My younger cousin shared a relatively familiar scripture in an IG story recently. I have been meditating on it for a couple weeks now.

1 John 1:7 (KJV)  "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin".

I am learning that the themes of fellowship and light run throughout this first chapter of 1 John. A beautiful declaration of the consequence of Christ’s life, sacrifice, and resurrection here on earth and His ascension back to heaven: shared fellowship with the Godhead and one another. Christ restored to all people what was lost in Eden: fellowship – communion, intimacy, participation – with God (1 John 1:1-3). This fellowship with God is the context in which we have unbroken fellowship with one another.

I have been challenged in my relationships (as often happens when we dare to meditate on God’s Word), asking questions like: What is my relationship with Truth? Where am I walking in darkness? How do I know I am in darkness? This chapter leads me to believe that broken fellowship is the evidence of walking in darkness, lying, and not doing the truth. So what is the condition of my fellowship with the Lord? With my spouse? Children? Other family members? Friends? Brothers/sisters in Christ? Ministry partners? Coworkers? I confess that there are relationships in which I have been fighting the person instead of contending for the relationship in prayer and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead me in my behavior toward them. No wonder the relationship is not healthy! I have chosen darkness rather than walking with Jesus in the Light where we can clearly see and be restored to fellowship with God and others because confession and forgiveness of sin happens in the light (1 John 1:7 & 9). Repentance is enacted in the Light. How beautiful!
 
Sometimes we avoid the light for fear that confession and repentance will make us look small, inferior, weak. Our pride is wicked and robs us of our right to fellowship as image bearers of the Most High. Of course we are inferior and weak compared to the King of Glory, the Master Creator and Sustainer of the Universe! But that is not what we fear, is it? No. We fear how others see us and how we see ourselves in comparison to others. Darkness! When we choose pride and the fear of man, fellowship with God is broken first and foremost. David said, “Against thee only have I sinned, and done evil before thee.” (Psalm 51:4) It is the goal of our enemy, Satan, to keep us ensnared in darkness, separated from our Maker and Lover of our souls, and at odds with or indifferent toward each other. Let us contend in the Light to restore and maintain fellowship – unity, intimacy and communion – to the Glory of God!