try to use the word fellowship to substitute for the word church. But unfortunately, the word fellowship is also so misused and misunderstood that it does not mean the right thing.
Actually, the word fellowship—sharing in common—is the church in action. In other words, it is an action word for the word church. When the church is in action, when the church is working and living, you have fellowship.
Fellowship is that living word, that action word, for the church. It is the body of Christ really living itself out. It is fellowship.
Oftentimes, we say, “Let’s have fellowship.” But what do you have? Well, you talk about yourselves. You talk about the weather. You talk about everything under the sun. And worse, you gossip about so-and-so, and who-and-who. And we call that fellowship.
If you want to call it fellowship, it is the fellowship that we had before we believed in the Lord. That is the old fellowship, the fellowship of the world.
What is fellowship? What are the principles that govern this heavenly fellowship?
Remember, our fellowship with one another is based upon our fellowship with the Father and with the Son. In other words, what we fellowship, what we share with one another, is what the Father and the Son have shared with us.
If our fellowship with the Father and with the Son is rich, then our fellowship with one another is rich. If our fellowship with the Father and the Son is poor, then when we try to fellowship with one another, our fellowship has to be poor.
Fellowship is not fellowshipping ourselves; it is fellowshipping what the Father has revealed to us of the Son, and what the Son has revealed to us of the Father. In other words, the substance, the content, of this divine fellowship is none other than God Himself—Christ, the Lord. He is the very content of the fellowship.
When we are sharing Christ with one another—the Christ that has been revealed to us by the Father, the Christ that we have seen and heard, the Christ that we know in our spirit and have experienced—that is what we share with one another. That is called Christian fellowship.
Now, it does not mean that we have to be so formal, so legalised, that when we see each other, we cannot even greet each other or have some ordinary conversation, and become very rigid. No, we are human beings.
When we come together, of course, we need to break the ice. But remember, that is just an introduction. Do not make the introduction everything. If you make the introduction everything, then after an hour there is no fellowship. Why? Because Christ is not being shared.
There is no increase of Christ. The purpose of fellowship is that, as we share with one another, everyone has something of Christ that they know.
From the very littlest one, when they first believe in the Lord Jesus, there is something of Christ, of God, that they know. They know the Father. They know their sins are forgiven. These are the things that we should share with one another.
As we grow in the Lord, the Father reveals more of the Son to us. We know more of the Son, our Lord Jesus, in our life—what He means to us, what we have experienced of Him. Therefore, we have more to share with our brothers and sisters.
Why should we share? The reason is that no one has everything. As we share with one another, Christ is being increased in us. That is the purpose of fellowship.
Yes, when we share with one another, probably we have to share ourselves too. Well, Christ is not abstract, you know. You are involved. But remember, you are only a channel. What comes out of the channel is Christ; it is not you.
After you have fellowship with one another, of course we know each other much better than before—but in Christ.
The first principle of fellowship is that fellowship is the fellowship of Christ Jesus our Lord. That is the first principle. Christ in you, Christ in me—we share with one another, so that the body of Christ may be enriched and there will be the increase of Christ in the body.
You remember the Apostle Paul. In his letter to the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 2:2, he said, “When I came into your midst, I determined not to know anything but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
Paul was not going to share himself with the Corinthian believers. He was sharing Christ in him with the Corinthian believers. He said, “We do not proclaim ourselves, but we proclaim Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” This is the message; this is the content of our fellowship.
When he was fellowshipping with them of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, he did so in a manner that showed weakness, fear, and trembling. He did not try to impress with high-sounding words or with eloquence, but in the demonstration of the Holy Spirit and of power, that their faith might be in God and not in man.
So, brothers and sisters, when we are fellowshipping Christ with one another, what should be our attitude? What is the manner, the way, that we share Christ with one another? It has to come out of us; that is true. But we are under the cross.
After we fellowship with others, what is the impression that will be left with them? Is the impression, “What a wonderful Christian you are”? Or is it, “What a wonderful Christ you have”? It depends on how you share with your brothers and sisters.
Even in sharing, you are under the cross—a crucified man preaching the crucified Christ. Christ is being shared and left with the brothers and sisters, but He is such a personal Christ, such a living Christ. That is the first principle that governs Christian fellowship.
Secondly, fellowship is the fellowship of life. You know that the fellowship between the Father and the Son is not external. The fellowship between the Father and the Son is in life. It is something from within. It comes out of the common life They have. It is deep.
When do we begin to have fellowship with the Father and with the Son? Before we are saved, before we are born again, we may have much knowledge about God and about Jesus Christ. But was there fellowship, communion, with the Father and with the Son? No.
You can be the best theologian in the world. You may know so much about God and about the Bible, but if you are not born again, you have no fellowship with the Father nor with the Son.
But once you are born again, immediately you find in your experience that there is contact with God. God becomes so real to you, so living to you. Christ is a living Person to you. He is no longer a vague idea.
I can remember very vividly: before I was born again, I knew the gospel so well. I appreciated the gospel. I prayed every day. I read the Bible. But there was no communication. There was no fellowship. God was distant away. I knew He was there, but I could not touch Him. It was a theory to me.
But I can remember the moment I was saved: the contact was made. God is no longer a distant God; He is my heavenly Father. I have communication with Him.
So, brothers and sisters, the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is exclusively a fellowship of life. Life begins that fellowship, and life increases that fellowship.
Our fellowship with the Father and with the Son is a matter of life, not knowledge. Of course, to know the only true God and to know His Son, Jesus Christ—this is eternal life. There is knowledge, real knowledge, in life; but it is living knowledge. It is not dead, mental knowledge. It is living.
So fellowship is a matter of life. The more life you have in Christ, the more you are able to share with your brothers and sisters. That is why it is so important that we seek the Lord with our whole hearts, not only for ourselves but for the sake of the body of Christ.
The basis of fellowship is life.
That is why you find in Romans 15:7 that we are told, “Receive ye one another, as also Christ has received us.” In other words, our fellowship is a fellowship of life. Whoever has life is in that fellowship.
We do not choose our fellowship according to what we call light, because our fellowship is based on life.
What do we mean by saying that the basis of fellowship is not light, but life? The light there is our understanding of the Word of God—what we see in God’s Word, or, to put it another way, our interpretation of God’s Word. That is not the basis of fellowship. The basis of fellowship is eternal life.
In 1 John 1:1-3, John mentions life several times. He said that they had seen and heard, contemplated and touched, the Word of life—the life. They shared with us the eternal life. What they had seen and heard and reported to us was nothing but life.
It is a living Christ. It is not merely mental knowledge or theology. It is real, eternal life that they share with us. For this reason, we need to remember that the basis of our fellowship is life, not so-called light.
Light does, however, govern the degree of fellowship.
When you read 1 John 1, in verse 5, you find: “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness.” This is the first message that we receive from above.
God is light. What does this mean? In this particular connection, let us remember that it does not refer to the Word of God. The Word of God is light. In Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” God’s Word is light. When God’s Word is opened to us, we see light. That is very true.
But here, the light is not the Word. It is God Himself. God is light.
What does it mean? Go to John 1:4: “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” In other words, the light here is the light of life. God is life, and because He is life, there is light that comes out of that life.
That is the first message that we have heard. Why is it so important? Because the way life works is through light—not a light from outside, but the light that comes from life within. That is the way life works.
Let me illustrate. The moment you believe in the Lord Jesus, you receive life. How do you know you have eternal life? How do you know? You know it. Why? Because after you have received that life in you, you find a light beginning to shine into darkness.
It is not a light from outside. Nobody tells you anything. Suppose you are newly saved. Nobody tells you anything, and you have never read the Bible. You know nothing.
Yet you live the way you lived before; you talk the way you talked before. But strangely, when you talk, in the middle of your talk a light comes up and says, “Enough. Stop.” If you go on, you will see.
Do you have such an experience? Nobody tells you anything. The light just suddenly lights up within you.
When you are doing something, going somewhere, seeing something, hearing something—if you have that eternal life in you, you will find He lights up. Do you have that experience?
When you have that experience, you know you have life, because otherwise, where does it come from? That is the way life works, because God is light.
That light of life begins to shine and enables you to walk in fellowship. So, in verse 7, I believe: “If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all our sins.”
Remember, we were in total darkness. When we were in darkness, of course we could not see very clearly. There were many things we took for granted. We thought they were good; we thought they were all right, because we were in darkness. We did not see our sins.
Thank God, our sins have all been forgiven. All the sins that we know have been forgiven. But still there is much darkness in us because we were born in darkness.
After you believe in the Lord Jesus, the light of life begins to shine in your way. In the beginning, it may be a very small light, one kind of light. It may shine upon something you say, something you do, or even upon some habit you have.
You begin to see some light. You begin to see that this is not something in agreement with God. If you walk in that light—that is to say, if you obey that light and walk in that light—what happens?
God is in the light. He is not merely a hundred-candle light; He is light itself. He lives in unapproachable light. He knows everything. There is no darkness in anything with Him. But you still have much darkness.
Yet in that particular area where His life has shone, if you walk in the light and obey it, you have fellowship with God, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from your sin. Brothers and sisters, see that?
If you wait until you are in that hundred-candle light before you have fellowship with God, you have no hope. God fellowships with us on the basis of life, not on the basis of light—that is, how much you understand.
You remember our Lord Jesus when He was on earth. He tried to share with His disciples, and He was so frustrated because they could not understand. When He spoke of heavenly things, they thought of earthly things. When He spoke of spiritual principles, they thought of material things.
When the Lord said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,” they said, “You see, it is because we forgot to bring the bread.”
Yet our Lord did not refuse fellowship with His disciples, not because they were on the same light. As long as the disciples walked in the light of life they had received, the Lord would have fellowship with them. Then gradually, by giving them more light of life, He raised them into deeper fellowship.
Those who are more advanced in the Lord should not refuse fellowship with those who are young in the Lord. Why? Because you have the same life. The degree of life is different, but the life is the same.
So fellowship is based upon life, not upon light. But light does control, does govern, the degree of fellowship—how deep or how shallow you are able to fellowship with one another.
We need to remember this, because today some people say, “Well, you do not see the same light as I do, so we have no fellowship. You have to see the same thing as we do, think the same way as we do, and then we will accept you and have fellowship with you.” Wrong.
Fellowship is based upon life. Only if we are willing to fellowship in life are we able to come into that unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. So number two: the principle is life.
Number three: fellowship is a fellowship of spirit. That is in Philippians 2. It is a fellowship of spirit.
In Darby’s translation, he puts “the” in parentheses before spirit. In other words, in the original, you do not have that definite article. Why? Because when you have that definite article, it refers to the Holy Spirit; but when you do not have it, it refers to the nature of the Holy Spirit. There is a difference here.
Anyway, you find fellowship is a fellowship of spirit. God the Father and God the Son have fellowship in the Holy Spirit. It is not an external thing; it is all within the spirit. Because it is within the spirit, it is pure. There is no mixture, no influence of any kind from our side.
So, brothers and sisters, our fellowship needs to be in the spirit. That is to say, what the Holy Spirit has impressed upon our spirit, we share.
You know, the Holy Spirit is the divine Communicator. The communion of the Holy Spirit—He is the divine Communicator. He is the Spirit of truth. He is the One who reveals Christ to us, who teaches us in all things. He is the One who glorifies Christ and reveals Christ in us. He is the divine Communicator.
When we are fellowshipping with one another, it is more than just an external contact. There is an inward flow, one to another. What the Spirit of God has taught us in our spirit, we pour out to our brothers and sisters, and they too receive that revelation. So it is a matter of being in the spirit.
Oftentimes, when we are together, we find that we all have our different ideas, different opinions, and different thoughts. In a sense, we are sincere. Everybody thinks that what he thinks is God’s will, is the best. Therefore, we want everybody to conform.
When you are doing that, you are not able to continue very long. We are so different. As a matter of fact, even what we have received of the Lord is so different. The light is in different degrees. If we want everybody to do what we think, probably we have to set up our own sect.
How can we really be of one mind, think one thing, be of one soul, love with one love, esteeming others as more excellent than we are? How can we do that? Unless we are in the spirit, unless we deny ourselves, empty ourselves, and take up the mind of Christ.
When we are willing to give up our own selves, all bow before the Lord, and let the Holy Spirit be in control, the result is oneness.
We have that in Acts 15. They had a problem, a serious problem, and there were different opinions. I believe those who were of a Jewish background were very sincere. They said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised. They have to be told to keep the law of Moses.” And some said, “No. We are not under law; we are under grace.” There was much discussion.
How could they solve that problem? They brought it to the Lord, laid down themselves, and came to the place where they said, “The Holy Spirit and we have decided.” In other words, fellowship is in the spirit.
Let the Spirit of God flow and be in charge. Then the fellowship will be sweet.
Finally, you find fellowship is in love: “If any consolation of love.” Brothers and sisters, why did God open His fellowship to us?
When God opened His fellowship to us, He got Himself into lots of problems. If He had kept His fellowship within the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, how harmonious that would be—eternally sweet, no problem. But when He opened that fellowship to us, then came the problems.
Why did He do it? Love. Love is the motivation of fellowship. It is also the sustaining power of fellowship. Because there is love, you are willing to suffer. You are willing to give. No matter how much you suffer, you still want to give. That is love.
Brothers and sisters, fellowship is in love. If you do not love your brothers and sisters, do not do anything. Do not say anything. Keep a distance. No problem. Welcome everywhere. But that is not fellowship.
Fellowship means that you are really knit together, joined together, united together, built up together into one. In doing that, it requires much love.
Love suffers long. That is the first quality of love: it suffers long. Think of the longsuffering of our Lord Jesus.
May the love of God fill our hearts, that we may love our brothers and sisters, willing to open ourselves and share with our brothers and sisters what the Lord has given to us.
Sometimes we may be misunderstood. We may be rejected. But still loving, still opening, still fellowshipping, still giving. Brothers and sisters, these are the principles of fellowship.
Dear Lord, we do praise and thank Thee. Thou dost love us so much as to open Thy fellowship to us, unworthy as we are. We praise and thank Thee for Thy longsuffering patience with us.
Thou bringest us closer, nearer, deeper, into fellowship with Thyself. Thou art also working this out in Thy body. So, Lord, we pray that Thou wilt show us these principles that Thou hast given us in Thy Word, that we may truly enter into the reality of the fellowship of the saints. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.