Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”
John 14:23-24 NKJV
We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:3-7 NLT
We were created to have fellowship with God. Think about that. Not only is that a promise for our eternal life in Christ, we can have it now, if only we repent from dead works and walk with God in a loving relationship.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds really good to me.
God is all about loving relationships. What makes true Christian fellowship unique is that our friendship with one another is based on our mutual friendship with God. We take on the attributes of God, as displayed in Jesus, and share them with one another.
What are those attributes? The fruit of the Spirit. God loves us. We receive His love and experience true peace. We never have to worry or fear again. Our salvation is a gift that God bestows upon us lavishly by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
When we are loved and have peace, joy wells up in our hearts. We cannot contain it. We’re not meant to. Water that doesn’t flow becomes stagnant. The Holy Spirit in us is meant to flow out of us like rivers of living water.
What we receive from God, through God, in God, we echo back to God in our unique voice according to our design. Some celebrate God’s love in song. Some in service. Some in giving. Some in helping other people come to the light. Whatever it is, it is an expression of our love and gratitude to God, and it is a work of the Spirit inside us.
Our fellowship with God is the wellspring of life inside us that bubbles up with eternal fruit for all the world to see and experience with us.
You know a tree by its fruit. You know those who love God because they do what God does. They love without partiality. They have peace and make peace. The joy of the Lord is their strength. They don’t rely on their own understanding or their own strength, they rely on God in all circumstances. Their yoke is easy and their burden is light. They walk in fellowship with God.
Fellowship is about love. Loving God with all that we are.
Fellowship is about peace. Peace between the brethren in the unity that the Spirit provides.
Fellowship is about joy. We enjoy our relationship with God and our common bond in the Spirit with those that walk with Him. We are not strangers, we are co-heirs with Christ.
Our fellowship is with God. If you are in Christ, our fellowship is with each other. Walk in the Light as He is in the Light, and enjoy your fellowship with God, forever and ever. Amen.
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.
Galatians 5:22-26 NLT