The principles of all genuine fellowship with God

[Cindy]

The principles of all genuine fellowship with God

Today I’d like to look at the letter John wrote to Christians who were being confronted with many false teachers and heresy just as we are now.

1 John 1:1-4 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.We write this to make our joy complete.

John wanted to both warn them about these false teachers and to assure them that they had indeed been taught the Truth, as had their pastor who had been charged to continue to teach and lead them. This is why he reminds the readers that he himself personally knew Jesus, saw Him with his physical eyes, touched Him, both before and after His resurrection. He was an eye witness to all the events and could therefore easily show that these heresies they were hearing about were false teachings. His intent was to both warn them that these false teaching would put them out of fellowship with the Lord and show them how to remain in fellowship with the Lord. Anyone that is in fellowship with the Lord is also in fellowship with other believers including the apostles.

Since this letter shows us how to remain in fellowship with the Lord, it’s a very important one for all of us.

I’d like to first look at the definition of fellowship to make sure that we’re all on the same page when this word is used:

In the Gospel of John Christian fellowship is characterized by a perfect oneness grounded in the closest of relationships with the Father and the Son ( John 17:11, John 21-23; see also 1 John 1:3, 6, 7). Jesus is the true vine in which believers must ‘remain’ if they would bear fruit—which is, above all, love for one another (John 15).This fellowship of believers is dependent on—and an expression of—their fellowship with Christ.[1] Harper's Bible dictionary

Now let’s look at how John begins his letter after the introduction:

1 John 1:5-7This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by 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, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

John starts again by reminding us that he personally heard this from our Lord, and is now telling us about it. He tells us that if we claim to have fellowship with God and still walk in the darkness, then we have to be lying as there is no darkness in God. This doesn’t mean that when we are saved we don’t sin, it means that we don’t live in unrepentant sin. It means that when we sin, we confess and repent of that sin, admitting that it’s a sin, and intending not to commit it again. That is walking in the light. Walking in the light also involves who we fellowship with here, and once again we are told to fellowship with others who are saved, not the unsaved. We are to witness to the unsaved, not fellowship with them, for they are walking in the darkness. When we are walking in the light in this way, confessing and repenting of sin, fellowshipping with God and one another, then we know that the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin. We cannot have fellowship with God if we are not living in the light and continually having our sins cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

The terms, “living in the light” or “walking in the light” are simply metaphors for “living” or “conducting our lives”. So he is saying how we live our lives matters. We are not to continue to live the way we did before we were saved.

In the above verse John is showing us the difference between saying and doing. He is showing us that our actions must back up our words—we must live what we believe. He tells us that when we are not doing that, then our lives will contradict what we say we believe making us hypocrites.

1 John 1:8-2:2 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Here John is saying that he knows that we all sin every day, as he does himself. (notice that in the above verses he uses the word “we” when talking to us which includes himself) He is saying that if anyone tries to tell you that when you are saved you will not ever sin again that they’re full of bologna! It’s a lie! We ALL sin every day! Those who believe that lie and try and pretend that they don’t sin will lose their fellowship with the Lord and with each other until the repent and confess their sins. At that time they will once again be in close communion or fellowship with the Lord and with other believers.

Basically what this is showing us is that when we sin and don’t confess our sins, we are out of fellowship with the Lord. Things start going wrong for us, and we can tell that something just isn’t right. Once we confess though, we are once more cleansed and can once again be in fellowship with the Lord and each other.

What are the important things for us to remember from this?

First that we need to always walk in the light and not have anything to do with darkness. Now that sounds good and biblical but what exactly does it mean? To walk in the light is to live the way God commands us to. Who walks in darkness then? Anyone who is unsaved walks in darkness, for they do not have the Light within them because the Light is God. So when the bible talks about walking in darkness, it’s talking about doing things the way we did before we were saved. Walking in darkness would be living in sin rather then living in Christ.

Secondly that as long as we confess our sins we will be cleansed of all unrighteousness and will be able to continue to be in fellowship with the Lord. The opposite is also true; if we do not confess our sins, or if we say we don’t sin or try to hide them from the Lord, then we will no longer be in fellowship with Him. Keep in mind that losing our fellowship with God is not the same thing as losing our salvation. We cannot lose our salvation. We can fall out of fellowship with Him though, meaning that we can lose that close personal connection with Him. The good news about that is that it can easily be gained back through simple confession of our sins.

Tomorrow will pick up where we left off today. I hope this is as helpful to others as it has been for me!

[anna]

Reading this has been helpful for me. I see myself in mistakes I made in the past, and here are teachings to warn me to be more careful and less careless about my actions. To inform me of God's will for me and all believers concerning fellowship.

[Cindy]

I found it really helpful too and I'm looking forward to the next part as well.

[Cindy]

The principles of all genuine fellowship with God

Some people reading these studies that we’ve been doing lately might get the impression that I’m very focused on “works” but that honestly couldn’t be further from the truth. What I am focused on though is the complete Gospel and not just the part that sounds good and is easy to do. That being said, let’s start out from where we left off yesterday.

Yesterday we discussed that when we are saved our walk needs to match our talk in order for us to stay in fellowship with the Lord. When our walk doesn’t match our beliefs, then we are “out of fellowship” with the Lord and each other. Sin has come between us again. However, this is easily fixed by repenting and confessing our sins knowing that the Lord will forgive us and we will once again be in close communion with Him.

I do want to point out here however that when we see someone who is obviously out of fellowship with the Lord , and obviously has been for a long time, or even from the beginning of the time they were supposedly saved, then they were never saved to begin with. When a person is saved, there is always some fruit to show that salvation has taken place, that a change has occurred.

1 John 2:3-6 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

In this next verse John sums this up pretty much the same way. Keep in mind however that John is not talking about someone who commits a sin and repents. We all do that daily! No, John is saying that someone who constantly and consistently does not obey God’s commands about something is a liar and the Truth isn’t in him. Again another way to say that would be if someone is living in unrepentant sin, then they are a liar and the Truth isn’t in them. John sums the entire thing up quite nicely by saying that whoever claims to live in Jesus must walk as Jesus did. Another way to look at this is the saying, “by their fruit you shall know them”.

Someone who is in a genuine relationship with the Lord, or as John calls it, genuine fellowship with the Lord, will produce fruit that shows they are saved. Jesus said it this way:

John 15:5-8 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Next John reminds us that there is nothing “new” about this command, and that it has been taught as part of the Gospel from the beginning by Jesus that they should walk as He did and obey His commands.

1 John 2:7-8 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

John then talks about the “new command” that Jesus gave that they should love their enemies, and says that by walking in Christ and obeying His commands that love is seen and causes the darkness to pass away. He then expands this thought and says:

1 John 2:9-11 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

Here again John is telling us that there is no middle ground. Where God’s love lives in us when we are walking closely with Him, no hate for another person who is saved can abide. However when there is hate in someone’s heart, that means that there is something they are holding back from the Lord, some part of them still in the darkness and walking in the dark, they have lost all real sense of direction and therefore cannot be in a genuine close relationship (fellowship) with the Lord. When we are in a close relationship with the Lord, that automatically brings us into a close relationship with others who are also saved and walking closely with Him. We know that God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all, therefore our relationships with others will reveal the genuineness of our relationship with Him. This is just another example of how the fruit of our lives shows what our relationship with Him is. A person who’s life is characterized by love is a genuine believer. Let me share with you what one of the commentaries says about this:

In verse 11, John goes back to negative application of the light-and-love premise in order to emphasize that hatred (perhaps he has in mind some aspect of the problem with the false teachers) creeps over one’s life like the darkness, affecting his walk, and even his knowledge (knoweth not whither he goeth), making him in fact spiritually “blind.”[1] KJV Bible commentary. 1997, c1994 (2633). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

1 John 2:13-14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.

I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

John isn’t really writing this to little children, instead he’s using these terms to denote different stages of spiritual growth in the community that he was writing to, just as we are each at different stages of our spiritual growth here and now. He is mainly wanting to encourage us with this words and remind us of the truth of who we are in Christ. John then goes from reminding us of that to reminding us that we are not to love the world or anything in it any longer.

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.


This is yet another way to tell the difference between someone who is really in a close personal relationship with the Lord and someone who isn’t. John says that those who still love the world do not have the love of the Father in them. That’s pretty straight forward. If the love of the Father is not in them, then they are not saved. John constantly points us away from the world and all it’s desires that entrap us and toward the Lord and His commands.

We also need to realize that each of these things we’ve discussed about how to tell when someone is really walking with God and when they aren’t can also be used to discover is someone is a complete phony and not saved at all. The reason John was writing this letter in the first place was because false teachers had come around and tried to teach them things that weren’t true. They offered a false gospel and John is trying to help them discern the difference between a false gospel and the real one. To do that he also needed to show them how to tell the difference as to whether the person who was teaching these things was saved or not. Once we are able to determine if someone is truly walking with the Lord or not, it becomes much easier to determine if what they are teaching is the Truth or not. This is badly needed by us in our times too as there is so much heresy being taught.

[Pathwalker]

Thanks for posting this today!! I needed the extra Spiritual Boost!!

[Cindy]

The principles of all genuine fellowship with God

Today we find out more about why John wrote this letter to us, and discover again how important it is for us today. Although I’m tempted to post the whole passage, I think it would be best to break it up so we can look at it closer.

1 John 2:18-19 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

We know that here “the last hour” is referring to the end times in which we are living. The end times started when Jesus ascended to Our Father. We can see from this passage as well as many others that Satan lost no time in attacking the Gospel and trying to prevent the Truth from spreading.

John says of these antichrists, which we usually refer to as false teachers and false prophets now, that they “went out from us, but they didn’t really belong to us”. What he is saying is that the ones he is specifically talking about most likely studied directly under him or one of the other apostles, but they were never really saved. They therefore didn’t really belong to the inner circle of teachers as they apparently were claiming to be. Instead they denied the Truth, apparently denying the divinity of Christ and the security of believers salvation, and attempted to sway the rest who had also been taught by the apostles.

John says that if they had belonged to that inner circle, they would have never left, but because they did not share the spirit of fellowship with the Lord, and with the other believers, it showed that they were not ever in a real close personal relationship with the Lord as they claimed to be. Their lives were worldly and didn’t have the fruit of the spirit as they should have. We know all of this because of all that John wrote prior to this passage in this letter. The whole purpose of his letter was to show true believers that they were indeed really saved and show them how to tell the difference between someone who was and someone who wasn’t, so they could discern for themselves that these people were antichrists/false teachers. His intent was to reassure them of their salvation and of the deity of Christ and all they had learned, and let them know that their discernment that these false teachers were antichrists was correct and they had no reason to fear. He was reminding them that those who are in a close personal relationship with the Lord would sense this disharmony of the spirit from these false teachers. He was most likely writing to other church leaders though and not “baby Christians” since baby Christians don’t have that kind of discernment all the time yet, but mature Christians do.

1 John 2:20-27 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

All Christians, even baby ones are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and do not “have” to have a teacher, but here we know John is speaking to those who are mature because he says they already know the truth of everything he has said. Immature Christians are the most vulnerable because they’re relationship with the Lord is still so new that they often need other people to teach them the basics of living in Christ until they have become secure in their relationship with Him and comfortable with having Him as their teacher.

Usually we humans fight tooth and nail against having God teach us. We want another human to do the job. I was the same way to my great shame and embarrassment. I told the Lord so. I begged Him to give me someone “with skin on” to teach me, as I wanted to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding Him. I can almost imagine Him pulling His hair out over my requests like that now. But He honored my request and sent someone to disciple me. Like any good teacher, they always answered my questions by pointing me right back to God’s Word and asking me what God said about it there and/or what He’d told me about it. The reason I say “like any good teacher would” is because a good teacher isn’t there to just “teach you what God’s Word says. They are there to constantly teach you how to find the answers for yourself, confirming you when you’re right, showing you the errors when you’re wrong and how they knew it was an error—right back to God and God’s Word every time. They’re there to constantly ask you “Did you ask the Lord?”, “what did the Lord say”? and other inspired things like, “hmmm what do you think He could have meant by that?” The point being that immature believers are still very accustomed to the world and the worlds ways. They aren’t used to “talking to the Lord” and especially not used to hearing back from Him. They often don’t understand how to read His Word or even that they need to and why. This is why it’s so important that new believers be discipled. While the Holy Spirit will guide them, they aren’t accustomed to that guidance and often ignore His leading to their own peril, not really realizing they’re doing so. This is one reason we know that John was writing to mature believers when he wrote this letter. These people had discernment and simply needed to be encouraged since these antichrist’s (false teachers) were apparently saying they they had gotten their “truth” when learning under John or another apostle. John simply lets them, and us, know in no uncertain terms that anyone who denies the divinity of Christ, or denies that they are secure in their salvation is not saved and is not teaching the true Gospel. They are not one of us.

John constantly since the beginning of this letter has told them to “remain” in what they already know is the Truth. This is something that’s important for us to remember too. It seems like every day there’s some kind of “new truth” being offered to us from someone. Someone is always finding something that changes the gospel and wants to sell it to us. John says, don’t buy it. Remain in what we already know and have. This is the truth, and we don’t need any other. We are saved, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who will guide us into all Truth, and we will and do have eternal life guaranteed to us.

1 John 2:28-29 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

John ends this portion of his letter with these final words, telling us that as long as we continue in our close fellowship (relationship) with the Lord that we will be able to be confident and unashamed when He comes for us at the rapture. Of course this means then that those who do not maintain that close personal relationship with the Lord and wind up wandering off into false teachings etc, will not be confident, and will instead be ashamed of themselves when they are finally face to face with their Lord. This does NOT say they will lose their salvation, it simply says that when they face our Lord, and finally see the “real truth”, that they will be ashamed of themselves.

The last line, about knowing that He is righteous means that we can know that those who do what is right are the ones that are really born again, John uses as a lead in to continue his discussion of how we can tell someone who is really saved from who isn’t. How we can tell an antichrist (false teacher) from someone that isn’t. We’ll pick up with this verse tomorrow as this is more then long enough already.

[oliverwithatwist]

Thank you, Cindy.

Thanking and praising the Lord!

[Cindy]

you're very welcome!

The principles of all genuine fellowship with God

1 John 2:29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

Getting back to what we were discussing yesterday, let’s look again at the verse above. With this verse, John introduces the idea of a new birth when he says that those who do what is right have been born of God. What he is saying here is that when we see someone who is exhibiting true godly righteousness in their life, that we can be sure that they are indeed born again. He is not saying however that those who are born again always and constantly exhibit this kind of righteousness in their life, because he knows that we all sin and that at time we all fall down. Here he is simply saying that this is one way to tell when someone has been born again because only those who have been born again can exhibit this type of godly righteousness.

1 John 3:1-3 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

John continues here reminding us that we are called to be the children of God. He says “and that is what we are” to remind us that as the Lord is holy, so should His children be holy. He then explains that the world doesn’t recognize us as as God’s children, set apart from them, because it never recognized Jesus and doesn’t know Him like we do. The kind of discernment necessary to tell a child of God from a child of Satan is strictly one which a born again child of God can have. Even for us though, this is a spiritual perception and not a physical one because there is no physical mark on us to show the difference. It is spiritually discerned. We see this spoken about also here:

1 Corinthians 2:10-16 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?”But we have the mind of Christ.

This spiritual discernment is given to all who are born again but it is something that comes as a Christian becomes mature in Christ.

Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Although there is no physical mark on us now, he says that when Jesus comes for us at the rapture, we will be like Him. He doesn’t mean that we will physically look like Him, but rather that spiritually we will look like Him because the Lord is changing us every day to become more and more like Him. Also at that time, we will be given our immortal bodies which will be like His.

Then John says that everyone who is born again and has this hope, purifies themselves just like Jesus was pure. What he is saying here is really important to us all. Once we are born again, we cannot, must not, continue to live as we did before our salvation. Now we must always remember that our lives are not our own, they have been bought with a price and belong to our Lord now. We must separate ourselves from the world and learn the ways of God.

Colossians 3:3-10 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

John confirms this when he next says:

1 John 3:4-6 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

John again points out the seriousness of sin for those who have been born again in the above verses. He isn’t saying that those who are born again never sin, we know we do, even John said that we all sin. What he is saying is that when we sin, we are not abiding in God, we are abiding either in the world or in our flesh when we sin. Remember how Jesus tells us that in order to bear fruit we must abide in Him? This is the same thing. When we are truly abiding in Him we do not sin, it’s only when we slip and have fallen out of that perfect union with Him, that’s when we sin. Now we know that our “real” nature is a spiritual new nature that the Lord has given us. That nature does not sin, it cannot. It’s only when we fall back into our old natures that we sin, and those natures are no longer really who we are. That’s why Paul says:

Romans 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

For us, now that we have been given this new nature at salvation, sin for us is unnatural and abnormal. Because we have these two natures we all experience this daily struggle against sin, just as Paul and the other disciples did. I think it’s well explained here too:

Galatians 5:16-26 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

You see, as long as we are abiding in Him, or “living by the Spirit” we do not sin, but when we slip, that is when we once more allow ourselves to be led by the flesh, the world or Satan, because we are not abiding in Him. So to me the Christian life is a constant struggle if you will, to maintain that close personal contact with the Lord at all times, all day long. The better we get at that, the closer we get to Him and the less we sin. It’s when God is not the center and focus of our thoughts that we slip. This goes back to what John was speaking of in the beginning of having that close fellowship (relationship) with Him.

[calfisher]

So to me the Christian life is a constant struggle if you will, to maintain that close personal contact with the Lord at all times, all day long.

This is our true struggle. To stay close to Him.

[Cindy]

Ron!

The principles of all genuine fellowship with God

1 John 3:7-10 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

These verses indicate that the false teachers/antichrists that these people were being bothered by, were apparently teaching that it was ok to sin and lead sinful lives. John again lets us know that it is not OK to sin. All sin is of Satan, no matter how small it is since he has been sinning from the beginning, plus all sin goes against the very reason Christ came. Christ came to put an end to Satan’s work and when we participate in even the smallest sin, we are working against Jesus instead of for Him.

John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

1 John 3:5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.

Again, this is not to say that we never sin once we are saved, it’s saying that when we do sin, we are operating out of our sin nature instead of the new nature that the Lord gave us at salvation.

When John says this:

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

he is saying that because someone that is saved is truly sinless at the core of their being (because of the new nature given them) when we sin, we are not manifesting our true nature. When an unsaved person sins, they are manifesting their true nature because their father is Satan. However when we sin, we are actually concealing our true nature because our father is God and He has given us a new sinless nature. Therefore when we see someone exhibit their true nature of righteousness, we can know for sure that they are saved. The opposite is also true. When we consistently see someone who fails to show love and fails to act righteously then we can know that they are not saved, no matter what they say. Love is righteousness in action.

1 John 3:11-12 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.

Once more John reminds us that we are to love our Christian brothers and sisters and we are not to become jealous like Cain did when someone is more mature in Christ then we are. This reminds me of how often when I’m feeling jealous of someone it’s really because I feel guilty about not having done what I should have in my own life. Cain belonged to Satan, and those who don’t love their fellow Christians are acting from their sin nature. They are also acting the way the world acts rather then then following God’s ways.

I’m going to stop here today since I got started late today and am really very tired. With as tired as I am I’m afraid I might not be able to explain things well enough, so we’ll just pick up from here tomorrow.

[Cindy]

The principles of all genuine fellowship with God

1 John 3:13-15 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

We often read in the bible that the world will hate us, but I think we often overlook just who “the world” is referring to. When that term is used in the Bible it is referring to all people who are not truly saved. That means your neighbor, your co-worker and the people in your family who aren’t saved. This is the part I think we tend to over look a lot when we read about this. We don’t like to think that the people we like actually hate us. However, God says that if we are truly saved and living our faith, in a close personal relationship with Him, then those people cannot help but hate us. Why, well, first because God says so, but He says this because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and when unsaved people are around us, they feel the spirit of God convicting them of their sins and they don’t like that at all!

Does this mean that we can’t have friends that aren’t saved? That depends entirely on how you define the word “friends”. For example, my neighbors are very friendly toward me and I like them; however, they know exactly what I believe and it makes them very uncomfortable. Therefore they don’t call me to chat or to “hang out” with them. They do that with each other and not with me. When they are around me they try to “fit in” pretending that they are “religious”too. Thankfully though, when they have questions, they know who they can ask that will tell them the truth. So, you could call them my “friends”. I know some people would. However, they really aren’t. I don’t spend time with them and they don’t spend time with me.

Romans 13:10Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Romans 15:2Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Romans 12:17-18 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

We are neighbors and I do take the responsibility of being a good neighbor to them as God commands to heart. So we make sure they’re safe when there have been storms, or we help when they need snow shoveled or a car worked on, or whatever the problem might be. We watch their house when they’re away etc, and they do the same for us. We do this because the Lord commands it. It causes them to see the light of Christ and hopefully one day they will be drawn to the light because of it, instead of pushing away from it as they do now. In the true sense of the word friendship however, I am not “friends” with my neighbors; I am simply “friendly” towards them. Do you see what I mean?

Do they hate me? Yes, actually they do. They don’t like the idea that I know of their sins. It makes them feel “dirty” and no one likes that. They do not yet understand how to “fix” it. In their minds right now, they would have to become “fanatical” like me to fix it and they’re not willing to go that far and they don’t want to give up their sins. Oh they don’t act hateful toward me, but it’s there. I can see it and they know I know it. They also know I’m ok with it, and that I don’t think they understand at all. Since this was covered much more thoroughly in another study I won’t go into it more now, but I didn’t want to let this just pass by without addressing it either.

1 John 3:13-15 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

After reminding us that the world hates us, John once again tells us that we are to love one another. He is not talking about loving the unsaved here, he’s talking about loving fellow believers. He again states in no uncertain terms that those who do not love their fellow believers, “remains in death” and does not have “eternal life in him”. This is easier to explain if we look at how this is translated in the NKJV:

1 John 3:14-15 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Notice the word “abides”. What this is saying is that if a Christian hates another Christian then they are not “abiding in Christ” at that time. They have slipped into their old nature. Thus they are not abiding in eternal life. This has nothing to do with anyone's salvation. This is again saying that we need to maintain a constant close relationship with the Lord in order to live this Christian life.

We cannot be abiding in Christ and have hatred in our hearts for another believer. John says this so strongly that he says it is the moral equivalent to murder if we hate a fellow believer! (just as looking at someone in lust is the moral equivalent of adultery). If we have these things in our heart then we certainly cannot claim a close personal relationship with the Lord. A believer that hates another believer is disastrously and dangerously out of touch with their Lord, They will be living in death, in sin, until they confess and repent of their sin and draw near to the Lord again. Only then can they reestablish their relationship with the Lord.

Romans 8:12-14 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

This is not talking about eternal death or losing their salvation. Again it means that they will no longer experience their spiritual life as they did before this sin or enjoy the indwelling of the Spirit until the repent. As long as they are in this state of mind they cannot please God.

Romans 8:5-8 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

We see in this that we can also tell when someone has a real relationship with the Lord by their (or our) obedience to Him. Love is a fruit of the spirit, so this is something that constantly grows as a believer becomes more and more mature in Christ.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Love is a test of true faith;

Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

1 John 3:19-20 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

1 John 2:9-11 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

Love also provides us the assurance that we have in fact been saved. Remember that scripture is always telling us to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith.

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?

This is what that verse is talking about. We are to constantly be checking ourselves to determine if we are abiding in Christ of if we have slipped and are acting out of our fallen nature instead. I know when I first read that verse about examining myself, I thought it meant to check and may sure I was saved. While that’s a good idea if you’re not sure, what it’s really saying is to check and see if we are still abiding in Christ, or if we have slipped and are acting out of our old nature instead. Praise God that when we do slip we can repent and confess our sin and return to the Lord’s embrace!

Today we looked at what love is not and what it means when hate for a believer rears it’s ugly head in our hearts. Tomorrow we’ll look at what love really is and how we experience it and share it with others.

[Cindy]

I'm afraid that I probably am not going to be able to add to this today as I need to spend some time with my husband and run some errands. So if anyone else would like to discuss either what we've already talked about or some of the next verses that would be great!

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Cindy

This is what that verse is talking about. We are to constantly be checking ourselves to determine if we are abiding in Christ of if we have slipped and are acting out of our fallen nature instead. I know when I first read that verse about examining myself, I thought it meant to check and may sure I was saved. While that’s a good idea if you’re not sure, what it’s really saying is to check and see if we are still abiding in Christ, or if we have slipped and are acting out of our old nature instead. Praise God that when we do slip we can repent and confess our sin and return to the Lord’s embrace!

One sidenote here..if you know that you have sinned, call that sin by name when asking for forgiveness. We all get into the habit of using blanket forgiveness statements in prayer, which is ok I guess, but if you know you really messed up then name it.

[Pathwalker]

Originally Posted by Brad

One sidenote here..if you know that you have sinned, call that sin by name when asking for forgiveness. We all get into the habit of using blanket forgiveness statements in prayer, which is ok I guess, but if you know you really messed up then name it.

I am guilty of that sometimes, I try not to! There are times when I find myself asking for forgiveness and I feel that I missed something. Have you ever done that?

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Pathwalker

I am guilty of that sometimes, I try not to! There are times when I find myself asking for forgiveness and I feel that I missed something. Have you ever done that?

Sure have. Or forget to remember somebody in prayer who is sick, lost a loved one, etc. But that don't happen to often.

[Pathwalker]

Originally Posted by Brad

Sure have. Or forget to remember somebody in prayer who is sick, lost a loved one, etc. But that don't happen to often.

I know what you mean!!

[Cindy]

Originally Posted by Brad

One sidenote here..if you know that you have sinned, call that sin by name when asking for forgiveness. We all get into the habit of using blanket forgiveness statements in prayer, which is ok I guess, but if you know you really messed up then name it.

I only use the "catch all" phrase, "forgive me of all my sins" etc to cover anything I'm not aware of, but I've learned to always confess the exact sin itself when I've sinned. Often when I do so, the Lord will show me another way that I've sinned at the same time.

I can't think of an example off the top of my head, but let me make a silly one up; Let's say I lied about something that I felt was inconsequential, and I am confessing that sin of lying. When I do the Lord might show me that I not only sinned by lying but that I actually was sinning because I didn't trust Him. (If I trusted Him then I would have told the truth and allowed the consequences to simply happen anyway) Then when that thought had filtered through my mind, I would realize that I was also sinning by attempting to manipulate people and control what was happening or would happen! Then my next thought might by that I had just sinned too by being self righteous thinking that I could control everything and make things work out the way I wanted them too, rather then trusting the Lord to work things out for my good. ....etc...

When I confess this is very close to the kind of dialog that goes on between me and the Lord. He keeps peeling the onion so to speak, showing me the deeper and deeper roots of each sin. It's very humbling, obviously and generally I'm in tears for disappointing Him yet again long before we're done, but it's very cleansing too because I know that He's not just pointing out my sins, but as He does and as I agree with Him and repent of each layer, He's cleansing me too and healing me. He's taught me so much by this.

Shortly after I was saved, I got the surprise of my life when I realized that there was a lot more to sin then just the 10 commandments and I realized that because I wasn't aware of so many things that were sins that I needed help in that area if I was going to have any hope of serving Him. So I started asking Him every day when I prayed to shine the light of His Truth in my heart and reveal to me everything that I need to confess and repent of. I still pray that every single day. He has always honored that prayer and He never just "dumps" on me either. He never just "gives me a laundry list" so to speak of all my sins. He will usually just take one or two if they're related and peel them away to show me the roots.

I know that someone who wasn't saved would think that was horrible and that God likes us to feel guilty all the time or some such garbage like that, but that's the furthest from the truth you can get, as I'm sure you guys know! I do feel guilty and very sad when I realize I've sinned against Him, but no matter how many layers He peels away, when we're done that day, I always come away from it feeling full of His love and joy, knowing I'm forgiven completely. To tell you the truth, I'm frequently amazed at what the roots are and knowing them actually helps me understand what He says in the Bible better! I know that He's doing this because I've asked Him too and because He wants to help me grow, not make me feel bad. He's such an awesome God!!!

[Cindy]

The principles of all genuine fellowship with God

Instead of continuing with the next verses today, I’d like to continue on the topic of prayer and confession of sin since that’s the direction our conversation has taken, This is still very much a part of this topic because the entire book is discussing both what constitutes a genuine fellowship or relationship with God and how to tell if we or someone else has that kind of fellowship with Him.

One big problem that many people have is their prayer life. Part of the problem I suspect is due to the way many of us were taught about prayer. In many churches, especially the Catholic and Episcopal churches, prayer is something you read out of a book and/or repeat after a priest, or just say “amen” too. Many people who grew up in churches like these, have a very hard time learning how to just talk to the Lord. I know that was very true for me coming out of the Episcopal church.

We often feel as though we’re not good enough for the Lord to hear our prayers but His Word says differently. His Word says that He will hear our prayers and answer them, therefore we must live by faith and not by our feelings or even by sight in this area. This is true especially when we first get started because we often feel so awkward.

1 John 3:21-22 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

1 John 5:14-15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

Prayer is probably the most important aspect of our life as Christians. It may surprise some people that I would say that as much as I harp on studying His Word. I bet most people would have thought that I would say that reading and studying His Word is the most important part. While that is of course very important, our connection to Him can’t be maintained if we don’t spend time in prayer.

There were many centuries where Christians didn’t have bibles to read. The only scriptures they knew were those that were explained to them by the RCC. I say those explained to them because the RCC read the scriptures in Latin which many people didn’t even understand. So their only connection to the Lord was through their prayer life. Through that alone the Lord was able to strengthen them and teach them. Those who truly loved the Lord had little choice but to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide them to the truth and teach them.

Then as now though there were people that preferred to let the priests do the work for them and they simply went to church and did whatever the priests said. Those that truly loved the Lord and wanted to be close to Him however, were not satisfied with that and and instead of relying on the priests, they relied on the Holy Spirit spending much time in prayer.

We can look at everything our Lord did while He was here to see what our lives should look like. One thing that’s very noticeable is that He spent a great deal of time in prayer. If our Lord Himself took His valuable time to pray to the Father, then how much more should we be doing so?

He not only daily spent time alone praying, but He also was constantly uttering “mini prayers” to the Father throughout the day. Here’s one example of that so you know what I mean. The background for the following verses is that Jesus was teaching the public as well as His disciples about sin and repentance among other things, and He suddenly stops speaking to them and instead prays to the Father and says:

Matthew 11:25-26 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

This is shown again in this second verse as well as many others:

Luke 3:21-22 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

He does this frequently which gives us an idea of what we should do. If our minds are always on Him as they should be, then it is perfectly natural for us to do the same thing.

For example yesterday while we were shopping I saw something that I really wanted to get for my granddaughter but didn’t think I could afford to. So I put it back and continued on. My husband however realized it was on sale and that we could afford it for her. So he picked it back up and brought it to me explaining that it was only $7. The first words out of my mouth were: “Thank You Lord!”

The point being that Jesus talked (prayed) to the Father as though the Father was right there with Him every second of every day; as though the Father was intimately involved in everything Jesus said, did and thought. From what the Bible says, we know that this is actually true, and not just for Jesus, but for us as well!

The Lord really is with us every second of every day. He really is involved in everything in our lives, right down to the smallest details of them. Our choice is to realize this and acknowledge it, or to ignore it.

Unfortunately most people choose to ignore it. When you begin to realize just how very close the Lord is to you all day long, then you can’t help but talk to Him about what’s going on. If He was a real flesh and blood person right there with us 24/7 and involved in everything, it wouldn’t occur to us to ignore Him would it? That would be outright rude! We’d be chatting with Him all the time. It’s no less rude of us to act as though He isn’t present just because we can’t see Him with our physical eyes.

Matthew 28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Luke 15:31 ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

Acts 2:25 David said about him: “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Deuteronomy 31:8 The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

This is what having a close personal relationship with the Lord is all about. He’s always with us—always; not just when we pray or just when we go into a church, but always.

However there is another type of prayer that’s just as necessary for us. Jesus showed us what that looks like as well.

Matthew 14:22-23 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,

Mark 1:35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

With these and other verses we see that Jesus took time out of his day to be alone with the Father and pray. This is the more serious side of prayer rather then the regular chat during the day. It’s during this time that the Lord draws us ever closer to Himself and makes us more like Jesus. It’s during this time that we take Him our most serious needs as well as the needs of others. It’s during this time too that we confess and repent of sin that He’s shown us throughout the day. I look at this time as similar to the time a husband and wife have when they need to have a real talk about what’s going on in their lives. Although we talk to our spouses all day long, we also have a need to have fairly regular more involved intimate conversations with them too. Usually these conversations are longer then the constant chat during the day. What’s also true though is that both of these types of prayer often overlap each other, just as both kinds of conversation over lap between a husband and wife.

For example, when I realize that I’ve sinned, I certainly don’t wait till my next scheduled quiet time with the Lord to confess it and repent of it! Of course not! I repent and confess it immediately, no matter where I am or what I’m doing or who I’m with. When I do this it’s quite heartfelt too. There is nothing “casual” about it. Generally though, it ends there. In other words the Lord forgives me and we go on about our day together. Then, since I usually have two “quiet time” periods with Him every day, (every morning and every evening) when my evening quiet time comes, I usually bring it up again. I don’t ask for forgiveness again, because He’s already forgiven me. What we do then though is discuss what happened. We discuss why I sinned, what led to it, what might cause it to happen again, etc. and this is the time when He usually breaks my sins down for me so that I can see their roots, which helps me grow. Let me repeat the example I used earlier here:

Let's say I lied about something that I felt was inconsequential, and I am discussing that what happened with Him. When I do the Lord might show me that I not only sinned by lying but that I actually was sinning because I didn't trust Him. (If I trusted Him then I would have told the truth and allowed the consequences to simply happen anyway) Then when that thought had filtered through my mind, I would realize that I was also sinning by attempting to manipulate people and control what was happening or would happen! Then my next thought might by that I had just sinned too by being self righteous thinking that I could control everything and make things work out the way I wanted them too, rather then trusting the Lord to work things out for my good. ....etc...

When I confess this is very close to the kind of dialog that goes on between me and the Lord. He keeps peeling the onion so to speak, showing me the deeper and deeper roots of each sin. You can see from this how this is much more involved, deeper, then something that would go on as part of regular conversation during the day.

Sometimes these two types of prayer will overlap too, just as the two types of conversation sometimes overlap in a marriage relationship. An example of a conversation I have regularly with the Lord that is kind of a mix, would be when I’m reading my Bible. While I’m reading I’m usually saying things like, "what do you mean here Lord?" "How does that help me Lord", "how can I do this Lord" "but what about...?" Does this go along with what I was reading the other day"? etc. For this His answers are generally things He shows me in scripture. You can see though how this is a mixture of both types of prayer though.

For me the most important thing to remember is that the Lord is always with us, and that He really does care about what’s going on. To teach myself how to have this kind of relationship with Him, when I was first saved, I simply pretended that I had an invisible friend, much like many small children do. Of course what I was pretending, was actually true, I do have an invisible friend, and His Name is Jesus. That helped me to remember to include Him in everything I was doing though.

At first I felt very strange about it and even silly at times. But now it’s just a part of me. Learning to do it this way also helped me learn to actually listen and look for His answers too, which has also made a huge difference in my life and in my relationship with Him.

I hope I haven’t bored you too much. I think it’s such an important subject and really wanted to try and at least discuss it a little bit here. I’d love to talk about it some more too if anyone is interested or has more they’d like to share about it.

[Pathwalker]

When I was Saved, years ago. I remember my Pastor saying to me " Mark, I want you to say a Prayer for the fellowship we just shared." I had a problem with Praying out loud, escpecially in front of people. The more times I prayed out loud, the more comfortable I felt about doing so. Today, I can lead a Congregation in Prayer only because of my relationship with the Lord. The Lord took my fear away!! I try to set my Prayer times ( Personal) for example, I Pray every morning and Evening, usually when I wake up and before I go to bed. But I have many Mini Prayers throughout the day, depending on the situation. Is it wrong to have so many " Mini " prayers?

[Cindy]

I was afraid of praying aloud like that too when I first got saved Mark! I think a lot of people are uncomfortable with it especially at first. My pastor didn't help me with that (I never told him lol) but instead I had started a bible study group with my co workers. They'd come over to my house every Saturday and we'd study together. We always brought our bibles to work too so we could read. Well one day something happened--I think one of our patients was near death, and we needed to pray. So one of the girls immediately grabbed my hand and the other aides hand and they grabbed the hand of the other one and she immediately started praying aloud for the patient and one of the others took a turn too. I was uncomfortable so mine was short but I realized right then and there that the only way I was going to become comfortable was by practice and that the reason I was uncomfortable was because I was thinking of myself and not the Lord. The girl that had led the prayer had been raised pentecostal as was the other guy that was praying so they were both used to it.

So when we were done I suggested to them that we have a prayer group there at work too and that we'd pray together daily for the patients as well as personal needs etc. and so from then on we had our prayer group meeting every day and they helped me learn to pray aloud.

It was really a neat environment because we all loved the Lord and you could tell He was with us all day there. In fact, normally the aides would play the radio all day long but instead we played worship songs all day with the volume really loud LOL so the patients could hear it too. The patients loved it! Whenever we'd have a break together we'd all grab our bibles and start studying together lol and some of the patients would join us too! It was really incredible! I'd worked there for 10 years but that last year the entire atmosphere of the place changed. The patients were happier, the staff was happier and the Lord was very present there. So for at least 40 hours a week the patients enjoyed a healthy spiritual atmosphere there. It was something I'll never forget!

I'm afraid I'm just not up to posting more on the "real study" today but I'll pick it up tomorrow ok? Besides, I'd really like to hear what everyone has to say about what we've studied so far, both about prayer as well as the rest of it. I'd love to hear what all everyone thinks about what we're studying, what the Lord has shared with each of you while we're studying it etc...

[PraisingHim]

This is a wonderful study, Cindy, and I love how you talk about the Lord wanting us to include Him in the details of our everyday lives. Many times, I have prayed to Him about something seemingly very small and insignificant, and my prayer is answered in a marvelous way. Also, sometimes before going to sleep, I pray to Him that His Word and thoughts of Him flood my mind and heart, and I pray II Cor. 10:5 back to Him. He has answered my prayer by bringing a song or scripture to mind...sleep is so peaceful when He does that...

[Cindy]

Amen!!!

For today I'm going to do a "new" study, (It's not entirely new because we posted about it some in Christian chat) but I'll be getting back to this one shortly if anyone is interested in continuing it.

[Cindy]

Amen!!!

For today I'm going to do a "new" study, (It's not entirely new because we posted about it some in Christian chat) but I'll be getting back to this one shortly if anyone is interested in continuing it.

[Fearnot]

Originally Posted by Cindy

The principles of all genuine fellowship with God

Today I’d like to look at the letter John wrote to Christians who were being confronted with many false teachers and heresy just as we are now.

1 John 1:1-4 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.We write this to make our joy complete.

John wanted to both warn them about these false teachers and to assure them that they had indeed been taught the Truth, as had their pastor who had been charged to continue to teach and lead them. This is why he reminds the readers that he himself personally knew Jesus, saw Him with his physical eyes, touched Him, both before and after His resurrection. He was an eye witness to all the events and could therefore easily show that these heresies they were hearing about were false teachings. His intent was to both warn them that these false teaching would put them out of fellowship with the Lord and show them how to remain in fellowship with the Lord. Anyone that is in fellowship with the Lord is also in fellowship with other believers including the apostles.

Since this letter shows us how to remain in fellowship with the Lord, it’s a very important one for all of us.

I’d like to first look at the definition of fellowship to make sure that we’re all on the same page when this word is used:

In the Gospel of John Christian fellowship is characterized by a perfect oneness grounded in the closest of relationships with the Father and the Son ( John 17:11, John 21-23; see also 1 John 1:3, 6, 7). Jesus is the true vine in which believers must ‘remain’ if they would bear fruit—which is, above all, love for one another (John 15).This fellowship of believers is dependent on—and an expression of—their fellowship with Christ.[1] Harper's Bible dictionary

Now let’s look at how John begins his letter after the introduction:

1 John 1:5-7This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by 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, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

John starts again by reminding us that he personally heard this from our Lord, and is now telling us about it. He tells us that if we claim to have fellowship with God and still walk in the darkness, then we have to be lying as there is no darkness in God. This doesn’t mean that when we are saved we don’t sin, it means that we don’t live in unrepentant sin. It means that when we sin, we confess and repent of that sin, admitting that it’s a sin, and intending not to commit it again. That is walking in the light. Walking in the light also involves who we fellowship with here, and once again we are told to fellowship with others who are saved, not the unsaved. We are to witness to the unsaved, not fellowship with them, for they are walking in the darkness. When we are walking in the light in this way, confessing and repenting of sin, fellowshipping with God and one another, then we know that the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin. We cannot have fellowship with God if we are not living in the light and continually having our sins cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

The terms, “living in the light” or “walking in the light” are simply metaphors for “living” or “conducting our lives”. So he is saying how we live our lives matters. We are not to continue to live the way we did before we were saved.

In the above verse John is showing us the difference between saying and doing. He is showing us that our actions must back up our words—we must live what we believe. He tells us that when we are not doing that, then our lives will contradict what we say we believe making us hypocrites.

1 John 1:8-2:2 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Here John is saying that he knows that we all sin every day, as he does himself. (notice that in the above verses he uses the word “we” when talking to us which includes himself) He is saying that if anyone tries to tell you that when you are saved you will not ever sin again that they’re full of bologna! It’s a lie! We ALL sin every day! Those who believe that lie and try and pretend that they don’t sin will lose their fellowship with the Lord and with each other until the repent and confess their sins. At that time they will once again be in close communion or fellowship with the Lord and with other believers.

Basically what this is showing us is that when we sin and don’t confess our sins, we are out of fellowship with the Lord. Things start going wrong for us, and we can tell that something just isn’t right. Once we confess though, we are once more cleansed and can once again be in fellowship with the Lord and each other.

What are the important things for us to remember from this?

First that we need to always walk in the light and not have anything to do with darkness. Now that sounds good and biblical but what exactly does it mean? To walk in the light is to live the way God commands us to. Who walks in darkness then? Anyone who is unsaved walks in darkness, for they do not have the Light within them because the Light is God. So when the bible talks about walking in darkness, it’s talking about doing things the way we did before we were saved. Walking in darkness would be living in sin rather then living in Christ.

Secondly that as long as we confess our sins we will be cleansed of all unrighteousness and will be able to continue to be in fellowship with the Lord. The opposite is also true; if we do not confess our sins, or if we say we don’t sin or try to hide them from the Lord, then we will no longer be in fellowship with Him. Keep in mind that losing our fellowship with God is not the same thing as losing our salvation. We cannot lose our salvation. We can fall out of fellowship with Him though, meaning that we can lose that close personal connection with Him. The good news about that is that it can easily be gained back through simple confession of our sins.

Tomorrow will pick up where we left off today. I hope this is as helpful to others as it has been for me!

I am coming in late, trying to catch up. I found this part of your commentary really helpful:

"......who we fellowship with here, and once again we are told to fellowship with others who are saved,
not the unsaved.
We are to witness to the unsaved,
not fellowship with them,
for they are walking in the darkness."

It really hit me, that when I do fellowship with the unsaved, there is a strong "peer" pressure.....( even tho that term is usually used for teenagers, I find it true no matter what you age).

It's not that I start swearing, and drinking or whatever....but to fit in, be liked, etc. I almost without thinking, adjuxt my demeanor, tone, etc. downward.

For if I were to say things, that I might to fellow believers, the unsaved would at best, look at me like I lost my mind!

Of course, on occassion, I have said what I think ( from a Christian point of view), and I have often been hit, with heavy duty anger.... The kind where they will say: how dare you be so intolerant and bigotted, etc.

I hadn't really realized how pervasive my inclination to tone down my "Christian" walk when around unbelievers really is. It's probably part of my sin nature....to want the praise and affection of mankind.....more than God.

For I hate being hated, it scares me to my very core. Yet Jesus was more than just hated for me!!

Reading on....I am aware that I have always known speaking of fellowshipping with those who don't believe in God), when I fellowship with them, I am fighting a losing battle. I always lose, and compromise.

I do believe, God's Holy Spirit has always been quietly ( ans sometimes not so quietly) impressing on me, this tendency to fold to peer pressure....64 long years.

However, I can say, I have grown somewhat....in that I tend to become "bored" with talk of drinking, sexually implied jokes ( make me sick), new age talk makes me even sicker if possible etc.

I find I now want to get away from the darkness...it hurts me, and I feel gret sorrow for those "friends"....for their lostness ( not because they are sinning..I do my fair share....but because they are not saved).
Lots of them proclaim they are "spiritual"...but do not have a god, like my "intolerant" God (their words not mine).

Their god, believes gays should have love like everybody, and no woman should be forced to have a child if she is not ready and blah blah blah!

[Cindy]

I've noticed the same thing with myself Barbara! I think what really brought it home for me was my daughter Jennifer. She was born disabled and also has some learning disabilities. She has always had the sweetest, most pure spirit of anyone I've ever known since she became saved. Thankfully one of her "learning disabilities" was to not understand what the world teaches us about "when we should speak our minds and when to hold our tongues". So no matter where she was or what she was doing, that child spoke about the Lord. This earned her no friends in school and she was very lonely because of it.

When she was old enough and began to work, she continued to speak of the Lord at work. This caused management to usually find reasons to fire her eventually. She would use everything as a reason to tell people about the Gospel. If a coworker swore she would tell them that God didn't like that and why. If one was homosexual, she would tell them God hated that and why, but that God loved them and if they would repent and turn to Him they could be saved. She tended to do this quite loudly too, not in a quiet whisper lol and so she always got fired for it. Thankfully she never "outgrew" this and is still this way today. Strangely enough, although she had no friends in school and you'd think very few people would want to be around someone like that, the unsaved are drawn to her like flies to rice! It never ceases to amaze me! She always tells them the Truth though and she always offers to pray for them. In fact there's rarely a day goes by that she doesn't call me with some new persons need that she just met lol. Her love and concern for them is so real, that I guess they just can't help themselves. Eventually they either get saved or wind up dropping out of her life if Satan snares them.

I do think it's her love for Jesus and her love for these people themselves that causes her to speak the way she does to them. Even though she very much wants to be accepted by others, I don't think it ever occurred to her that they wouldn't accept her Lord too. She's certainly amazing that's for sure! I've learned so much from watching her. I'm sure the Lord is very pleased with her and I hope to grow up to be just like her one day!

But like you, if I don't consciously attempt to control myself in what I say and think, around non believers, I too will slip and notice myself being more in communion with them rather then in communion with the Lord. So that's something I really need to work on.

I've decided that from now on I'm going to take the weekends "off" from adding to the studies. That will give everyone time to catch up if they've fallen behind and give me a chance to answer questions etc.