In a parenthetical analysis of the first verse, John told his readers in 1John 1:2 that Life was made manifest or showed itself, and both he and the other disciples had seen it and bore witness to it by declaring to his readers that Eternal Life, which was with the Father had shown itself onto them (Jesus’ original disciples). In the context of verse-1, John was saying that Life, Eternal Life (1John 1:2), the Word of Life (1John 1:1) was made manifest, and Jesus’ disciples saw him. This is what the first eighteen verses of the Gospel of John declare. The Word of John 1:1 “was made flesh… and we (Jesus’ original disciples) beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Moreover, within the Word, which was made manifest in flesh, was life (John 1:4), eternal life, which is given to everyone who believes in him (John 3:15; 10:27-28; cp. Romans 6:23).
In the person of Jesus (John 1:14) eternal life was made manifest to John. It was he, i.e. Jesus, the Beginning (1John 1:1) or the only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality (eternal life), who dwells in the Light (the Father), whom no man has seen, can see or even approach (1Timothy 6:15-16; cp. John 1:18), it was this Eternal Life, who was made visible to John and the other disciples, so that they could both see (horao – G3708), and look upon, and (theaomai – G2300), and handle (G5484), and listen (G191) to him. In other words they, John and Jesus’ original disciples were Jesus’ witnesses.
Therefore, that which John and the other disciples had both seen and heard, which, by the way, is what the Gospel is all about, John had already declared to his readers. This epistle was sent to tell them that they could have fellowship in these matters only by believing the witness of Jesus’ original disciples. That is, the “you also” of 1John 1:3 means that although John’s readers had not seen, although they hadn’t heard, looked upon or touched Jesus, they, too, could enjoy this same fellowship that Jesus’ original disciples enjoyed, but only if they retained their trust that Jesus’ original disciples were indeed his true witnesses.
This was the purpose of John’s epistle, namely, that his readers could enjoy a relationship with the Father and Jesus only through their fellowship with Jesus’ original witnesses. Fellowship is an active affair, not something one passively enjoys like ‘membership’ in a club. John’s readers could enjoy and engage in a relationship with Jesus and the Father as though they were the original disciples, themselves, but only if they believed the report of Jesus’ true witnesses.
John’s readers or the recipients of his epistle were, indeed, true believers in Christ, and this is known, because John referred to them as such (1John 2:12-14, 21, 27). Nevertheless, he worded his epistle in this manner, because the false teachers, who were then among the recipients of this epistle, had begun to trouble the believing community. John spoke of them as antichrists, who once worshiped with the original disciples, perhaps at Jerusalem, but they had gone out from the original disciples of Christ to engage themselves in wrong doctrine (1John 2:18-19). These evil workers seem to have been saying that one could enjoy a relationship with God (the Father) without Jesus (1John 2:23), but this, of course, is impossible. How could one know anyone who is unknowable, unless someone who did know the Unknowable revealed him to the ignorant ones (John 1:18; cp. 6:46; Matthew 11:27; Colossians 1:15). This was the intent of John’s epistle, namely, no one was able to have fellowship with the Father apart from the Son, and fellowship with the Father and the Son is only possible by receiving and believing the common body of knowledge that both John and Jesus’ other original disciples had proclaimed in their witness of him. In other words, to know God demands fellowship with those who had been in contact with him.
Jesus told his disciples that he spoke with them so the joy, which he had, would also be in them and remain (i.e. believed). If believed, their joy would be full (John 15:11), and the author of this epistle reminded his readers that their joy could be full also, but only if they retained what they believed by trusting in the record Jesus’ original disciples had given them.
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