Authentic Fellowship From James MacDonaldSample

Fellowship and Honesty Fellowship requires honesty. When there is pretense there can be no genuine fellowship. John begins his first letter with such a good picture of this truth about the nature of fellowship. People who can’t or won’t be honest with each other are people who will never experience the kind of nurturing fellowship God desires among His people. And just calling it fellowship doesn’t make it so. We mock God’s character and power if we claim to be intimate with Him but our lives are a mess. When God’s around, the lights are on! Walking in the darkness means we may bump into each other, but we won’t have fellowship. When we see ourselves and one another clearly under God’s clarifying and purifying light, we are in position to appreciate each other, observe the cleansing work Jesus performs in one another’s lives, and experience the common ground that creates fellowship. John is clearly pointing to the heart of authenticity in these verses. Authenticity requires honesty—not putting on a mask; not coming to church and acting okay when I’m not. It is weeping with those who weep; rejoicing with those who rejoice; bearing one another’s burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ. God forbid our churches would ever become a place of pretense and mask-wearing and acting like I’m fine when I’m not. Prayer – Father, put Your finger on the places in my life infected with pretense and false conclusions. Help me to be genuine in confessing my sins—the ones I can see as well as the ones I must be shown. Lead me to others who want to live transparently, and allow us to experience the remarkable fellowship of Your presence together. In Jesus name, Amen.