Scripture Reading: 1 John 1:2-7, 9
Ⅰ
We need to enter into the vertical and horizontal aspects of the fellowship of the divine life:
A
The fellowship is 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 river of water of life in the New Jerusalem—Rev. 22:1.
B
First John 1:2-3 and 6-7 reveal that the fellowship of the divine life has both a vertical aspect and a horizontal aspect:
１
First John 1:2-3 says, "(And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us); 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":
ａ
The vertical aspect of fellowship refers to our fellowship with the Triune God; the horizontal aspect of fellowship refers to our fellowship with one another.
ｂ
The initial experience of the apostles was vertical, but when the apostles reported the eternal life to others, they experienced the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship.
２
Verse 6 says, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth"; this is the vertical aspect of fellowship.
３
Verse 7 says, "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another"; this is the horizontal aspect of fellowship.
C
We need to see the relationship between the vertical and horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship:
１
If you do not have the proper fellowship with the Lord, it is difficult to have fellowship with your fellow believers; in the same way, if you do not have the proper fellowship with your fellow believers, it is difficult to have fellowship with the Lord; the reason for this is that the divine fellowship is one fellowship—Acts 2:42.
２
When we are not in this fellowship in a practical way, we are out of the Spirit, out of the Triune God, and out of the divine life—cf. 2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor. 1:9; Phil. 2:1.
３
We should try to have fellowship with our fellow believers as much as possible; this divine fellowship not only corrects us; it also molds us and even reconstitutes us; this fellowship brings the divine constituent into our spiritual being, causing a change in our being.
４
Fellowship also indicates a putting away of private interests and a joining with others for a certain common purpose; hence, to live in the divine 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—Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3; 1 Cor. 1:9; 3:6, 12.
D
The divine fellowship is the reality of living in the Body of Christ:
１
The reason that the Lord has not yet come back (Rev. 22:20) is that the believers are individualistic, independent, opinionated, and divided.
２
By being restricted in the divine fellowship, the Body of Christ is kept in oneness, and the work of the ministry continues to go on; the thing that makes everything alive is fellowship—Eph. 4:11-12; cf. Ezek. 47:9.
E
The fellowship of life, the inner flow of life, results in joy and in the inner shining, the inner ruling, of the light of life—1 John 1:4-5; John 1:4; 8:12; cf. 2 Cor. 5:13.
Ⅱ
We need to enter into the two aspects of the divine fellowship by the two spirits:
A
We need to enter into the vertical aspect of the divine fellowship by the divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit—13:14; 2 Tim. 4:22:
１
The Spirit Himself is the fellowship because the fellowship is the flow, the current, of the Spirit; this is like saying that the current of electricity is just the electricity itself; the current of electricity is electricity in motion.
２
In the same way, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit mentioned in 2 Corinthians 13:14 is the Spirit in motion; the grace of Christ is Christ Himself enjoyed by us, the love of God is God Himself tasted by us, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself moving within us.
B
We need to enter into the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship by the human spirit— Phil. 2:1; Rev. 1:10:
１
If we are going to have real fellowship horizontally with one another, we need to exercise our spirit—1 Tim. 4:7.
２
If we exercise our spirit, we will never talk in a worldly manner, speak negatively about the saints or the churches, or gossip about others' mistakes and failures; when we exercise our spirit, the nature of our conversation will change because our spirit is holy— 2 Cor. 6:6.
C
The horizontal fellowship is interwoven with the vertical fellowship; this interwoven fellowship is the real fellowship:
１
When we fellowship with one another in a genuine way by exercising our spirit, we are eager to pray and contact the Lord; this shows how close the relationship is between the vertical and horizontal aspects of fellowship.
２
Our horizontal fellowship with the saints brings us into vertical fellowship with the Lord; then our vertical fellowship with the Lord brings us into horizontal fellowship with the saints.
D
The divine fellowship is everything in the Christian life:
１
Just as the current of electricity is the electricity itself, the fellowship of the divine life, the flow of the divine life, is the divine life itself.
２
Our Christian life is a life of the fellowship of the divine life.
３
The apostles wanted to have fellowship with the believers—this is horizontal fellowship; then the apostles stated that their fellowship was with the Triune God—this is vertical fellowship.
４
We should be vertically fellowshipping with the Lord and, at the same time, be horizontally fellowshipping with one another.
５
Eventually, in this divine fellowship God is interwoven with us; this interweaving is the mingling of God with man.
６
We must realize that when fellowship disappears, God also disappears; God comes as the fellowship.
Ⅲ
Our fellowship is deepened through the cross:
A
In the whole universe there is only one thing that takes away all the obstacles between God and us—the cross.
B
Verse 6 of hymn #737 in Hymns says, "Fellowship is deepened / Thru the cross of death; / Fellowship is lifted / By the Spirit's breath"; without the Spirit and the cross, we cannot have real fellowship.
C
The first line of Hymns, #279 says, "First the blood, and then the ointment":
１
The blood is a strong sign of the cross, and the ointment is a type of the all-inclusive, compound Spirit.
２
These two elements are mentioned in Leviticus 14:6-10 and 14-18; in this portion of the Word, we are told that a leper, signifying an unclean sinner, is to be cleansed first by the blood; upon the base of the blood, then the oil, the ointment, is applied:
ａ
The blood and the ointment are applied to the lobe of the leper's right ear, to the thumb of his right hand, and to the big toe of his right foot; the ear signifies our listening to the word of God, the hand signifies our doing the things of God, and the foot signifies our taking the ways of God.
ｂ
Spiritually speaking, leprosy is composed of the wrong hearing, the wrong working, and the wrong walking; because we are lepers, we need first to be cleansed by Christ's redeeming blood, and then upon the blood we need the anointing oil.
ｃ
Consummately, our cleansing is by the divine fellowship of the Spirit based upon the cleansing blood of Christ.
D
The divine fellowship is the dispensing of the Triune God into us, the tripartite men, making us and God one; the Greek word for fellowship means "joint participation," and this joint participation issues in oneness:
１
Actually, fellowship is just oneness; when God is fellowshipping with us, and when we are fellowshipping with God, that makes God and us one.
２
In the whole universe there is a big oneness, and this big oneness is the divine fellowship.
３
The Lord desires to make us all one as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one; in John 17 the Lord prayed, "That they may be one, even as We are one" (v. 22b); the church's oneness is a part of the divine oneness of the Divine Trinity (v. 21a).
４
Eventually, the church and the Divine Trinity are one in fellowship—14:21, 23.
E
We must experience the cross in order to be thoroughly in the divine fellowship:
１
Because there is an obstacle within us toward another brother, our fellowship with him is not that thorough; we may avoid contact with certain saints because of the obstacles within us to the divine fellowship.
２
Our fellowship is not thorough, and obstacles remain within us because we do not have the cross in our experience—Gal. 2:20a.
３
Hymns, #631 says, "If no death, no life"; this means, "If no cross, no Christ"; furthermore, "If no Christ, no Spirit; and if no Spirit, no fellowship."
４
In Matthew 16:24 the Lord said, "If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me"; the Lord used the words his cross, indicating that there is a particular portion of the cross for each one of us in order to cross each one of us out.
５
Actually, to bear the cross is to deny the self, to put the self to death, to apply the cross of Christ to the self all the time.
６
In order for us to have the horizontal fellowship, we need to deny ourselves; to deny ourselves means to be senseless about ourselves; then we can never be offended.
７
We need the experience of the cross to deepen our experience of the divine fellowship— cf. 1 John 1:9.
Ⅰ
The divine fellowship is the flow of the divine life (1 John 1:3; Rev. 22:1), as illustrated by electricity and by the circulation of blood in the body. Just as appliances live an "electrical" life, we live a life of fellowship. The Spirit is the "blood" in the Body of Christ, and the circulation of this "blood" is the fellowship of the Body of Christ. Without the fellowship of the Body, the Body becomes a corpse.
Ⅱ
The divine fellowship, the flow of the divine life, mingles us with the Triune God for His corporate expression (vv. 1-2; 21:23; 22:5)—the Father being the light of life, the Son being the tree of life, and the Spirit being the river of life.
Ⅲ
The flowing Triune God, the divine fellowship, causes us to become the New Jerusalem—John 4:14b.
Ⅳ
The flow of the divine life, the divine fellowship, causes us to become precious materials for God's building—Gen. 2:10-12, 22.
Ⅴ
The divine fellowship, the flow of the eternal life, is the issue of drinking the Lord, and the flow of fellowship, the overflow of life, is the stream of the work of God—John 7:37-39:
A
The work in the flowing of the divine life, the divine fellowship, is not a burden but a rest; what we must do is just go along with and subject ourselves to this flowing.
B
Is the flow of the divine life, the divine fellowship, flowing within you today? Is it flowing within you at this very moment? "Not where we elect to go, / But where Jesus leads the way, / There the living waters flow, / There our darkness turns to day"—Hymns, #907, stanza 1.
Ⅵ
The divine fellowship, as the issue of God in His faithfulness, causes us to participate in, to partake of, and to enjoy Christ in His all-inclusiveness as the solution to all the problems in the church (1 Cor. 1:9). We should focus on Him, not on any persons, matters, or things other than Him so that all the problems among the believers may be solved. God is faithful to take away all of our idols (such as our health, safety, peace, possessions, etc.), which replace God, and to lead us into the enjoyment of Himself as the divine fellowship.
Ⅶ
The divine fellowship, as the circulation of the Spirit in the Body, includes all of the Spirit's person, work, and processes (2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 1:19; Exo. 30:22-25). The Lord's uplifted humanity, the element of crucifixion, and burial, the resurrection, the ascension, the authority, the lordship, the headship, the flowing Spirit of reality, and all the divine realities are included in this stream, this flow, of the divine fellowship (Rev. 22:1).
Ⅷ
The divine fellowship, the flow of the eternal life, is deepened within us in and for the house of God as we give this flow the preeminence and are measured by the Lord, which is to be tested, examined, judged, and possessed by the Lord—Ezek. 47:1-12.
Ⅸ
The fellowship of the apostles is the interwoven fellowship of the apostles and the believers with the Triune God vertically and of the apostles and the believers with one another horizontally—Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3.
Ⅹ
The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the transmission and circulation of the Triune God with the grace of Christ as the course and the love of God as the source—2 Cor. 13:14.
Ⅺ
We must exercise our spirit (Phil. 2:1) and keep our heart with all vigilance (Prov. 4:23; 1 John 3:19-21) in order to experience the divine fellowship, the flow of the eternal life.
Ⅻ
Psalm 23:6 says, "Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me / All the days of my life, / And I will dwell in the house of Jehovah / For the length of my days." Goodness refers to the grace of Christ, lovingkindness refers to the love of the Father, and follow implies the fellowship of the Spirit. This enjoyment ushers us into the enjoyment of God in the house of God, where we will dwell for the length of our days—in the present age, in the coming age, and for eternity.