7 - 10 minutes readSection 1: Fellowship with God means walking in the light, which is the truth of God, leading to fellowship with other believers

Part A. The Claim of having Fellowship with God among non-believers

In this part, I am going to seek to clarify how the idea of fellowship with God is found among those who do not believe in Christ before addressing how our fellowship, us who believe, leads us to have fellowship with each other. Our passage is 1 John 1:6-7.

If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin (vv.6-7).

NOT EVERYONE WHO SAYS ‘LORD, LORD’ WILL ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD

The idea of claiming to be in fellowship with God is found sometimes by those who do not believe in Christ. As strange as it may sound that those who do not believe in Christ can claim such fellowship, it is true because the scripture deals with that. Though their claim is false. For instance, the Lord Jesus taught that there are people on the day of judgment who will be cast away who claimed to have known the Lord by the virtue of their works of casting out demons and prophecies and miracles.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

The Lord makes it clear that the only way one would enter the kingdom of God is by doing the will of the Father in heaven. Now, there are those who say “Lord, Lord” and mistake the will of the Father in entering the kingdom by faith in Christ with casting out demons, prophesying, and performing miracles in the name of the Lord. They think to themselves that because they have done such things in the name of the Lord then the Lord should grant them entry into the kingdom. The key thing to note here is “in the name of the Lord” because they are many things that people do in the name of the Lord.

Example 1: False prophets tend to speak presumptuously in the name of the Lord deceiving those who are naive. So, what we can note here is that those who do not do the will of the Father use the name of the Lord as a stamp of approval for their evil-doing before the people they are deceiving. We have those who claim to be prophets today and use the name of the Lord to carry out their works. They boast in their prophesying, claiming closer fellowship with God that no one else has.

Now, is casting out demons, and prophesying and performing miracles evil? No. The Lord Jesus cast out demons. He performed many miracles. The Lord Jesus is Lord of biblical prophets and the very prophet the scripture foretold (see Deut 18:17-19, cf. Heb 1:1-3). His works of miracles and casting out of demons by the Spirit of the Lord was the way of showing that the kingdom of God has come unto us.

And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? 27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house (Matthew 12:26-29, KJV).

So those things are not evil in themselves.

THE INVASION OF WHAT IS TRUE BY THE DECEIVERS

The point then in this judgment of the Lord ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ shows that those things (casting out demons, prophesying, performing miracles) are used as the means for these evildoers in carrying out their evil works. They hide as messengers of light in order to deceive. And the only way they do that is to use the name of the Lord and invade the things done by the Lord among the people, to show that if they can do such things then they must be from the Lord and people should believe them. The conclusion we can make then about these people cast away from the presence of the Lord is that what they were doing is not from the Lord. Their works of casting out demons and their prophecies and performing of miracles are put on display that there were not from the Lord. Just because they did those things in the name of the Lord does not mean they came from the Lord or the Lord approved of their works. The Lord warned of false prophets in Matthew 7:15-20. We are also told that the lawless one will come with many counterfeit miracles. Here is the full message from Paul the servant of the Lord:

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, ¹⁰and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. ¹¹For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie ¹²and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. 2 Thess 2:9-12, NIV

Now, here are some points to remember:

• Since the Lord affirms that Satan cannot cast out Satan, and the evildoers are cast away though they claim to have cast out demons in the name of the Lord, it shows that their work was counterfeit.
• Since the Scripture affirms that the lawless one will come with his works in accordance with the works of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, those who are cast away from the presence of the Lord though they claim to have done miracles in the name of the Lord, shows that their works were counterfeit

This is the reason why we are told to test the spirits:  “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world( 1 John 4:1, ESV).” The Holy Spirit will be consistent with the testimony of Christ so as to bring glory to Him: “He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you(John 16:14, NIV).” We have the mind of Christ made known to us by the Holy Spirit in the Bible.

Example 2: We can see the principle in those who try to do good works in the name of the Lord as the way to enter the kingdom of God. They also mistake the will of God for entry into the kingdom as doing good works.

THE FOCUS OF THE TEACHING OF OUR LORD

The focus of the teaching of the Lord is for us to know that saying “Lord, Lord,” casting out demons, and prophesying in the name of the Lord are not the ways one could enter the kingdom. If that is not the way, what then is the way one could enter the kingdom? The Lord says, “not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom,'” which means there are some who will enter the kingdom who say, “Lord, Lord” but they enter on this basis: they do the will of the Father who sent Him. What then is this will of the father? The people in John 6 account asked the Lord Jesus this question: “What must we do to do the works God requires?”Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28-29, NIV). This means God is calling us not to do the works we think would earn us the kingdom but to believe in the one He sent, who is Christ Jesus. We are people who are oriented to doing things in order to get something, this destroys our foundation of having things. At the point, we thought we would be told to do A and B we are told just to put our faith in God. It looks simple but it removes pride from a man because it is God who saves by His grace not our works (John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-10).

The story to remember on this account of faith in Christ as the entry into the kingdom of God

John 3:1-15

3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. ²He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”³In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

⁴“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” ⁵Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

⁹“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

¹⁰“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹²I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man. ¹⁴Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. NIV