In Fellowship with Us

The epistle of 1 John may have more words of encouragement than any other in Scripture. The very purpose for John writing it is “so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Several times in this letter, John refers to his readers as “my children.” He cared a great deal about them. He wanted to encourage them. 

I don’t suppose there is any more encouraging thing than to know that you have hope of eternal life. John goes to great lengths to tell his readers that they can have that hope. They could know they have eternal life. 

I don’t know all of you personally. However, I still am able to say every week that I love you even though I don’t know you because I know that God loves you. I want for you the same encouragement that John wanted for his readers (and that includes you and me). I want you and me to have fellowship with John and with Christians of the first century and with God Himself. And you and I can have assurance that we know God; that we have eternal life.

In 1 John 2:3, John says: “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.” That’s simple, isn’t it? All we have to do is keep God’s commandments and we know we have come to know Him. Several times John makes the connection between our loving one another and our being acceptable to God. “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him” (1 John 3:18, 19). “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8). In 1 John 5:13 he makes the most important statement on this point: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”  He wanted his readers to know that they had eternal life; or to know that they could have eternal life.

I want to encourage each one of you by assuring you that you can know you have eternal life. All you have to do is keep the commandments of God. John said something else about those commandments, by the way. He said: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (5:3). His commandments are not too hard to keep. So, what are we waiting for? John wanted you and me to be in fellowship with him and his brethren and with God Himself. I want to be in that fellowship. Don’t you? Please know that God loves you and so do I.

Donnie Bates

God Is Faithful

Do you know what makes all the pain and suffering we experience in this life worth enduring? I’m sure that most of you could answer that question correctly in a number of different ways. Here is the way I answer it. In Hebrews 10:23, the writer commands us to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering… And then he gives the reason for holding fast: …for He who promised is faithful… That’s why! God is faithful. The One Who promised to save you and me is faithful. We can depend on Him! 

The writer of Hebrews is in the middle of explaining why and how we should draw near to the holy place with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith (10:19-22). But the point is the same for circumstances in our lives. God is faithful! He is faithful no matter what the situation is in my life or yours. Why should I come to Jesus when I’m weary and heavy-laden? Jesus said I should because He will give me rest (Matthew 11:28-30). I come to Him without reservation because He is faithful! I trust Him that the rest He promised will be given to me. Why do I repent of my sins? Jesus said I should repent of my sins because if I don’t, I’ll perish (Luke 13:3, 5). I repent without reservation or hesitation because He is faithful! I trust Him when He says I’ll perish. I trust Him when He says He’ll rescue me. 

Let’s get back to Hebrews 10:23. The command is to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.” That’s a pretty tall order, isn’t it? The only reason we would need to be cautioned to “hold fast” is the possibility that whatever it is we’re holding will slip out of our grasp. In Hebrews 2:1 we read: For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. That tells us that there is a distinct possibility (even probability) that we can drift away from God’s grace. The secret to not drifting away is to “pay closer attention” or to “hold fast the confession of our hope.”

There are some things in this life that make the confession of our hope slippery. When times get hard, when we’re suffering, we don’t want to hold on to anything. The harder things get the more we want to give up, to turn loose, to let go of our confession of hope. Mockers who walk by sight and not by faith, ask the question, “Where is the promise of Christ’s coming?” (2 Peter 3:4). They point out that nothing looks any different. Today they would say we can look back over thousands of years of history and see that nothing has changed. Even during the spiritually tumultuous times of Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection, the rest of the world took no notice. Everything in the cities of Rome and Athens continued pretty much the same that Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday when Jesus was crucified, buried and raised. The Bible student, of course, knows that things were not the same even in those far off cities. Even though the populace was ignorant of the fact, they now had hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Now, when things in your life seem to be at their most hopeless, you still have hope. The rope (the confession of your hope) has gotten slippery and a lot harder to hang on to, but you can do it. You can hang on, and you can take comfort and encouragement in the fact that He Who promised (He Who holds the other end of your rope…I mean, hope) is faithful. He will not let go. I don’t know about you, but that means something to me! It means I don’t have to give up. It means things are not as hopeless as they seem. It means all I have to do is hold on for dear (eternal) life and I’ll have it. Because He is faithful, all I have to worry about is me. And my faithfulness doesn’t depend on anyone but me. In other words, no matter what I have done and no matter what anyone says about what I have done, I can be faithful to God. I can repent of my sins; I can place myself in His grace (by faithful obedience, not by works which earn me salvation). He has promised and, in His promise, He has given me certain conditions for receiving the promise. All I have to do is meet the conditions (in faith) and because He is faithful, I can “draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” Man, that sure helps me sleep at night! How about you? How does it make you feel to know that God loves you that much? He does, you know, and so do I.

by Donnie Bates