The Assembly of God. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. III — John Shaqi
The Assembly of God. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. IIIMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
The Assembly of God. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. III
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Theology
We shall be done with a body of sin and death, and be clothed with a
body of glory. We shall be done with a sinful, sorrowful, distracting
world, where all is directly opposed to God and to us, and we shall
breathe the pure, invigorating atmosphere of that bright and blessed
world above.
For, in so far as our fellowship is real, it is now as it shall be then,
"with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ"--"in the light," and by
the power of the Holy Ghost.
Thus much as to our fellowship with God. And, as regards our fellowship
one with another, it is simply as we walk in the light; as we read, "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 John i. 7). We can only have fellowship one with another as we
walk in the immediate presence of God. There may be a vast amount of
mere intercourse without one particle of divine fellowship. Alas! alas!
a great deal of what passes for Christian fellowship is nothing more
than the merest religious gossip--the vapid, worthless, soul-withering
chit-chat of the religious world, than which nothing can be more
miserably unprofitable. True Christian fellowship can only be enjoyed in
the light. It is when we are individually walking with God, in the power
of personal communion, that we really have fellowship one with another,
and this fellowship consists in real heart enjoyment of Christ as our
one object, our common portion. It is not heartless traffic in certain
favorite doctrines which we receive to hold in common. It is not morbid
sympathy with those who think, and see, and feel with us in some
favorite theory or dogma. It is something quite different from all this.
It is delighting in Christ, in common with all those who are walking in
the light. It is attachment to Him, to His person, His name, His Word,
His cause, His people. It is joint consecration of heart and soul to
that blessed One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own
blood, and brought us into the light of God's presence, there to walk
with Him and with one another. This, and nothing less, is Christian
fellowship; and where this is really understood it will lead us to pause
and consider what we say when we declare, in any given case, "such an
one is in fellowship."
But we must proceed with our Epistle, and there see what full provision
there is for the man of God, however dark the day may be in which his
lot is cast.
We have seen something of the importance--yea, rather, we should say the
indispensable necessity of "a pure conscience," and "unfeigned faith,"
in the moral equipment of God's man. These qualities lie at the very
base of the entire edifice of practical godliness which must ever
characterize the genuine man of God.
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