Verse 3
3. That which… seen… heard declare we St. John resumes the connexion interrupted by the parenthesis by bringing down and repeating that which of 1 John 1:1, to make them the objective of declare. It should be noted how earnestly and persistently he repeats the evidence of his senses in perfectly knowing Jesus. This is because he makes that absolute ocular and tactual ascertainment of Jesus the foundation of his authority for the announcements of doctrine in this epistle. Standing on this foundation as an original bodily witness, he will not argue, prove, and refute by a series of logical inferences; but he will declare will dogmatically pronounce what the truth in Jesus is. He pronounces because he knows.
Unto you Primarily, the public mind of Ephesus; inferentially, the whole Christian world, and the whole world that should be Christian.
Fellowship That is, communion, common participation. It is a life that we declare, and the purpose of our declaring is, that the universal you may be common sharers in that life.
Our fellowship is with the Father, and… Christ The receiver of the witness shares not barely the truth, but the mystical participation of a common life with God and Jesus. The nature of that communion, and how it is allowed and retained, and how the opposite sin and error are to be avoided, are the sum total of this epistle.
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