1 John 1.3a-The Purpose of the Proclamation
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday March 22, 2017
First John: 1 John 1:3a-The Purpose of the Proclamation
Lesson # 23
1 John 1:1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us, 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. (NASB95)
“What” is the relative pronoun hos (ὅς), which is again, as it was in verse 1, in the neuter rather than masculine gender because John wants to emphasize with the recipients of this epistle that the Word, which is eternal life incarnate is a person who has eternally experienced fellowship with the Father.
He also wants to emphasize that he and others are eyewitnesses to this fact.
Therefore, the neuter form of hos enables John to not only refer to personhood of this Word, which is eternal life incarnate but also to emphasize with the recipients of this letter and that he and others are eyewitnesses to this historical fact.
“We have seen” is the verb horaō (ὁράω), which as was the case in verses 1-2, refers to physical sight and specifically, the word refers to the fact that this Word which is eternal life incarnate was seen by John and others.
“Heard” is the verb akouō (ἀκούω), which as was the case when the word appeared in verse 1, refers to the act of hearing implying that John and others heard this Word, which is eternal life incarnate, speak.
“We proclaim to you” is composed of the first person plural present active indicative form of the verb apangellō (ἀπαγγέλλω), “we proclaim” and the conjunction kai (καί), “also” and the dative second person plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), “to you.”
As was the case in verse 2, the verb apangellō here in verse 3 means, “to proclaim (from God).”
Therefore, it refers to John’s proclamation to the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia that asserts that this Word which is eternal life incarnate was seen and heard by himself and other witnesses.
The dative second person plural form of the personal pronoun su means “all of you” referring to the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia as a corporate unity and is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.
John is concerned about each of these Christians.
“So that you too may have fellowship with us” presents the purpose for which John and his fellow witnesses were proclaiming to the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia this Word, which is eternal life incarnate.
“May have” is the verb echō (ἒχω), which means, “to experience a state or condition, which involves duration.”
Therefore, the purpose of John’s proclamation to the reader is so that they may continue to experience fellowship with himself and his fellow eyewitnesses.
The present tense of this verb echō is a customary present used to signal a regularly occurring action or ongoing state.
Here the former is in view since it impossible for them to have unbroken fellowship with God because they will sin (cf. 1 John 1:6-10).
The best they can do prior to being perfected in a resurrection body at the rapture of the church, is habitual fellowship with God.
Therefore, this is a customary present tense which signals a regularly occurring action which would indicate that John wants his reader to continue regularly or habitually experience fellowship with himself and his fellow witnesses as well as with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
“Fellowship with us” is composed of the following: (1) noun koinōnia (κοινωνία), “fellowship” (2) preposition meta (μετά), “with” (3) personal pronoun egō (ἐγώ), “us.”
In 1 John 1:3, the noun koinōnia appears twice and in each instance, the word means “fellowship.”
The first time the word appears in 1 John 1:3, it refers to the horizontal aspect of Christian fellowship, namely communion or fellowship between John and his fellow eyewitnesses and the recipients of this epistle.
The second time the word appears, it speaks of the vertical aspect of Christian fellowship, namely fellowship between the believer and the Trinity.
The genitive first person plural form of the personal pronoun egō means “each of us” since the word is referring of course to John and his fellow eyewitnesses as a corporate unit and is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.
This word is the object of the preposition meta, which means “with” since it is functioning as a marker of association expressing the idea of each of the recipients of this epistle associating with John and his fellow eyewitnesses.
1 John 1:1 We are now proclaiming to each of you what has always existed from eternity past, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we observed for ourselves, even what we touched with our hands concerning the Word which is truly life. 2 In other words, this life was revealed. As noted previously, we have seen so therefore we are now proclaiming by testifying to each of you this life, which is eternal, which because of its eternal nature has always existed face to face with the Father. Indeed, it was revealed to each one of us. 3 What we have seen as well as heard, we are now proclaiming to each of you in order that each of you would also continue to regularly experience fellowship with each of us. Also, our fellowship is in fact, as an eternal spiritual truth existing in the state of being with the Father as well as with His Son, who is Jesus, who is the Christ. (Author’s translation)
1 John 1:3 reiterates three of the assertions in 1 John 1:1 and 2 regarding the Word which is eternal life incarnate.
Of course, all these assertions in 1 John 1:1-3 are about Jesus Christ since He is the member of the Trinity who revealed God to human beings (cf. John 1:18).
Furthermore, He Himself declared to John and his fellow apostles and disciples that He was eternal life incarnate (John 5:26; 6:33, 35, 48, 54, 63, 68; John 8:12; 10:28; 11:25; 14:6; 17:1-3).
When John speaks of “we” in these verses or “us,” he is referring to himself, and his fellow apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ.
Here in verse 3, John repeats from verse 1 the verbs for hearing and seeing since the sentence which began in verse 1 was interrupted by a parenthetical statement in verse 2.
This repetition leads ultimately to the conclusion of this long sentence.
This repetition of the verbs also connects the direct object clauses in verse 1 to the main verb, which is ἀπαγγέλλομεν, “we are now proclaiming.”
Throughout 1 John 1:1-3, the relative pronoun hos, “what” is in the neuter rather than masculine gender because John wants to emphasize with his readers that Jesus Christ is the Word, which is eternal life incarnate who was has eternally experienced fellowship with the Father.
He also wants to emphasize that he and his fellow apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ are eyewitnesses to this fact.
Thus, the neuter form of hos enables John to not only refer to Jesus Christ but also to emphasize with the Christian community that Jesus is eternal life incarnate and that he is an eyewitness to this historical fact.
As we noted in our study of verse 2, the purpose of this proclamation is four-fold which is reflected by several statements in this epistle (1:4, 2:1, 26; 5:13a).
However, the first of these contains the overall purpose for the epistle.
“These things we write” in 1 John 1:4 points back to John’s statements in 1 John 1:3.
“These things we write” in 1 John 2:1 points back to 1 John 1:5-10.
“These things I have written” in 1 John 2:26 points back to his statements in 1 John 2:18-24.
Lastly, “these things I have written” in 1 John 5:13a points back to his statements in 1 John 5:6-12.
So, the four-fold purpose of First John is first to secure the joy of the believers he is writing to.
Secondly, this epistle is to assure these believers that they have a provision for sin when they do sin and thus eternal security.
Thirdly, John wanted to protect his readers from false doctrine by encouraging them to continue in the doctrine he taught them. Lastly, the apostle wanted to reassure his reader that they possess eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
However, John’s overall purpose is revealed in 1 John 1:1-4 in that John wants his readers to continue to obey his apostolic message so as to protect their fellowship with God which would bring him joy.
In these verses, there is an authored-centered purpose meaning that John sought to benefit by his readers continuing to obey his apostolic teaching.
There is also of course an audience-centered purpose meaning that John sought for his readers to benefit from fellowship with God.
Therefore, there are two interrelated purposes reflected in 1 John 1:1-4.
So in 1 John 1:3, John states that the overall purpose of this epistle was so that the recipients of this epistle would continue to regularly experience fellowship with himself and the other surviving disciples of Jesus Christ and those who adhere to his apostolic teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ.