[Listen to an audio version here]
How do we live in joyful fellowship with God and man? That’s the question that John answers in this book. He wrote this letter so that its readers might have fellowship with the Apostles who have fellowship with the Father and the Son. He wants a community living in joyful fellowship with one another.
So, what does it mean to really live in fellowship with God on a daily basis? The passage before us gives us a significant part of the answer. It means to live in obedience to God’s commands and to love our neighbor. That’s the first two points that we will consider in this sermon. The third will be the encouragement that he gives them that they are living in fellowship with God in verses 12-14. So, let’s look at each of these things in turn as we consider what it means to live in joyful fellowship with God and man.
Obedience
Anyone who lives in fellowship with God is going to obey His commands. There is no fellowship with God apart from obedience. “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person” (1 John 2:3–4). The word used here for “to know God” means more than just knowledge. It means knowledge that changes us. We might say, “if we really get who God is . . .” It also means not just knowing about God but actually letting that love change our hearts. To really know God and have fellowship with Him is to keep His commands. Anyone who claims to know the Lord but does not keep His commands is not telling the truth.
When we think about it, this makes complete sense. God is our Creator. He made us. He is the Lord of the universe. It exists from Him, through Him, and for Him. We have nothing but what He gives us. It makes complete sense that if He tells us to do something we would do it.
Now, people today fear the idea of commands. We are almost ready to do the opposite if someone commands us to do something. That is in part because of our own anxiety. We fear that what someone tells us to do will destroy us. We fear that we will lose ourselves. However, when it comes to God, we don’t need to fear this. We know that what God commands us will bring us life. There is nothing that He tells us to do that will ultimately harm us, even though it may be hard in the moment. His commands are life. We will not lose ourselves. We will find ourselves in obedience to Him.
We should also note that obeying God’s commands is the fruit and not the root of our relationship with God. He does not say that we obey God’s commands in order to have a relationship with God. He says, we have a relationship with God, and this means that we will obey the commands of God. It is the fruit of our relationship with Christ and not the root of it. It is so sure that the relationship with God will be one where we obey His commands that we can tell that we have that relationship with God from the fact that we obey His commands just like we can know an apple tree from the fact that apples are growing on it. It’s easy to tell.
Does this mean that we obey God’s commands perfectly? No. Don’t forget what we just considered. John wrote this so that we would not sin. However, if anyone sins, then we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ places His sacrifice for our sins over against our sin. The result is that God is faithful and just to forgive us. If it is not perfection, then what does it mean to obey the commands of God? What this means is that the direction of our lives is in obedience to God’s commands, that we desire to keep them, and that we are grieved and repent when we do not. That’s what it means to keep God’s commands in this context.
Now, what does it mean to obey God’s commands?
1. What are God’s explicit commands? What are the things that God tells us to do? We have the Ten Commandments. We have Jesus’ exposition of it in the Sermon on the Mount. We have summaries of God’s commands in Romans 12. We should know these well.