359. But if We Walk in the Light!

If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and then our life is extremely good. Satan is crushed under our feet, and love prevails.

But it requires a great degree of vigilance to preserve the spirit of fellowship, light, and love. A little envy, a bit of suspicion about a brother, a small unkindness, or a word of slander is enough to let Satan loose. He will make sure to destroy the good relationship we have with one another. Therefore, each of us must strive to keep Satan under our feet. If we do this, the God of peace will crush Satan under the feet of the church. Rom. 16:20.

There is much that could be said about this which cannot be written down, but each one of us must strive to keep Christ’s commandments pure. 1 Tim. 6:14. Then a “Siegfred Line” is erected in the battle against the powers of evil.

The laws of Christ and a crucified flesh will, with faithfulness and love to the Father and Son in the power of the Holy Spirit, bind us together in an unshakable oneness within the body of Christ. This is the church, “From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” Eph. 4:16.

One member alone is not an entire body! There are many members. God set the members in the body as it pleased Him so that we, through one another, would learn to bear with one another and receive the help that Christ, by grace and gifts, gives in measure to each one for inner edification.

But when Satan comes, division comes. The inner help that was measured to each member is fractured to splinters, and the body becomes unbalanced. This can be avoided if each member of the body chooses to suffer rather than sin. In the span of five minutes you can say so much evil that not even five years can heal the broken fellowship or re-establish a relationship of trust.

Christian assemblies that are unfamiliar with this glorious fellowship in the Spirit are not familiar with these glorious laws that function in the body, because the body is still not formed. These assemblies meet together, but when they go from one another, they still remain people who have only known each other after the flesh. This type of relationship gives very little nourishment. Paul said, “Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.” 2 Cor. 5:16. To know the Lord is to be one spirit with Him. It is the love in the Spirit that is the binding force of the body of Christ on earth.

We must learn to walk considerately and prudently in the church of the living God.