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In this message we begin to consider aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ in the Epistles of John.
In 1 John 1:1-7 we see Christ as the Word of life. First John 1:1 says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life.” The Word of life in this verse is the Word mentioned in John 1:1-4 and 14, who was with God and was God in eternity before creation, who became flesh in time, and in whom is life. This Word conveys the eternal life and is the divine person of Christ as an account, a definition, and an expression of all that God is. In Him is life, and He is life (11:25; 14:6). The phrase the Word of life in Greek indicates that the Word is life. The person is the divine life, the eternal life, which we can touch.
First John 1:2 continues, “And the life was manifested.” This indicates that life is a synonym for Word of life in the preceding verse. Both denote the divine person of Christ, who was with the Father in eternity and was manifested in time through incarnation, and whom the apostles saw and testified and reported to the believers. Christ as the Word of life is the eternal life itself for our experience and enjoyment.
The Greek words rendered “the eternal life” literally mean “the life the eternal.” This life denotes the divine spiritual life, not the human soulish life or the physical life (Rom. 5:17). Eternal denotes not only duration of time, which is everlasting, without end, but also quality, which is absolutely perfect and complete, without any shortage or defect. Such an expression emphasizes the eternal nature of the divine life, the life of the eternal God. The apostles saw this eternal life and testified and reported it to people. Their experience was not of any doctrine but of Christ, the Son of God, as the eternal life, and their testimony and preaching were not of theology or biblical knowledge but of such a solid life.
The eternal life is an indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). Nothing can destroy or dissolve this life. It is an endless life, being the eternal, divine, uncreated life, and the resurrection life which has passed through the test of death and Hades (Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18). Satan and his followers thought that they had terminated this life by crucifying it. The religious leaders had a similar concept. However, crucifixion gave this life the best opportunity to be multiplied, to be propagated (John 12:24). Because this life is unlimited, it can never be conquered, subdued, or destroyed.
Eternal life is the life of God (Eph. 4:18; 2 Pet. 1:3). We may say that this life is actually God Himself with the contents of divine love and divine light. And this life is of the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:2), especially when it becomes our life for our enjoyment.
Eternal life is also the Son of God. This life is not simply a matter or a thing; this life is a person. The divine life is God Himself expressed in His Son. First John 5:12 says, “He who has the Son has the life.” In our experience we know that eternal life is the Son of God Himself.
First John 1:2 goes on to say, “We have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” Here we see that Christ as the Word of life is in three stages. First, He was with the Father from the beginning, that is, from eternity past; second, He was manifested to the apostles through His incarnation and human living on earth; third, He was reported to the believers.
The Greek word rendered “with” in verse 2 implies living and acting in union and communion with. The eternal life, which is the Son, not only was with the Father but also was living and acting in union and communion with the Father in eternity. This word corresponds with John 1:1-2. The source of the eternal life is the Father, from whom and with whom the Son was manifested as the expression of the eternal life for those, whom the Father has chosen, to partake of and enjoy this life.
This manifestation of the eternal life was through Christ’s incarnation, which John stressed strongly in his Gospel (1:14) as an antidote to inoculate the believers against the heresy which said that Christ did not come in the flesh. Such a manifestation, corresponding with being touchable, indicates again the substantial nature of the Lord’s humanity, which is the manifestation of the divine life in the New Testament economy. The manifestation of the eternal life includes the revelation and impartation of life to man, with a view to bringing man into the eternal life, into its union and communion with the Father.
This Word is the Word of life. God is life, the Word, which is God, is life to us, and this life was manifested. This life is the Lord Jesus Christ. When He was manifested in the flesh, He was manifested as life. If we prayerfully consider the record in the four Gospels with all the stories recorded concerning Jesus, we can see that in His human living, life was always manifested. The Lord Jesus was a person who manifested life. The disciples, including John, saw that life. Therefore, John could testify and report to us the eternal life which was with the Father. Today if we read the Word prayerfully, we will receive the benefit of the manifestation of eternal life.
The apostles saw eternal life, the life that was manifested, and then testified and reported this life to the believers. What they reported was not some theology or doctrine which they had heard and been taught, but the divine life, which they had seen and testified by their practical experiences.
When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He said, “I am the bread of life,” “I have come that they may have life,” and “I am...the life” (6:35; 10:10; 14:6). John indicated that the Lord Jesus is this life and that he saw, heard, handled, and was made sure of Him; then John reported this eternal life to us. He did not report merely by speaking and preaching about it, but he conveyed and transmitted it into us.
The apostles preached the eternal life, which they had heard, seen, and handled. This shows us that the ministry in the early days was a ministry of life. The preaching, teaching, and ministry of the apostles were to preach life, teach life, and minister life. The preaching of the gospel is the declaration of life as a person to people. It is not the passing on of doctrine or knowledge but the proclamation of a person who is life.
First John 1:3 says, “That which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” The apostles reported the eternal life to the believers in order that the believers might have fellowship with the apostles whose fellowship is with the Father and with the Son. This means that through the enjoyment of the eternal life, which is the Word of life, we can have fellowship with the apostles and with the Father and the Son. Eternal life produces fellowship. When this life is reported, the result is the fellowship of the divine life.
The Greek word rendered “fellowship” means “joint participation, common participation.” Fellowship is the issue of the eternal life and is actually the flow of the eternal life within all the believers, who have received and possess the divine life. It is illustrated by the flow of the water of life in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1). All genuine believers are in this fellowship (Acts 2:42). It is carried on by the Spirit in our regenerated spirit. Hence, it is called “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:14) and “fellowship of [our] spirit” (Phil. 2:1). It is in this fellowship of the eternal life that we, the believers, participate in all that the Father and the Son are and have done for us; that is, we enjoy the love of the Father and the grace of the Son by virtue of the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Such a fellowship was first the apostles’ portion in their enjoyment of the Father and the Son through the Spirit. Hence, in Acts 2:42 it is called “the fellowship of the apostles,” and in 1 John 1:3 “our [the apostles’] fellowship,” a fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. It is a divine mystery.
The apostle John is reporting to us that which he saw and heard. He had heard, seen, and even handled the Word of life, the eternal life. Now he is testifying and reporting to us the eternal life. Then John goes on to say that he reported what he had seen and heard, not that we might have “life” but that we might have “fellowship.” In other words, what the apostles declare to the believers is the life, but what the believers have is the fellowship. If the believers receive the life that the apostles declare to them, they will have the fellowship. This indicates that the fellowship comes from the life.
In the divine life the believers have fellowship with one another (v. 7; Phil. 2:1). As the electric lights in the ceiling of a room have a current flowing within them, so we all have the divine current flowing within us. Fellowship is simply the flowing of the divine life within us. When life stands still, it is life; when it flows, it is fellowship. In this divine life and through this divine life we have fellowship for the enjoyment of the divine life. The more we have the divine life flowing within us, the more we enjoy the divine life.
This fellowship is in the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Since the Spirit is the realization of Christ, when the Spirit is in us, Christ and God are in us. The Spirit in all of us is one and the same. The Spirit in one believer is the Spirit in another believer. There is one Spirit in all of us. This Spirit becomes our fellowship and also enables us to have fellowship with one another.
Many times when we meet another child of God, although we may not say much outwardly, there is a mutual flow, a communication, between us. This flow, this communication, is of the Spirit. The Spirit in us is the Spirit of fellowship, just as the life of God in us is the life of fellowship.
We have the reality that there is a real, divine, spiritual, heavenly, and living current always flowing within us. As long as we are regenerated persons, we have this flow. We can prove this not merely by doctrine but by our up-to-date experience. When we are healthy in the spiritual life, the flow within us is pure, fresh, living, positive, and active.
We pray because there is a current flowing within us that urges us to pray. We do certain things for the Lord because the Lord urges us through the flow, the current, within us. The fellowship of life is constantly living and flowing within us. When we come together, if we all are in this flow, something living within us will simply echo one another. This is the fellowship of life.
First John 1 reveals a fellowship in two directions, vertical and horizontal. Horizontally we fellowship with one another, and vertically we fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. From life we have fellowship, and this fellowship is with the saints and with the Triune God. The vertical aspect of fellowship was initially established with the first apostles. The apostles then reported to the believers the eternal life in order that they might have fellowship with the apostles. Before the apostles reported the eternal life to them, the apostles themselves already had the vertical fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (v. 3). The initial experience of the apostles was vertical, but when the apostles reported the eternal life to others, they experienced the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship.
Verses 6 and 7 of 1 John 1 also indicate the vertical and horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship. Verse 6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth.” This is the vertical aspect of fellowship. Verse 7 says, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” This is the horizontal aspect of fellowship. Both aspects of the divine fellowship are closely related; it is difficult to say which aspect comes first. If you do not have the proper fellowship with the Lord, it is difficult to have fellowship with your fellow believers. In the same way, if you do not have the proper fellowship with your fellow believers, it is difficult to have fellowship with the Lord.
In verse 3 only the Father and the Son are mentioned, not the Spirit, because the Spirit is implied in the fellowship. Actually, the fellowship of the eternal life is the imparting of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — into the believers as their unique portion to enjoy today and for eternity.
When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were brought into this fellowship. When we called on the name of the Lord, we may say that the Spirit came into us, that God came into us, or that the divine life came into us. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received the Spirit into us, for the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God, and the Triune God is the divine life. The One who is now in us is the divine life, the Triune God, who is the Spirit and Jesus Christ. The divine, eternal life is a person, Jesus Christ.
The fellowship of the divine life is a fellowship between the believers and the apostles (1 John 1:3b; Acts 2:42). This means that there is a joint enjoyment of the Triune God among the believers and the apostles. The believers and the apostles need to have contact with one another. When there is the proper contact, there will be a two-way traffic, and this traffic is fellowship, a common participation. When we have this two-way traffic, we enjoy the divine life that is within us. This means that when we have fellowship, we have the enjoyment of the divine life. The more two-way traffic we have, the better it will be. The more we contact the apostles, the more we will enjoy the divine life. Whenever we come to the apostles’ writings, we may have the sense of being brought into fellowship with the apostles and enjoying the two-way traffic between us and them. Then in this traffic we enjoy the divine life together with them. John says that first the believers have fellowship with the apostles through the divine life. Then he says that the apostles have fellowship with the Father and the Son. By this we see that fellowship joins the believers to the apostles and to the Father and the Son. Therefore, in this fellowship there is the full oneness of the divine life.
The fellowship in the Body is the fellowship of the apostles. Acts 2:42 says, “They continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles.” We cannot have any fellowship other than the apostles’ fellowship. Among the saints there is only one fellowship because there is only one life, one source of life, and one Lord of life — Christ Himself. The Lord Christ is the unique source of this unique life; hence, in this unique life we have the unique fellowship. In the universe all the believers throughout time and space have only one fellowship, the fellowship that comes from the unique life, which is Christ Himself.
The divine fellowship is between us and the Father and also between us and all the members of the Body. Just as in our body there are many members but one circulation of blood, so also in the Body of Christ we are the many members of His Body with one fellowship in Christ as our life. The life-giving Spirit is flowing within all the members of the great, universal Body of Christ. Within His universal Body there is one flow, the flow of the divine life, the current of the water of life. The water is the divine life, and the divine life is the Triune God. The more we remain in Christ, the more we have this fellowship.
Our Christian life is a life of the fellowship of the divine life. The New Testament reveals that the Christian meeting, the Christian married life, and the Christian work are just the divine fellowship. The divine fellowship is everything in the Christian life.
In 1 John 1:2-3 the apostles wanted to have fellowship with the believers; this is horizontal fellowship. Then the apostles stated that their fellowship was with the Triune God; this is vertical fellowship. The vertical fellowship brings us into the horizontal fellowship. The horizontal fellowship then brings us into the vertical fellowship on a larger scale. This larger scale of fellowship is the meetings. In the proper church meetings, everyone should be full of the enjoyment of Christ, participating in the vertical and horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship. All the functioning in the meetings should be an expression of the divine fellowship. To prophesy is an expression of this fellowship. To testify is also a part of this fellowship. To read a verse from the Bible to the saints in the Lord’s table meeting may also be a small part of this fellowship. The entire meeting should be a fellowship.
Eventually, in this divine fellowship God is interwoven with us. This interweaving is the mingling of God with man. All the meetings should be an interwoven fellowship with both the vertical and horizontal aspects. Our married life should also be an interwoven fellowship. The husband and the wife should not only be interwoven with each other but also with the Lord. The real Christian marriage should be the divine fellowship. In addition, our coordination and work together should be the divine fellowship.
We must realize that when fellowship disappears, God also disappears. God comes as the fellowship. Today our meetings, our married life, the coordination among the co-workers, and the fellowship among the local churches are abnormal because we are short of this fellowship. The divine fellowship is everything in the Christian life. When we live in the divine fellowship, our Christian life becomes very living, active, and full of impact. We need to fully enter into the experience of the divine fellowship in its two aspects by the two spirits.
As we have seen, the fellowship of the divine life in the Body of Christ corresponds to the circulation of the blood in the physical body. It is this circulation which unites all the members with the head and with each other. The body and the head are one because of this circulation. All the members in the body are kept in “fellowship,” or oneness, with each other by this same circulation. Circulation is not something other than the blood itself. When the blood flows in the blood vessels, there is circulation; when the blood is stationary, there is no circulation. Once the blood flow stops, death and detachment result, and the members are no longer related to each other or to the head. Likewise, the fellowship of the divine life is the flow of life through all the members of the Body of Christ. “Fellowship” is not our greeting each other and engaging in conversation. The church is not a social club or a charitable organization; it is the Body of Christ. In this Body flows the divine, eternal life, which is the living person of God Himself. Apart from this flowing, there is death and detachment.
Simply speaking, fellowship is the flow of life, the flow of the Holy Spirit, within the children of God. Again this flow, this fellowship, is illustrated by the circulation of the blood in our physical body. The Word says that the life of the flesh is in the blood (Lev. 17:11). This means that the circulation of blood is the flow of blood, the “fellowship” of the body. We cannot say that the blood in our body is the blood of our hand or the blood of our feet. If the blood in a person’s hand stops moving and remains in that particular place, then the hand becomes dead. When the blood flow has a problem, the body is in an abnormal situation. Likewise, the fellowship of the Body is the circulation of the life of Christ in us, which is also the circulation of the Spirit of life in us. The circulation of the Spirit of life has at least two functions: it brings in the spiritual supply that we need, and it discharges all the improper, useless, and dead things from within us (Titus 3:5). Whenever there is a lack of fellowship among God’s children, there is a lack of spiritual supply among them. Furthermore, there is the accumulation of many improper things within them, which creates problems. As a consequence, the Body of Christ becomes ill. We need to see that in order for the life of Christ to be continually living and strong, we, as the children of God, need to have continual fellowship among us. Whenever this fellowship is stopped, the supply of life is stopped, and death is brought in. Thus, the Body of Christ suffers loss related to spiritual death.
If we do not see the believers and do not attend any meetings for a long time, although we may pray and meditate, our spirit seems to become sick, lacking vitality. This is because although we may fellowship with the Lord and have no problem with Him, we are cut off from the fellowship of the Lord’s Body. Yet as soon as we resume our fellowship with the believers, we are refreshed, revived, supplied, happy, pleasant, and bright. This is the fellowship of the Body, and grace is brought into us through fellowship.
In the church meetings, such as the prayer meeting and the bread-breaking meeting, there is a fellowship in the depth of our spirit. The prayers and praises of the saints flow into us. We may feel somewhat despondent before a meeting, but during the meeting we spontaneously sense a flow in our inner being. Once there is a flow, we are altogether enlivened and refreshed in our spirit. We may not listen to many messages, yet we are enlivened simply by praising and praying together with all the saints. This is fellowship and the function of fellowship.
Fellowship indicates a putting away of private interests and a joining with others for a certain common purpose. Hence, to have fellowship with the apostles, to be in the fellowship of the apostles, and to have fellowship with the Triune God in the apostles’ fellowship is to put aside our private interests and join with the apostles and the Triune God for the carrying out of God’s purpose. This purpose, according to John’s subsequent writings, is twofold: (1) that the believers grow in the divine life by abiding in the Triune God (1 John 2:12-27) and, based on the divine birth, live a life of the divine righteousness and the divine love (2:28—5:3) to overcome the world, death, sin, the devil, and idols (5:4-21); and (2) that the local churches be built up as the lampstands for the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 1—3) and consummate in the New Jerusalem as the full expression of God for eternity (Rev. 21—22). Our participation in the apostles’ enjoyment of the Triune God is our joining with them and with the Triune God for His divine purpose, which is common to God, the apostles, and all the believers. In this fellowship we enjoy God, the apostles, the believers, the universal church, and even the local churches. All this enjoyment depends on the fellowship of the divine life, and this fellowship issues out of the divine life itself.
