A Note from Michael Gossett | October 2, 2026

A Healthy Church:

A Church of real fellowship

There is an old story about a pastor who went to see a man who had stopped coming to church. It was a cold evening, and the two of them sat in front of the fireplace for a while without saying much about why the visit was happening. After a long silence the pastor reached over with the tongs, pulled a single glowing coal out of the fire, and set it down all by itself on the stone hearth. Neither man said a word. They just watched. The coal burned bright for a moment, then it began to dim, then it faded to gray, and before long it sat there cold and dark. Still without a word, the pastor picked it up and laid it back in the fire and within seconds, it was glowing again. The man stared at the fire for a long time, and finally said, thank you for your sermon. I will be there Sunday. 

Every one of us knows in our bones that a coal pulled out of the fire goes cold. We were never made to burn alone. The fellowship that Scripture speaks of goes much deeper than just simply being together so your glow won’t flicker out. The Apostle John takes us all the way down to what real fellowship actually is. 

1 John 1:5-7 says, “⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. ⁶ If we say, ‘We have fellowship with him,’ and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. ⁷ If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 

Fellowship Begins with the Lord

John does not begin the idea of fellowship with “needing one another,” although that is true. Before John says one word about life together, he tells us about God’s attributes. “God is light.” Light, in Scripture, carries two things at once. It carries holiness, a purity so complete that there is not a single shadow anywhere in God. Then, it carries openness, the way light exposes and reveals and hides nothing at all. Our God lives in the open. There are no secrets or corners he keeps in the dark. 

John Owen (one of my personal favorite Puritans) wrote an entire book on what he called communion with God. I highly recommend this book. His great point throughout the book was that the Christian life, at its very heart, is a shared life, a real communion, with a Father and a Son, and a Spirit who delight to have us near. Fellowship starts there. Before it is ever about your relationship with the person next to you in church, it is about being drawn into the life of a God who is pure light. We cannot understand what we are supposed to be to each other until we first see the God we have been brought to. 

The Lie of Hidden Faith

Then the Apostle John turns to the con that every one of us is tempted to run. “If we say, we have fellowship with him, and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.” John says that a claim to walk with God, worn over a life lived in the dark, is simply a lie.

Here is where it starts to press in on us. Darkness is more than the obvious sins we commit out in the world. Darkness is also the exhausting work of hiding… Or at least our attempts to do so. It is the easy smile in the lobby while dealing with a marriage that is coming apart at home. It is the reply, “I am doing great” offered by someone who is drowning in depression. A room can be packed with people who gather every single week and are still deeply, painfully alone, because everyone has agreed together to keep the lights turned down so nothing is exposed. James told us to confess our sins to one another and to pray for one another so that we may be healed. The quiet tragedy of the church is that we would so often rather manage our image than be healed. Real fellowship simply cannot grow in a room full of secrets. 

Walk in the Light With One Another

Now here is the turn in the text. Verse 7 says, “If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” Follow John’s logic here, because it really cuts through our instincts. We assume that if people ever saw the real us, the actual condition of our hearts, they would back away. So we stay in the shadows to protect the relationship. John says the opposite thing actually happens. When we step into the light with Christ Himself, we come into the light with each other, and that is the very place fellowship is born. 

Notice that walking in the light is not the same thing as sinless perfection. The very next line is about the blood of Jesus still cleansing in this progressive sense. People who walk in the light are still in need of grace, still in need of washing, and who are still desperate to continually be transformed in the likeness of Christ. Walking in the light means living out in the open, honest before God and unhidden before trusted believers, quick to confess and finished with pretending. That is the moment you stop being an attender and start being known and belonging. C.S. Lewis said that friendship is born at the moment one person turns to another and says, “You too? I thought I was the only one.” That sound is the light coming on in a room where two sinners realize they no longer have to hide from each other. 

The Blood Covers and Allows Belonging

This is really what makes it all safe. The reason you can afford to walk in the light is because “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” The tense of this verse matters. John speaks of the blood that keeps on cleansing, right now, and continually. The blood cleanses it all! This is not a one-time washing at conversion that leaves you to fend for yourself afterward. It is a fountain that has never once stopped flowing. I love the hymn, “Praise for the Fountain Opened” that says, 

“There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.”

That is the ground you are standing on when you finally tell the truth about yourself. You confess from a place of complete safety, because the blood of Jesus has already made you clean and goes right on keeping you clean. Grace is the thing that makes honesty possible. As long as a person believes he has to look impressive, he will keep on hiding. Once he knows the blood of Jesus has covered him, he has nothing left to protect, and he can walk into the light and let himself be known. That is why the most gospel-saturated churches are also the most honest ones. Where the blood of Christ is treasured, the masks easily come off. 

What do you need to do to be in true fellowship? The first step? Get in a Connect Group. That is an easy first step of being in fellowship with other believers. Already in one? Make lasting friendships. Hang out. Pray for one another. Ask real questions. Challenge one another. Grow closer to Christ and closer to one another. 

This Sunday we come to one of the most sobering stories Jesus ever told. Luke 16:19-31 gives us a true picture of reality. He helps us understand what is truly at stake. Jesus pulls back the curtain on eternity and makes us look at what is on the other side. He has hard and urgent things to say and you do not want to miss it. Come ready and I am asking truly…. Invite someone with you. Invite someone you know needs to hear the gospel and needs a relationship with Jesus.

I will see you Sunday at 9:30 or 11:00. 

You are loved and prayed for!

Michael Gossett