Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 John 1:3

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship [is] with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

3. That which we have seen and heard ] In returning to the main sentence he repeats a portion of it. The ideas of the first half and of the second half of the main sentence are not the same. In 1Jn 1:1 he is thinking mainly of what he has to declare, viz. One existing from all eternity and intimately known to himself: in 1Jn 1:3 he is thinking mainly of why he declares this, viz. to promote mutual fellowship.

declare we unto you ] Add, also; ‘you as well as we’, or possibly, ‘you as well as others, who have already been told’, must have a share in the good tidings. Comp. ‘We cannot but speak the things which we saw and heard’ (Act 4:20). Where does S. John declare Him who was from the beginning and was so well known to him and to others? Not in this Epistle, for no such declaration is found in it; but in the Gospel, which consists of such a declaration. We shall miss the purport of the Epistle if we do not bear constantly in mind that it was written as a companion to the Gospel. Parallels between the two abound: in what follows we have a striking one. Note the sequence of ideas: 1. the evidence on which their conviction was based, ‘have seen’; 2. their declaration of these convictions as Apostles, ‘bear witness’; 3. their declaration of them as Evangelists, ‘declare’.

that ye also may have fellowship with us ] Comp. ‘that they may be one, even as We are’ (Joh 17:11). Christ’s prayer and S. John’s purpose are one and the same. See on 1Jn 1:4. ‘Ye also’, who have not heard, or seen, or handled.

fellowship ] Or, communion; almost always used of fellowship with persons (1Co 1:9) or with things personified (2Co 6:14). The word is rare in N. T. outside S. Paul’s writings. It “generally denotes the fellowship of persons with persons in one and the same object, always common to all and sometimes whole to each” (Canon Evans on 1Co 10:16). This is S. John’s conception of the Church: each member of it possesses the Son, and through Him the Father; and this common possession gives communion with all other members as well as with the Divine Persons.

and truly our fellowship ] Or, yea, and our fellowship: there is a double conjunction in the Greek, as in Joh 6:51. The Apostle will tell them what ‘fellowship with us’ really means: ‘but our fellowship is not merely fellowship with us; it is fellowship with the Father and the Son’ (Joh 14:23). The ‘our’, like ‘eternal’ in 1Jn 1:2 is very emphatic: ‘the fellowship that is ours, that we enjoy’.

His Son Jesus Christ ] This full description is given for solemnity; and also perhaps to bring out the idea of which the Epistle is so full, that Christians are all one family, and in their relation to God share in the Sonship of Christ. Comp. ‘God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord’ (1Co 1:9).

The fulness of the expression (comp. 1Jn 3:23) is not so apparent in the English as in the Greek, which literally rendered runs thus; is with the Father and with the Son of Him, Jesus Christ. Both the preposition and the definite article are repeated, marking emphatically the distinction and equality between the Son and the Father. Thus two fundamental truths, which the philosophical heresies of the age were apt to obscure or deny, are here clearly laid down at the outset; (1) the distinctness of personality and equality of dignity between the Father and the Son; (2) the identity of the eternal Son of God with the historical person Jesus Christ.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you – We announce it, or make it known unto you – referring either to what he purposes to say in this Epistle, or more probably embracing all that he had written respecting him, and supposing that his Gospel was in their hands. He means to call their attention to all the testimony which he had borne on the subject, in order to counteract the errors which began to prevail.

That ye may have fellowship with us – With us the apostles; with us who actually saw him, and conversed with him. That is, he wished that they might have the same belief, and the same hope, and the same joy which he himself had, arising from the fact that the Son of God had become incarnate, and had appeared among people. To have fellowship, means to have anything in common with others; to partake of it; to share it with them, (see the notes at Act 2:42); and the idea here is, that the apostle wished that they might share with him all the peace and happiness which resulted from the fact that the Son of God had appeared in human form in behalf of men. The object of the apostle in what he wrote was, that they might have the same views of the Saviour which he had, and partake of the same hope and joy. This is the true notion of fellowship in religion.

And truly our fellowship is with the Father – With God the Father. That is, there was something in common with him and God; something of which he and God partook together, or which they shared. This cannot, of course, mean that his nature was the same as that of God, or that in all things he shared with God, or that in anything he was equal with God; but it means that he partook, in some respects, of the feelings, the views, the aims, the joys which God has. There was a union in feeling, and affection, and desire, and plan, and this was to him a source of joy. He had an attachment to the same things, loved the same truth, desired the same objects, and was engaged in the same work; and the consciousness of this, and the joy which attended it, was what was meant by fellowship. Compare the 1Co 10:16 note; 2Co 12:14 note. The fellowship which Christians have with God relates to the following points:

(1) Attachment to the same truths, and the same objects; love for the same principles, and the same beings.

(2) The same kind of happiness, though not in the same degree. The happiness of God is found in holiness, truth, purity, justice, mercy, benevolence. The happiness of the Christian is of the same kind that God has; the same kind that angels have; the same kind that he will himself have in heaven – for the joy of heaven is only that which the Christian has now, expanded to the utmost capacity of the soul, and freed from all that now interferes with it, and prolonged to eternity.

(3) Employment, or cooperation with God. There is a sphere in which God works alone, and in which we can have no cooperation, no fellowship with him. In the work of creation; in upholding all things; in the government of the universe; in the transmission of light from world to world; in the return of the seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, the storms, the tides, the flight of the comet, we can have no joint agency, no cooperation with him. There God works alone. But there is also a large sphere in which he admits us graciously to a cooperation with him, and in which, unless we work, his agency will not be put forth. This is seen when the farmer sows his grain; when the surgeon binds up a wound; when we take the medicine which God has appointed as a means of restoration to health. So in the moral world. In our efforts to save our own souls and the souls of others, God graciously works with us; and unless we work, the object is not accomplished. This cooperation is referred to in such passages as these: We are laborers together ( sunergoi) with God, 1Co 3:9. The Lord working with them, Mar 16:20. We then as workers together with him, 2Co 6:1. That we might be fellow-helpers to the truth, 3Jo 1:8. In all such cases, while the efficiency is of God – alike in exciting us to effort, and in crowning the effort with success – it is still true that if our efforts were not put forth, the work would not be done. In this department God would not work by himself alone; he would not secure the result by miracle.

(4) We have fellowship with God by direct communion with him, in prayer, in meditation, and in the ordinances of religion. Of this all true Christians are sensible, and this constitutes no small part of their special joy. The nature of this, and the happiness resulting from it, is much of the same nature as the communion of friend with friend – of one mind with another kindred mind – that to which we owe no small part of our happiness in this world.

(5) The Christian will have fellowship with his God and Saviour in the triumphs of the latter day, when the scenes of the judgment shall occur, and when the Redeemer shall appear, that he may be admired and adored by assembled worlds. Compare the notes at 2Th 1:10. See also Mat 19:28; Rev 3:21.

And with his Son Jesus Christ – That is, in like manner there is much which we have in common with the Saviour – in character, in feeling, in desire, in spirit, in plan. There is a union with him in these things – and the consciousness of this gives peace and joy.

(There is a real union between Christ and his people, which lies at the foundation of this fellowship. Without this union there can be no communion. But a union with Christ in these things, i. e., in character and feeling, etc. is nothing more than the union which subsists between any chief and his followers; and why the apostle Paul, or others after him, should reckon this a great mystery, is not easily comprehended. Eph 5:32; Col 1:27. For a full view of the subject, see the authors notes, with the supplementary note at Rom 8:10.)

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

1Jn 1:3

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you

The gospel ministry; its spirituality, motive, and object

Our text presents a work, a motive, and an object.

A work to declare Christ unto you; a motive, to become your spiritual benefactors; an object, to bring you into fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

I. A personal and experimental knowledge of Christ eminently fits us to declare him unto you. This is our work, and for this experimental qualification there can be no substitute; neither training, learning, nor natural talent may be put in its place. Spiritual knowledge and experience is a mighty power here; without it, all is feeble.

1. It implies a revelation of Christ. The age for personal manifestation is passed away; this book supplies its place. This is the Christ we declare–a Divine Christ, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

2. It implies real and experimental knowledge of Christ. We have seen Him, not with mortal eyes, but by spiritual sight, seen Him through an adapted medium, as set forth in revelation, as apprehended by faith; seen Him so as to know, love, and trust in Him.

3. It implies appreciation. We have handled Him, heard with our own ears, seen with our own eyes; handled with our own hands, and tested with our senses, and now we appreciate Him as Saviour. He has saved us–we feel it, we know it. As such, we present Him to you; we appreciate Him as able to do all things for us: what He has done, guarantees ability to do all that is needful. Being justified by His death, we shall be saved by His life.

II. In declaring Christ to you, we are moved by a sacred and divine feeling of benevolence.

1. It is love. The love of Christ constrains us. That love is without parallel or comparison; it was love to enemies, and manifested in intense suffering. I enjoy the benefit of it; I want you to do the same.

2. To this we are moved by sympathy. We know your state; we see you strangers and aliens from God; we know your woes, disappointments, and dissatisfaction; yes, and we know your danger–we were once in the same state. We have found great spoil, we want you to come and share it; we have found great joy, we want you to come and be glad with us; we have found Christ, we want you to find Him too: hence we declare Him unto you.

3. In this we are moved by a sense of duty. Thus it becomes a motive here. Every servant has work to do. Christ bids us preach, we may not be silent; the Church requires the gospel, and we must preach it; the world is perishing for lack of knowledge, and we must teach it. A field, waste and desolate, lays at our feet–we must cultivate it; souls are in danger, and we must not parley nor trifle.

III. In a spiritual participation and fellowship with the Father and the Son, the wants of man are met.

1. We have fellowship with Christ by faith; this meets our necessity as sinners.

2. We have fellowship in labour and honour; this meets our wants as probationers.

3. We have fellowship in blessedness; and this meets our necessities as sufferers.

4. We have fellowship in the things of eternity; and this meets our necessity as immortal beings. (C. Talbot.)

The testimony of the beloved disciple to the person and offices of Christ:

I. THE PREEMINENT SUBJECT OF THE APOSTLES INSTRUCTIONS. In the expression, That which we have seen and heard, he briefly recapitulates that which he had more fully described in the first verse. His subject, then, was Christ, the Word of life. He preached the eternal Word as being absolutely and in Himself the possessor of life.

II. The purpose and object which he had in view when he thus declared the nature and offices of Christ. His desire was that the privilege which he himself enjoyed might be shared by all the people of God. That which we have seen, etc.

1. St. John was not only an apostle, but a peculiarly distinguished and favoured apostle; yet this exalted office did not induce him to lose sight of that which he was in common with all the other children of God.

(1) By declaring Christ he sought to promote a fellowship with himself in judgment.

(2) The apostle also desired by his instructions to promote, on the part of those whom he addressed, a fellowship with himself, and with other believers in affection.

(3) The apostle moreover desired the fellowship of others with himself in the enjoyment of Christian privileges.

2. But the beloved apostle states the reason for which he desired that others might be joined in fellowship with himself. It was because fellowship with him involved that highest of blessings–fellowship with God.

(1) It implies a reciprocity of mutual affection and love.

(2) This sacred and mysterious fellowship comprehends also a reciprocity of mutual interests.

(3) The fellowship of believers with the Father and the Son consists, moreover, in the freedom of mutual intercourse.

III. The subject may suggest several practical topics of reflection.

1. If we are partakers of this sacred fellowship, we need not regret the absence of those opportunities of seeing and hearing the incarnate Saviour which St. John enjoyed.

2. Nor must it be forgotten that this fellowship must be a personal and individual experience,

3. It is further worthy of remark, that this fellowship has an assimilating effect on those who partake of it.

4. Nor must the happiness of this Divine fellowship be forgotten. Trials may depress the natural spirits; but the soul which maintains fellowship with the Father and the Son shall rejoice in the Lord, and that joy shall be its strength. (J. Hill, M. A.)

Gods message to be declared

We ought to speak out the messages given us for others. God puts something into the heart of every one of His creatures that He would have that creature utter. He puts into the star a message of light, and you look up into the heavens at night, and it tells you its secret. Who knows what a benediction a star may be to the weary traveller who finds his way by it, or to the sick man lying by his window, and in his sleeplessness looking up at the glimmering point of light in the calm, deep heavens? God gives to a flower a mission of beauty and sweetness, and for its brief life it tells out its message to all who can read it. Wordsworth says:

To me the meanest flower that blooms can give

Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

Especially does God give to every human soul a message to deliver Each friend of Christ living close to Him learns something from Him and of Him which no one has learned before, which he is to forthtell to the world. (J. R. Miller, D. D.)

An influential testimony

Before the Australian goldfields were opened a party of experts were sent to explore the district. They made their survey, and sent in their report that gold would be found. But somehow nobody was greatly interested. Some time after some lads came from the Bush to Melbourne with some lumps of yellow ore in their pockets. Why, said those to whom they showed it, thats gold; where did you get it from? Oh, said they, theres plenty of it up our Way. Next morning everyone who could was off to the diggings. As witnesses to Christ our lives must show we have the nuggets. (The Railway Signal.)

The charm of testimony

A report of a report, says Manton, is a cold thing and of small value; but of a report what we have witnessed and experienced ourselves comes warmly upon mens hearts. So a mere formal description, observes Spurgeon, of faith and its blessings falls flat on the ear; but when a sincere believer tells of his own experience of the Lords faithfulness, it has a great charm about it. We like to hear the narrative of a journey from the traveller himself. In a court of law they will have no hearsay evidence. Tell us, says the judge, not what your neighbour said, but what you saw yourself. Personal evidence of the power of grace has a wonderfully convincing force upon the conscience. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, is better argument than all the Butlers Analogies that will ever be written, good as they are in their place. (Proctors Gems of Thought.)

The argument from experience

The validity of such an argument lies on the surface. It is useless to tell the famishing wanderer that the pool into which he has dipped his cup is but a mirage of the desert, when the refreshing fluid is already moistening his parched lips. (J. Watson, M. A.)

Experience helpful to a teacher

The pictures of struggling poverty which enriched the early writings of Dickens with such freshness of original humour and quite unstudied pathos, and which gave them such sudden popularity, he had witnessed when he lived in Bayham Street, Camden Town. They came with all the dewy novelty of one who had seen every detail continually and could wondrously reproduce it. (W. M. Statham.)

That ye also may have fellowship–Fellowship in Christ

The knowledge of Christ is the basis of fellowship. If, like the apostle Paul, we can say, It hath pleased God to reveal His Son in me, we will, after his example, assay to join ourselves to the disciples.

I. It is the believers privilege to have fellowship with the Father. He has been enabled to behold God in the light of a Father, and to cherish towards Him the feelings of a child. And herein consists the essence of the fellowship which he maintains with Him. As a child has near access to his father, so has he to God. This privilege, and the grounds of it, are set forth with peculiar richness in the Divine word (Heb 4:14-16; Heb 10:19-22). These gracious words and powerful arguments are put into our mouth by God Himself, that we may approach Him with all the confidence of children. As a child enjoys the assurance of his fathers favour, so has the believer that of God. He knows he is sinful and unworthy, but he believes that in Christ he has redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. As a child cherishes the love which he bears to his father, so does the believer toward God. He feels the force of that irresistible appeal (2Co 5:20-21). He must say, We love Him because He first loved us. In a word, the believer is exhorted, delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. And this is the height of the fellowship to which he should aspire–to be able to say, We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let it not be forgotten, too, that it is a duty as well as a privilege to maintain it, and there are many ways in which it may be done. We should have fellowship with God in His works. So had David when he said (Psa 8:3-4). How blessed to look on all the works of nature, and say, My Father made them all. We should more particularly seek to hold fellowship with God in His Word. His will is more plainly revealed there, as well as His character and government. We may have similar fellowship in the ordinances of grace. In them we may pray (Psa 106:4-5). It would be alike our duty and wisdom to say with the Psalmist (Psa 27:4). So also should we see and hear Him in the dispensations of His providence. Whatever they may be, joyous or sorrowful, we should recognise their author and learn their lessons.

II. The fellowship of the believer with his son Jesus Christ. In the text this is pointedly distinguished from that which has been already considered. Nor is it difficult to perceive the reason of the distinction. Fellowship with the Father can be held only through Christ. He has said expressly, I am the Way–no man cometh unto the Father but by Me. On the other hand fellowship with the Son is direct. The reason is that He has taken our nature, and converses with us in it. He was in the beginning with the Father. He is therefore possessed of all Divine perfections. His wisdom is unerring, His power almighty, and His love infinite. This is the Being who came to us in the capacity of a Saviour. Again He is described in His humanity. He was seen, heard, and handled. He assumed that humanity for the very purpose of qualifying Him to be the Saviour of men. He has felt all that man can feel. He has the sympathy of a brother. Especially He endured all the sorrows of humanity. He suffered from poverty, neglect, reproach, injustice, and cruelty. He agonised under mental grief, as well as bodily tortures. He was tried by temptations the most harassing and powerful. Well, therefore, does He understand our trials. Not merely, however, is He described in His deity to encourage our confidence, and in His humanity to assure us of His sympathy, but in His office also as the Word of Life, He has eternal life as the Saviour of men. It is His to dispense it to sinners. He says to all who believe in Him, Because I live ye shall live also. Surely if we are encouraged to have fellowship with the Father, we may be specially encouraged to maintain it with His Son Jesus Christ. There is everything in Him to invite us to cultivate it.

III. The fellowship of believers with one another. If we have fellowship with the Father, then we are His children, and are animated by their spirit. If we have fellowship with Jesus Christ, then we are His redeemed ones, and the subjects of His grace. It follows, therefore, as a necessary consequence, that wherever there is fellowship with the Father and the Son, there must also be fellowship with those who believe in them. What, then, is the fellowship of believers? Let the apostle Paul reply (Eph 4:4-6). The communion arising out of such unity must be universal, and pervading throughout all who are bound by it. They are one in Christ Jesus, and we just name some of the forms in which their fellowship will appear.

1. They have a community of nature. They are all partakers of the Divine nature, and obey its impulses. Their tastes and habits are therefore alike heavenly.

2. They have a community of views. They can all say, To them that believe Christ is precious, the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely.

3. They have communion in feelings. Loving Christ, they love one another (1Jn 5:1).

4. They have communion in joy and sorrow (1Co 12:26). As it is with the members of the body, so it is in the church.

5. They have communion in the kind offices of brotherly love (1Co 12:21).

6. They have fellowship in the progress of true religion.

7. They have fellowship in the prospects of heaven and eternity (1Pe 1:3).

It ought to be the aim of believers to cultivate such fellowship as this. There are many reasons to enforce it.

1. One is their own good (Psa 133:1-3).

2. Another is the advancement of religion on the earth. Jesus prayed (Joh 17:21).

3. And to these let it be added, that it is vain to speak of fellowship with the Father and the Son if we have not fellowship with one another. Wherever one of these is they must all be. They are inseparable. They will all be found, too, in an equal measure. (James Morgan, D. D.)

Christian fellowship

I. The privilege.

1. A peculiar state of blessedness, in relation to God, described by Paul, as this grace wherein we stand (Rom 5:2). This is the true kingdom of God on earth–a restoration to the knowledge, favour, and image of God, not perfectly, but really and extensively. Tis the state of men elevated above all low, earthly, and grovelling desires; maintaining sweet and sanctifying intercourse with God, as their Father in Christ.

2. The means of its realisation.

II. The mutual relationship essentially involved in this fellowship.

1. One holy brotherhood is established among all saints. The various characters of their several occupations, the diversity of their mental capabilities, the distance of their several residences, and other circumstances, preclude continual and intimate intercourse. But while even on earth it is not wholly so, and might be much less so than it is, all these circumstances of earth shall, in the future state, be wholly unknown.

2. A prevailing sympathy actually subsists among all the true followers of Christ; differing indeed in intensity, but real, and, if healthy and Scriptural, rising above the narrow and temporary distinctions which obtain among men.

III. The duties devolving on Christians as brethren in Christ.

1. The cultivation of brotherly love is obvious and paramount. A oneness of experience creates mutual interest in all by whom such experience is shared. Their feelings, as they resemble our own, encourage our hope and strengthen our faith.

2. The cultivation of mutual intercourse is an obvious and natural obligation devolving on all the brethren.

(1) As individuals. All should remember the beautiful and imperative law of heaven, Be courteous.

(2) Social intercourse, too, will not be disregarded.

3. Mutual aid is obligatory, and this both in temporal and spiritual matters.

4. Mutual supervision is also incumbent on Christians with the view of preventing, or reclaiming from spiritual delusion. (J. Richard.)

Fellowship

If two of us know one thing we are thus far in fellowship, and this may be and often is the closest tie which can bind men together for good or evil. We see this if we think of two men knowing of a crime, or of the hiding place of a treasure. The bond, too, is strong just as the thing known is great. Here the tie which makes us one with the apostles is the knowledge that life has come into our dead world, and that this life may be ours. No knowledge can be of greater value to us than this. To share it, is the closest bond that can join us to each other, for all Who have it are therefore among the living and not with the dead (Joh 17:3). To know, then, what St. John knew is to have life as he had it: it is to know God, in so far as we can know Him, as God knows Himself, to have no false thoughts of Him, and thus to have fellowship with Him, in clearly seeing that He is holy and just, but also that He is full of love and of boundless pity. This knowledge, once gained, brings with it a joy, which St. John tells us we share with all those who have that knowledge. (C. Watson, D. D.)

The internal basis of Christian fellowship

Thus the final and highest positive end which St. John aimed to attain by his gospel was this, that the high priestly prayer of Jesus (Joh 17:21) should have its fulfilment in his readers; that they

(1) should grow as living members into that fellowship, the mother-stem and centre of which was the disciples themselves–into that fellowship the members of which among themselves were one, but the common unity of which

(2) has its internal ground of life in the unity in which every individual stands with the Father and the Son. It is obvious, accordingly, that the two members of this final statement of the design do not simply stand side by side in external conjunction, but are most internally and livingly one. The latter specifies the internal living ground and principle of life, on which the former grows, and on which alone it can be brought to perfection. (J. H. A. Ebrard.)

Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ—

Believers communion with the Father and Son

1. Union. This is the basis of communion. Believers are united to the Father and the Son, and the Father and the Son to them.

2. Community.

(1) Of enjoyments. The Lord is ours, and we are His.

(2) Community of affections. The Lord and His saints have the same affections, running in the same channel, fixed on the same objects.

(3) A community of interest. The Lord and saints have the same ends, the same friends and enemies.

(4) Community of privileges. It is His privilege to be omnipotent, and the saint Paul glories that he can do all things, Christ strengthening him. It is the Lords privilege to be omniscient, yet He vouchsafes some shadow of this to us, when He promiseth the Spirit shall lead us into all truth (1Jn 2:20). It is His privilege to be all-sufficient. And what does He promise less to us, when He assures us we shall want no good thing? (2Co 9:8). And as we partake of the privileges of the Father, so also of the Son. He is king, priest, and prophet, and so are we. Again, Christ is the Son of God, and so are we. What honour is this! (1Jn 3:1). Christ is the heir of all things, and we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17). Christ is the object of His Fathers love, and so are we (Lev 26:11). Christ is the glory of God, the brightness of His glory, and we are the glory of God (Psa 11:10). Christ is a judge, and so are we (1Co 6:2-3).

3. Familiar converse.

(1) The Lord visits us, and we visit Him (Rev 3:20).

(2) A saint walks with God, and God with him; so He promises (2Co 6:16; Lev 26:12; Isa 43:2). The familiarity of this walking is held forth in this expression (Psa 73:23).

(3) The Lord talks with us, and we with Him; He speaks to us by His Word, by His providence, by the sweet whisperings of the Holy Ghost–that still voice comforts, directs, encourages.

(4) The Lord feasts the saints, and they feast Him (Isa 25:6). And what is that which the Lord counts a feast? (Isa 57:15).

Use 1. If believers have communion with the Father and the Son, then unbelievers hath communion with the devil and his angels.

Use 2. An exhortation to get this fellowship, and continue it.

(1) It is most for Gods glory.

(2) It is best for us. (D. Clarkson, B. D.)

The nature of communion

Men are formed for society. To social enjoyments religion is no enemy. On the contrary, it sanctifies friendship, and renders it subservient for promoting our best interests. No society among men can be compared with the fellowship which every genuine believer enjoys with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. This, in so far as it is enjoyed, is a source of pure and exalted happiness. Its pleasures are not accompanied with the alloy of disappointment. The strong asseveration truly, here used, points out the importance and certainty of what is affirmed. The men of the world are apt to call in question the reality of such an intercourse. In this, however, they are much mistaken. The pleasures which the saints enjoy are the genuine pleasures of life, and the only enjoyments that deserve that name.

I. The nature of that fellowship which believers have with the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Union to His person is part of that fellowship which believers have with the Lord Jesus Christ. So long as they continue in their natural state, dead in trespasses and sins, they can have no fellowship with Jesus.

2. Reciprocal communion is included in the fellowship which believers have with Christ. There is nothing that can be properly called His in which they have not an interest, nor are they possessed of anything which He does not consider as His own. Are they men? He too has assumed the human nature. Is He God? They also, in consequence of His Spirit dwelling in them, are in some measure made partakers of the Divine nature. Their poverty is His, and His riches are theirs. If they bear His reproach, they share also in His honour; if they be conformed unto His death, they have also a part in His resurrection.

3. The fellowship with Christ which believers enjoy includes in it every species of friendly and familiar intercourse.

4. The last thing included in the fellowship believers have with Christ is an interchange of good offices. To Him they are indebted for all the blessings they possess, and for all that they hope to enjoy. Their health, their strength, their time, their talents, their substance, and their influence, when they act in character, are all employed to promote the interest of His kingdom in the world.

II. Some of the advantages which believers derive from their, fellowship with Christ.

1. In consequence of this fellowship, they have the best instruction.

(1) The wonders He reveals.

(2) He opens their dark under standings, removes their unfounded prejudices, and enables them to embrace redeeming truth in all its beauty and simplicity.

2. This fellowship is a source of the most refined delight. They walk in the light of His countenance, in the joy of heaven.

3. The fellowship of believers with Christ is a source of the highest honour. All His companions are kings and priests unto God; more honourable than the most exalted among men.

4. Believers derive many great and precious benefits from fellowship with Christ.

5. This fellowship is in every respect a source of the most exalted happiness.

Lessons:

1. See and admire the condescension and kindness of the Son of God.

2. Let believers learn to esteem and rejoice in this precious privilege.

3. From this subject let believers learn their duty. This will be found always to correspond, in some measure, to the privileges they enjoy. (G. Campbell.)

On communion with God

I. Fellowship with God implies converse with Him. Who does not feel the charm of those hours which are spent in the society of a friend? Of our converse with God, a prominent example is the ordinance of prayer.

II. The fellowship implies in it resemblance to God. In confidential intercourse there must be agreement on the great principles of human conduct. The fellowship also which we have with God implies, as indispensable for its first formation, a desire to resemble Him. The perfections of the Divine nature are offered to our imitation with softened glory in the character of Jesus Christ.

III. This fellowship implies a participation in all the fulness of the Divine bounty. Every noble purpose, every generous resolution that man can form, is given by the inspiration of the Highest. If, then, He hath enabled human friendship to think thus disinterestedly, and to act thus nobly, much more will He manifest the riches of His own love toward those whom He honours in fellowship with Himself. We are filled, saith the apostle, with all the fulness of God. (A. Brunton, D. D.)

Fellowship with the Father and with the Son

Do the saints above enjoy a most intimate fellowship or communion with God and His Son? Saints on earth enjoy fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

I. All true Christians enjoy a kind of fellowship or communion with God and Christ, to which mankind are, in their natural state, total strangers. The High and Holy One, who inhabits eternity, condescends to dwell with those who are of a humble and contrite spirit, to revive the heart of the contrite ones. The inspired writers invariably use the strongest language when they would show the intimate union which subsists between Christ and His Church. He is the Shepherd, and they the sheep; He is the Vine, and they are the branches; He is the Head, and they are His members; He is the Soul, and they are the body.

II. What this communion implies and in what it consists. The original word, which is here rendered fellowship, and which is elsewhere rendered communion, signifies that reciprocal intercourse, or communion, which subsists between beings who are partakers of the same nature, whose moral characters are similar, and who mutually know and esteem each other. It is an observation no less just than common, that like rejoices in like, and where there is no likeness there can be no communion. Thus, for instance, there can be no communion between the inhabitants of the water and those of the air; for what is life to the one is death to the other. But, on the other hand, when persons meet who resemble each other in temper, character, age, and situation, who love and hate the same things, and pursue and avoid the same objects, they readily unite, like drops of dew when brought into contact, and appear to compose but one soul in different bodies. Similitude, similarity of nature, of character and pursuits, must therefore be the basis of all true fellowship or communion. Hence it appears that no creatures can enjoy communion with God and His Son but those who are partakers of His Divine nature, who resemble Him in their moral character, and who love, hate, and pursue those things which are respectively the objects of His love, hatred, and pursuit.

1. Christians enjoy communion with God in the works of creation. They contemplate the universe as a temple in which the Most High sits enthroned; as a body, of which God is in a certain sense the soul; and as we love the bodies of our friends for the sake of the souls which inhabit them, as we are peculiarly pleased with the works of our friends for the sake of the hands which formed them, so Christians are ineffably pleased and delighted with the great work of creation, because it was formed and is filled by their Father and their God.

2. The Christian enjoys communion with God in all the dispensations of His providence.

3. The Christian enjoys communion with God in His Word, read and preached.

4. Christians enjoy communion with God and His Son in the public exercises of religious worship.

5. Christians enjoy communion with God and Christ in the exercise of private meditation, prayer and praise. As children, they have liberty of access to God at all times. (E. Payson, D. D.)

Fellowship

I. The declaration expressed in my text, which contains the whole subject of the apostles ministry. Beyond which they could not go. Nor could greater things be expressed. Our apostle, using the plural number, shows that the whole testimony borne by all the apostles, was one and the same. It was one and the same gospel in each of their mouths. The communion they had with Him they made known. The declaration which they made of this, was to saints. Not to others. No. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. Who are holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. A most noble instance of spiritual generosity. Worthy of imitation by the servants and ministers of Christ in every age. To utter forth the memory of His great goodness. They cannot but act thus, if they have conversed with Him, if they have heard Him.

II. The end and design of the apostle in this. That ye also may have fellowship with us. Church fellowship, which is the communion of saints, is an inexpressible blessing. It consists in imparting to each other an account of what the Lord hath done for our souls. We have fellowship with each other in the same Spirit; with the same Christ; in the same salvation; with the same God and Father; in the same ordinances. We are one family to the Lord. I conceive we may distinguish the real fellowship the apostles had with Christ from what other saints have. They were favoured with personal converses with Christ. They received their knowledge of Him, more immediately and intuitively, from the Holy Spirit. In consequence of which their faith was more simple. All other saints, and we with them, receive the grace of faith and the subject of faith from the written word. That is the glass, and the ordinance of worship, in which we behold the Lord. There was an absolute necessity it should be thus with them. They were to speak and write on every article of faith, and state the same as exactly as it was stated in the mind and will of God.

III. Those with whom the apostles had fellowship. In the first place, the apostle speaks in a very positive manner, and asserts, Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Communion with God–it must be the supreme cornerstone of Christianity. I would here ask, what is communion with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ? The answer is this. It is an unity of mind. So as for God to let in Himself upon our minds, as to give us such apprehensions of His love, as afford us a real, spiritual knowledge of and acquaintance with the same, so as for us to partake of the reality thereof (Joh 14:20). There is a variety of unions in which Christ and His Church are related to each other. There is first an election union, which is that comprehensive one by which Christ and His Church were united together from everlasting. He the Head, and they His members. On this followed a marriage union. Christ and His Bride were set up in heaven from eternity (Pro 8:30-31). There is also a representative union between Christ and the Elect. He represented them and acted for them, as their Head and Surety, in the everlasting covenant. This He gave full evidence of in the fulness of time, when He came into our world, and became thereby one with His people (Heb 2:11-14). There is also a grace union. Mr. Joseph Hussey says, There are three unions in Christ, suited to the three operations of the three persons in God. I mean three unions of Gods children, and all of them before faith, viz., election union, representation union, and regeneration union. Out of all these ariseth a fourth union, which is a union with Christ, distinct from union in Christ; this consists in union and cleaving to Him by faith. There is also a glory union (Joh 17:22-23). This glory union will break forth upon the Church in her resurrection state. Now in consequence of all these unions, there is a proportional communion with all the Persons in Godhead, in the Person of Christ, with the Church.

IV. The truth and reality of this, which is thus confirmed. And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Communion with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, by the Holy Ghost, who dwells personally in the saints, is a most glorious mystery of grace. Nature cannot apprehend it. Sense must have nothing to do with it. None can have the least conception of the nature, the importance, the excellency, the blessedness of the same, but such as are born from above. No. Nor these either, but as enlightened, inspired, and supernaturally lifted up into the true knowledge and enjoyment of the same. Spiritual life is a great mystery, the whole essence of which consists in communion with God. The Father is He with whom we have this communion. The God-Man is the Mediator of all our union and communion with God. The more, therefore, we eye Him, and have our hearts drawn out after Him, and fixed on Him as our centre, so we the more clearly understand the grace of fellowship with God. (S. E. Pierce.)

Communion with God

I. This communion presupposes much. It takes for granted that the suspicions and doubts which by nature encompass us have been removed by the work of the Spirit.

II. The ways in which we have this fellowship are innummerable. In the silence of the individual heart, in the secrecy of the closet, in the social circle where the brethren meet for prayer, in the churches, etc.

III. The consequences of this fellowship are blessed and satisfactory in the highest degree. Sin becomes more and more hateful: the world loses its charm over us, and the flesh its power. (H. W. Graham.)

Fellowship with God

I. First, let us see if it be not so, that we have had, and do have real fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Now we have had fellowship with the Father.

1. In order to have fellowship with any man there must be a concord of heart. Can two walk together unless they be agreed?

2. Again, we have fellowship with God in the object for which the purpose was first formed, namely, His own glory. The highest aspiration of our spirit, when it is most enlarged, is that He in all things may be glorified.

3. And have we not fellowship with Him in the plan by which He effects that purpose? Does it not strike you as being the wisest, the most gracious, the most glorious scheme that could have been devised?

4. And I think we may add, we have fellowship with God in the most prominent characteristics of that plan. Throughout the whole way of salvation you have seen displayed the justice and the mercy of God, each with undimmed lustre. You have seen His grace in forgiving the sinner, but you have seen His holiness in avenging sin upon the substitute. You have seen His truthfulness acting in two ways; His truth in threatening–by no means sparing the guilty; His truth in the promise–passing by transgression, iniquity, and sin. And do not you and I feel we have fellowship with God in this?

5. We have a most Divine and precious communion with the Father in the objects of His love. When two persons love the same thing, their affection becomes a tie between them. Now, there is a tie between God the Father and our souls, for did not He say, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased? And cannot you and I add, Yes, He is our beloved Saviour, in whom we are well pleased?

6. But the word fellowship not only signifies concord of heart, but it implies a carrying out of that concord a little further, in converse or mutual communication. Furthermore, we can say we have had fellowship with God in this respect, that the very thing which is His happiness has been our happiness. That which has been the delight of His Holy Being has been a delight to us. And what is that? say you. Why, doth not God delight in holiness, in goodness, in mercy, and in loving kindness, and has not that been our delight too?

7. And so, also, that which is the Fathers employment is our employment. He doeth good to all His creatures, and we can do good also. He beareth witness to His Son Jesus, and we can bear witness too. The Father worketh hitherto that His Son may be glorified, and we work too. O thou Eternal Worker! it is thine to save souls, and we are co-workers with Thee. And now I must affirm the fact, that we have fellowship with the Son as well as with the Father. In both these matters we are like little children that have begun to speak or learn their letters. We have not yet attained, though I say we have fellowship with the Father; yet how little we have of it compared with what we hope to have! Well, now we have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, I think we can say, for our hearts are united to Him. Yea, Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee. At any rate, it is strange that I should never be happy without Thee, it is singular that I can find no peace anywhere but in Thee. If I did not love Thee, should I have such longings after Thee? Further, we have had some small degree of fellowship with Him in His sufferings. We have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin, but we have carried His cross, and we have suffered His reproach. But our fellowship has assumed also a practical form, in that the same desires and aspirations which were in Christ when He was on the earth are in us now. Oh! we have uttered feelingly the very words of Christ, Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business? And when there seemed to be some insuperable obstacle in the path of our usefulness, we have nevertheless said, My meat and my drink is to do the will of Him that sent me. And yet, further, as I have said, fellowship requires converse. Oh! ye daughters of Jerusalem, have we not had converse with Him?

II. There is, secondly, an affectionate desire, leading to appropriate effort.

1. This affectionate desire is that others might have fellowship with us. Having tasted that the Lord is gracious, it is one of the first instincts of the newborn nature to send us out crying, Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, etc. We wish to gather up all in one, that in everything which is lovely and of good repute, in everything which is happy, ennobling, Divine, and everlasting, you might be made partakers and have fellowship with us!

2. And this desire leads the child of God to make use of an appropriate effort, and what is that? It is to tell to others what he has seen and what he has beard. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

.

Fellowship with God

I. The nature of this fellowship.

1. Partnership, a sharing with another in anything, the possessing of it in common with him. In this sense we have all fellowship one with another; as Englishmen we participate together in the many blessings a bountiful Providence has showered down on our native land. In this sense the merchant too has fellowship with his partners in business–he has the same interests with them, he shares with them in the same gains and losses. Now transfer this idea to the text. What a lofty declaration does it in one moment become! There is a fellowship, it tells us, between the great God and us, a partnership, a sharing together of the same things. And what things are these? There is no limit to this partnership, except that which our finite nature makes on the one hand, and that which His holy nature makes on the other. He sends His Spirit down into our hearts to regenerate them; and then not to leave our hearts, but to dwell and rule in them. We are raised in the scale of being or soon shall be, we know not how high, nearer to God than any other creatures, and made more like Him. And with His nature He gives us an interest in all His glorious perfections. Not only are His mercy and love ours, we may look on His wisdom, and power, and greatness, as ours. They are all pledged for our everlasting happiness.

2. It signifies intercourse, converse, and a free and familiar converse. We make known our thoughts and feelings one to another by outward signs, chiefly by words. We have no other way of making them known. But suppose anyone to possess the power of looking into our hearts, and seeing every thought there as it rises up, and this whether he is present with us or not, then words and outward signs would not be needed; we could speak to him within our own minds, and he would understand us better than anyone besides, more readily and fully. Now God does possess this power, and the Christian knows that He possesses it; and he acts like one who knows it. This fellowship consists, on his part, in the turning of his soul to God, in a habit he has acquired of speaking within himself to God, just as another man speaks by outward expressions to his neighbour or friend.

3. And these two things are never separated. There can be no real communion between Him and us till we are spiritually united to Him, and this union with Him is never real without leading at once to this intercourse and communion. And for both these things we are indebted altogether to the Lord Jesus Christ. In His human nature He stands nearer to us than His Father, and His Father has ordained Him to be the one great Mediator between Himself and us. Through Him we have access to the Father.

II. The ends this apostle has in view, in speaking to us so assuredly of his possessing this blessed fellowship.

1. That we may desire to have our portion with him and the real followers of our Lord. And what a stamp of dignity this puts on the disciples of Christ and their condition!

2. That his fellow believers in Christ may be happier in Him. He thinks first of those who are far off from Christ. We tell you, he says, of this happy fellowship to bring you to desire it; and then he turns round to those who are already near Christ, and says, We tell you of it, that your joy may be full.

3. To save us from self-deception. Almost in the same sentence in which he tells us that we have fellowship with Christ, he warns us against thinking it ours while we have fellowship with sin. God is light, he says, and in Him is no darkness, etc. And is there nothing in this text, some of you may say, for us who long for a share in this heavenly fellowship and cannot obtain it? Yes, there is. It bids you dismiss from your minds the thought that you cannot obtain it. Why are you told of it? (C. Bradley, M. A.)

The doctrine and fellowship of the apostles

I. The knowledge. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you; that which we have seen and heard of the Word of life; the Life; which was manifested; that Eternal Life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us (verses 1, 2). These names and descriptions of the Son undoubtedly refer, in the first instance, to His eternal relation to the Father; of whose nature He is the image, of whose will He is the expression, of whose life He is the partner and the communicator. But this eternal relation–what He is to the Father from everlasting–must be viewed now in connection with what He is as He dwells among us on the earth. It is the man Christ Jesus who is the manifested life. In the midst of all the conditions of our death this life is thus manifested. For He who is the life takes our death. Not otherwise could that eternal life which was with the Father be manifested unto us. For we are dead. If it were not so, what need would there be of a new manifestation of life to us? So He who is the eternal life which was with the Father is manifested to us as destroying this death. He destroys it in the only way in which it can be destroyed righteously, and therefore thoroughly: by taking it upon Himself, bearing it for us in our stead, dying the very death which we have most justly deserved and incurred. So He gives clear and certain assurance that this death of ours need not stand in the way of our having the life of God manifested to us–and that too in even a higher sense and to higher ends than it was or could be manifested to man at first.

II. The communicated fellowship–that ye may have fellowship with us.

1. The object of this fellowship is the Father and the Son. As Christ is the way, the true and living way, to the Father, so fellowship with Him as such must evidently be preparatory to fellowship with the Father. But it is not thus that Christ is here represented. He is not put before the Father as the way to the Father, fellowship with whom is the means, leading to fellowship with the Father as the end. He is associated with the Father. Together, in their mutual relation to one another and their mutual mind or heart to one another, they constitute the one object of this fellowship.

2. The nature of the fellowship can be truly known only by experience.

(1) It implies intelligence and insight. No man naturally has it; no man naturally cares to have it.

(2) There must be faith, personal, appropriating, and assured faith, in order that the intelligence, the insight, may be quickened by a vivid sense of real personal interest and concern.

(3) This fellowship is of a transforming, conforming, assimilating character. In it you become actually partakers with the Father and the Son in nature and in counsel.

(4) It is a fellowship of sympathy. Being of one mind, in this partnership, with the Father and the Son, you are of one heart too.

(5) The fellowship is one of joy. Intelligence, faith, conformity of mind, sympathy of heart, all culminate in joy; joy in God; entering into the joy of the Lord. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)

Fellowship with God

I. The believers fellowship with God is an actual and literal thing, an unfigurative fact, a reality; it is not an idea, an imagination merely, Between God and the believer there is an intercourse of spirit, an interchange of spiritual thought, a community of spiritual feeling, actual, though unseen; a communication on the one hand, and a reception on the other, of positive spiritual influences, comforting, strengthening, and purifying. The mode of this spiritual intercourse we do not profess to describe. But our inability to do this affords no presumption against the fact. We know not even how our own spirits operate upon each other; much less, therefore, how the Divine spirit acts upon ours. Nor do we profess to demonstrate even the fact of this fellowship by any sensible evidence or logical proof; it is a matter of pure consciousness, concerning which we can only testify.

II. Wherein does this fellowship consist? The most prominent idea of fellowship is that of mutual sympathy, reciprocal affection. Yea, just in proportion to the affection of the one party will fellowship be disabled, and anguish increased, by the apathy of the other. In order to be fellowship there must be interchange–a reciprocity of thought and affection. Nothing can constitute fellowship but this: nothing can compensate for the lack of it: not even the most familiar knowledge of God. Take the man who knows Him best, who has come nearest to God in the sense of understanding His works and ways; if he have no love for God, however minute and accurate his knowledge, he has no fellowship with Him. To give then a practical application to this thought, you see the great and only requirement for your individual fellowship with God. You cannot doubt affection on His part, and therefore the only necessity is a reciprocal love on yours. Would you but love God, an instant and intimate fellowship with Him might even now commence.

III. On what grounds must such fellowship of sinners with a Holy God proceed? Will the holy God advance to sinful man? or must sinful man advance to the holy God? In other words, must God compromise His holiness and accommodate it to the moral degeneracy of man? or must man abandon his sinfulness and render fellowship possible by a conformity to the holiness of God? and in either case, how is the common character and sympathy to be produced? And here we point to the Saviours mediation as the indispensable means of our fellowship with God. In Him we have access with confidence through the faith of Him. And it is easy to see how, through Him, this fellowship is rendered possible. Before there can be fellowship there must be peace, reconciliation. But how is this to be accomplished? God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. But still the question returns, How shall man have fellowship with God? Here is reconciliation and pardon; but there must also be congruity of disposition; a reciprocal affection; a common sympathy. Here then is the remedy, the Holy Spirit renews our moral nature, gives us new principles and new dispositions, the possession of which assimilates us to God, and thus enables communion with Him.

IV. How is it to be cultivated? We see that all preventing hindrances have been removed, now point out the appropriating means. It is evident that all our intercourse with God must be by faith; we have no sensible vision of Him; we come into no palpable contact with Him; He is the invisible, the spiritual God. Faith therefore is the only faculty by which we can recognise Him and lay hold upon Him–the life that we live in the flesh is a life of faith in the Son of God. We believe, and through our faith we realise, the thoughts and feelings which conscious presence produces and which constitute fellowship; fellowship is nothing more than the interchange of thoughts and feelings; and that which produces them, which makes the intercourse real, which distinguishes it from mere imagination or sentiment, is faith. But while the holy feelings which constitute fellowship with God are exclusively dependent upon faith, they are capable of various excitements. To produce these is the purpose of the various means of grace. Constituted as we are, we are peculiarly susceptible of sensible impressions; and the means of grace are intended to aid or to occasion holy thoughts, by appealing to our senses. We have the Bible to supply by its teachings material for our communion with God. It is the record which furnishes all our ideas of God, and which faith believes, and by believing which gratitude and love are excited.

V. The advantages and issue of this fellowship with God.

1. Perhaps the most obvious is the promotion of holy affections. It is the peculiar characteristic and glory of Christianity that it provides for the right adjustment and balancing of our feelings. The emotions excited by its truths and privileges are alike removed from fanaticism on the one hand, and from indifference on the other. And this cannot be said of other religious systems. The believers fellowship, while it is the intimate intercourse of the most endeared friendship, is not a rude familiarity. The solemn and subduing sense of God is inseparable from it. It alone exhibits the compatibility of the profoundest reverence and the most trusting confidence; it is reverence, but without dread–it is confidence, but without familiarity–it is awe, but without coldness–it is warmth, but without freedom.

2. Fellowship with God will tend to soothe our anxieties, and to inspire our confidence in the arrangements of His providence. Fellowship implies mutual confidence, and it necessarily ceases when we begin to distrust. Again: Fellowship supposes sympathy, interest in our well-being, and, assured of this, we can communicate our sorrows and unburden our hearts; and who can tell the inestimable advantage of this?

3. Fellowship with God is a most eminent and essential preparative for heaven. It is in part an anticipation of its blessedness: and who shall say that without such foretaste of heaven the soul, new burst from its mortality, would not be dazzled and overpowered by it? (H. Allon, D. D.)

Fellowship with God

Is this not too good to be true? Is it not exaggerated? Is it possible for a man to have heaven with him while on earth, and, amid the bustle and cares of life, to realise close communion with God? I can understand how, in times of deep sorrow, something of true fellowship may be enjoyed, in answer to the hearts need. The sound of the tempest may make a man take shelter in the cleft of the rock. But this constant communion, this realisation at all times, this living in God, many of you cannot see how it can be compassed. How, you ask again, can such fellowship be continued in the outer world, when one is distracted by a thousand cares? Perhaps an illustration or two will help us to understand how fellowship with God is not only possible, but a Christian necessity. Think of the public speaker. In order to impress his audience with his subject, many processes are carried on within his mind while he is speaking: memory in recalling, abstraction in arranging, judgment in delivering; yet not for a moment does he let go his argument, not for a moment does he forget his audience, and if he is a skilful orator, he adapts his words to the effect he is producing. Now, what the presence of an audience is to the speaker, is there any extravagance in supposing the presence of God may be to a believer? With our whole heart in our business, we may yet be conscious of the presence of Him who knows our every thought and sees our every action, so that all we do may be influenced by Him. The working man, toiling for his family, often has them in his thoughts, and, instead of being a hindrance to his work, his thoughts help him to ply his task the busier. The servant may always have the remembrance of his master in his mind, even though that master is not present. So thoughts of God may run like golden threads through the web of our life. It is a good thing at times to force ourselves, as it were, to think of Gods presence. When we are about to enter on a duty let us pray that we may do this duty as unto God, and say, Lord, direct us; and as we join in some innocent pleasure, say, Lord, let me use this, as not abusing it. Even our commonest work will then have something of God in it, the outcome of dwelling in Him and working with Him. Believing in a loving Saviour, you will come in time to give Him the strong attachment of personal friendship, and amid the shifting scenes of life will but grasp His arm the closer. (J. C. Lees, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 3. That which we have seen and heard] We deliver nothing by hearsay, nothing by tradition, nothing from conjecture; we have had the fullest certainty of all that we write and preach.

That ye also may have fellowship with us] That ye may be preserved from all false doctrine, and have a real participation with us apostles of the grace, peace, love, and life of God, which communion we have with God the Father, who hath loved us, and given his Son Jesus Christ to redeem us; and with his Son Jesus Christ, who laid down his life for the life of the world and through whom, being God manifested in the flesh, we have union with God, are made partakers of the Divine nature and dwell in God, and God in us.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

He now proceeds with what he intended, not only professing to testify most certainly known things, (which he further with great earnestness inculcates), but declaring also the end of this testimony; viz. not merely that they to whom he writes might know them too, (as if the being a Christian did only stand in having some peculiar notions from other men, and that they were only to know for knowing sake), but that they might

have fellowship, i.e. partake and communicate with them (viz. the apostles, and the whole community of living Christians) in all the vital influences, holy practice, the dignities, pleasures, and consolations belonging to the Christian state; whereupon he adds,

and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ: q.d. Nor are the advantages of that state, in their kind and nature, terrene, sensual, secular, but Divine and heavenly, such as are imparted to us by

the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ; or, wherein we are truly said to participate, and have a communion with them. That blessed Spirit, who is the immediate author to us of all gracious communication, (whence this is also styled the communion of the Holy Ghost, 2Co 13:14), being in reality the Spirit of the Father and the Son.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

3. That which we have seen andheardresumed from 1Jo 1:1,wherein the sentence, being interrupted by 1Jo1:2, parenthesis, was left incomplete.

declare we unto youOldestmanuscripts add also; unto you also who have not seenor heard Him.

that ye also may havefellowship with usthat ye also who have not seen, mayhave the fellowship with us which we who have seen enjoy; whatthat fellowship consists in he proceeds to state, “Ourfellowship is with the Father and with His Son.” Faith realizeswhat we have not seen as spiritually visible; not till by faith wetoo have seen, do we know all the excellency of the true Solomon. HeHimself is ours; He in us and we in Him. We are “partakers ofthe divine nature.” We know God only by having fellowship withHim; He may thus be known, but not comprehended. Therepetition of “with” before the “Son,”distinguishes the persons, while the fellowship orcommunion with both Father and Son, impliestheir unity. It is not added “and with the Holy Ghost”; forit is by the Holy Ghost or Spirit of the Father and Son in us,that we are enabled to have fellowship with the Father and Son(compare 1Jo 3:24). Believersenjoy the fellowship OF,but not WITH, the HolyGhost. “Through Christ God closes up the chasm that separatedHim from the human race, and imparts Himself to them in the communionof the divine life” [NEANDER].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

That which we have seen and heard,…. This is repeated, both to confirm and illustrate what had been before said, and to carry on the discourse to what follows:

declare we unto you; in the ministry of the word; the person and offices of Christ being the sum and substance of the Gospel ministration, that declares him to be the true God and eternal life, God over all, blessed for ever; and truly man, made of a woman, and made under the law; and to be the only Mediator between God and man, to be prophet, priest; and King, and to be the alone Saviour and Redeemer: this declares the greatness and excellency of his salvation, what an able, proper, and suitable Saviour he is; and what precious promises and spiritual blessings are in him, even all grace and eternal glory. And this declaration of him is made in the Gospel, for the following ends and purposes,

that ye also may have fellowship with us; in hearing, seeing, and handling of Christ in a spiritual sense; and by enjoying the same privileges in God’s house and family, the same ordinances and spiritual provisions; joining and partaking with them in all the immunities and advantages of a Gospel church state here; and by being with them to all eternity hereafter.

And truly our fellowship [is] with the Father; the Father of Christ, the covenant God and Father of his people; and which they have with him, when under the influence and witnessings of the spirit of adoption, and can in the strength of faith call him their Father, draw nigh to him through Christ as such, and are indulged with his presence, and the discoveries of his love:

and with his Son Jesus Christ; being in union to him, they become partakers of him, and of his blessings; they receive out of his fulness, and grace for grace; they are admitted to an intimacy and familiarity with him; they are had into his chambers of secret retirement; they are brought into his banqueting house, where his banner over them is love, and where he sups with them, and they with him; and into this fellowship are they called by the grace of God, through the Gospel; as also they have fellowship with the blessed Spirit, though not here mentioned; see 2Co 13:14.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

That which we have seen ( ). Third use of this form (verses 1John 1:1; 1John 1:2; 1John 1:3), this time resumption after the parenthesis in verse 2.

And heard ( ). Second (verse 1 for first) use of this form, a third in verse 5. Emphasis by repetition is a thoroughly Johannine trait.

Declare we (). Second use of this word (verse 2 for first), but (message) and (announce) in verse 5.

That ye also may have ( ). Purpose clause with and present active subjunctive of (may keep on having). “Ye also” who have not seen Jesus in the flesh as well as those like John who have seen him. Like (to you also) just before.

Fellowship with us ( ‘ ). Common word in this Epistle, from , partner (Lu 5:10), and , to share, in (1Pe 4:13), with emphasising mutual relationship (Ac 2:42). This Epistle often uses with a substantive rather than a verb.

Yea, and our fellowship ( ). Careful explanation of his meaning in the word “fellowship” (partnership), involving fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and only possible in Christ.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

The regular course of the sentence, broken by ver. 2, is now resumed, by the repetition of that which we have seen and heard. Only the order is reversed : seen and heard instead of heard and seen (ver. 1), and the two elements of experience, sight and hearing, are thrown together without the repeated relative that which. In ver. 1, the climax advanced from the lower evidence of hearing to that of sight. Here, in recapitulating, the process is reversed, and the higher class of evidence is put first.

Unto you also [ ] . The also is variously explained. According to some, referring to a special circle of Christian readers beyond those addressed at the conclusion of the Gospel. Others, again, as referring to those who had not seen and heard as contrasted with eye – witnesses. Thus Augustine on Joh 20:26 sqq. “He (Thomas) touched the man, and confessed the God. And the Lord, consoling us who, now that He is seated in heaven, cannot handle Him with the hand, but touch Him by faith, says, ‘Because thou hast seen thou hast believed; blessed are they who have not seen and believe. ‘ It is we that are described; we that are pointed out. May there therefore come to pass in us that blessedness which the Lord predicted should be : the Life itself has been manifested in the flesh, so that the thing which can be seen with the heart alone might be seen with the eyes also, that it might heal our hearts.”

Fellowship [] . This word introduces us to one of the main thoughts of the Epistle. The true life in man, which comes through the acceptance of Jesus as the Son of God, consists in fellowship with God and with man. On the word, see on Act 2:42; Luk 5:10. The verb koinwnew to come into fellowship, to be made a partner, to be partaker of, occurs 1Pe 4:13; 2 John 11; Heb 2:14, etc. The expression here, [ ] is stronger, since it expresses the enjoyment or realization of fellowship, as compared with the mere fact of fellowship. See on Joh 16:22.

Our fellowship [ ] . More strictly, the fellowship, that which is ours, according to John’s characteristic practice of defining and emphasizing a noun by an article and possessive pronoun. See on Joh 10:27. Ours (possessive instead of personal pronoun) indicating fellowship as a distinguishing mark of Christians rather than as merely something enjoyed by them.

With the Father and with His Son [ ] . Note the repeated preposition meta with; distinguishing the two persons, and coordinating the fellowship with the Father, and the fellowship with the Son, thus implying the sameness of essence. The fellowship with both contemplates both as united in the Godhead. Plato says of one who lives in unrestrained desire and robbery, “Such an one is the friend neither of God nor man, for he is incapable of communion [ ] , and he who is incapable of communion [] us also incapable of friendship” (” Gorgias, “507). So in the” Symposium “(188), and he defines divination as” the art of communion [] between gods and men. “

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you “ John rectifies, to remove any doubt, that the things he was writing about Jesus Christ, had been incontestably seen, heard, and affirmed by both him and other brethren of the Lord. The term “declare” comes from (Greek angelos) and means “we bear or bring to you this testimony as a minister from God.”

2) “That ye also may have fellowship with us”: (Greek hina) means “in order or so that” – ye may have a “Common ministry or testimony” and work in close association with us. (Greek koinonian). This desire of John shows the unselfish concern he had for the spiritual welfare of others, Php_2:4; Rom 1:13-16.

3) “And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” Through faith in Jesus Christ, John asserts that he and the early disciples and apostles of our Lord had a common fellowship with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. When one is born into the family of God he receives eternal life, that very life in nature and kind, that God the Father and Son have, Joh 17:21; Rom 8:14; Rom 8:16.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

3 That which we have seen. He now repeats the third time the words, seen and heard, that nothing might be wanting as to the real certainty of his doctrine. And it ought to be carefully noticed, that the heralds of the Gospel chosen by Christ were those who were fit and faithful witnesses of all those things which they were to declare. He also testifies of the feeling of their heart, for he says that he was moved by no other reason to write except to invite those to whom he was writing to the participation of an inestimable good. It hence appears how much care he had for their salvation; which served not a little to induce them to believe; for extremely ungrateful we must be, if we refuse to hear him who wishes to communicate to us a part of that happiness which he has obtained.

He also sets forth the fruit received from the Gospel, even that we are united thereby to God, and to his Son Christ in whom is found the chief good. It was necessary for him to add this second clause, not only that he might represent the doctrine of the Gospel as precious and lovely, but that he might also show that he wished them to be his associates for no other end but to lead them to God, so that they might be all one in him. For the ungodly have also a mutual union between themselves, but it is without God, nay, in order to alienate themselves more and more from God, which is the extreme of all evils. It is, indeed, as it has been stated, our only true happiness, to be received into God’s favor, so that we may be really united to him in Christ; of which John speaks in Joh 17:20.

In short, John declares, that as the apostles were adopted by Christ as brethren, that being gathered into one body, they might together be united to God, so he does the same with other colleagues; though many, they are yet made partakers of this holy and blessed union.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

3. That which seen heard declare we St. John resumes the connexion interrupted by the parenthesis by bringing down and repeating that which of 1Jn 1:1, to make them the objective of declare. It should be noted how earnestly and persistently he repeats the evidence of his senses in perfectly knowing Jesus. This is because he makes that absolute ocular and tactual ascertainment of Jesus the foundation of his authority for the announcements of doctrine in this epistle. Standing on this foundation as an original bodily witness, he will not argue, prove, and refute by a series of logical inferences; but he will declare will dogmatically pronounce what the truth in Jesus is. He pronounces because he knows.

Unto you Primarily, the public mind of Ephesus; inferentially, the whole Christian world, and the whole world that should be Christian.

Fellowship That is, communion, common participation. It is a life that we declare, and the purpose of our declaring is, that the universal you may be common sharers in that life.

Our fellowship is with the Father, and Christ The receiver of the witness shares not barely the truth, but the mystical participation of a common life with God and Jesus. The nature of that communion, and how it is allowed and retained, and how the opposite sin and error are to be avoided, are the sum total of this epistle.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1Jn 1:3. That ye also may have fellowship, &c. According to the scriptures, every man who, to the best of his power, follows the true doctrines of the apostles, and through grace acts according to their precepts, is entitled to communion with every Christian church wherever he comes: but if any part of the visible church should refuse to have communion with him, he nevertheless belongs to the true and invisible church of Christ, which consists of all his sincere and faithful disciples throughout the whole world. He has communion with all righteous and good men: he has likewise communion with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. False teachers and wicked men cut themselves off from the true church of Christ by their heresies or wickedness; but, though a good man may perhaps be rejected by some parties of Christians here on earth, he will not be rejected by the Judge of the world, but admitted to the communion of the saints above. See on 1Jn 1:6.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Jn 1:3 . In the opening words of this verse: , the object expressed in 1Jn 1:1 is resumed, and the governing verb, which was there already in the apostle’s view, is added. The drift of this verse does not, however, lie in this, but rather in the final clause: . . . While John first meant to state what was the subject of his proclamation, namely, that it was that which was from the beginning and was perceived by his senses, which he then more particularly defined in 1Jn 1:2 , he now wants to state the purpose of this proclamation of that subject. In this lies the reason why the object is resumed in abridged form, namely, in the form which the immediately preceding words ( ) suggested. The , and similarly the , was not to be resumed; the former, because it has been fully dealt with in what follows it; the latter, because it was not here in the purpose of the apostle once more to bring out the reality of the sensuous appearance of Him who was from the beginning. That is placed before in which no artificial parallelism is to be sought for (against Ebrard) resulted naturally from the interweaving of into 1Jn 1:2 (de Wette).

] with , comp. 1Jn 1:2 .

(see the critical remarks) distinguishes the readers either from others to whom the apostle had declared the same thing (Spener, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, Lcke, Dsterdieck, Myrberg, Braune, etc.), or from John (along with the other apostles). Lorinus: vos qui nimirum non audistis, nec vidistis, nec manibus vestris contrectastis verbum vitae; so also Zwingli, Bullinger, Ebrard. The latter interpretation would be preferable, if the following before , to which the same reference is to be attributed, did not thereby become pleonastic.

] Many commentators, as Socin, Bengel, Russmeyer, Spener, and others, supply with as enlargement: “with God and Christ;” without adequate ground; the enlargement of the idea is (Baumgarten-Crusius, Dsterdieck, Braune), whereby, however, John does not mean “the apostles and other Christians” (de Wette), but himself, although including the other apostles, who have also seen and heard the Word of Life. This is self-evidently the fellowship of spirit in faith and love, which was brought about by the apostolic preaching.

is neither to be explained, with a Lapide, by: pergere et in ea ( ) proficere et confirmari, nor, with Fritzsche, by: “to acquire;” the word is rather to be retained in the signification peculiar to it; the apostle simply indicates the having fellowship as the aim of the apostolic proclamation, quite apart from the question as to how the hearers of this are related to that.

. . .] By most commentators understand “the fellowship which the apostles and the believing hearers of their proclamation have with one another ,” and, according as or is supplied, have thus defined the thought of the verse, that the apostle states of this mutual fellowship that it either should be or is a fellowship with the Father and the Son. But as this view necessitates a scarcely justifiable enlargement of the idea ( [or ] . . . . .), [43] the explanation of Baumgarten-Crusius, who resolves . into . ., deserves the preference (so also Ewald, Braune); taking this explanation, the meant here is not identical with that mentioned before, inasmuch as the distinction is marked both by the difference of the subject: and (which is contained in ), and that of the object: and . According to this acceptation, the apostle here brings out that he (along with the rest of the apostles) has fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and, no doubt, in order to intimate by this that his readers, if they have fellowship with him, are thereby received with him into that fellowship. It is at all events incorrect, with Augustin, Luther, Calvin, Grotius, Ebrard, etc., to supply with this sentence. In opposition to it are (1) the structure of the sentence, for if it were dependent on the verb could not be omitted; [44] and (2) the thought, for as the apostles are already in fellowship with the Father and with the Son, it cannot be the aim of their to elevate the fellowship which exists between them and those who accept their word into fellowship with the Father and with the Son. Therefore it is that must be supplied, as Erasmus, a Lapide, Vatablus, Hornejus, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, Dsterdieck, Myrberg, Ewald Braune, etc., have rightly recognised. The conjunction , which is pretty often found in the N. T., is used when the idea which is connected with a preceding one is at the same time to be contrasted with it; “the introduction of something new is thereby intimated” (Pape, see on ). Whether it be the connection or the contrast which is to be the more emphasized, this particle is never used to resume an idea with the view to a further expression of it. This usage therefore also proves that by . it is not the previously mentioned , but another fellowship, namely, the fellowship of the , i.e. of John and the other apostles (not with one another, but) with the Father and with the Son, that is meant. [45] God is here called in relation to .

The full description of Christ as serves to bring out the identity of that which was from the beginning with Him who became man.

[43] This enlargement is involuntarily made by the commentators although they do not mention it; thus by Lcke, when he explains: “that ye may have fellowship with us: but (not with us only, but ye know) our fellowship with one another is also that with the Father and with the Son;” similarly by Dsterdieck; Ebrard also says: “It is the purpose of John in his , that his readers may enter into fellowship with the disciples, and that this fellowship may have its life-principle in the fellowship with the Father and with the Son.”

[44] The omission of very often occurs; on the other hand, is very seldom omitted in the N. T., only in 1Co 8:11 ; 1Co 8:13 (still stronger is the ellipsis in Rom 4:16 ); thus even with Paul, who so frequently expresses only the outlines of the thought, the subjunctive of the substantive verb is almost never omitted; how much less can it be held as omitted in a construction of periods otherwise quite conformable to rule, in the second part of the dependent clause!

[45] For the usage of , comp. Mat 16:18 ; Mar 4:36 ; Luk 2:35 ; Act 3:24 ; Act 22:29 ; Heb 9:21 ; and in Gospel of Joh 6:51 ; Joh 8:16-17 ; Joh 15:27 . Lcke wrongly says that the particle is used for the more exact definition, expansion, and strengthening of a preceding thought, and that there is contained in it an “ at the same time ” or “ not only but also. ” It must also be held as erroneous when Dsterdieck says: “John has just spoken of a ‘fellowship with us;’ now he wants to expand this idea further; therefore he continues: ‘and our fellowship’ the new explanatory thought, however, forms a certain antithesis to what was previously said: but our fellowship is not so much the fellowship with us as rather that with the Father and with the Son.” Apart from the fact that has not the force of such a restriction (not so much as rather), who does not feel that, if John wanted to express this thought, he would have had to write not , but , or rather: ?

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

Ver. 3. Declare we unto you ] That (Theophilus-like) ye may be at a certainty, fully persuaded,Luk 1:1Luk 1:1 , having a plerophory or “full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of Christ,” Col 2:2 . See Trapp on “ Col 2:2 “

And truly our fellowship ] If any should object, Is that such a preferment to have fellowship with you? What are you? &c. He answereth, As mean as we are, we have “fellowship with the Father and Son.” Union being the ground of communion, all that is theirs is ours. This made Moses cry out, “Happy art thou, O Israel!” or, “Oh the happiness of thee, O Israel!” the heaped up happiness. “Who is like unto these” Deu 33:29 . The saints, how mean soever, are (in true account) the world’s paragons, the only earthly angels, because in “fellowship with the Father and the Son,” that is, with the Father by the Son.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

1Jn 1:3 . . ., not merely a resumption but a reiteration of the protasis. , “ye also” who have not seen Jesus. , not merely knowledge through hearsay of what the Apostles had known as eye-witnesses, but personal and direct communion with the living Lord. This St. John proceeds to make plain. The phrase , et vero, atque etiam , introduces an important addition or explanation ( cf. Joh 6:51 ; Joh 8:16-17 ; Joh 15:27 ; Act 22:29 ; Heb 9:21 ; 2Pe 1:5 ). “Christ walks no longer in the flesh among us, but He appears still continually to the world of men and reveals Himself to those who love Him. Through faith a real personal contact with the Christ now glorified in the Spirit is possible” (Rothe). There is a gracious constraint on all who know this blessed fellowship to bring others into it. Cf. 1Co 9:16 . Bunyan, preface to The Jerusalem-Sinner Saved : “I have been vile myself, but have obtained mercy, and I would have my companions in sin partake of mercy too, and therefore I have writ this little book”.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

declare. Same as “shew”, 1Jn 1:2.

that = in order that. Greek. hina.

fellowship. See 1Co 1:9.

Son. App-108.

Jesus Christ. App-98.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

1Jn 1:3. , we have heard) This is now put after sight, because the declaration is principally from hearing.– , communion-with us) the same which we have who have seen.-) that is . Communion, so that He Himself is ours; He in us, and we in Him.- , with the Father) who sent the Son, 1Jn 1:4-10.- , with His Son) whom the Father sent: ch. 1Jn 2:1-2. Respecting the Holy Spirit, see ch. 1Jn 3:24, note.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

which: 1Jo 1:1, Act 4:20

declare: 1Jo 1:5, Psa 2:7, Psa 22:22, Isa 66:19, Joh 17:25, Act 13:32, Act 13:41, Act 20:27, 1Co 15:1, Heb 2:12

ye also: Act 2:42, Rom 15:27, Eph 3:6, Phi 1:7, Phi 2:1, 1Ti 6:2, Heb 3:1, 1Pe 5:1,*Gr.

our fellowship: 1Jo 1:7, 1Jo 2:23, 1Jo 2:24, Joh 14:20-23, Joh 17:3, Joh 17:11, Joh 17:21, 1Co 1:9, 1Co 1:30, 2Co 13:14, Phi 2:1, Phi 3:10, Heb 3:14

with his: 1Jo 5:10, 1Jo 5:11, Col 1:13, 1Th 1:10

Reciprocal: Lev 3:1 – a sacrifice Num 10:32 – General Deu 12:12 – And ye Job 13:1 – ear Psa 66:16 – Come Psa 119:63 – a companion Son 2:3 – I sat Mat 10:2 – John Luk 24:48 – General Joh 1:41 – first Joh 16:24 – that Joh 17:22 – that Joh 17:23 – I Joh 20:30 – General Rom 1:3 – his Son 1Co 9:23 – that 1Co 10:16 – the communion of the blood 2Co 1:19 – the Son Gal 2:9 – fellowship Phi 1:5 – General Phi 2:2 – Fulfil Phi 2:28 – and that Phi 3:8 – win Col 1:12 – the Father Phm 1:17 – thou count Heb 1:9 – thy fellows 1Pe 1:25 – this 1Jo 1:6 – fellowship 1Jo 2:1 – these 2Jo 1:9 – he hath

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE INDWELLING GOD

Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

1Jn 1:3

What do you mean by God? On a mans answer to that question depends ultimately all his thinking about the world and all his living within it.

We cannot escape from God in our daily life. If God be really infinite, He not only may, He must be infinitely concerned with everything in our daily life. Therefore our relationship with this indwelling God is not a thing of any special times and feelings and temperaments, but a thing of most intense and immediate reality. It cannot be evaded or dispensed with; it is the primary fact of life; there is no other reality that can be compared with it. No man can dispense with religion, because no man can dispense with God, Who day by day is within him.

I. How are we to conceive of this indwelling God?All nature is a revelation of God, and nature must be interpreted by what is highest in man. God in His nature cannot be less, He can only be infinitely more, than what is really revealed in man. That is, if there be in man the power of a rational ordering of things, there must be in God also mind and purpose. If there be in man the power to will, so there must be sovereignty of will in God. But in man there are higher things than mere will and intelligence; there is the power of conscience. You may remember how a great philosopher said that the two things which most loudly spoke of God were the stars of heaven without and the voice of conscience within. God, therefore, cannot be less, He can only be infinitely more than all the highest goodness disclosed in the best of men. Yet one step more. When we think of man we think not only of his will, his mind, and his goodness, but of something higher still of which he is capablethe quality of love. God therefore cannot be less, He can only be infinitely more than all we can conceive of love in its utmost intensity and self-sacrifice. In Him wisdom, will, goodness, love, reach to the highest imaginable point of intensity and reality, and this God is every moment within youcloser than your breathing, nearer than your very selves, so close that He is not even so far off as to be near.

II. Let us think quietly what such words as these involve.Here at the roots of my being, in the very innermost shrine of myself, there dwells this God: He is supreme, and my relationship with Him must stand before my relationship with any other being or business or concern in the whole world. I cannot dispense with it, it is vital to me; there is nothing else so vital and so real. The one primary question for every human being is this: How is it between your soul and God! It is not an obtrusive question; it is a most natural, an inevitable question. A man has not faced the meaning of his life until he has faced that simple and elementary questionon what terms are you standing with this Infinite Being? To be wrong there must mean the certainty of being wrong everywhere; to be right there means the possibility of being everywhere right.

III. What is the right relationship with this indwelling God?What is the relationship that we may conceive Him to desire for us? We know love to be the highest revelation of God in man, and we know that what love yearns for is fellowship in the lower orders of life. He is satisfied with the creature which fulfils the law of its life; we can think of God rejoicing in the beauty of the flower or the song of the bird, but when we come to man we come to gifts which he shares with God; a man has a heart that can feel and a will that can choose. So what God is yearning for is that we may enter into fellowship with Himself. When man first came on the strange scene of this life there began in him a new cycle of progress of thought concerning the Unseen. You find the desire to be in communion with the Unseen in the simplest forms of religion. In the most primitive religions, which are the child language of our race, you will find everywhere this idea, that by prayer, by acts or worship and sacrificial feast the worshipper must bring himself into fellowship with the Unseen Being Whom he worships. Let us not despise these rudimentary religions. They are the first signs of that great human development which reaches its highest point in the intercourse with God of a John or a Thomas Kempis, orlet us say it with reverencea Jesus Christ. We are made for this fellowship with God; it is the law of our being. If we realise this truth we must recognise that our life means fellowship with the Father. To stand apart, therefore, from God, from religion, to keep these things at a distance from our daily life, is to be nothing less than a human failurea failure quite as real though far more pitiful than the failure of the seed to become a flower or the worm to become a butterfly. Ease, pleasure, success, may disguise this failure, but the true verdict is, Here is a man who has failed because he has not found his way inward to God. On the other hand, to be in touch with this indwelling God through thought, through obedience, through prayer, holding to Him in the inmost lifethis is to be set free from failure, this is to be on the way of attaining the highest in our human life; this is to become what God destined we should be.

IV. Are you not conscious as you think of this necessary fellowship between you and the indwelling God of at least two obstacles to our attaining to it?

(a) The first is our ignorance. Might not God in order to make fellowship with Himself real and possible disclose Himself as manHis will, His goodness, His love in some human life which we can know and touch, and realise in the closest intimacy? So the human spirit would have been certain to ask. And we know there is an answer in the world. There has been a man here, seen, spoken to, followed as a friend, one Jesus of Nazareth, and this Man claimed that He was this disclosure of God within the terms of a human life. Here is Gods answer to mans need. Here God has revealed Himself so that we human beings may understand what it is to love Him and be in fellowship with Him.

(b) The second obstaclewhat is it? Your conscience gives the answerit is sin! Who am I, knowing my inward life, to think of holding this daily communion with an indwelling God? There are those who say that the time has come that we must cease to speak of sins against God. Once again an historical answer comes: this Man Christ Jesus came claiming to be a Saviour of His brethren from their sins; the Man Jesus has come to us not only as a revelation of God in human flesh, but also as a power by which our sin can be overcome. In that Manhood of Jesus Christ God is ever coming forth to rescue us from the power of sin. Through that Manhood of Jesus we on our part, by trusting It, pleading It, uniting ourselves with It, are restored into fellowship with the Father.

V. God dwells within us, life of our life, closer than our very selves.Our relationship with this God must be the primary fact of our life. It is to be a relationship of communion of heart and will made possible for us through the Manhood of Jesus. In Him the character of God is disclosed; by Him we are redeemed, restored to God. Therefore, to take Christ as God and Saviour is to be put right with Godthat is, to be saved. So whatever circuit our thought makes it comes back to that first and deepest declaration of Christianity. It is the first lesson of the Christian faith that we learn, it is the last discovery of Christian thinking that we reachthat to take Jesus Christ as God and Saviour is to be saved. This is the ever-living theologya theology which, though old, is always new because it answers and satisfies the deepest and most abiding needs of the spirit of man.

Archbishop Lang.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST

Is it surprising that fellowship should be the keynote of this Epistle? Do we not find the explanation in that beautiful description recorded in the Gospel that St. John was the disciple whom Jesus loved?

True fellowship is the union of a common service of love for Christs sake. What really is the triumph of Christianity in each life, in the Church, and in the world? It is getting each one to serve the others with his best.

I. Our fellowship in Christ is based on relationships.It is with the Father. We are, as Christians, not a separated, scattered family; we are all with the Father; we are all at home; we are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, in the actual relations of family life, and our Father is with us. They who have present fellowship with the Father make up the whole family in heaven and in earth. St. John wanted those disciples to whom he wrote to have full fellowship with him; but he knew that they could only gain it as they had what he had, fellowship with the Father.

II. Our fellowship in Christ is based on character.With His Son, Jesus Christ. God smiled out of heaven upon His Son, and said, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. It was Christs character with which He was so pleased. Christ bade His disciples follow Him; but He did not merely mean, Attend upon Me; or step into My footprints. He meant, Be like Me, do like Me; have My mind; breathe My Spirit; work My works; be changed into My image; be such sons of the Father as I am. St. John so carefully says, Fellowship with the Son, to remind us that the spirit of sonship is essential both to fellowship with the Father and with each other. Be a son with Christ, and it will be easy to keep in brotherhood. Keep in full fellowship with the Son, by being good and sonlike as He was, and there need be no fear about our fellowship with one another.

Illustration

Perhaps an illustration will help you to understand how fellowship with God is not only possible, but a Christian necessity. Think of the public speaker. In order to impress his audience with his subject, many processes are carried on within his mind while he is speaking: memory in recalling, abstraction in arranging, judgment in delivering; yet not for a moment does he let go his argument, not for a moment does he forget his audience, and if he is a skilful orator, he adapts his words to the effect he is producing. Now, what the presence of an audience is to the speaker, is there any extravagance in supposing the presence of God may be to a believer? With our whole heart in our business, we may yet be conscious of the presence of Him Who knows our every thought and sees our every action, so that all we do may be influenced by Him. The working man, toiling for his family, often has them in his thoughts, and, instead of being a hindrance to his work, his thoughts help him to ply his task the busier. The servant may always have the remembrance of his master in his mind, even though that master is not present. So thoughts of God may run like golden threads through the web of our life.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1Jn 1:3. John was especially concerned with the divinity of Christ, that although He dwelt among men in the flesh (in order that they might see and hear Him), yet he was (and is) the divine Son of God. Have fellowship with us denotes having a share in or being partakers with the apostles in the relationship between God and Christ and their faithful disciples.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

As if he had said, “We declare unto you that of Christ which we ourselves have seen and heard, and what we had by sight and hearing you are to receive from our testimony; and our design and end herein is sincerely this, that you may have fellowship, and be of one communion with us, and not with false teachers, and by virtue of your communion with us may partake of the same faith and grace, and all spiritual benefits and privileges which Christ has purchased for us; and you will have no cause to repent of your coming into our communion and fellowship; for verily we, and all that have sincerely embraced the doctrine of the gospel with us, have fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, and with each other.”

Learn hence, That believers have communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and with one another.

Quest.What doth this communion include?

Ans. 1. Real union; believers are united to God and Christ morally, conjugally, mystically.

2. Reciprocal community; a community of enjoyments; the Lord is theirs, and they are his;

a community of affection; there is mutual love, mutual delight, mutual desires, and mutual hatred;

a community of interests; they have the same designs and ends, the same enemies and friends;

a community of privileges; the Lord visits them, and they visit him; the Lord walks with them, and they with him; the Lord observes them, and they observe him;

they impart the secrets of their hearts to him, and he imparts the secrets of his word and of his providence to them,

Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do? Gen 18:17

Quest 2. What are the benefits and advantages of this communion?

Ans. It affords the highest honour, the sweetest pleasure, and the chiefest happiness; it is heaven on this side of heaven; our happiness and theirs differs only in degree, not essentially, but gradually.

Blessed privilege!

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Developing a Fellowship With John, the Father and His Son

After the parenthetical thoughts of verse 2, John resumed the thoughts of verse 1 by emphasizing again his position as an eyewitness. It appears this epistle was written, in part, to answer those who did not believe God could take a fleshly form because, they thought, flesh was sinful. John responded with great emphasis on the firsthand nature of his account. The word “fellowship” comes from the Greek word Koinonia which Thayer says means “fellowship, association, community, communion, joint-participation.”

John said his purpose in writing was to enhance development of such joint-participation between himself and the Christians addressed. Actually, such began when one became a Christian which made him a partner with the Father and His Son (compare 1Co 1:9 ; Joh 13:8 ; Joh 14:23 ; Joh 17:21-23 ). It continued as each experienced the blessings of his Father-son relationship with God and was manifested in reverent, yet joyful, worship at His feet. If they grew in their fellowship with the Father, Son and their fellow Christians, then their joy would be filled to the brim and so would John’s ( 1Jn 1:4 ; 3Jn 1:3-4 )

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

1Jn 1:3-4. That which we have seen Him, I say, of whom we have such infallible knowledge, or that which we have seen and heard from him and of him; declare we to you For this end; that ye also may have fellowship with us May enjoy the same fellowship which we enjoy; or, in other words, that, being fully satisfied and firmly persuaded of the truth of our testimony, and laying hold on him by a lively faith, you may have fellowship with God and with Christ, such as we apostles, and other faithful Christians have, and may partake with us of the benefits and privileges we enjoy thereby. And truly our fellowship Whereby he is in us, and we in him; is with the Father We are savingly acquainted with, have access to, and intercourse with, the Father, and partake of all those blessings which God the Father has promised to those that are in covenant with him; and with his Son Jesus Christ And we partake also of all those privileges Christ has purchased for his members, namely, pardon, reconciliation, the divine favour, adoption into Gods family, the Spirit of adoption sent into our hearts, regeneration, sanctification, a lively, joyful hope of the heavenly inheritance, and an earnest of that inheritance by his Spirit dwelling in us, whereby we sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. And these things write we unto you We not only declare them in word, which might soon escape from your remembrance, but we put them down in writing, that you may frequently peruse and consider them; that your joy may be full So our Lord also, Joh 15:11; Joh 16:22; that is, to confirm you in the faith, and direct you into that way, wherein you may have an abundant source of comfort. There is a joy of faith, a joy of hope, and a joy of love. Here the joy of faith is chiefly intended: and the expression, your joy, chiefly means your faith, and the joy arising from it. It likewise, however, implies the joy of hope, and the joy of love.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Verse 3

May have fellowship with us; may join with us in acknowledging and obeying him.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

1:3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, {2} that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship [is] with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

(2) The use of this doctrine is this, that all of us being coupled and joined together with Christ by faith, might become the sons of God: in which only consists all true happiness.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

"You," the recipients of this epistle, must have been genuine believers in view of how John referred to them (cf. 1Jn 2:12-14; 1Jn 2:21; 1Jn 2:27; 1Jn 5:13). They had not known Jesus Christ in the flesh as the apostles had. John wrote so they could enter into and continue to enjoy the intimate fellowship with Him that the apostolic eyewitnesses enjoyed (cf. Act 10:40-41). [Note: Westcott, p. 4.]

"This verse introduces the purpose of the Epistle: ’that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.’" [Note: Glenn W. Barker, "1 John," in Hebrews-Revelation, vol. 12 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 307.]

"The main theme of the Epistle is fellowship with God." [Note: John G. Mitchell, Fellowship, p. 14. Cf. Hodges, The Epistles . . ., pp. 34, 50.]

"Here we are given, without any hesitation, a description, the summum bonum, of the Christian life; here, indeed, is the whole object, the ultimate, the goal of all Christian experience and all Christian endeavour. This, beyond any question, is the central message of the Christian gospel and of the Christian faith." [Note: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Fellowship With God: Studies in 1 John, p. 77.]

Fellowship requires and rests on information, a common body of knowledge, and mutual acceptance of that data. John wrote to share this information with his readers.

"Thus two fundamental truths, which the philosophical heresies of the age were apt to obscure or deny, are here clearly laid down at the outset: (1) the distinctness of personality and equality of dignity between the Father and the Son; (2) the identity of the eternal Son of God with the historical person Jesus Christ." [Note: Alfred Plummer, The Epistles of S. John, p. 20.]

 

"It is an interpretive mistake of considerable moment to treat the term ’fellowship’ as though it meant little more than ’to be a Christian.’" [Note: Hodges, "1 John," p. 883. See 3:24.]

False teachers were preaching information about Jesus Christ that was not true. John also wrote to combat their deception.

". . . the epistle . . . is written to a believing community that is dealing with fallout from the departure (1Jn 2:19) of persons with beliefs and practices the author cannot endorse." [Note: Yarbrough, p. 29.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)