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 our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” The apostles reported the eternal life to the believers in order that the believers might have fellowship with the apostles whose fellowship is with the Father and with the Son. This means that through the enjoyment of the eternal life, which is the Word of life, we can have fellowship with the apostles and with the Father and the Son. Eternal life produces fellowship. When this life is reported, the result is the fellowship of the divine life.
The Greek word rendered “fellowship” means “joint participation, common participation.” Fellowship is the issue of the eternal life and is actually the flow of the eternal life within all the believers, who have received and possess the divine life. It is illustrated by the flow of the water of life in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1). All genuine believers are in this fellowship (Acts 2:42). It is carried on by the Spirit in our regenerated spirit. Hence, it is called “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:14) and “fellowship of [our] spirit” (Phil. 2:1). It is in this fellowship of the eternal life that we, the believers, participate in all that the Father and the Son are and have done for us; that is, we enjoy the love of the Father and the grace of the Son by virtue of the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Such a fellowship was first the apostles’ portion in their enjoyment of the Father and the Son through the Spirit. Hence, in Acts 2:42 it is called “the fellowship of the apostles,” and in 1 John 1:3 “our [the apostles’] fellowship,” a fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. It is a divine mystery.
The apostle John is reporting to us that which he saw and heard. He had heard, seen, and even handled the Word of life, the eternal life. Now he is testifying and reporting to us the eternal life. Then John goes on to say that he reported what he had seen and heard, not that we might have “life” but that we might have “fellowship.” In other words, what the apostles declare to the believers is the life, but what the believers have is the fellowship. If the believers receive the life that the apostles declare to them, they will have the fellowship. This indicates that the fellowship comes from the life.
In the divine life the believers have fellowship with one another (v. 7; Phil. 2:1). As the electric lights in the ceiling of a room have a current flowing within them, so we all have the divine current flowing within us. Fellowship is simply the flowing of the divine life within us. When life stands still, it is life; when it flows, it is fellowship. In this divine life and through this divine life we have fellowship for the enjoyment of the divine life. The more we have the divine life flowing within us, the more we enjoy the divine life.
This fellowship is in the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Since the Spirit is the realization of Christ, when the Spirit is in us, Christ and God are in us. The Spirit in all of us is one and the same. The Spirit in one believer is the Spirit in another believer. There is one Spirit in all of us. This Spirit becomes our fellowship and also enables us to have fellowship with one another.
Many times when we meet another child of God, although we may not say much outwardly, there is a mutual flow, a communication, between us. This flow, this communication, is of the Spirit. The Spirit in us is the Spirit of fellowship, just as the life of God in us is the life of fellowship.
We have the reality that there is a real, divine, spiritual, heavenly, and living current always flowing within us. As long as we are regenerated persons, we have this flow. We can prove this not merely by doctrine but by our up-to-date experience. When we are healthy in the spiritual life, the flow within us is pure, fresh, living, positive, and active.
We pray because there is a current flowing within us that urges us to pray. We do certain things for the Lord because the Lord urges us through the flow, the current, within us. The fellowship of life is constantly living and flowing within us. When we come together, if we all are in this flow, something living within us will simply echo one another. This is the fellowship of life.
First John 1 reveals a fellowship in two directions, vertical and horizontal. Horizontally we fellowship with one another, and vertically we fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. From life we have fellowship, and this fellowship is with the saints and with the Triune God. The vertical aspect of fellowship was initially established with the first apostles. The apostles then reported to the believers the eternal life in order that they might have fellowship with the apostles. Before the apostles reported the eternal life to them, the apostles themselves already had the vertical fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (v. 3). The initial experience of the apostles was vertical, but when the apostles reported the eternal life to others, they experienced the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship.
Verses 6 and 7 of 1 John 1 also indicate the vertical and horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship. Verse 6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth.” This is the vertical aspect of fellowship. Verse 7 says, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” This is the horizontal aspect of fellowship. Both aspects of the divine fellowship are closely related; it is difficult to say which aspect comes first. If you do not have the proper fellowship with the Lord, it is difficult to have fellowship with your fellow believers. In the same way, if you do not have the proper fellowship with your fellow believers, it is difficult to have fellowship with the Lord.
In verse 3 only the Father and the Son are mentioned, not the Spirit, because the Spirit is implied in the fellowship. Actually, the fellowship of the eternal life is the imparting of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—into the believers as their unique portion to enjoy today and for eternity.
When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were brought into this fellowship. When we called on the name of the Lord, we may say that the Spirit came into us, that God came into us, or that the divine life came into us. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received the Spirit into us, for the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God, and the Triune God is the divine life. The One who is now in us is the divine life, the Triune God, who is the Spirit and Jesus Christ. The divine, eternal life is a person, Jesus Christ.