that which we have seen and heard we report to you, that *ye* also may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship [is] indeed with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
John had seen and heard the One he preaches, and he passes that on so that his readers may share what he shares. Then comes the startling part: that fellowship reaches the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
The word means more than friendliness or kindness. One writer draws a sharp line between sympathy and fellowship:
There is great confusion about what fellowship is. People confuse love with fellowship. Sympathy is not fellowship; that is my coming down to your level, suiting myself to you. Fellowship is more the bringing of you up to my level. Christ comes down to my level to sympathise with me. But He does it to lift me above my circumstances, and to bring me into fellowship with Himself. Fellowship is heart knit to heart. It is a shared mind, a shared object, aim, desire, interest, and affection. Now just think that God has brought us into fellowship with Himself. The way He speaks of fellowship in this chapter is overwhelming. It is not just fellowship with the apostles through their writings, but fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
The apostles reported what they had seen and heard, so that others could stand where they stood. One commentator points out that the last of these eyewitnesses was about to die. He asks what could steady us more:
Soon the last apostle would be gone. But suppose he had lived until now. What could he write that is more comforting and reassuring than this? The fellowship the apostles had at Pentecost still stands. Fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ still stands too, for us to enjoy by faith today, because of eternal life in the Son — theirs and ours alike. So the declared purpose of this message from God is that we might have the same fellowship the apostles had with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. His gracious aim in it is to fill our hearts with joy.
John does not speak of fellowship with God in general. He names the Father, and then the Son:
Why does he say that our fellowship is with the Father? The Father delights in His Son, the Lord Jesus; He finds all His joy in Him. So when we learn to find our joy in the Lord Jesus, when we learn to appreciate Him, we have fellowship with the Father. John had learnt to share a common object with God the Father, but he does not limit it to that. John says, "and with His Son Jesus Christ." The Lord Jesus delighted in the Father. He loved to show the Father and make Him known.
These men gained no place among the religious leaders of their day. Their new standing was not a step up in that world. It was right outside it:
They did not become the companions of the scribes. They did not enter the fellowship of the proud Pharisees. They gained no place beside the chief priest, and the royal court never looked on them with favour. No — they were carried beyond all these. They were carried beyond the highest and most exclusive circles on earth, and beyond angels too, into a wholly divine circle.
People often quote this verse to settle who may join a congregation. One writer warns against reading it that way, though he grants that the two are linked:
Some people tell us that fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ is the only fellowship Scripture ever speaks of. So they take it to mean Church fellowship. This is a serious mistake. It is true that no one really shares in Church fellowship without sharing in the fellowship of the Father and the Son… but they are different things. You can see this, because some share in the fellowship of the Father and the Son who do not share in Church fellowship.
This fellowship also guards us. One writer says that entering it keeps sin out:
If we enter into the holy fellowship that 1 John 1:3 speaks of, we shall be preserved. Enjoying that fellowship shuts sin out. And sin shuts us out of that enjoyment, until we confess it.
- Seen — the apostles told what they had seen and heard, so that others could share it too.
- Shared — fellowship is not sympathy. It is shared thought, aim, desire and affection. Christ comes down to lift us to His level.
- Named — the Father's joy is His Son, the Son's joy is the Father; to share their delight is to have fellowship with both.
- Beyond — this circle lies past every exclusive group on earth, and past angels, in God's own company.
- Kept — the fellowship itself abides. Enjoying it shuts sin out, and confession restores what sin interrupts.
And these things write we to you that your joy may be full.
John has just described what the apostles saw, heard and handled, and the fellowship it opens to others. Verse 4 gives his reason for writing it down: joy, brought to the full.
This verse states the aim of the whole letter. One writer traces the line from the apostles' report, through fellowship, to its end.
The apostle writes in verse 4 that he writes these things so that their joy may be full. This is the aim of this book. He had already said that they might have their fellowship with them. Now he was going to write about the Father and the Son. He was going to write about the things they needed if they wanted fellowship with the apostles — and the apostles had fellowship with the Lord Jesus and with the Father. The end goal of fellowship is joy.
The phrase points backwards, to the opening verses. That fixes where the joy comes from — and rules out another source people often look to.
"These things," as set out in the opening verses of the letter, are divine life shown in the person of Christ, and divine life given through Him to all who believe. So the believer's own struggle and experience, however real and true and valuable, is set aside as a source of joy.
This joy rests on more than peace with God. It rests on something the Son alone had, and then gave to us.
He introduced the coming down of divine love in the person of the Lord Jesus. He is the eternal life that was with the Father before the world was. He came to spend Himself on us, to give us what He alone had, what belonged to Him alone. No man and no angel had it. Neither Adam, newly created, nor the archangel had that eternal life — only the Son of God... Communion with the Father and with the Son was the consequence. It is not just a question of peace with God, nor of anything that only leads to that. It is the great and blessed truth of a communion that flows out of having Christ the Son of God, and eternal life in Him.
Kelly puts this fullness in the present, not only in heaven.
...so that the chosen witnesses, and all who believe their report and like them have eternal life in Him, might share the same blessed fellowship. That is fellowship with the Father and with His Son, in the fullest joy now and for ever. No higher joy than this fellowship will be in heaven, and it is our unbelief if it is not ours now on earth.
So why is this joy not constant? One writer names the reason and the cure.
Why then is fullness of joy not the constant, unbroken experience of every child of God? Because we make room for other things that do not fit this fellowship. In practice they hide the unspeakable blessedness of what is for ever and unchangeably our true heritage. Our eyes and hearts become taken up with mere material things, or even evil things, and there is no spiritual joy in these. A full revelation of God in Christ is the source of full joy. Let our souls find their pure delight in this, and we shall have full joy.
Sin does not end the fellowship, but it blocks the enjoyment of it.
One significant consequence of our sins is that a barrier comes in to hinder the practical enjoyment of this fellowship. When we confess our sins, God faithfully and righteously removes this consequence, this barrier, opening the way for our joy to be restored.
Translations divide here. The ESV reads "our joy may be complete," while older versions read "your joy may be full." One writer settles it from the way John writes elsewhere.
Some Bibles instead of 'your joy' have 'our joy'. How do we know which is correct?... It becomes evident from referring to a concordance. Each of the ten times John mentions his writing, it is always tied to a result in the lives of his readers... Whenever he says 'I write' or, 'I have written', it is always linked with 'you' or 'your'. So his aim here is the joy his writing would produce in us.
- Cause — the report. "These things" are divine life shown in Christ and given to believers. That report, not our own experience, fills the heart.
- Gift — the fellowship. Christ gives what He alone had — eternal life — and communion with the Father and the Son follows from having Him.
- Reach — now, not later. Heaven holds no higher joy than this fellowship. Unbelief is what leaves it untasted on earth.
- Result — full joy. Joy is the announced end goal of the whole letter, the intended outcome of fellowship.
- Guard — confession. Full joy fails when the heart is busy elsewhere. Confession clears the barrier and the joy returns.