The book of First John is extraordinary. It is far outside the natural realm. It is written from within the organism of Christ. John has not written it as an individual Christian but as a member of the organic, corporate Christ. This organism is Jesus who is both the head and the body.
The Christian life was never intended to be an individual life but a life as an organic member of the body of Christ. But not a member in the natural sense. You don’t join it. You are born into it. It is a life where each member’s life is a part of every other member’s life. It is where your life is mine and my life is yours. Your sin is mine and mine yours. Your joy mine and mine yours. Your victory or defeat is mine. It is the you-life. Paul says it. You are members one of another. Is it not true?
So when John talks about fellowship in the first chapter, he is talking about this organic entity of God and man, Christ and His body. The Greek word fellowship (koinonia) literally means “common being”. So he says that “our common being is with the Father and with His Son.” John and those with him were living in the reality of that corporate and living entity of Christ and the body. Both are Jesus in this age.
Most Christians believe that Jesus is the head of the body of Christ. How many know that Jesus is also the body? When Paul was struck down to the ground and the Lord Jesus appeared to him, Jesus said, “Why do you persecute Me?” This shows clearly that the Lord Himself reveals that not only is He head but also the body. This is also clearly revealed in 1 Cor. 12:12 (For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is the Christ.)
John’s desire, which is the Father’s desire, is that all those whom He has called would also live in this reality. The genuine Christians were not called to live in a worldly religious system. Nor were they saved to live an individual Christian life struggling to rise up to a standard that would please God.
They were designed to live in a free flowing life that elevated them above any kind of effort and simply bore them along. God intended and still intends to do it all. Jesus Christ was appointed and is the anointed one to accomplish everything God intended in every Christian. Any kind of effort is not acceptable. Remember the priests in the Old Testament were not allowed to wear wool because it caused sweat. Only linen was acceptable clothing for the priests.
As the New Testament priests we too must not “wear wool”. We are not to be perfected by the flesh but by the free flowing Spirit in the body. (Gal. 3:1) It is the free supply of the eternal life which flows as a life-stream in the body that does it all.
But just like the blood in our physical bodies that gives us life, the moment any member is cut off, it dies and decays. Since the Lord says through Paul that this organic Christ is the head and the body, the moment we are separated from the reality of the flowing Spirit in the body, we too die. Only in the organic Christ are we able to go on living, growing and being built up. Only there will we truly know God.
This book opens to show John’s desire that what he has seen and heard and his eyes have gazed upon and even his hands have handled, concerning the Word of life would be made known to every Christian. That is the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to John and to those with him.
To most believers the Christian life is a life outside of them made up of doctrines, regulations, methods, service, giving, preaching, prayer, Bible study, etc, etc. The most zealous one will give themselves to attend Bible school or seminary and become pastors or missionaries. Others serve in many other ways. But almost all do it in an outward way.
Few realize that the Christian life is the person of Jesus Christ who is in the depths of their being as life. The Word of life is this Person whom John heard, saw and touched. The Christian today should live the same way by hearing, seeing and touching Jesus’ life within them.
The big hindrance to living this life is sin. According to John if we say we have no sin we lie and the truth is not in us. What does John mean here by sin? The original word means to miss the mark. What is the mark John is talking about?
Romans 3:23 says, “All have missed the mark and come short of the glory of God”. So the mark according to Paul is the glory of God. Glory is when God is expressed or displayed. When we live in spirit we hit the mark. Then we are expressing God and we are His glory. Isn’t this amazing? But it is true.
It is not a matter of behavior but a matter of being. Christ is our life in the depths of our being. When we remain in Him as the branch remains in the vine. As the branches express what kind of a vine it is, so we by remaining in Christ express what kind of person He is. One of John’s main burdens is that his little children abide in Christ and love one another. By this abiding they will love one another. Love is the expression of the life of God.
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