Let’s Chat: Pleased to Dwell 23

they were missing the glorious experience of true Christianity: fellowship with the Trinity![1]

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When people sidestep Jesus as He has revealed Himself, things tend to go wrong… really wrong. Supposed spiritual knowledge begins to puff up. Sin begins to pervade souls and churches. Lies begin to be told to self and others. Churches begin to pull apart and even split.

The devil wants people to stay away from the fellowship of the Trinity, and in that lose all fellowship with one another. John writes to challenge this anti-Christ theology of demons:

John wrote to the Christians because he wanted them to know what he now experienced: an ongoing fellowship with God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

He wrote to a church wrecked by a painful split. People who seemed spiritual and loving and serving had left the church. Why? They had found something better than Jesus. John says that they are anti-Christ’s, or those who turn to another Jesus. They looked for something beyond and above the normal Christian experience of the little children of trust in Jesus who John writes to. They have turned to an idol in the place of Jesus.

Their so-called fellowship with God was characterised by darkness. Their faulty view of reality meant that they didn’t view sin as sin and claimed to be sinless.

John wants the poor, hurt Christians he’s writing to, to be re-assured and understand what just happened to them. The split didn’t happen because they were less than those who left. The split happened because they had split from Jesus! John does not say that they went out from you, but that they went out from us (1 John 2:19). They forsook fellowship with God, and therefore left the fellowship of the church. They never really were Christians. Them leaving just shows the reality of what they always were: “they all are not of us.”

What is the “us” John keeps going on about? The us are those who trust Jesus as He has revealed Himself – in Scripture (the Apostle’s teaching, which includes John’s teaching!) and in the incarnation. In fact, for John, the two are inseparable (as we saw in post 13):

¹That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— ²the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— ³that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1-3).

The fellowship Christians are meant to share is accessed not through some secret knowledge reserved for a few, but is given by God freely through seeing Jesus – revealed in the fountain of Scripture overflowing to anyone who reads it.

The reality of the fellowship we have isn’t just true in abstract. It’s grounded in history, real experientially, and true spiritually – all because of Jesus.

This fellowship is characterized by light. Where the devil would have darkness: lying to ourselves and others about what’s going on inside; dividing with one another over perceived spiritual superiority; hearts stiff against God, relying on self instead of Jesus; etc. God would have Christians stand in the light: trusting Jesus; pointing each other to Him; taking their sins and troubles to Him, and helping and bearing with one another.

In trusting love, we share the fellowship of the Trinity together in the overflowing fountain of God’s revelation. In Jesus, and pointing one another to Him, we lose sight of ourselves, and our hearts are draw out toward God and one another. Why? Because of the incarnation! Jesus stepping in to destroy the works of the devil.

Let’s Chat

Peter raised a really good thought in the book that I think would be a shame to miss:

Actually, children who are blessed to have a good earthly father tend not to realise the privilege until later in life. Perhaps they see the broken homes of their friends, or hear the stories of angry dads, or drunk dads, or absent dads, or abusive dads. Only then does the privilege of a loving father tend to sink in.

Perhaps Christians could do with exposure to the alternatives out there. What gods are there that are like our Father? Angry gods, self-absorbed gods, distant gods, even abusive gods… a quick open-top bus tour of the religious neighbourhood should bring us back to the God of the Bible with renewed appreciation.

We can’t bypass the Which God we’re talking about question. If Christianity is about fellowship with God as He is, then we need to introduce people to Him. Showing others that God the Father is completely different than all the other so-called gods is vital. Seeing God truly and fully revealed in Jesus is not only the difference between dark church and light churches; it’s the difference between true spiritual life and death.

In what ways can we tell others how good our Father is this Christmas?

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[1] Peter Mead, Pleased to Dwell,