In this message we shall cover more aspects of God’s calling of the believers.
As believers, we have been called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9b). Darkness is the expression and sphere of Satan in death. Light is the expression and sphere of God in life. God has called us, delivered us, out of Satan’s death-realm of darkness into His life-realm of light (Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13).
As light is the nature of God in His expression, so darkness is the nature of Satan in his evil works. Thank God that He has delivered us out of the satanic darkness into the divine light! The divine light is the divine life in the Son operating in us. This light shines in the darkness within us, and the darkness cannot overcome it (John 1:4-5). When we follow this light, we shall by no means walk in darkness (John 8:12).
“God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). “Fellowship” denotes the partaking of, the participation in, God’s Son. To be called into the fellowship of God’s Son actually means to be called into the participation and enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ. To be in this fellowship is to partake of, to participate in, to enjoy, the all-inclusive Christ. God has called us into such a fellowship that we may partake of Christ, participate in Him, and enjoy Him as our God-given portion. Furthermore, Christ Himself is actually the fellowship into which God has called us. To say that we have been called into the fellowship of Jesus Christ means that we have been called into Him.
This fellowship involves not only the oneness between us and the Triune God but also the oneness among all believers. It also implies enjoyment—our enjoyment of the Triune God, the Triune God’s enjoyment of us, and also the enjoyment which the believers have with one another. In this fellowship we enjoy the Triune God, and the Triune God enjoys us. Moreover, we enjoy all the believers, and all the believers enjoy us. What a wonderful, universal, mutual enjoyment!
We have been called by God into something which is termed the fellowship of God’s Son. This fellowship is universal and mutual. The mutuality of this fellowship is not only between the believers and the Triune God but also among the believers themselves.
The New Testament illustrates this fellowship by a feast. In the Gospels the Lord Jesus said that a feast had been prepared and that people were invited to it (Matt. 22:1-3; Luke 14:16-17). We all have been invited to a marvelous feast. The enjoyment of the feast is a mutual enjoyment, a co-participation. Thus, in the fellowship of God’s Son we have enjoyment. This enjoyment, however, is corporate, not individualistic. As we enjoy this feast together, we have fellowship.
Some versions translate the Greek word for fellowship, koinonia, as communion. Fellowship definitely implies communion. This communion is a co-enjoyment, a co-participation.
Fellowship also includes communication. Whenever we feast with others, there is communication.
The fellowship unto which God has called us is the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. This fellowship includes the Triune God. It is the fellowship of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Christ, the One who in resurrection is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This all-inclusive One is our feast, and this feast is our fellowship. As those who have been called into this fellowship, we are now enjoying Christ by feasting on Him. Furthermore, we have communion and we are in communication with one another. This fellowship, this communion, is the church life.
The Greek word for fellowship implies oneness and also a mutual flowing among the believers. When we enjoy fellowship with one another, there is a flow among us. The flow, the current, we have in our spiritual fellowship involves both oneness and life. Our fellowship is a flow in oneness; it is an intercommunication among us as believers in Christ.
In the New Testament, fellowship describes the flowing both between us and the Lord and between us and one another. First John 1:3 says, “That which we have seen and heard we report also to you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed the fellowship which is ours is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” In 1 John we have life (1:1-2) and then fellowship. There is a flow, a current, vertically between us and the Father and Son and horizontally between us and other believers. We praise the Lord that on earth today there is something called fellowship, a fellowship among the children of God and a fellowship of the children of God with the Triune God. According to 1 Corinthians 1:9, we all have been called by God into this fellowship.
Because we have been called into such a fellowship, we should not say that we are of a certain person, doctrine, or practice. God has not called us into the fellowship of persons, doctrines, and practices. We have been called uniquely into the fellowship of God’s Son. This means that we have been called into the reality, the embodiment, of the Triune God. In this fellowship we enjoy the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
The book of 1 Corinthians unveils to us that the very Christ who is the portion of all believers and into whose fellowship we have been called is all-inclusive. He is God’s power and God’s wisdom as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to us (1:24, 30). He is our glory for our glorification (2:7), hence, the Lord of glory (2:8). He is the depths of God, the deep things of God (2:10). He is the unique foundation of God’s building (3:11). He is our Passover (5:7), the unleavened bread (5:8), the spiritual food, the spiritual drink, and the spiritual rock (10:3-4). He is the Head (11:3) and the Body (12:12). He is the firstfruit (15:20, 23), the second Man (15:47), and the last Adam (15:45). As such, He became the life-giving Spirit (15:45). This all-inclusive One has been given to us by God as our portion for our enjoyment. We should concentrate on Him, not on any persons, things, or matters other than Him. We should focus on Him as our unique center appointed by God. It is into the fellowship of such a One that we have been called by God. Such a fellowship must be unique because Christ is unique.
The fact that we have been called into the fellowship of God’s Son means that we and Christ have become one. It also means that we enjoy Christ in all He is, and that He enjoys us and what we are. As a result, there is not only a mutual communication but a mutuality in every way. All that Christ is becomes ours, and all that we are becomes His. We have been called by God into such a mutuality between us and the Son of God.