Fellowship Part 4 – The Result of our Fellowship
This is part four in a series of short studies on our fellowship
in Christ, our koinonia. It is
based on a study through the epistle of 1 John and the key verse for the entire
series is 1 John 1 7, which says:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we
have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us
from all sin. (ESV)
The idea is that as believers in Jesus Christ, we have a
close bond – a bond that for all purposes should be even closer than familial
or romantic bonds. It may not all ways
work out that way in practice, but it is part of the gift we have from the
Father as being adopted as his children by faith. Thus, we ought to aspire to realize it within
our churches and in our relationships with other believers. As we have worked through the first three
parts of the study, we’ve learned how the shared unity that we have because of
the gospel is the basis for this bond.
We’ve also learned that one of reasons we don’t realize this level of
fellowship is because we are not always meeting the prerequisite of that
fellowship, which is to walk in the light.
I would refer you to the first three short studies in this series as a
refresher on those point.
In this short study, we look at the result of the fellowship
that we have, which is clearly outlined in the last part of 1 John 1:7. Specifically
The result of
our fellowship is the cleansing from sin.
Now right away, you have probably taken a step back. After all, is it not true that our sins are
forgiven because of what Jesus did on the cross? Doesn’t the classic hymn not ask and answer
that question:
What can wash away my
sins; nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Of course, the answer is yes. When you put your faith in Jesus, all your
sins were forgiven. In fact, it is not
just your past sins, but your present and future sins as well. This is where
the last three verses of chapter 1, taken in context with verse 7, inform us of
a greater truth as it relates to “cleaning us from all sin”. As a matter of fact, it is a slight
mis-interpretation of the intended understanding of a very famous and well know
verse that get us moving in the right direction.
Many of us have probably memorized 1 John 1: 9, which says “if
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Many
of us understand this verse to require confession as a prerequisite for forgiveness
of sins. However, that is not biblically
correct. First of all, it says we are
BOTH forgiven AND cleansed from our sins, and that is an important
distinction. Second of all, the first
word of the verse, which is often translated “if” can (and probably should) be translated
as “whenever we confess” or perhaps even “if we have confessed.” The conveyance is the idea that we confessed
our sins when we placed our faith in Jesus.
Certainly, we live our lives in confession because we continue to sin
(more on that in a moment), but the idea is that we have once and for all been
forgiven and are continually being cleansed.
Why is that important and how does it relate to fellowship? It is important because the idea of cleaning
carries with more than just forgiveness, but rather a removal. When we wash something we don’t cover the
stain, we remove it entirely. To say we
are being cleansed from sin is to say that sin is being slowly but surely
removed from our lives.
In truth, we must admit to still having sin in our
lives. In fact, both verse 8 and verse
10 tell us we are liars if we say we have no sin. Nevertheless, I believe John is trying to
tell us an important role that our fellowship has in the process of removing
(a.k.a., cleansing) sin from our lives – just as verse 7 indicates.
To understand that, we have to make an important presumption. That presumption is that fellowship is a
presumption of salvation. The counter to
that presumption is that being a part of a fellowship – and let’s be honest and
call this what we mean – that being an active part of a local church – is not
necessary to call yourself a Christian. This
is the biggest lie that the world is buying into right now and it is bleeding
into church culture. We are somehow
being convinced that participation in church life is optional.
When the Covid pandemic hit, the greatest tool available to
churches was the livestream. Livestreamed
church services are almost ubiquitous now. However, even before the pandemic,
there were many churches on TV, radio, podcast, and yes, even
livestreaming. In fact, the church I was
pastoring at the time began livestreaming almost a year before the pandemic
hit. We did it because a number of our
members were homebound.
As we have come out of the pandemic however, it seems many
church-goers view the livestream as a pajama alternative to actually getting
up, going to, and participating in the worship service. Many more so-called believers have altogether
abandoned the notion that church attendance is important at all. A recent Gallop poll says that for the first
time since they started polling in 1937, less than half of all Americans say
they belong to a church.[1]
This is not God’s design for us as believers. Biblically
speaking, you are presumed to be a part of a fellowship if you have received
Christ And there is a reason for that – and John is telling us that reason
here.
Fellowship
facilitates sanctification.
All our sins may have been forgiven when we put our faith in
Jesus, but we are on a journey of sanctification that involves not the
forgiveness of sins, but the cleansing of sin from our life – the removal of
sin from our life – the progressive process of becoming more like Jesus Christ.
And to be blunt… you can’t do that outside the context of the fellowship of the
church. If you say that you can, you are
only fooling yourself and you are the one who will suffer spiritually because
of it.
Part of what we are supposed to be doing as a function of
this whole koinonia thing is to encourage one another to live and be
better followers of Jesus. That is why the author of Hebrews wrote these words:
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without
wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up
one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the
habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day
drawing near. Hebrews 10:23-25 (ESV)
To be absolutely blunt – the reason many of you are not
progressing in your sanctification is because you have not been consistently participating
in church life – in the fellowship of the saints. And some of you are not just failing to
progress – you are regressing. And let
us be honest. Even among those of us who do attend regularly, we are not
holding those we love accountable to this important practice. We are making
excuses for those we love because they have chosen not to be a part of the
fellowship of believers – and we are either blind to or are choosing to ignore
the fact that they are drifting further and further away from Jesus. I’ve seen this with my own eyes in the lives
of church members and family of church members.
You may say – well what about missionaries who go out into
remote places to start new churches and don’t have a fellowship? First of all –
a person who makes the decision to do that is a person who is already in such
close fellowship with Jesus that they can stand a little time alone without a
church body. If you are simply choosing
NOT to participate in the fellowship I can assure you that you are not in the
same spiritual frame of mind or circumstances as that missionary.
Second, a missionary is not a person who has decided the
church is not necessary. A missionary is
a person who has decided the church is SO necessary that they are willing to go
to new places to start new churches. That missionary would give anything to
have the kind of fellowship to which you have access but have chosen to
sacrifice that blessing for the sake of the gospel in the hopes of starting new
fellowships where they previously did not exist. Can you honestly say that it is for the sake
of the gospel that you did not attend church last week?
Third, those missionaries have hundreds if not thousands of
people praying for them every day – so even though they don’t have direct
fellowship – they have the benefit of indirect fellowship through the prayers
of support they are getting from the Christians who sent them. What’s more, they
still have support mechanisms in place through their missionary agencies. They are NOT out there going it alone.
You simply cannot say the same thing about those who simply
decide they don’t NEED church. In fact, someone who says they don’t need church
is actually REBELLING against what Jesus has specifically instituted. We have
to stop making excuses why we refuse to participate in the fellowship. And if
they are not participating in the fellowship because they think the fellowship
is broken, then I would say that is even MORE reason to participate – to help
fix it.
Our fellowship is intended to help us walk the Christian
walk in such a way that together we are more sanctified and more like Christ, cleaning
sin from our lives little by little as we share our close personal bond.
I pray that you will begin to see the importance of this
fellowship and commit yourself more fully to a local fellowship of
believers. That is the first step in
beginning to experience the koinonia that Jesus intends for his church.
In the next few articles in this series, we will begin to
take a closer look at what this kind of fellowship looks like. I encourage you to get a head start on it by
reading the second chapter of 1 John and perhaps focusing on the first 5 verses
for the next short study.
May the Lord make you increase and abound in love
for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your
hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our
Lord Jesus with all his saints. 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13
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