1 John 1:3

that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that we also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ:

That ... we declare unto ... The word "declare" is here repeated from 1 John 1:2, indicating the close unity of the whole passage. "The proclamation (declaration in our version) need not refer to the Gospel of John specifically. It is the substance of all gospel or apostolic preaching."[15] Furthermore, the present tense shows the established and continual nature of that proclamation through the lives of the apostles and their writings. It is wrong to limit the proclamation to the contents of this epistle.

That which we have seen ... This repeated stress upon the eyewitness nature of the apostolic gospel is important, as it affirms dogmatically that the writer is himself one of the eyewitnesses.

Unto you also, that ye also ... One of these words (also) may be construed as applicable to the proclamation, "readers thus being informed that this letter is supplementary to the basic witness of the gospel."[16] "It also means `ye also' who have not seen Jesus."[17]

That ye also may have fellowship with us ... Fellowship is from the Greek word [@koinonia], meaning "a close relationship or harmonious association as partners or sharers of the gospel."[18] Note too that a definite purpose of the epistle is the maintenance and extension of Christian fellowship, a fellowship which was threatened by the rise of heresies and the ensuing bitterness and strife which resulted. The purpose of the apostles regarding this essential fellowship of Christians "rebukes much of our modern evangelism and church life."[19]

And our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ ... Oneness with God in Christ is the basis of Christian fellowship, and it cannot exist without it. That is why the doctrinal and ethical nature of the Christian message should continually be stressed from the pulpit; because, in this essential basis is the principle of cohesion that binds Christians first to God in Christ and then to each other. Any congregation or church which depends upon a superficial social camaraderie to replace the word and doctrine as its cohesive power blunders fatally. If there would be fellowship, first let the heresies be denied and thwarted and the ethical behavior of Christians restored. This was exactly John's purpose in this letter.

Father ... and Son Jesus Christ ... The equal dignity of Jesus Christ with the Father is clear in John's association of their names together at the very outset of his letter.

[15] J. W. Roberts, op. cit., p. 23.

[16] R. W. Orr, op. cit., p. 609.

[17] David Smith, Expositor's Greek New Testament, Vol. V (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 170.

[18] J. W. Roberts, op. cit., p. 24.

[19] John R. W. Stott, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, Vol. 19 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1964), p. 64.