If we walk in the light: Fellowship in the body of Christ

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7.

Fellowship in the body of Christ

If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and then our life is extremely good. Satan is crushed under our feet, and love prevails.

However, it requires a great degree of vigilance to preserve fellowship in the Spirit, and light, and love. A little envy, a bit of suspicion about a brother, a small unkindness, or a word of slander is enough to let Satan loose. He will make sure to destroy the good relationship we have with one another. Therefore, each of us must strive to keep Satan under our feet. If we do this, the God of peace will crush Satan under the feet of the church (the body of Christ). (Romans 16:20.)

There is much that could be said about this which is hard to write about, but when each one of us strives to keep Christ’s commandments without spot, and blameless (1 Timothy 6:14), it becomes a “Siegfried Line” in the battle against the powers of evil.

The commandments of Christ and a crucified flesh will, with faithfulness and love to the Father and Son in the power of the Holy Spirit, bind us together in an unshakable unity within the body of Christ. This is the church, “From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:16.

One member alone is not an entire body, but its many members are. God put the body together as it pleased Him so that we, through one another, would learn to bear with one another and receive the help that Christ, by grace and gifts, gives in measure to each one for inner edification.

Laws of the body of Christ

However, when Satan comes, division comes. The inner help of each member doing its share is fractured to splinters, and the body becomes unbalanced. This can be avoided if each member of the body chooses to suffer rather than sin. In the span of five minutes you can say so much evil that not even five years can heal the broken fellowship and re-establish a relationship of trust.

Christian assemblies that are unfamiliar with this glorious fellowship in the Spirit are not familiar with these holy laws that function in the body, because a body has not yet been formed. They meet together, but when they leave each other, they still remain people who have only known each other according to the flesh. This type of relationship is extremely meagre. Paul said, “Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.” 2 Corinthians 5:16. To know the Lord is to be one spirit with Him. It is the love in the Spirit that is the binding force of the body of Christ on earth.

May we therefore learn to walk circumspectly in the church of the living God, the body of Christ.