V. The Johaxnine writings.— Assuming that the books which bear the name of John came from the Apostle, we may consider them together, for tliey bring before us the conditions of a later period. The Gospel and the Epistles at lea.st are the mature work of one who seeks to set before his readers the mind of Christ, after t'.e attempt had been made for half a centuiy to work His teaching into actual life. Much must be taken for granted. The visible Chui'ch is one ; the old problem of Jewish and Gentile sections is a dead issue. Now the Church is face to face with the world. Two spiritual forces are opposed — the realm of light over which the Son of God rules, and the world of darkness organized and directed by the Prince of Evil. Error concerning the Person of Christ, and lack of love of the brethren, are disinteOTating the Christian society. So the author takes his readers to the fountain of Christian fellowship, and allows them to taste its quality as it was enjoyed by the disciples of Jesus, whoi'u having loved He loved unto the end (Jn 13-17). These discourses illuminate the Lord's Supper, and the feet- washing serves as a noble approach to it. There are two prominent aspects of the Eucharist as interpreted by John : {a) tliat it is a feast for the spiritual nurture of the faithful (6'^-^) ; {b) that it sets forth the love of the Lord, and so becomes a love-feast of brethren. Love is the note of the conversations. Only through the clear atmosphere of love can they see their absent Master. If they obey Him and love one another, He will come to them bringing the peace and tlie joy which He alone can impart (14'-'- ^-"j. So wUl there be, as Loisy says, 'a hierarchy of love,' the disciples loving one another with the new love which springs from their Master, and their Master loving them as the Father loves Him (13^ 11^). These chapters teach respecting Christian fellowship that(i.) its source is God as revealed in Jesus Christ, (ii.) its agent is the Holy Spirit, (iii. ) its condition in the believer is faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ, and (iv.) its fruit is a life of love, joy, and peace among brethren here, and perfect sonship here- after.
Similar conceptions dominate the First Epistle of John. Fellowship with God is the goal of the Christian life (1 Jn !'■■'). Such fellowship comes through knowledge, which is only another aspect of the love of God (4"- '). But sin is a barrier to this fellowship, which would therefore be impos- sible Avere it not that it has been removed by tlie propitiatory sacrifice of Christ (2'- '). No s'in is greater than hate ; and since all love comes from God (4'"), he wlio hatos liis brother cannot love God. If he love God, that love must first have come from God, and stream forth tlirougli the
heart of the believer upon his brother. To live in loving fellowship with the brethren is at once the proof of fellowship with the Father and the ethical condition for receiving it, for only to hearts broadened and deepened by love can God reveal Himself and bring fellowship (4'-- "• -"• -').
This mystic, whose spirit was more responsive than any other to the mind of the Master, opens up the profound depth of that fellowship which the early Christian Church enjoyed, as we have seen, in no inconsiderable measure. Since Christ is the soul of Christian fellowship, it is impaired by lack of truth concerning Him. But truth and love are inseparable. Therefore when we seek for the true unity of the Church of Christ, we must begin by keeping our Lord's great command to love the brethren, and thereby advance with all saints to a true knowledge of Christ.
Looking back through the dim distance we dis- cover the foreshadowings of prophet and psalmist growing clearer, till in these latest lx>oks of the NT we can almost touch the reality on earth in this ideal of the Apostle whom Jesus loved. The supreme poetic description of that fellowship is the city of the King of Love in Revelation, whose citizens see the face of the Lord (Rev 22'-'), the beatific vision for which the psalmists strained their eyes.
The Christian fellowship as it existed on earth in the 1st century was a stupendous creation. Philosophers had dreamed of Utopias. Humane Stoics had taught the brotherhood of man. But all attempts to realize these ideals had been com- paratively ineffective. In the Christian Church, however, aliens and the disfranchised found fellow- ship with those who inherited religious promises and social privilege. Roman and Greek stooped to love the hateful Jew, and the Jew was willing to transfer the sacred name of Israel to Gentiles whose past was unclean. Well-bom and slave greeted one another as brethren, without thereby disturbing social order. A love so compelling as to reverse the national and social values, must have been derived from a Presence altogether transcending the measurements of ordinary human life. Christian fellowship is not to be defined as intercourse glowing with human love at its highest. It is primarily a spiritual communion with the Supreme Person, whose love recreates life and makes it a complete expression of love. So the goal must be, as the writer to the Hebrews says, in the world to come, when Jesus shall have intro- duced His many brethren into the Holy of Holies, where they will, as a compary of the redeemed, hold fellowship with the Father (He 2=- "• " 7=* 1222-24) sge_ further, art. COMMUNION.