1 John 1:3
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Study Note
Study Note
'That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ' — the prologue of 1 John (1:1–4) grounds the call to communal fellowship (koinōnia) in a claim to sensory apostolic witness: seen, heard, touched (verse 1). The vertical dimension of fellowship — 'with the Father and with his Son' — is made the foundation and substance of the horizontal dimension — fellowship 'with us' — resisting any reductively horizontal ecclesiology. The verse anticipates the chiastic structure of 1 John: Christological confession and communal love are inseparably linked because both flow from and reflect the divine fellowship of Father and Son. The mention of the Father and the Son without the Spirit in this fellowship formula is notable; later (1 John 4:13) the Spirit is the evidence of abiding in God, completing the trinitarian picture.
Other Translations
that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ:
that which we have seen and heard declare we to you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship <FI>is<Fi> with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ;
We give you word of all we have seen and everything which has come to our ears, so that you may be united with us; and we are united with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ:
Cross References
And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, …
And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from …
The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of …
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made …
Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from …
Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and …
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and …
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have …