Abide: Fellowship

How do we live in fellowship with God?

It is established that we can have fellowship with God.

1 John 1:3 What we have seen and heard, we declare to you so that you too can have fellowship with us. Now this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with His Son Jesus the Messiah.

Sin keeps us in darkness and out of fellowship with Him

1 John 1:6-7 Live in His Light by confessing sin
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us for those sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Walk in His Steps

1 John 2:6 The one who says that he abides in Him must live the same way He Himself lived.

Love instead of hate

Hate = darkness
Love = Light
1 John 2:9-10 The person who says that he is in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. The person who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no reason for him to stumble.
1 John 4:10-13 This is love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if this is the way God loves us, we must also love one another.

Stop loving the world and the things of the world

1 John 2:15-17 Stop loving the world and the things that are in the world. If anyone persists in loving the world, the Father's love is not in him. For everything that is in the world - the desire for fleshly gratification, the desire for possessions, and worldly arrogance - is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world and its desires are fading away, but the person who does God's will remains forever.

No one who denies the Son has the Father

1 John 2:23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. The person who acknowledges the Son has the Father.
1 John 4:15-18 God abides in the one who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, and he abides in God. We have come to know and rely on the love that God has for us. God is love, and the person who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. This is how love has been perfected among us: we will have confidence on the day of judgment because, during our time in this world, we are just like Him. There is no fear where love exists. Rather, perfect love banishes fear, for fear involves punishment, and he person who lives in fear has not been perfected in love.

Stay Pure

1 John 3:3 Everyone who has this hope based on Him keeps himself pure, just as the Messiah is pure. Everyone who continues to live in sin also practices disobedience. In fact, sin is disobedience. You know that the Messiah was revealed to take away sins, and there is no sin in Him. No one who remains in union with Him keeps on sinning. The one who keeps on sinning hasn't seen Him or known Him.

Love in Action and Truth

1 John 3:18-19 We must stop expressing love merely by our words and manner of speech; we must love also in action and truth. This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and how we will be able to keep ourselves strong in His presence.

Exhortations

1 John 2:28 Abide in Him. Then, when He appears, we will have confidence and will not turn away from Him in shame when He comes.

1 John 3:22-24 Whatever we request, we receive from him, because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. And this is His commandment: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus the Messiah, and to love one another as He commanded us. The person who keeps His commandments abides in God, and God abides in him. This is how we can be sure that He remains in us: He has given us His Spirit.

Benefits

1 John 5:18-20 We know that the person who has been born from God does not go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one cannot harm them. We know that we are from God and that the whole world lies under the control of the evil one. We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true God. We are in union with the one who is true, His Son Jesus the Messiah, who is the true God and eternal life.

Let us embrace this privilege, for by doing so, we will be safeguarded from all idols and misleading doctrines. We will steer clear of idolatrous love for worldly possessions and instead be upheld by the power of God through our faith, leading us to eternal salvation.