True Fellowship

“That 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. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” - 1 John 1:3-4

John gives us the reason for why he wrote this letter, the letter we call 1 John. He wrote it so that we could have true fellowship and community with God and with each other. He then goes on to explain in his letter that the fellowship of the faithful is the fellowship of the forgiven. He explains that we will not have true fellowship with God and with one another unless we confess our sins. Holding back this confession will keep our collective joy from being complete. Bonhoeffer in his classic work Life Together explains it like this: 

“Confess your sins to one another” (James 5:16). He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final break-through to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners.

As John says in verse 7, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” If we’re in the darkness for a long time we get accustomed to the darkness. It’s painful at first to come into the light. But we will never really be who we truly are unless we do. When we conceal our confession we are keeping the true joy that is to be found in the fellowship of believers dammed up! Let it be our resolution as a church to let the floodwaters of joy and love flow freely among us. That means that we walk in light and confess that we are sinners! What a joy it is to be in the fellowship of the forgiven as the beautiful Gospel Hymn declares-

What a fellowship, what a joy divineLeaning on the everlasting armsWhat a blessedness, what a peace is mineLeaning on the everlasting arms

Leaning, LeaningSafe and secure from all alarmsLeaning, LeaningLeaning on the everlasting arms.