1:1–2. Like the prologue of the Gospel (Jn 1:1–18), the prologue of the first epistle begins with a declaration of that which was from “the beginning” (1:1). The testimony of what has been heard, seen, touched, and beheld connects second- and third-generation believers to the firsthand experience with the ministry of Jesus (Jn 20:29). [Logos]
1:3–4. The author here stands with the firsthand experience of the apostles and others who encountered the ministry of Jesus some five decades earlier. The testimony to “what we have seen and heard” (1:3) is an explicit Johannine association in Luke’s rendering of the testimony of Peter and John in Ac 4:19–20. The goal of the elder’s sharing is koinōnia, “fellowship” (1:3), extended from one generation and sector of the Jesus movement to others. This unity is both spiritual and missional. The loving fellowship between the Father and the Son and between Christ and his followers has a name: the Holy Spirit now avails without measure. This spiritual unity is experienced in fullness where believers gather in the name of Jesus (Mt 18:18–20). Believers share unity with the Son, as he does with the Father (Jn 17:20–26), as his partners and friends because they know and do his will (Jn 15:14–15). True Christian fellowship then inevitably leads to joy (1:4; cf. Jn 15:11; 16:20–24; 17:13).
A. Those claiming not to be sinning (1:5–2:2). 1:5–7. Like many ancient teachers, the elder employs the inclusive “we” as a way of addressing his second-person audience, “you.” He does this in 1:5 just as he has in each of the first four verses; 1:6, however, turns the use of “we” to others. “If we say . . .” is a way of confronting the claims of others, either in his immediate audience or among those his audience is having to engage (for more on the identity of these people who claim to “have no sin” [1:8], see “Occasion and Content” in the introduction to 1 John). Walking in darkness is not spelled out, but it likely refers to particular moral practices that are out of step with the elder and at least some leaders within the community. Conversely, the life-producing way forward involves “walk[ing] in the light” (1:7) just as God is in the light, which avails the believer Christian fellowship and the cleansing blood of God’s Son, delivering believers from sin. [God as Light and Love]
1:8–10. The elder directly challenges the next two statements regarding what “we say”: the claims to “have no sin” (1:8) and that “we have not sinned” (1:10). If we claim to have no sin, he argues, “we are deceiving ourselves” (1:8). To confess our sins, though, is to acknowledge the authenticity of our condition and to avail ourselves of God’s forgiveness and cleansing power (1:9). More pointedly, to claim that we have not sinned is to “make him [God] a liar,” and to expose the fact that God’s word is not abiding in us (1:10). Again, the confronted might not have been claiming sinlessness proper, but the elder has hopes of getting them to acknowledge the darkness of their ways that they might be persuaded to walk in the true light.