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Faith in the Communion
of Saints
What Is the Communion of Saints?
Those who received the salvation from
all their sins by believing in the truth that Jesus is God Himself,
and in the baptism that He received and the blood of the Cross,
are the ones who have joined the family of God. As Ephesians 2:19
states, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household
of God.” The righteous have fellowship with each other.
There Is a Precondition to the Communion of Saints
with God
Before we hold communion with the
other saints, there must first be the communion with God. This is
why the latter half of 1 John 1:3 states, “Truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
That’s right! There must first be
the communion with the Lord. For there to be the communion with
the Lord for us, we must first receive the remission of our sins
by believing in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit that
He has given us. Why? Because the Lord is the Holy One who is sinless.
Those who thus have the right relationship
with the Lord first by receiving the remission of sin can have the
right fellowship with the other righteous persons as well. The saints
who have been saved through the baptism and blood of the Lord can
have fellowship with God, on their above, and, at their sides, with
their fellow saints. The God-given salvation enables us to have
fellowship with God, and with the fellow saints as well. In other
words, because of the works of the baptism of Jesus and the precious
blood of the Cross, we, who had been God’s enemies before, have
now come to serve Him as our own Father by first being forgiven
of all our sins. And furthermore, we have to come to forgive, understand,
and have fellowship with one another when we admit the works of
Christ that has perfectly removed the blockages among us.
The Core Essence of the Communion of Saints Is the
True Gospel and True Love
By giving the righteousness of the
salvation of His baptism and His bloodshed of the Cross to those
who believe, Jesus declares, “You have now received the remission
of your sins.” The One who thus told us is the Lord. And He admonishes
us to love the Lord, and to live with the fellow saints in peace
also. The Apostle Peter, who had disobeyed the Lord before but was
forgiven, explained his joy by saying, “And above all things
have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude
of sins’” (1 Peter 4:8).
That’s right! As trees and grasses
grow when watered, and the saints grow by the fellowship with each
other, by the Word, and by the love of God.
From Acts 2:46-47, we can see the
beautiful lives that saints of the Early Church had lived: “So
continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread
from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity
of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And
the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”
Not every Christian who professes
to believe in Jesus actually believes in the true Jesus. This means
that those who do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit
given by Jesus, and therefore do not believe in it, are not saints.
As such, the true forgiveness and fellowship can only be possible
within the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 states, “Two
are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him
who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. Again,
if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be
warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand
him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
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Let us all put our efforts into the
communion of saints, looking at ourselves to see if any of us has
been left alone and ostracized.
The works and burdens you have to
bear may be too much for you. Then, you have to share your problem
with you fellow saints, for “you are not able to perform it by
yourself” (Exodus 18:18). And Matthew 18:20 states, “For
where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there
in the midst of them.”
There is an orient saying, “When there
is peace in the family, everything is fine.” Taking a step further,
we can say, “When there is peace among the saints in God’s Church,
everything indeed is fine.” When the saints are at peace with God,
everything works out. It is when we first have peace with the Kingdom
of the Lord that we can have peace in our homes and with each other.
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