We who believe in Christ have been born of God and have become God’s children. God is now our Father, and we are His children. Because we have been born of God, we have His life. God’s life is divine, eternal, and indestructible. This life is the basic factor of the spiritual inheritance we have in God’s salvation.
We may use our human life as an illustration. As human beings, through birth we have our natural life, our human life, as our basic inheritance. Any particular thing we inherit depends on our human life. When a person dies and thereby loses his human life, that is the termination of everything. He no longer has an inheritance. In the same principle, the divine life we have received through regeneration is our basic inheritance in God’s salvation. Life, therefore, is crucial. The basic element of our spiritual inheritance is the divine life.
We thank the Lord that we have the divine life and that this life moves, works, and acts in us. The moving of the divine life within us issues in fellowship. Hence, fellowship is the issue of the marvelous divine life we have received. In this fellowship we enjoy God, we enjoy the apostles, we enjoy the believers, and we enjoy the church and even the churches. All this enjoyment depends on the fellowship of the divine life, and this fellowship issues out of the divine life itself.
Although we have received the divine life and enjoy God, the apostles, the believers, and the church life in the fellowship of the divine life, we still need to be watchful concerning sin. Sin is not merely something on the surface that can be washed away. On the contrary, sin dwells in our flesh. According to Paul’s word in the book of Romans, sin may deceive us, conquer us, and kill us. In particular, indwelling sin damages our fellowship.
If our fellowship is damaged through sin, we lose the enjoyment of God. We also lose the enjoyment of the apostles, the enjoyment of the believers, and the enjoyment of the church life. In other words, once we lose the fellowship, we lose the enjoyment of our entire spiritual inheritance. As a result, in a practical way we become the same as unbelievers. Unbelievers do not have God, and they have nothing to do with the enjoyment of the apostles, the believers, and the church life.
When we enjoy the fellowship of the divine life, we enjoy God, we enjoy the apostles, we enjoy the believers, and we enjoy the churches. What a wonderful enjoyment this is! But as soon as sin works within us and we commit sin, our fellowship is broken. Whenever our fellowship is broken, we lose the enjoyment of God, the apostles, the believers, and the church life. It is very important that we see this and have a proper realization concerning it.
Even though we have been regenerated and have received the divine life to become children of the Father, we still must admit two things: first, that we still have sin in our flesh; second, that it is always possible for us to commit sin. Whenever we are under the divine light in fellowship and sense that we are wrong in certain matters or with certain persons, we must immediately confess our sins to our righteous Father. Our Father is ready to forgive us. Just as a human father, who has been offended by the behavior of his child, is ready to forgive the repentant child, so our divine Father is ready to forgive us. Once we confess our sins, our Father will be the faithful and righteous God to us. He is waiting to forgive us our sins and to wash away the stains of our offenses.
In 1:7 John says that “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Here we have the blood as a provision prepared for us. According to the tense of the Greek verb in this verse, the cleansing of the blood is present and continuous. The blood of Jesus the Son of God cleanses us all the time, continuously and constantly. The provision of the blood is ever available, and the cleansing of the blood is continuous. The blood is always ready for us to enjoy its provision.
In 2:1 John says, “My little children, these things I write to you that you may not sin.” This indicates that John’s intention was that the believers would not sin. We also should have this intention. We need to pray, “O Lord, keep me from sinning. Lord, preserve me in Your presence and in Your fellowship. Lord, deliver me continuously from sin.” But no matter how much we may be on the alert concerning sin, it is always possible that we shall sin. Whenever we commit sin, we need to confess our sin to God. The provision of the blood is ready for our cleansing, and the Father is willing to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all the stains of our offenses.