What fellowship with God means - Part 2

There is no fellowship without agreement. We must agree with whatever God says to us through His word. This will help us continue “steadfastly in … doctrine and in fellowship… and in prayers.” That is how to set the foundation for fellowship with God, which begins with repentance from sin, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and a continuation in a life of righteousness by grace.

In addition, the Saviour purposes to save people from sin and not to give licence to anyone to continue in sin. This was made clear in His response to the woman caught in adultery, “…Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” It shows that the fellowship we have with the Lord makes us live in righteousness. That is, we “depart frominiquity… flee also youthful lusts …(and) follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

Many people claim to have fellowship with God, but they still walk in darkness, hatred, impurity, falsehood and unfaithfulness. Their relationship with God is merely formal. “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not know the truth.” Such pretended fellowship is empty and a mere formality. The godless, the mere church goers are “covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy… Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” But God is light, love, holy, just, true and faithful.

The godless do not have the attributes and characteristics of God. Therefore, we must turn away from those whose fellowships are hypocritical. God’s word does not have any impact on them because the sin problem in their lives – both inherited and committed – has not been dealt with.

God does not call us into hypocritical fellowship, but into real fellowship with Him. He wants us to distinguish ourselves from the ungodly who professes to know God, but deny Him “in works.” Their pretended fellowship does not have the assurance and affirmation of the Spirit of God. “They fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes…”

Although we may live in the same neighbourhood, work in the same office, buy and sell in the same markets with sinners, we are not to be yoked with them. As believers, we should be distinct, different and holy, and our fellowship must have a strong foundation in God while we abide in His word. We must avoid fellowshipping with the devil and his worshippers. The Lord commands, “come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.”

There is freedom of enduring fellowship with God for the godly. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” The godly are those who have confessed their sins and forsaken them. Hence, they live in righteousness and “sin not.” They do not go on repeating and confessing wrongs done, but have locked the door against sin. Those who are truly saved “doth not commit sin” because the “seed” of the word of God “remaineth in (them): and (they) cannot sin, because (they are) born of God.”

When we come into fellowship with the Lord, He destroys every work of the devil in our lives because “greater is he that is in (us) than he that is in the world.” With Jesus Christ living inside us, He gives us His strength, power, authority and victory to lead a victorious life, so that, “that wicked one toucheth(us) not.”
• Further reading (King James Version): 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 1:5,6; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Titus 1:16; 2 Kings 17:33,34; Psalms 94:20,21; 106:35,36; 1Corinthians 10:20,21; 2Corinthians 6:14-18; Ephesians 5:3-12. 1 John 1:7-10; 2:1; 3:5,7-9; 4:4,17; 5:18.