Fellowship: With God and each other

The Verse of the Day is taken from 1 John 1:7 (NLT):

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.

The context for 1 John chapter 1 is fellowship with God and with fellow believers, as revealed in 1 John 1:3-10 (NLT):

³ 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. ⁴ We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

Living in the Light

⁵ 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. ⁶ 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. ⁷ 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.

⁸ If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. ⁹ But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

Verses 6-10 begin with the conditional clause “if we” followed by a verb: “If we proclaim…, if we are living…, if we claim…, if we confess…, if we claim….” These expressions establish the conditions which if met on our part, will result in a corresponding action on God’s part.

Verse 7 sets the condition: “If we are living in the light . . . we have fellowship with each other.” The King James Version states “If walk in the light . . . we have fellowship one with another.” Translated from the Greek word koinonia, fellowship involves communion or oneness, harmony. In the Book of Acts we find that the believers of the early Church were said to be “of one heart and one mind.” Having this close fellowship with God and with one another is God’s desire for His people expressed in 1 John.

Maranatha! Singers offer a country music version of “If We Walk in the Light” (1 John 1:7)

The passage from 1 John 1, especially verse 7, also brings to mind the opening lyrics to a familiar hymn: “Trust and Obey”:

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Tags: 1 John 1:2-19, 1 John 1:7, fellowship with God, koinonia, Trust and Obey