I John 5:11-13
“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”
Those who taught Gnostic-type theories did not believe that the person who died on the cross was Jesus Christ the Son of God. They claimed that ‘the Christ’ (i.e. God) descended on Jesus (the man) in the form of a dove after his baptism and empowered him to do miracles, but departed before his crucifixion. According to them, the Jesus who suffered and died was merely a man. He was not ‘the Christ’. In other words, ‘the Christ’ came through water (his baptism) but not through blood (his death).
Eternal life is more than endless living. It includes fellowship with God and living life as God lives. When God gave us life that can lead to lead to eternal life, He gave us something unique, a life different from the one we were living before our calling. At that time, we were “dead” in trespasses and sins because we were living a life that produced death. Those still in the world continue to live this kind of life by nature.
Understanding this fellowship aspect is important to understanding eternal life. “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3). God created humanity for fellowship, and by nature, we seek it out on many levels. The greatest and highest form of fellowship is with God and others who share the common desire to live like God always and whom He is transforming to that end.
An independent Christian could be described as a contradiction in terms. The church is a community fellowship comparable to a body of which Christ is the Head (I Corinthians 12:12-31). Hebrews 10:25 commands us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Fellowship is not just friendly conversation. The Bible reveals it is a tightly knit relationship marked by self-sacrificial love manifested in mutual service, concern, prayer, labor, and helpfulness.
