There is a great need today in the church for an understanding of broken fellowship. As personal workers, we must be qualified to efficiently deal with those who have broken fellowship with the Father.
Fellowship is the very heart of Christianity, yet little is known or taught about it in the churches. We have only known it as backsliding, but backsliding and backsliders are incorrect terms. They are not scriptural. We should never use them.
A person does not backslide from the new birth. He loses his fellowship with the Father and his Master. Few have known the distinction between relationship and fellowship. A man who has broken fellowship has not necessarily lost his relationship. Fellowship is easily broken by us, yet only God can break up our relationship.
One cannot annul his own marriage. The law that married a man must unmarry him. However, a couple may destroy their fellowship and wreck the joy of marriage.
The most important thing in human and divine relationship is to maintain fellowship.
So little has been understood about it that many have broken their fellowship and call themselves backsliders, considering themselves as lost.
They do not realize how quickly and easily their relationship may be restored.
There are two classes of those who are out of fellowship. One class includes those who have no desire to come back to the Father. This is usually due to the fact that they have never really known the joy that comes from the fullness of fellowship with the Father and His Son.
“Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). The chief joy of the Christian lies in fellowship with God. If the fellowship is rich and strong, then faith becomes healthy and robust.
Many who have been born again have not been taught their place in Christ. They do not understand their privileges in Him. Many who have broken fellowship have never known their place as actual sons and daughters of God. (See 1 John 3:1; Romans 8:14–17.) They did not know that they have become the righteousness of God.
They did not know that in Christ, they were free from the dominion of sin and Satan. (See Romans 6:10; Hebrews 2:14.)
Nothing has caused children of God to lose fellowship more quickly than ignorance of the Word of God. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6).
God’s children have lived in broken fellowship because they have been destroyed by lack of knowledge of the Word. No one would desire to continue in broken fellowship if he knew what his privileges in Christ were.
Sin would not keep him in broken fellowship, for sin is no longer a problem to God’s child. It has been put away in Christ.
To one who is afraid of the power of sin over his life, Hebrews 9:26 shows that sin has been adequately met and destroyed through redemption. It originated in Satan, but he has been brought to naught as far as the new creation is concerned. (See Hebrews 2:14.)
Show to the one who has no desire to come back into fellowship what he is forfeiting: a walk upon earth with all the privileges and joys of an actual child of God, and the Father’s care and protection over his life.
There are certain Scriptures that you may use in your personal work with this group as the Holy Spirit leads you: Jeremiah 2:19; Proverbs 14:14; 1 Kings 11:9; and Luke 15:13–17.
The other class of people who are living in broken fellowship are those who desire to come back to the Father but do not know how.
Show to this group that they have not broken their relationship, but their fellowship. They are still God’s children. Their condition is described in 1 John 1:5–10. In their condition of broken fellowship, they are walking in darkness, and they are not without sin.
However, God’s redemption in Christ has made provision for them. They have an advocate with the Father. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).
Although they have lost their standing, there is One in heaven who is there for them, on their behalf.
He is on an equality with God. He is security for them. They may have their fellowship restored instantly by confessing their condition and asking forgiveness.
Many here will say, “I have done that. I ask Him continually to forgive me.” Here the difficulty lies in the fact that they are mentally assenting to the Word.
You must bring them to a point of action upon it. Show them that the Word, which declares that they are in darkness and with sin, declares that the moment they confess their sins, they are forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness. You must point out to them that what God says is, regardless of their feelings.
The moment they confess their sins, God forgives them and forgets them. Show them that “believing” is thanking the Father for forgiveness, and forgetting the past. The Father forgets what He has forgiven. We must forget it too.
Use Luke 15:11–24, the story of the prodigal son, to show the attitude of the Father toward His child who has been living in broken fellowship and the glad way in which He receives him back.
The real need of this group is to be brought from the realm of mental assent into the realm of action upon the Word of God.
Have them read this Scripture aloud until it works in their lives:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
This is God’s remedy for broken fellowship. No one need remain in broken fellowship any longer than it takes to ask forgiveness.
There are many Scriptures that reveal the readiness of the Father to receive those who have been living in broken fellowship.
In the old covenant, we see in many Scriptures God’s tenderness manifested toward Israel at times when they had broken their fellowship. At times, the Holy Spirit may lead you to use these: Hosea 14:1–4; Jeremiah 27:11–13; Jeremiah 3:13, 22; Isaiah 43:22–25; Isaiah 44:20–22; Deuteronomy 4:28–31; and 2 Chronicles 7:14.
After showing one how to restore his fellowship, always give to him instructions for the maintenance of fellowship.
In our next lesson, we shall study instructions that should be given to the one who has just become a child of God, for his walk with the Father.
These instructions will be the same ones that we may give to those who have restored their fellowship with the Father and the Master.
QUESTIONS
- Why should we never use the terms “backslider” or “backsliding”?
- Show the difference between relationship and fellowship.
- What are the two classes of those who are living in broken fellowship?
- What would you show to one who has no desire to restore his fellowship?
- How would you deal with one who said, “I have asked Him to forgive me many times”?
15
Instructions to Give to Those You Have Led to Christ
In our last lesson, we studied how to deal with those who had broken fellowship with the Father.
A large number of those who find Christ in evangelistic services lose fellowship with the Father afterwards because sufficient instructions from God’s Word were not given to them.
Never leave a person whom you have led to Christ without clearly instructing him as to his place in Christ.
These instructions must also be given to one whose fellowship has been restored, that he might know how to maintain that fellowship.
If, at the time when you lead one to Christ, time will not permit your giving these instructions, if possible, visit the person or endeavor to contact him that you may instruct him in the Christian life.
Follow-up work is very important. Whenever it is possible, always keep in contact with those who have been born again through your ministry.
There are three main points that we should cover in the instructions that we give to the new man in Christ. Hold these three factors in your mind and endeavor to cover them sufficiently and clearly. The three phases are:
- Show him his place in Christ.
- Show him how to meet temptation.
- Show him how to maintain his fellowship with the Father and the Master.
After you have led a man to Christ, show him what he has become through his action upon the Word of God.
A knowledge of what God has made us at the new birth does not come to us through our emotions. It comes through the Word alone.
The first need of the one who has been born again is the renewing of his mind. When a man becomes God’s child, his spirit receives the life of God.
His mind, which had been darkened, blinded, and controlled by spiritual death, must be renewed by God’s Word.
Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)
Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. (Ephesians 4:23)
A man’s mind is renewed as he learns of what he is in Christ. The renewing of his mind should begin at the moment he is born again.
Show the one who has been born again just what has taken place in his life.
Use Colossians 1:13 to show him that he has been taken out of the realm of spiritual death, Satan’s family, into the realm of life, God’s family.
Explain that his spirit has received the nature of God (see 2 Peter 1:4) and he has become an actual child of God and joint-heir with Jesus Christ. (See Romans 8:14–17.)
Use John 17:23 to show that the Father loves him as He loves Christ.
Use 2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 Corinthians 1:30 to show him his standing before God.
Show him his privileges of prayer as given in John 14:13–14; 15:7; and 16:23–24.
Satanic forces will attack the newborn babe in Christ, so explain to him the spiritual warfare that is arrayed against us.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)
However, make clear that these are conquered enemies and cannot defeat us. Use Hebrews 2:14 and Ephesians 1:21–23.
Satan may attack us through temptations, but show the one with whom you are dealing, definitely and positively, how to be free from sin’s dominion.
For this purpose use Romans 6:6–11. Explain that every attack of the adversary is met by the Word. If he will stand upon the Word of God, making it his confession in times of temptation, sin cannot have dominion over him, for its power has been broken through Christ.
Explain that every temptation is a bluff of the adversary.
It is also very important to give instructions for the maintenance of fellowship.
In this, reading and meditation in God’s Word cannot be stressed too highly.
Broken fellowship always arises if one stops feeding upon the Word. The Scriptures are our Father’s message to us. It is the food for our spirit. We live by it. “Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3; see also Matthew 4:4). It works in our lives, building us up, and making us strong in Him. (See 1 Thessalonians 2:13.)
In order to maintain a high type of fellowship, time must be set aside daily for a study of the Word and prayer, communion with the Father and the Master.
Always stress the importance of testimony. Use Revelation 12:11. Our growth may be measured largely by the strength and frequency of our confession of Him.
The present ministry of Christ must also be shown. Many are prone to consider that Christ’s ministry for us ended at the time that He arose from the dead and ascended to the Father.
Explain that Christ’s ministry did not end then, but that it merely became enlarged. Christ is giving Himself for us and is living for us today in as much reality as He did when He died for us.
It is very necessary to explain Christ’s ministry as our Advocate:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1–2)
Many times, Satan causes us to stumble, to say and do things that break our fellowship with the Father and the Master.
Explain that if he does fail, or break his fellowship, he need remain in that condition no longer than it takes to ask forgiveness.
Many break their fellowship and continue on in it, the breach becoming greater because they do not know that Christ is man’s Advocate, praying for him at the Father’s right hand.
We have given here a great deal of material and many Scriptures. Your reading this lesson through once will not equip you to successfully instruct the new man in Christ. You must study it carefully until these truths and Scriptures master you.
Perhaps you will not have time to give all of these truths to the individuals with whom you are dealing. However, give as much of it as you can. Perhaps it will take several conversations to cover it.
Of course, the one to whom you are giving these Scriptures cannot remember them all. Therefore, always carry with you a small notebook and paper and be ready to write for him the references of all the Scriptures that you give to him.
You will find that you may give these instructions not only to those who have just become Christians, or to those who have restored broken fellowship, but also to those who are living defeated Christian lives.
QUESTIONS
- Why do many who are saved in evangelistic services never go on?
- After you have led one to Christ, what is your responsibility toward him?
- What would you give to show the new Christian his place in Christ?
- How would you show one his victory over sin?
- What instructions would you use to show one how to maintain his fellowship with the Father and Master?
E. W. Kenyon, Personal Evangelism: 22 Lessons to Effectively Share the Gospel (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 2025).