REVISITING THE BELIEVER'S POSITIONAL RICHES IN CHRIST

Part XXII: Applying The Truth That Believers Are In The Fellowship Of The Saints

(John 17:11, 21-23; Ephesians 4:1-3)

I. Introduction

A. Jesus claimed that love between us Christians would be the key testimony that we are His disciples, Jn. 13:35.

B. However, we believers in Christ face pressure in Christendom ecumenically to unify with people who are not even true Christians, what Jesus opposed as He distinguished His disciples from the lost world in John 17:14-17. A true believer may also believe he must unify with abusive people, but 2 Timothy 3:1-5 counters that.

C. Accordingly, we need insight on discerning the true boundaries of a true spiritual fellowship among believers!

D. One positional truth we believers possess the instant we trust in Christ as Savior is that we are put into the fellowship of the saints. (Lewis S. Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. III, "Soteriology," p. 253-254)

E. We view this positional truth and its Biblical application to life for our edifying insight (as follows):

II. Applying The Truth That Believers Are In The Fellowship Of The Saints, John 17:11, 21-23; Eph. 4:1-3.

A. When Jesus gave His great intercessory prayer for His followers in John 17:1-26, He made His requests applicable not only for His immediate disciples, but for all true believers in Church History, cf. John 17:20-21.

B. Jesus always did what pleased His Father according to John 8:29, what would apply to His prayer requests to the Father, so the Father answered in the affirmative all of Jesus' prayer requests, cf. 1 John 5:14-15.

C. When Jesus then asked His Father in John 17:11, 21-23 that the Father might preserve His followers that they might be unified, God the Father formed a true spiritual fellowship and unity among Christ's followers.

D. God the Father created that unity of believers through means of the indwelling Holy Spirit, Ephesians 4:1-3:

1. All true Christians are permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit at salvation (Eph. 1:13-14) and they are to endeavor to preserve the unity the Holy Spirit creates among them in the bond of peace, Ephesians 4:1, 3.

2. Accordingly, "Never are Christians exhorted to make a unity by organization or combines; they are rather besought to keep the unity which God the Holy Spirit has created (Eph. 4:1-3)," Ibid., p. 254.

E. However, New Testament authors warned of FALSE unities in Christendom that God did NOT create:

1. Paul warned about Satan's false ministers who are disguised as ministers of righteousness, 2 Cor. 11:14-15.

2. John claimed that unbelievers sometimes exist within the organized Church, and in time they depart from the body, revealing they were false brethren, being unsaved people, 1 John 2:18-19 with 1 John 4:1-3.

3. In the end time, a great false worldwide religion full of false believers will exist, a body known to us as "Babylon the Great" that God will punish in the coming Great Tribulation Period, Revelation 17:1-6.

4. God will then call true believers in that body to leave it to avoid His judgment of it, Revelation 18:4.

F. We thus apply the positional truth of true spiritual fellowship amid the challenges of false unity in this world:

1. We who truly believe in Christ for salvation do not have to try to work to create unity with other true believers: God has already positionally spiritually unified us with other true believers, Ephesians 4:3.

2. Yet, false believers infiltrate groups of true believers by Satan's power, 1 John 2:18-19; Matt. 13:36-43.

3. Since purging Christendom of all false believers would disrupt the discipling of weak true believers, God lets false believers remain in Christendom while discipling true believers in it, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.

4. We must thus individually fellowship with the Lord as true believers that He might gravitate us toward true fellowship with those with a true faith in Christ. God simply calls true believers to preserve His divinely established true spiritual fellowship, what any believer in fellowship with the Lord readily does!

5. However, carnal true believers and false believers in groups in Christendom may become very abusive and unholy, so God in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 calls the godly to avoid them for their own spiritual protection.

6. Also, since some error and sin in Christendom is so spiritually harmful, God lets some divisions occur in Christendom to reveal even to weak true believers those people He approves and those He does not approve for the protection of weak true believers, 1 Corinthians 11:19 ESV. Godly believers must thus heed Galatians 1:8-9 to practice "first degree separation," parting from apostates and their false gospels and heed 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 to practice "second degree separation" to part from ungodly believers!

Lesson: (1) God has created a true positional spiritual unity among true believers that they experience when they fellowship with the Lord, heeding His Word. (2) Yet, people in Christendom heed God in varying degrees, calling for varying degrees of fellowship the godly can experience with such people and no fellowship with the unsaved.

Application: (1) May we walk in the truth of God's Word for true fellowship with one another, 1 John 1:7. (2) May we also realize that walking in God's truth will also limit the degree of fellowship we have with others who sin.