A Witness of the Eternal Fellowship

John, the apostle of love, is a witness of the eternal fellowship between the Father and the Son.

Marcelo Díaz

I have something from the Lord to share with you. Let us see look in the first epistle of John, and the first verses.

The love and authority of John

When one reads John's letters, one realizes that they are lines filled with love and grace. They are written from a heart that loves the brothers and sisters. He speaks uniting God with the brethren. You know that John says: " If any one say, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar". John proves that love for God is in loving the brothers. If you don't love the brothers and sisters, you don't love God. These declarations hit hard upon our hearts; they are radical.

There are several verses like this in John's letters. They are abundant in love, crammed with the sweetness and "stickiness" of brotherly love. However, they contain an authority that is surprising radical, for example: "He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in the darkness until now" (1 Jn. 2:9). " Every one that hates his brother is a murderer" (1 Jn. 3:15) "... But whoso may have the world's substance, and see his brother having need, and shut up his bowels from him, how abides the love of God in him? (1 Jn. 3:17), " If any one come to you and bring not this doctrine, do not receive him into the house, and greet him not (2 Jn. 10). See also, 1 Jn. 3:10; 4:7; 4:20; 3 Jn. 9, 10.

If we examine these verses, we will see how penetrating, concrete and radical they are. They manifest the personality that is behind them.

John, as a man who was dealt with by God, manifests his zeal and an aspect of his personality that we don't easily perceive in his writings. So much of his letters are impregnated with fondness and affection that we inadvertently skip over the admonishments, the zeal, the force, the authority, and the firmness with which he speaks.

John had a very special personality which God took hold of and used for His purpose. God took His Son's life and put it in John. He used John's characteristic features, characteristic of his personality for His purpose. And in that operation, He put John at the service of the churches.

Remember the episode that Mark's gospel narrates, in which it mentions that the Lord called James and John the 'sons of the thunder '. Why did He give them that name? Because it was a characteristic of their personality. Do you also remember when the Lord wanted to enter a Samaritan city and they didn't want to receive Him? In that moment John and James reacted, requesting the Lord's permission to make fire fall from heaven to consume those men. If it had been Peter it would not surprise us, because we know of Peter's impetuosity. But it was John and his brother. Who would do such a thing nowadays? Would anybody dare to request such a thing as that? Well, the Lord did reprehend that attitude.

Another detail from the gospels tells us that John and James are referred to as the sons of Zebedee, thus implying the importance of the figure of this father. Perhaps he was somebody important and influential not only socially, but especially in the life of these two brothers. We can deduce from these passages that John probably grew up under a dominant and protective father; this, combined with the concern of a fearful mother (remember how the mother came to Jesus with her two sons asking for the privilege that they might reign with the Lord), and his individual character, gave a resultant personality that was self-assured, competent, decisive and radical.

The image that we commonly have of John is the figure of a young apprentice; the youngest of the apostles, a silent, shy and passive type. But judging from the details that we commented on, John was a man of strong, impetuous and radical character, who stuck close to the Lord wanting to be the closest of all the disciples to Him.

So brothers and sisters, we must be very careful in wanting to change brothers to the same pattern of human personality. Be careful when you say: "This brother has to change". The truth is that I don't know if he has to change. Perhaps it is something that the Lord wants to redeem and to use for His glory. God expresses His diverse grace, His wisdom and power through the diverse features and the children of God's personalities. He did it with John, James, Peter, Paul and all the apostles. And He will also do it with each son of God.

A witness of the Father and Son's fellowship

John, for all his persistence, was the one who saw the beautiful fellowship between the Father and the Son. His gospel begins with this fellowship. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God". This expression, the "Word was with God", in the Greek insinuates that the Word was turned toward God, looking face to face with God, illustrating how that fellowship was and is.

The Father and the Son are contemplating one another; they are looking, admiring and loving one another. They are conversing, they are intimate; the Father and the Son, in a perfect fellowship of love. I can imagine the Son admiring His Father, saying in His heart: "Oh, how wonderful my Father is", yearning to be even closer to His Father. Looking at Him without getting tired, contemplating Him and attentive to each and every one of His words and actions.

And what of the Father? If when one contemplates his son, his heart feels proud, how much more does the Father, who is fully satisfied with Him, converse with the Son of His love? What could be more perfect, more abundant, more overwhelming, or more divine than the fellowship between the Father and the Son. The Father loving Him and having perfect pleasure in His Son. The Son admiring and yearning after His Father. How beautiful! I think that our heart, and even our spirit, cannot reach or measure the fullness of what the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son means. Eternally the Father, eternally the Son.

And John says: "That which was from the beginning", that is to say, the fellowship in eternity between the Father and the Son, "and declare to you". John wants to pass this fellowship on to the brothers and sisters. Then he progressively writes about how that fellowship has come down to the earth from heaven.

He says: "which we have heard". The first action of attention is to hear. This is because the apostles began to hear about this fellowship, perceiving it from afar; they drew closer and closer to hear about the divine dialogue. Something was heard. John wants to capture all our senses to perceive this fellowship. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Then he says: "which we have seen with our eyes...". After having heard, we want to see. Quickly our eyes look for the object of our attention. The eternal fellowship begins to descend from heaven. The Scripture says: "God was manifested in the flesh... seen by angels", insinuating that the angels were eye witnesses, when seeing the fellowship of the Father and the Son in the person of Jesus Christ descend. The ladder in Jacob's vision (Jn. 1:51; Gen. 28:12) was willing, and the Son began to descend, and in Him, the eternal fellowship of God.

"Which we have looked upon...". When all our senses are guided toward a single point, and the spectacle takes place, all the details can be appreciated; the whole body is prepared, attentive, to contemplate the beauty of what is being presented. The apostles, for three long years, contemplated this fellowship.

Then he tells us: "And our hands have handled concerning the Word of Life". And here is the most concrete expression of God. John was a very sensory person. He always tried to get closest to the Master, to the point of reclining back against his bosom. That's why he says, "our hands have handled". John touched the Lord, he felt Him with his hands, felt His aroma, felt His heart beat. He heard, he saw and he handled the fellowship of the Father and His Son.

That's why John, was full able to say: "This is the fellowship that we declare to you". And from now on his speech is always in the plural. Because he was not the only witness of this fellowship; all the disciples that followed Him, all those to whom God the Father has revealed this mystery are also witnesses.

In other words, John wants to tell us: "Brothers and sisters, know that this fellowship is the same one that the Father has had with the Son, and that the Son has had with the Father. Know that when we listen to one another and we meet together, it is the fellowship that we have had with the Son, and that the Son has had with the Father which have been manifested and has made its dwelling place in us". Brother, when you embrace and love your brother, you embrace and love the Father's fellowship with the Son. That's why he says: "Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ".

John finishes by saying: "These things we write to you, that your joy may be full". In his second letter, verse 12, it says: " Having many things to write to you, I would not with paper and ink; but hope to come to you, and to speak mouth to mouth, that our joy may be full ". When is our joy full? When the brothers and sisters see one another face to face. The same as in the beginning, the Word was with God; the Word was face to face with the Father. The fellowship of the Father and of the Son is expressed when the brothers and sisters are face to face, looking at one another, touching and loving one another. When we look at each other face to face, the fullness of God is present and our joy is made full.

The Son's dependence on the Father

Now, let us advance a little more into this fellowship. The Son's example is indispensable in our actions as children of God. John 5:19-30 shows the Son's dependence on what the Father says and does. " The Son can do nothing of himself save whatever he sees the Father doing: for whatever things he does, these things also the Son does in like manner ". Here is the practical definition of what fellowship is: "not to do anything by oneself".

Let us look at three examples of the Son.

The first one is at the weddings of Cana, John 2:1-11. In this situation, the circumstances merited Jesus coming to his mother's aid. Well, Jesus was not governed by the circumstances nor the urgency of the situation, but by fellowship with his Father. And when the Father spoke and began to work, only then did the Son speak and execute God's working. " What have I to do with thee, woman? mine hour has not yet come ". This is the fellowship of God; not to do anything by oneself.

The second passage is in John 7:1- 9. Jesus' brothers ironically pressured him to be present at the feast of the tabernacles (not even his brothers believed in him.) The scenario was perfect for attracting attention to Himself; there was a great deal of pressure on Him, and the atmosphere was tense. However, once again, the Lord looked to His Father. He contemplated His Father and didn't react. Thus, He learned subjection. "The Son can do nothing of himself". "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready".

Finally, John chapter 11. The Lord's intimate friends needed him. It was something urgent; a matter of life or death. The desperate women pleaded for His presence. But once again, Jesus looked to His Father and His Father delayed two more days before answering. The story is well known. Jesus, after three days had past, risked being misunderstood, of being considered a bad friend, irresponsible and unfaithful.

Brothers and sisters, this shows that the fellowship of God is something practical and real. He regulates us face to face. The Father and Son's fellowship is expressed in our fellowship. The will of God is expressed in His body which is the church.

How many things do you do for yourself? How many of them come from you, are born of your ideas and are expressed by you? How many of those things did you talk through? In how many of those situations did you consult someone, share those ideas with others so that they became a form of fellowship with others? How many decisions have you taken that don't include the fellowship of the body, of the Father and the Son? If this is your case, don't jump up, don't say anything. Learn how to remain silent, don't walk by your own initiative. If you don't agree, if you are not in fellowship with the brothers and sisters, with the others, with those who are different from you, with whoever is sat next to you now, then don't move, because the Father and Son's fellowship is not being expressed in you. If you move by your own initiative, you run a great danger, the danger of walking by yourself and in your own will, far from walking in the Father and Son's fellowship.

Love bears all things

I will finish with the following: a verse that struck my heart during these last days. It is a declaration of the Lord's beloved. Song of Songs 1:13. This is the book that is able to teach us the most about union and fellowship with the Beloved. Here is a principle regarding the intimacy of the two lovers.

The church makes this principle its own. The principle of love. The church sees its Lover as a bundle of Myrrh that rests on its breast. Myrrh - a herb of death- is that which rests on the heart of the church. They offered the Lord this herb, thus announcing His death; they gave him it to drink on the cross, and then, as an ointment, preparing His burial. This teaches us that the relationship between the church and the Son goes through the cross, through self-denial, through death. It means allowing the other to prevail. It goes through love: love " bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things ". So our relationships are governed by this principle.

The Son suffered being separated from the Father; the Father suffered giving up His own dear Son. This is the fellowship that we have received from the Father and from the Son. He who truly loves, will suffer. More than once he will cry because of that love, and that will hurt. But if that pleases the Son's and Father's heart, blessed suffering!

John suffered in his old age; he suffered exile, solitude, apostasy. Being a witness of the decadence of the church which he had served for so many years was his suffering. "He who loves... is born of God, because God is love"

Thank you, Lord!