All John’s writings are mysterious. His Gospel, for example, begins: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This sentence is simple, but its meaning is mysterious. What is the beginning? What is meant by the Word? How can the Word be with God yet also be God? In John 1:14 John says that the Word became flesh. The Word is high and glorious; the flesh, low and mean. Yet the Word became flesh!
When we come to John’s Epistles, we find in these few chapters mystery after mystery. In the opening verses of 1 John we have life declared to us. Who can define life? Even physical life is hard to define. John is referring to the eternal life. What does eternal mean? Whatever it means, this eternal life has been declared, even ministered, to us, and we have received it.
Fellowship is another mysterious term John uses in his first Epistle. How short of utterance we are when it comes to explaining what fellowship is! Fellowship is not merely shaking hands. It does not mean simply associating and meeting with like-minded people. It does not mean merely talking together or showing affection for others. These may be indications of a fraternal relationship or of friendship, but fellowship is not that superficial. It is hard to define.
Abiding is another term John uses. To abide does not mean merely to have a close relationship. However close a relationship we may have with someone, we cannot abide in that person. The Bible in John’s writings nonetheless tells us repeatedly and emphatically that we are to abide in Christ and have Him abide in us.
In both the Gospel of John and in his first Epistle, he stresses this mutual abiding. How can we abide in the Lord Jesus? In 1 John the abiding is in God (4:15-16); in the Gospel the abiding is in Christ (15:4-5). Here is a strong proof that Jesus Christ is God. To abide in Christ is to abide in God. To abide in God is to abide in Christ.
The actual meaning of having God abide in us and us abide in Him is beyond our ability to explain. Many things we participate in and enjoy but cannot define. This mutual abiding is one of them.
I would first like to amplify what I said in the previous message about fellowship. Let us use the illustration that John uses in chapter fifteen of his Gospel. He says that the Lord Jesus is the vine and that we are the branches.
We are His branches, but this is not true of us naturally. According to the fact and according to the revelation of the Bible, we are not naturally His branches. We were branches of the wild tree (see Rom. 11:17). It is through redemption and regeneration that we wild, sinful branches have been grafted into Him.
This vine is under the cultivation of God the Father. He is the Husbandman who has planted and is caring for this vine. Here, then, are two entities: the cultivated vine and the formerly wild branches. What happens when they are grafted together? By the life flowing within them, they become one. This life is not motionless. It flows, grows, and develops. When the life within moves, it is fellowship.
To live Christ by fellowship is not merely to listen to His voice and obey His word. Do not bring this thought into the matter of fellowship. Fellowship is not a question of listening to His voice or of obeying His word. We may use such terms, but that is an inaccurate way of describing the fellowship between Him and us. No actual words are spoken. No words are necessary. We two are one. The flowing life within us has brought us into oneness. The tree and the branch are no longer separated from each other. By the inner, flowing life they have been made one. He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).
The most intimate relationship in human life is marriage. Our relationship with the Lord Jesus, however, is deeper than even the closest bond between husband and wife. A couple needs to talk matters over and make decisions because they are two separate people. The Lord Jesus, however, lives within us; the two of us are one. The life we share in common has made us one. We two have become one spirit.
Fellowship is the life moving within to bring two entities into one. The branch and the vine are no longer distinct from each other. By the flowing, growing, and developing of the inner life these two, which formerly were separate, become one. When I grow, He grows. This is not to say that there is both my growth and His. He grows in my growth; my growth is His growth.
The relationship of husband and wife is not this close. There are two people involved. One may want to go somewhere, and the other may feel like staying home. Even if they go together or stay home together, there are still two people acting. They may do something together, yet they are two.
With the vine and the branch, we have not a couple but a single entity. Does the vine tell the branch to listen to its voice? to obey what it says? to grow along with it? How foolish! There is no need of speaking and no need of listening.
Apparently the New Testament teaches that we need to imitate Christ. We have been taught that we must improve our behavior according to His pattern. Christ is our example; we must follow in His steps. But actually what the New Testament teaches is that we must live Christ by the fellowship of Him in life. It is not an effort to improve our behavior. It is to live Him by the inner fellowship that comes out of this moving life. When this life moves in us, there is a current; we are to live Him by this current, which is the fellowship. How different this is from merely imitating Christ!
Home | First | Prev | Next