«　WEEK 4　DAY 2　»

　　1 John 1:3 That which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

　　Rev. 22:1 And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street.

　　Fellowship is the issue of the eternal life and is actually the flow of the eternal life within all the believers, who have received and possess the divine life. It is illustrated by the flow of the water of life in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1). All genuine believers are in this fellowship (Acts 2:42). It is carried on by the Spirit in our regenerated spirit. Hence, it is called “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:14) and “fellowship of [our] spirit” (Phil. 2:1). It is in this fellowship of the eternal life that we, the believers, participate in all that the Father and the Son are and have done for us; that is, we enjoy the love of the Father and the grace of the Son by virtue of the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14)…. In Acts 2:42 it is called “the fellowship of the apostles,” and in 1 John 1:3 “our [the apostles’] fellowship,” a fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:3, footnote 3)

　　To have fellowship with the Triune God in the apostles’ fellowship is to put aside our private interests and join with the apostles and the Triune God for the carrying out of God’s purpose.…Our participation in the apostles’ enjoyment of the Triune God is our joining with them and with the Triune God for His divine purpose, which is common to God, the apostles, and all the believers. (1 John 1:3, footnote 3)

　　The intrinsic fellowship of the churches is the unique fellowship of the apostles, which is uniquely and universally of all the members of the organic Body of Christ (Acts 2:42). The flow was first the fellowship of the divine life of the Divine Trinity. Then this fellowship was passed on to the apostles, who were among the first group of believers on earth. Therefore, this flow became the fellowship of the apostles…. In those early days all the believers continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles. There was only one teaching and one fellowship. The apostles did a wonderful work to impart the divine life into people and bring them into the flow of this divine life. This flow, this fellowship, became the new believers’ fellowship. Their fellowship was the fellowship of the apostles, and the fellowship of the apostles is the fellowship of the Triune God.

　　We must realize that today in the universe there is a flow, which is just God Himself as the water of life flowing out of the Triune God through the apostles and into us.…When we preach the gospel and the ones to whom we preach receive the Lord Jesus, we are giving them an “injection” of the water of life. When they receive the water of life, they are brought into this wonderful fellowship.

　　Whenever we meet a genuine believer, no matter what nationality or race he may be, something “jumps” within us. This experience may be compared to what happened when Mary, the mother of Jesus, went to see Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb (Luke 1:41)….John the Baptist exulted (v. 44) upon meeting the Savior, while both of them were still in their mothers’ wombs….Today we are the “mothers” who have the Lord Jesus within us….We have to go along with the “jumping” within us. That inward “jumping” is the intrinsic fellowship. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 4, “The Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ to Be the Organism of the Processed and Dispensing Triune God,” pp. 311-312)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “God’s New Testament Economy,” ch. 38; CWWL, 1980, vol. 2, “The Mending Ministry of John,” ch. 7