Claiming to Have Fellowship with Christ

by Terry Wane Benton

If we say we have fellowship with HIM...

Anyone can claim to have fellowship with God, but the proof is in the way they live. If you walk in darkness, doing the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21), you are not in fellowship with God (I John 1:6).

Walking in the light with God requires a repentance that turns from the old way of life. If you are living with someone in sexual relations before and without marriage, you are "walking in darkness." Fornication is sex before marriage (I Corinthians 7:2; Hebrews 13:4), and no fornicator has any inheritance in the kingdom of God. Don't be deceived! (I Corinthians 6:8f). Saying you have fellowship with God while walking in darkness means only that you are lying to yourself, to God, and to others.

Walking in the light means that you are practicing righteousness and have left the darkness of sin or unrighteousness. You cannot continue in sin that grace may abound (Romans 6:1ff). When we slip up, we confess those sins and get clean again. But, we do not purposely walk in sin as a way of life. If you plan to live together without first marrying, you are planning to sin as a way of life. You cannot claim fellowship with God if those are your plans. Likewise, if you plan to lie, steal, gamble, and drink as a way of life, you are planning not to walk with God in the light. There is no fellowship with God while planning to walk according to the flesh.