1 John 1.3b-The Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions of Christian Fellowship
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday March 23, 2017
First John: 1 John 1:3b-The Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions of Christian Fellowship
Lesson # 24
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)
“Our fellowship” is composed of the following: (1) noun koinōnia (κοινωνία), “fellowship” (2) adjective hēmeteros (ἡμέτερος), “our.”
Once again, the noun koinōnia means “fellowship” but this time as we noted earlier, it is referring to the vertical aspect of Christian fellowship, namely fellowship between the believer and the Trinity.
The noun koinōnia is modified by the articular form of the adjective hēmeteros which is a possessive adjective which pertains to the speaker or writer and those associated with him or her, either including or excluding the audience and thus means, “our, of us, ours”.
It is comparative and implies emphasis and contrast.
Here in 1 John 1:3, the adjective hēmeteros means “our” and refers to John and his fellow eyewitnesses.
The word functions as a substantive which is indicated by its articular construction since the article functions as a substantiver meaning it is converting this adjective into a noun.
The Holy Spirit inspired the apostle John to employ the articular construction of the possessive adjective hēmeteros here in 1 John 1:3 in order to emphasize the fellowship that he and those who adhere to his apostolic teaching concerning the Word, which is eternal life, are experiencing.
The article is present and agrees in gender, number and case with the possessive adjective hēmeteros.
It also indicates that the hēmeteros is functioning as a possessive adjective rather than a possessive pronoun.
There is a contrast that John is making here by using hēmeteros and that contrast is between those who adhere to his apostolic teaching concerning the person of Christ and those who don’t.
Those who don’t adhere to the apostolic teaching do not experience fellowship with the Father and the Son while those who do obey the apostolic teaching concerning this Word, which is eternal life incarnate, do experience fellowship with the Father and the Son.
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.
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.
The fourth and final declaration which appears in 1 John 1:3 emphatically asserts that this fellowship is also with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Thus, John is telling the recipients of this epistle that this fellowship that he was experiencing with the other eyewitnesses was divine in origin.
The occasion of the epistle itself and the context of the entire book clearly indicates that John’s readers were already believers who were experiencing fellowship with God and each other.
However, they were now being exposed to Docetic and Cerinthian Gnostic teaching that denied the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If they believed this false teaching, it would prevent them from continuing to have fellowship with God since fellowship with God is based upon the Person, Work and Life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
John’s teaching here in the prologue and throughout the book concerning the person of Christ is designed to protect his readers from these heretical teachings and to ensure that their fellowship with God and other believers might continue or be maintained.
That John’s readers were already experiencing fellowship with the Father and the Son and that this letter is a protection from the false teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ is indicated in 1 John 2:13-14, 21, 26-29, 3:7-9, 4:1-3 5:9-12, and 13.
In 1 John 1:3, “fellowship” refers to both the horizontal and vertical aspects of Christian fellowship, namely communion or fellowship between believers and between believers and the Trinity.
The word speaks of John and his fellow eyewitnesses and the recipients of this epistle experiencing fellowship with each other as well as together with the Trinity but what does this word “fellowship” mean?
Today, in the twenty-first century many Christians do not have a biblical understanding of the word as revealed in the Greek New Testament.
Fellowship means being a part of a group, a body of people and is opposed to isolation, solitude, loneliness, and our present-day independent kind of individualism.
Fellowship means having or sharing with others certain things in common such as interest, goals, feelings, beliefs, activities, labor, privileges and responsibilities, experiences, and concerns.
Fellowship can mean a partnership that involves working together and caring for one another as a company of people, like a company of soldiers or members of a family.
Fellowship has two directions: (1) Vertical: God (2) Horizontal: Royal family of God.
Christian fellowship is a relationship and partnership with God and His royal family and involves sharing His objective of advancing His kingdom on earth by caring for and working together with the royal family in this endeavor.
A study of two word groups (koinōnia and metochos) that are employed in the Greek New Testament to denote the concept of fellowship, express four related and essential elements that describe what fellowship involves.
Christian Fellowship denotes the following concepts:
(1) Relationship with Christ: We are all permanently united together by the common (eternal) life that we share as a result of regeneration and the Baptism of the Spirit (Acts 2:42; 1 C. 1:9; 1 Jn. 1:3).
(2) Partnership: We are to work together for a common purpose to obtain common objectives for the glory of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ (cf. Phil 1:27; Phlp. 1:5; Gal. 2:9; Heb. 1:9).
(3) Companionship: We are to communicate with one another and have fellowship with one another sharing with one another the things (viewpoint and thinking) of Christ (Acts. 2:42; Heb. 10:25; 2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Thess. 5:11; Rom. 1:11-12; 2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Thess 5:11; Philem. 6).
(4) Stewardship: We must recognize that all we have belongs to the Lord and has been given to us as trusts from God to invest for His purposes.
Believers need to be willing to share their material possessions for the promotion of the gospel and to help those in need.
Good stewardship stems from recognizing our relationship to Jesus Christ, but it also means recognizing our partnership in Christ’s enterprise on earth (Rom. 12:13; 15:27; Gal. 6:6; Phil. 4:15; Rom. 15:26; 2 Cor. 8:4; 9:13; Heb. 13:16; 1 Tim. 6:18).