“Fellowship”

“6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin,” I Jno. 1:6-7.

W. E. Vine designates “fellowship” as a “sharing in common.” There can be a fellowship with God and a fellowship with one another. We shall develop this as this article unfolds ideas concerning “fellowship.” Our intentions are to develop a fellowship with God and a fellowship one with another as children of God.

From the passage in I Jno. 1:6 we learn: “If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” Here is introduced “fellowship with God.” What does it mean to “walk in darkness?” In verse 6 and verse 7 there is a contrast between the word “Darkness” and “Light.” To walk in “Darkness” is to walk in sin! “and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them,” Eph. 5:11. To be in “darkness” is to be associated with sinful acts and to be associated with the Devil. To walk in “light” is to walk according to “truth” and is, one who is following the word of the Lord – he walks in light. When one walks in light he has fellowship with God. So, having fellowship with God is dependent upon one walking in “light.” We have to read and study and obey the word of the Lord and that causes us to have “a sharing in common,” with God. This relationship cannot be gleaned in any other way.

When we have fellowship with God, it is because we “walk In the Light,” I Jno. 1:7. When we “walk in the light,” the fellowship is automatic. So is it, with all Christians when they “walk in the light.” If you walk in the light and I walk in the light we both have fellowship with God and at the same time have fellowship one with the other – it is automatic. When one has fellowship with God he has fellowship with all others who “walk in the light.” There may be a brother on the other side of the world that “walks in the light,” though we may be thousands of miles apart, we have fellowship – “sharing in common.”

Many have been the times I have heard argued: “How can we know when we have fellowship with someone else?” The key to this question is to learn if they are “walking in the light.” If they are walking in the light they have fellowship with God and with one another. The discussion of that subject is just that simple.

If a brother is “walking in darkness,” I have no fellowship with him. If a brother accepts sodomy (men with men) and lesbianism (women with women) in general all of this is homosexuality. In all of this I do not have fellowship with them because they do not “walk in the light.” And so with all other things that are wrong. I cannot be wrong and have fellowship with God. I must “walk in the light!”

God has provided the standard, the word of God, II Jno. 9-11. I must walk in the light and my brother must walk in the light – when this happens we have fellowship with God and with one another.

Note: This is a reprint from 32 8-7-2014. This is a request.

Carl Adon Allen
1115 E. Houston Ave.
Crockett, Tx. 75835
(936) 544-3614
carladonallen@gmail.com