The Author and His Message (1 John 1:1-4)

Unlike some other New Testament authors, such as Paul and Peter, the author of this letter does not reveal his name. Yet we can see from the opening verses that the writer was an apostle, one of the men whom Jesus had chosen and prepared to be his representatives after he had returned to heaven. It has been the belief of the church from its earliest days that the author is the apostle John who, by the time of the composing of this letter, was the only surviving member of the apostles.

In this epistle, John will mention several doctrines that he deemed were essential and applicatory for the church during the times in which he wrote at the close of the first century. The church was beginning to face a variety of heresies about Jesus and about the Christian life. It is not necessary to know what those heresies were, and some of them are so connected to ideas of the time that it is very difficult for us in our time to understand them. In contrast, the explanations that John gives are so clear that we can understand, through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, what the apostle wrote.

The apostolic privilege

John uses the plural pronoun ‘we’ in verses 1-4, as he does in verses 5-10 as well. Is the ‘we’ referring to the same people because in chapter 2 the author uses the first person singular to describe himself and uses ‘we’ to refer to himself and his readers and other Christians? Yet we can easily see that the ‘we’ is not the same in both passages. The ‘we’ in verses 1-4 had all known Jesus personally when he was here on earth whereas the ‘we’ in verses 5-10 refers to all believers in Jesus. So John is describing his apostolic credentials in verses 1-4. And as he writes, he senses a harmony and a bond with the writings of the other apostles.

It was their privilege to have spent time with Jesus in a particular manner. John’s words make clear that the apostles had a close, instructive and contemplative relationship with the Saviour. They had ample opportunities for discovering who Jesus was in order to be competent conveyors of his message, which was about God and the plan of salvation.

A central feature of the message was the person of Jesus Christ, and John focuses on him in this opening section. Later in his letter he will explain aspects of the work of Jesus, but he first wants to remind his readers about who Jesus is. In addition to reminding them of facts, John presents his teaching in an attitude of worship – he is overwhelmed by the greatness of his Master, Jesus Christ. It is certain that one of the heresies that John was responding to in this letter denied essential aspects of the person of Jesus, and John here is reminding us that responding to such errors should not only be done accurately. In addition, the defender of the truths about Jesus should do so with a spirit of adoration because they describe the divine being. Why is accuracy and adoration important when speaking about Jesus? John’s answer from this passage would be straightforward – a person cannot have fellowship with Jesus without them.

So what does John say about Jesus? First, the apostle states that Jesus is eternal, that he has existed from the beginning. This was how John began his Gospel as well and it is also an allusion to Genesis 1:1, a reminder that Jesus was the creator of all things. In John’s time, it was customary to respect those advanced in years and wisdom, but what are they in comparison with the eternal God and his wisdom in making the universe?

Second, John states that the eternal God became a real man. One of the wrong ideas infiltrating the church was that the incarnation of Jesus was not real, that he did not become a genuine man. John writes that he heard the voice of Jesus, touched his body, and saw his actions. Everything about Jesus revealed that he was a true man. John will say more about the humanity of Jesus in his letter, but to begin with he stresses the genuineness of the incarnation of Jesus.

Third, John states that Jesus is the word of life. This description would include natural life and Jesus as creator spoke the universe and its range of creatures into existence and since then has kept them in existence. The title also indicates that Jesus is the source of spiritual life, and that he provides from himself the experiences and the ability to have them that all his people, and angels, have. Further, this title reveals that Jesus possesses the life of God and that he enjoyed eternal communion with the Father.

Fourth, John states that he and his fellow apostles saw Jesus reveal those three aspects of life when he was with them. On many occasions, they saw the power that Jesus had over the creation and how he was able to give life to those who had died. They also Jesus give spiritual life to a wide range of people including themselves and observed the radical changes that receiving such life brought about. And they observed the extraordinary manner in which Jesus interacted with the heavenly Father.

Fifth, John states that he and the other apostles had been given the great privilege of testifying to the greatness and grandeur of Jesus Christ. John had been doing so for almost six decades and he had never become tired of engaging in it. And here he is as an old man declaring the same message that he had first announced when he was a young man. His example tells us that there is enough in Jesus Christ to sustain the longest ministry and no one needs to go elsewhere to find supplements to that message. And he also tells us not to lose our accuracy about Jesus and our adoration for Jesus.

The apostolic fellowship

Having explained the role and message of the apostles, John then mentions two features of Christian fellowship. First, there is a horizontal level – fellowship with the apostles; second, there is the vertical level – fellowship with the Father and the Son. We can think first about fellowship with the apostles.

The obvious feature of this aspect of fellowship is that it involves correct doctrine. Today the word ‘fellowship’ is used elastically and it can be stretched from a shared meal to a church service, with many other occasions in-between. Yet fellowship is more than Christians being together. Many Christians work with other Christians in their daily employment, but those activities in themselves are not Christian fellowship. As far as John was concerned, true fellowship involves a correct understanding of the person of Jesus, the Son of God who became a real man.

When John wrote these words, all of the other original apostles were dead. So how was it possible for his original readers, who lived in Ephesus and its region, to have fellowship with them? The answer is straightforward. His readers would share with the apostles when they accepted the apostolic teaching about Jesus. There were alternative views about Jesus that were current at that time, particularly a notion that Jesus was not fully human. If the readers accepted that notion, it would mean that they were not experiencing fellowship with the apostles. The choice was clear. Ignore the false teachers and adhere to the teaching of the apostles about Jesus.

As long as the readers maintained this attitude, this commitment, they were in a position to experience an even greater reality. They could build on the apostolic message and discover that it was a stairway or a ladder to meeting with God himself. In a sense, John is reminding his readers of what took place at their conversion to the Christian faith. They had believed the gospel (the message delivered originally by the apostles) and discovered that, as an immediate consequence, they came to know God.

This greater fellowship is interaction with the Father and the Son. Obviously such vertical fellowship involves more than an awareness of correct doctrine about Jesus. As we noticed earlier there needs to be adoration and affection. Fellowship involves expressions of wonder and love. There are many ways in which believers can have fellowship with the Father and the Son, and we will think about some shortly. John’s description indicates that we can have simultaneous fellowship with them and that we can also have distinct fellowship with each of the divine persons. He also indicates that this vertical fellowship can be corporate, as in a church gathering, or it can be an individual interaction with them.

Here is an example of vertical fellowship. We have been reconciled to the Father through the work of the Son. This relationship of peace can be viewed from four angles.

• Go back into eternity, to the agreement between the Father and the Son in which the Son expressed his willingness to become the Saviour of sinners.
• Reflect on what happened at the cross when the Son bore the wrath of the Father against our sins and so paid the penalty that prevented a peaceful relationship between them and their people.
• Contemplate the state of peace that comes about when a sinner believes in Jesus and receives the permanent standing of justification from the Father.
• Consider the experience of peace in the souls of sinners when they receive from heaven the peace of God that passes all understanding.

Those four aspects reveal that reconciliation is one area in which believers have fellowship with the Father and the Son.

Another example of vertical fellowship takes place when disciples focus on the fact that they and God now belong to the same family. Prior to believing in Jesus they were not members of the family of God. Instead they were outcasts, the children of wrath. On believing, they were adopted by the Father and became brothers of the Son. As God’s children they were given a right to all the privileges of the sons of God; in fact each of them became a joint-heir with Jesus of the heavenly inheritance. And they can interact with the Father and the Son in this area of fellowship.

There are many aspects to the fellowship that believers share with God as members of the heavenly family. One great blessing is prayer by which they draw near to the heavenly Father and present their petitions in the name of the Son. Another blessing is that they are able to reflect on and experience partial fulfilments of the great promises of God that are theirs because they have been purchased for them by Jesus through his work on the cross. A third blessing concerns their anticipations of the future, of the great endless period ahead when they will enjoy with the Father and the Son the fullness of the heavenly inheritance.

The apostolic intention

John tells his readers that he wants them to have joy. John informs his readers that great joy is the outcome of spending time with the Father and the Son. There is a textual difference as to whether he says ‘our joy’ and ‘your joy’, although I cannot see how ‘our’ could be used to refer to the possible joy of the apostles because most of them were no longer on earth. It is possible that John is using ‘our’ in a combined sense to include the readers with himself.

In any case, what kind of joy could this be? I would mention two features of it. First, it is a joy that is independent of circumstances. The period in which John wrote was a difficult one for many of the churches in his area – in addition to the problems within the church there were threats from outside the church (as can be seen when we read the letters to the seven churches of Asia recorded in Revelation 2 and 3, which were located in the vicinity of Ephesus, and the letters to them were written round about the same time as 1 John). This aspect of Christian joy is expressed by Peter in his first letter: ‘In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls’ (1 Pet. 1:6-9).

Second, it is a joy that is received from God himself. The fellowship that exists eternally between the Father and the Son, and which John refers to here when he describes Jesus as ‘the eternal life which was with [towards] the Father’, is marked by great delight and happiness in one another. Amazingly, the Father and the Son also have joy as a result of Christians seeking fellowship with them, and the divine Persons experience great joy in having communion with believers. One feature of that joy is that it is shared with God’s people by the Holy Spirit who functions as the heavenly Conveyor of spiritual blessings to their souls. Whatever their external circumstances, the Holy Spirit can communicate heaven’s joy directly into their hearts as they proceed with fellowship with God. This fellowship with God can happen in an individual sense when a believer enjoys personal communion with God and it can happen in a corporate sense when a company of God’s people seek his face.

Application

There are four applications that I would make from this preface to John’s letter. First, we are reminded of the importance, indeed the necessity, of having a correct understanding of the person and work of Christ. Today there are cults that deny his deity such as Jehovah Witnesses; there are groups that deny his sinlessness; there are liberals that deny his wonderful Incarnation and his awful atoning death; there is an entire church that insists the exalted Saviour needs help from his mother; and there are others who deny the reality of his second coming. The path of safety is to ask the Holy Spirit to teach us who Jesus is and what he has done, is doing, and will yet do.

Second, we are to ensure that Christian fellowship is spiritual. When a group of disciples visit a sports centre together and enjoy themselves in one another’s company, they are engaged in a useful activity, but they are not necessarily engaged in Christian fellowship. It is only true fellowship when they enter into spiritual activities in which the Father and the Son are engaged. Therefore we need to consider the great saving acts of God and his provision for sinners in order to experience fellowship.

Third, believers should be a joyful people. The location of joy is the place of fellowship – joy is one of the evidences that we are experiencing the company of God.

Fourth, this fellowship is the reality to which the gospel calls sinners. It is a call to leave inferior fellowships and lesser joys and come and experience dynamic fellowship in which the peace of reconciliation and the joy of divine family membership are paramount. All of us should focus on the Father and the Son and experience true fellowship for ourselves as we make our way through life.