Fellowship With God and Others

Wherever truth is found, we can be certain there will be many errors.  Jesus identified Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the world has opposed His claim at every turn.  We have all heard the suggestion there are many ways to come to God, that truth is relative or subjective to our views, and our life consists in what we have.  All of these statements are exposed as false by the revelation of God in scripture, divine truth and wisdom for life which has endured and triumphed over all manner of attack.

The truth is often not complicated, but our struggle can be to distinguish it from all the lies that spring up everywhere.  It is familiarity with the truth of scripture that aids believers to disregard falsehoods that have swept others to ruin.  There are people who will not consider entering a church building or read a Bible because they have the idea they need to "get right" with God first.  This suggests several dangerous misconceptions.  The first is the assumption we can get right or stay right with God by what we do.  It is not getting right but being made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ as the first step to being born again, receiving forgiveness, reconciliation and enjoying fellowship with God.  Going to church is in no way a claim of perfection before God or man, for every Christian and seeker are sinners in need of God's grace.  Reading the Bible is not reserved for priests and preachers, for it is God's word all people need for life.

It is not only the lost or uninitiated who can give place to falsehoods, for Christians can unwittingly suffer from lies we believe.  I remember once our pastor exhorted us from 1 Corinthians 11 not to receive Communion in an unworthy manner.  I knew I was struggling (and in reality dominated) by a particular sin so I decided not to receive Communion because I did not want to run the risk of chastening or judgment:  in other words, I played the hypocrite by not receiving Communion rather than confessing my sin and repenting right then!  Jesus came this earth and went to the cross to atone for my sin, yet in my self-righteousness and fear of punishment I chose to hold onto my sin as a Christian.  I unrespectfully declined to partake of the broken bread that symbolised the body of Jesus broken for me; I refused the cup that symbolised the blood of Jesus shed for my sins and atonement because of sin He died to save me from.  I foolishly thought I did the right thing to not eat and drink, as if only the "worthy" could earn the right to partake through sinless perfection.  In a vain attempt to avoid hypocrisy I blindly embraced it.

1 John 1:5-7 reads, "This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."  Walking in the light is different than walking according to the light.  Walking in the light does not mean sinless perfection, but when the Light of the world and the illumination of God's word reveals sin in me, I am to remain in the light by acknowledging my sin, confess and repent of it without excuses, and go on walking in obedience to Jesus.  If we have forsaken the gathering of ourselves together with fellow Christians, walking in the light means we humbly admit we have been slack and go to church.  Backsliding ought not to be our identity, for Jesus has made us to be strong in the LORD and stand in the power of His might, feed shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.  Jesus Christ has given us the opportunity to have fellowship with Him and other believers, and if they judge us harshly for our faults God will address their error in due time--even as He has chastened and corrected us.