Reading 1 John

I’ve been reading the book  A God Centered Church by Henry Blackaby and it’s starts with covering 1 John 1:3-7.  I think the book of 1 John is such a convicting part of the Bible.  It’s really speaking to me and how I need to love my brothers and sisters in Christ.  Sometimes it’s so hard to love other Christians.  Why is that?  Verses 3-7 says that if I say I have fellowship with God then I will have fellowship with other Christians.  I’m really seeing the connection and the reason Jesus gave the commands of “love God”  and then “love one another”.   It’s His plan of salvation to the world revealed through his body of believers.  John 13:34-35.  Especially the forgiveness part.  Look at Matthew 6:14. 

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.  But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” NLT

So I carry the weight of sin on my shoulders and I build a wall between me and God when I don’t forgive others.  The part of the Lord’s prayer now has some light shed on it for me.  “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

So a world that is watching me and ultimately seeing God revealed through me and my relationship with others in my church, has got to see a forgiving God who forgives even the most offensive of sins against me.  And I show them Christ’s forgiveness by forgiving those who continually sin against me.  A qoute from Blackaby says, “God is seeking to reveal Himself through us, and for us not to forgive is to give a wrong picture of God to a watching world.”

So my fellowship with God has a direct connection with my fellowship with other Christians.  Verse 7.  This also includes my relationship with my wife and my kids.  It is our relationship with God that determines all other relationships in our life.

Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:16-19 lays out the foundation.  GOD’S  LOVE.  Here’s a quote from Blackaby from his book,

“Koinonia between the members-love in action-is absolutely vital to the nature of the church and to the purposes God has for the church.  This was God’s strategy from the beginning when He made a covenant with His people, commanding them to love God and one another.  These two commandments are dramatically tied together in the eternal strategy of God to touch a world.  Jesus prayed that the fellowship He had with the Father would be replicated among His people.  Examine carefully Jesus’ prayer in John 17 with a fresh understanding of koinonia.”