Volume 51 Number 9 September 2009
To be in fellowship with Jesus should be the most important thing in our lives, and compared to this sweet situation, all else ought be treated with a holy indifference. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone who says they have fellowship with Christ were actually in fellowship with the Savior? But we often find people taking the glorious Name of the Lord in vain by claiming some kind of a kinship to Him while their beliefs and practices are as foreign to His Will as can be, knowing only bits of the Bible while either acting like they know it all or that knowing it doesn’t matter. Many have joined themselves to churches where traditions of man have replaced the commandments of Jesus and His apostles. There is a super abundance of blessing God with the lips on Sunday morning, then cursing the annoying neighbor with the same mouth on Sunday afternoon. As the old saying goes, “The church has become so worldly, and the world so churchy, it’s hard to tell the difference anymore.”
Jesus, our partner in fellowship, never lived such a ‘life’ when He dwelt among us. The blessed Son of God was ever in obedience to His Father in Heaven, doing nothing of Himself because He only did whatever He saw His Father do
(John 5:19,30). No wonder Jesus is going to tell so many religious people on the Last Day, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Disregarding God’s will is as foreign to Christ as telling the Truth is to Satan. There is no fellowship when we are disobeying Him. The Lord is not being fooled by our false professions, even if others seem to be.How about us? Do we profess love to Jesus and think that this thing called love is some kind of nice feeling we have in our chests (which may only be good digestion)? No, love is defined accurately by the apostle John in I John 5:2, 3:
“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” Ever since the beginning with our first parents and their two oldest sons, fellowship with God has always been contingent upon doing the Will of God, which is true love. He loved us first, but our participation with Him depends on whether or not we love Him in return and show it by keeping His commandments, as John says.Jesus tells us who is in fellowship with Him by calling them members of His Family. In Matthew 12:46-50 we read the account of the physical family of Jesus attempting to speak with Him as he talked to the people. We would think surely Jesus would set aside his teaching to tend to His earthly family. But His reply was startling in verse 48 for He said,
“‘Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?’ And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, ‘Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.’” This is not the way most people’s minds work, but obedience to God is the only way to ever hope that we have fellowship with Christ!Many in the religious world think they are in fellowship with Christ, yet they disregard the Word of God which Jesus gave to His apostles from His Father in Heaven:
“For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.” (John 17:8. See also v. 20). To disregard the apostles’ doctrine is to forfeit your fellowship with Christ. Don’t kid yourself into dying: You cannot make up your own method of participation with God, it has already been established forever in Heaven and given to us through the apostles of Jesus Christ! (Psalms 119:89; Matthew 18:18; Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:42.).The beloved apostle John describes fellowship in his first epistle, and says that our participation in Christ is based on listening to the apostles’ testimony. If we do not listen, division is the inevitable result. Read 1John 1:1-7, and you will see how John describes this process of true fellowship. John is one of the eyewitnesses to Christ, not you or me. Fellowship is based on what the eyewitnesses saw and heard, not what you and I might imagine.
“That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (I John 1:3). John goes on to tell us in 1 John 4:1-6 that the way to tell the difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error is whether or not a person listens to the apostles. Are you listening to the apostles’ teachings or are you following a spirit of error? When Paul says, for example, that a bishop is to be ‘the husband of one wife’, have you been led to believe that ‘the wife of one husband’ is just as good, or even better? Is it any wonder that those who profess to follow Christ are divided? We may enjoy fellowship with Christ, AND with one another, when we all agree to be of the same mind and judgment and follow the Word as delivered by the apostles of Christ! (See also Romans 16:17-19; 2 Timothy 3:10; Romans 2:16; 16:25; 2 Timothy 2:8).The apostle Peter taught us to beware of false teachers who would mislead many with false promises of fellowship with God without obedience. In 2 Peter 2:4-6, He shows us that it doesn’t matter if you are part of a huge majority (Noah’s day), a dweller in paradise (Sodom), or even a resident of Heaven itself (the Devil and his angels), God will not have fellowship with disobedience! If God could separate Himself from His own celestial creations Who lived with Him, who do we think we are that God will set aside His Own righteousness in order to wink at our willful ignorance of His Will?
Let us think again about the blessed privilege we have to be in fellowship with Christ, and may we never take it for granted. Doing the Will of God as Jesus did will ensure that we truly have fellowship with Him, both now and forever!