The Dead have nothing to do with The Life

1 Jn 1:6  If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 

If we say that we have fellowship with Him but walk in darkness, if we walk in sin - then we lie and do not know the truth, nor do we do the truth. 

For what is the truth - Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life. 

How can we fellowship with Him if we are dead in our trespasses and sins, for what does Life have to do with that which is dead? Nothing. 

For the dead contaminate the living. The dead bring disease and contagions. The Light can have no fellowship with that darkness, that death. He is the only way to Spiritual life.

You can not fellowship with the dead, they can not talk to you of life, they can not know what you are experiencing, they can only bring death!

Jesus only can bring life.

So yes by their walk, by their life you will know them and to whom they belong.

For if they are filled with life, if they walk in the light, then they will have fruit and that fruit shall be visible for all. What is that fruit we speak of? Works, changed lives that spring forth from the Life and the Light shown in the life of the Changed Christian.

Works are not necessary for Salvation, rather they are a sign of that Life and that Light.

That your JOY may be Full

1Jn 1:4  And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. 

This to me is quite interesting. For he, John, the author of this book, who has been persecuted, exiled, boiled in oil, is full of joy and he wants us to have that same joy.

That your Joy may be full.

Notice not his joy, but yours.

He writes all of this that you might know and believe and that you might have a heart for the things of God and that your joy may be full.

(side note: this kinda dispels the name it and claim it crowd, the prosperity people for John writes this book that JOY may be the result).

Joy A feeling of great pleasure – happiness. Not a high priority in today’s world is it? Joy, happiness, it comes from Jesus, it comes from the knowledge of Jesus, it comes from a heart full of His Love flowing out to man.

Have you ever witnessed of your Jesus to another? If you have - then you know that joy for it wells up in you.

Have you ever led another to Christ? If you have - then you know the joy of a soul saved from the gates of hell, a soul saved from the pits to life everlasting.

If you have no joy in your life, then tell another of your Jesus, relive, revive  and re-ignite your Spirit by melding with another’s.

John got joy from writing, talking, telling, of this man Jesus. John got Joy from relaying to you the message he had been given from the Son of God, the Messiah, the Redeemer.

Is your joy full?

Differing Perspectives

Mat 9:9  And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. 

Mat 9:10  And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. 

As Jesus sat at meat, many sinners and publicans came and sat with Him. That is probably the greatest of all testimonies to Jesus we ever saw. The meek and lowly came to Him and were allowed to be there! No one shushed them, shooed them, or claimed superiority.

What a fantastic thing to happen, they had dinner with God and no one stopped them. The outcasts, the downtrodden walked right in and sat down.

Mat 9:11  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? 

Oh wait someone did say something, the “righteous” or should that read “self Righteous”? Pharisees. They said why does your Master (master in this respect means teacher) eat with the sinner and publicans. Now where else should a teacher eat except with those that need teaching? The Pharisees associated with the pharisees, they saw the outside “unclean” world just from a distance. They did not understand what was going on around them, the revivals, the healings from a common perspective for they did not know the common perspective. They were looking at the world through stained glass windows!

Perhaps we have lost this vision, this personal touch in the post covid united States but church, we must revert to this type if we are to bring about the survival of this nation ass we knew it.

The people absolutely loved Jesus for the access, the approachability and the personalness. The Pharisees were more worried about following the Law they had made, that they could not associate with the unclean, they forgot who they were here for.

We must set the example yes, we must be set apart from, yes, but we are not any better than they are. 

We are just saved by Grace with (hopefully) a renewed mind, a new perspective. That is the whole difference between us and them.

We have what they need, how will they know it if we are not among them? If we are not Living the set apart, consecrated life? 

Among them just as Jesus; but not of them, just as Jesus.