the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
We have fellowship one with another. - 1 John 1:7.
THERE is a fellowship belonging to all the people of God. Wherever they live, they are all “fellow-heirs of the grace of life;” they are all “partakers of the heavenly calling;” they are all in the same bond of the gospel; they are all interested in the common salvation, redeemed by the same blood, justified by the same grace, sanctified by the same Spirit, kept by the same mighty power of God, and destined to the same everlasting kingdom. Therefore, whatever distinctions may prevail among them, they are all one in Christ Jesus. But this is not the fellowship referred to here.
There is a fellowship existing between God and his people, and this is what John means here; there is a mutual participation,-a mutual intercourse; they “have fellowship one with another,” so that “in all their afflictions he is afflicted.” They feel pain when his name is dishonoured, and they are sorrowful for the solemn assembly; he rejoices over them, and they rejoice in him; he ennobles them, and they love to honour him; he is their God, and they are his people, and all that is his is theirs. It is by this that we are to judge of them, and not by their adventitious and external circumstances. The world often despises them, and they think very little of themselves also; but God prizes them.
Could we have seen the tabernacle in the wilderness, we should not have seen it externally very splendid; no, it was covered with goats’ skins, and the skins of badgers dyed red: but if we had entered-within, we should have seen there the tables of the law, the altar of incense, the mercy-seat, and the glory of God shining above it. So it is here. John says, “We have fellowship one with another;” “Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.”
O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. - Psalms 139:1-4.
WHAT a preservation from sin would the continued reflection of this solemn and important fact prove. The eye of a fellow-creature-yea the eye of a child-would be sufficient to restrain some from many a sin, how much more the eye of God. The thief would never steal the goods while he saw the eyes of the owner upon him, but “his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings; there is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.” “Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.” We never committed a secret sin in our lives. “Thou hast set my secret sins in the light of thy countenance.” What a check to insincerity in all our religious concerns also would such a reflection prove. We may deceive our fellow creatures, our fellow Christians, our ministers, but “God is not mocked.”
“Nothing but truth before his throne
With honour can appear,
The painted hypocrite is known
Through the disguise he wears.”
And what an excitement would this be to duty! How does the eye of the commander-in-chief animate the soldier in action? How does the eye of the master stimulate the servant. We therefore read of “eye-service;” service performed while the servant knows the eye of the master is on him. The master cannot have his eye always upon his servant; but as to the God we serve, we are continually with him.
The heathen philosopher recommended as a moral maxim to his pupils always to imagine, wherever they were, and whatever they were doing, that the eye of some distinguished individual was upon them. What was the eye of Cato compared with the eye of the Eternal God? God therefore said to Abraham, “Walk thou before me and be thou perfect.” See how you move; I have you under my eye; I can see if you turn back; if you turn aside; if you lie down; if you stand still; if you look back; if you even seem to come short. “Walk before me, and be thou perfect.”
A Christian endeavours to realize this, and the thoughts of God are with him; not only frequently but pleasantly, and indeed they are frequent because they are pleasant. Therefore he can say with David, “How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand; when I awake I am still with thee.”
