The Way to Fellowship (1 John 1:5–10) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Fellowship with God and with His people is not an option for the more serious minded Christians. It is sometimes thought that those less inclined may still call themselves Christians while pursuing lives that have little to do with Jesus Christ. The intentional fellowship with God through Christ, for them, just doesn’t hold much importance. Is that an exaggeration?

Just take a look at the high percentage of people in our country that call themselves Christians. Three-fourths of the population makes that claim. Yet if that is biblical Christianity, then we must question whether God is holy and the cross of Jesus necessary.

And it’s not just in the United States. We can take a look at countries that once had strong gospel work, like Germany, Britain, and the Netherlands, but over the years, drifted into merely professing Christianity while gutting it of any substance.

The Apostle John saw the early traces of that same kind of thinking. At one point, some that associated with the Ephesian church now followed a different teaching and different way of life. They thought themselves superior to those remaining in the church. Their view of God had changed. Their consideration of the necessity of the Incarnate God dying on the cross as a Substitute for them before God’s wrath, had been laid aside for a more therapeutic, softer kind of religion that gave little to no thought about sin. Oh, they still claimed fellowship with God but not fellowship rooted in the redemptive work of Christ. Was that Christian? John said “no.”

We denigrate Jesus dying on the cross when we give credence to that kind of Christianity. We can’t change the way that the world has redefined Christianity to avoid calling God holy, sin-sin, and Jesus on the cross necessary. But we can affect the way that the church views biblical Christianity. That happens when we let the Bible alone shape our understanding and practice of the Christian faith as relationship to God through Jesus Christ. John calls this relationship fellowship and he centers it in Christ alone.

Fellowship with God through Christ leads to actively pursuing Him. Saving grace does not leave us passive in our faith. It engages us in fellowship with God and His people. What does the way to fellowship look like?

I. Premise for life

John starts his letter by reinforcing that Jesus, God’s Son, has come in the flesh so that we might have fellowship with Him and with His people (1:1–4). Yet that central message to all of Scripture hinges on one thing, that “God is Light.” He doesn’t start with God is love or God is generous but God is Light. What does he mean?

1. God is Light

“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” Everything else in his letter is a commentary on the implications of that statement. Light is used to explain the nature and character and practice of God throughout Scripture. David declared, “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Ps 27:1). “For You light my lamp, the Lord God illumines my darkness” (Ps 18:28). “Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me” (Mic 7:8). And prophesying about Christ, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them” (Isa 9:2).

The New Testament writers do the same. Christians are called “the light of the world” because Jesus is their light (Matt 5:14). Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life” (John 8:12). John the Baptist “came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light” (John 1:7–8). Paul told the Ephesian church, “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light” (Eph 5:8).

God as Light conveys two [...]