Once again, we are looking at several gifts and privileges and riches that the Lord has given us as Christians. One of those that is just so precious to us is fellowship. Fellowship with God and fellowship with those who are part of God’s family as well. 1 John 1 talks about that fellowship. It says in 1 John 1:3, “what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed, our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” We look here at the fellowship. First, fellowship means communion. So, we have this communion, this commonness. First, we have fellowship with God because we are in His family because we are saved by His grace, as we saw last time. We have communion and are coupled with Him. We are one with Him in that spiritual sense. So, we have true fellowship with Him. Koinonia is the Greek word for fellowship. Because we have that kind of fellowship with Him, we have that kind of fellowship with those that belong to Him. So, John is saying that we have fellowship with each other because we have fellowship with Christ. Our commonness is found and centered around Christ. We come together around Jesus Christ. That is what we have in common. So, we fellowship because we know Christ as our Savior with others who know Christ as their Savior.
In 1 John 1:5 it speaks of this fellowship, this commonness, with Christ as producing something in our lives. It is not simply a legal document. It is not just something that is true, it is something that brings about a change of life. So, John immediately starts talking about that in 1 John 1:5, “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.” First, he describes God as Light. No darkness. He is using these metaphors, pictures, concerning the fact that the Lord is pure. He is without sin and there is no evilness, and no sinfulness in Him. So, that is God.
In 1 John 1:6 it says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” Notice that terminology of “if we say,” he uses that term several times early on in his book. He is calling out some people here perhaps who are making proclamation that they are Christians. People that say they belong to God and have a fellowship with Christ, but their life does not witness to that. It does not demonstrate that because they are actually walking in darkness. They claim they are in fellowship with the One who is Light and therefore they have that commonness with Him, yet their life does not evidence that and instead they are walking in darkness. He says that cannot be true . . .
