A L M A C I A S

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD

We are living in a world which seems to be always changing the rules by which we live. What was wrong at one time is no longer wrong today. The ethics that are followed by many are so distant from the ethics that we find in the Bible. Sometimes we let society dictate to us what is right and what is wrong, forgetting that in the day of judgment, we will not be judged by society but rather by the Word of God. In I John 1:3-10, the apostle John had to deal with some false teachings that were going around concerning how one can walk in darkness and still be in fellowship with God. John, inspired of God, writes that such was not the case at all.

The apostle John begins to refute this error or misconception by saying that that was not what he and the other apostles were preaching unto the Christians of the first century. John was preaching to them only what he had heard from the Lord Himself. He had made no changes, no additions, no subtractions, or substitutions. The message that he, along with others, had heard from the Lord was that God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all. What did he mean by this? John meant that God was all holy, all righteous, and completely sinless, and He would have no fellowship with that which was contrary to His nature.

John explains, by inspiration, how no one could say that he was in fellowship with God and yet be walking in darkness. He also said that if one did say that, he was a liar and did not have the Truth. We all need to understand that saying something does not make it so. According to the Word of God, if we do want to be in fellowship with God, there are certain conditions to be met. Unless those conditions are met, we cannot be in fellowship with God. Apparently, there were some false teachers who were teaching that the Christian's daily conduct had nothing to do with being in fellowship with God. John makes it totally clear that such had never been the case. Being in fellowship with God and how we conduct ourselves are very much related.

John told the brethren that one was deceiving himself if he said that he had no sin, and that such a person did not have the truth. Rather, what they needed to do was to confess their sins and thereby be cleansed by the blood of Christ. Where do we find ourselves?