The Enemy of Authentic Fellowship

By the time John wrote this book many of the Apostles had passed away and none of them died by natural causes. They all died brutal deaths because they proclaimed the Gospel! That Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and that He is the only way. John’s brother James was first. “Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.” (Acts 12:1-2) If anyone had a glimpse of just how evil this world can be, it was John. The amazing thing about the book of I John is that even after all of the persecution, John says that the whole reason he is writing these things was that they would have an overflowing joy! He starts by saying that in order to experience this kind of joy we must have authentic fellowship with God and others. It’s mission driven! It is purposeful! As he moves into chapter 2, John is going to continue the same subject, but now he is going shine the light on the enemy of authentic fellowship. That enemy is sin. In order to have overflowing joy and authentic fellowship in any situation, we must know how to deal with our sin.