Know it's all about Jesus

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God became man in Jesus, prooving eternal ife and fellowship with God is true and joy giving!

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Claim - God became man in Jesus, prooving eternal ife and fellowship with God is true and joy giving!

First John provides several keys that allow us to unlock the specific purpose(s) of this epistle. Four times in the letter John tells us why he writes:

1. “We write this to make our joy complete” (1:4).

(To promote true joy in the child of God)

2. “I write this to you so that you will not sin” (2:1).

(To prevent the child of God from committing sin)

3. “I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray” (2:26)

(To protect the child of God from false teachers)

4. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know you have eternal life” (5:13).

(To provide assurance of salvation for the child of God)

It is popular and appropriate to see 1 John 5:13 as the governing purpose statement, but not the exclusive purpose statement. The parallel of 5:13 with the purpose statement of John’s Gospel (20:31) is too apparent to be merely coincidental. First John 5:13 brings together the other purpose statements in a unified theme

The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John Prologue: The Word of Life (1:1–4)

the author proclaims to his readers a message regarding eternal life revealed to him and other eyewitnesses, so that his readers might share (have the same fellowship) in that life.

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The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 1. The Object of Proclamation Highlighted (1:1)

the “Word proclaimed” and the “Word as person.” The message and the person ultimately cannot be separated. Each explains the other. The message about Jesus is intimately related to who Jesus is.

Focus - Joyful Fellowship with Christians, Jesus and the Father relies fully on the deity, humanity and proclamation of Jesus.
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Aim - To bring Joy to Jesus Followers
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 1. The Object of Proclamation Highlighted (1:1)

In other words, John and other eyewitnesses saw this deity, who has life in himself from eternity, incarnated in time/space/history.

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Introduction

The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 1. The Object of Proclamation Highlighted (1:1)

“Concerning the Word of life” designates the object around which these verbs of perception orbit.19 In short, the eyewitnesses heard, saw, and touched the Word of life. The eternal Son of God, Jesus the Christ, had come in the flesh (cf. John 1:14).

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Letters are written for a purpose -

The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 2. The Object of Proclamation Clarified (1:2)

The issue this epistle addresses is not that the heretics believed Jesus to be someone other than the Christ (and believed in Jesus anyway), but rather that they believed the Christ to be someone other than Jesus. This was a direct assault on the person of Jesus (a denial of his deity) and one that would call into question his work of atonement as well. John writes to assure his readers that they and only they, who believe in Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, deity enfleshed, have eternal life (cf. 1 John 5:11–13). By so doing, John equips his readers to heed his concluding command to guard themselves from idols, that is, false christs and false religion. In short, John’s central purpose is to encourage his readers to persevere in their belief in the apostolic proclamation of the Christ as Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.

v1 - The object of proclamation - Word of Life - Jesus (His Deity)
v2 - The detail of proclamation - Eternal life in seen/proclaimed/revealed etc in Jesus (His Revelation - Eternal Life)
v1-2 = 5v20 - deity and eternal life
v3a - The pupose of proclamation
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 3. The Purpose of Proclamation Announced (1:3a)

First, it is through the proclamation of the incarnate Word of life that John envisions the accomplishment of his purpose of bringing his readers to fellowship with him and other eyewitnesses. As Eichler observes, “[To] ‘have fellowship’ with one another and with Christ (1 Jn. 1:6f.) is to ‘know’ him (1 Jn. 2:3) and to ‘abide’ in him (v. 6).” This fellowship’s basis, then, is in the apostolic preaching of the historical Jesus as well as the readers’ response of faith in the subject of that proclamation.

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The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 3. The Purpose of Proclamation Announced (1:3a)

Second, the reality of this fellowship is shown in the readers’ walking in the light as God is in the light (cf. 1 John 1:6–7). Loving one’s brothers and sisters in Christ is, in turn, evidence of being in the light (cf. 1 John 2:9–11; it is the equivalent of knowing God [cf. 1 John 4:8; also 4:16]) because God is love, and Christian love originates from God (1 John 4:7–8). This fellowship, then, is nothing less than a fellowship in the light and in love.

PRAY
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The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 3. The Purpose of Proclamation Announced (1:3a)

Third, the presence of Christian love is an evidence of having eternal life (1 John 3:14–15). Walking in the light and loving one another demonstrates the possession of eternal life. The possession of eternal life is, in turn, predicated on confessing that the Son of God is Jesus and continued abiding in that apostolic confession (1 John 2:22–25). By this believing confession of Jesus as the Christ, one has the Son and therefore has eternal life (1 John 5:12–13). In summary, faith in the incarnate Son of God, Jesus the Christ, transfers one from the realm of death to life, from darkness to light, and this life that one now possesses through faith makes its presence known by means of the love that a Christian has for his fellow Christians. Fellowship with the Father and his Son, then, is essentially the same thing as having eternal life. Still, what is the precise nature of this “fellowship”?

Last week was Suresh’s final Sunday here with us at Grace Church. A man gifted in so many ways. And now you’re stuck with me!
v3b - The nature of Fellowship
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 4. The Nature of This Common Fellowship Clarified (1:3b)

1:3b While it is faith in the apostolic proclamation concerning Jesus that brings one into Christian fellowship, if the sense of “fellowship” is common participation in something, then that something in this context would appear to be eternal life.

In 4 weeks time we launch our 4.30 service, and some of of our friends wont be sitting next to us any longer as we hear about God.
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 4. The Nature of This Common Fellowship Clarified (1:3b)

Such fellowship for John is, in fact, inseparable from having eternal life: to have eternal life is to have fellowship with the apostolic witnesses who have testified concerning the Word of life. Fellowship with these witnesses is, in turn, nothing less than fellowship “with the Father and with his Son, Jesus the Christ.”42 John’s purpose statements in 1 John 1:3 and in 1 John 5:13 are, thus, practical equivalents: John proclaims Jesus as the Christ, the incarnate Son of God, to assure them in their faith and encourage them to persevere (cf. 1 John 5:21). Failure to persevere in this faith is, by implication, to exclude oneself from the apostolic fellowship, fellowship with God the Father and with his Son, and eternal life.

The music might not always be quite so excellent as are musicians are spread more thinly.
v4 - We (the apostles) write to make ‘our’ (everyone included in the fellowship) joy complete!
A new school term has started, perhaps new schools and routines have started with our kids.
Perhaps you have a new job, or you at least want a new job!
Joy? -
Perhaps time to pray or read the bible has been less than satisfactory with all this change.
It is easy to feel weak in our faith, perhaps even doubt or question our faith, and a lot of change only makes matters worse.
What, then, is the nature of this “joy” (chara) to which John refers? Remarkable parallels in wording almost certainly point to Jesus’ words in and 16:24. In those contexts joy is the result of abiding in Christ (), asking and receiving in prayer (; ), and resultant fruit bearing (). This fruit bearing is defined in terms of keeping Christ’s commandments, defined as loving one another just as Christ loved them (climaxing in laying down his life for them; , ). This joy is nothing less than the joy that comes from abiding in Christ’s love, just as Christ’s joy came from abiding in the Father’s love ().
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 5. The Purpose of Writing Announced (1:4)

What, then, is the nature of this “joy” (chara) to which John refers? Remarkable parallels in wording almost certainly point to Jesus’ words in John 15:11 and 16:24. In those contexts joy is the result of abiding in Christ (John 15:4), asking and receiving in prayer (John 15:7b; 16:24), and resultant fruit bearing (John 15:8). This fruit bearing is defined in terms of keeping Christ’s commandments, defined as loving one another just as Christ loved them (climaxing in laying down his life for them; John 15:10, 12–13). This joy is nothing less than the joy that comes from abiding in Christ’s love, just as Christ’s joy came from abiding in the Father’s love (John 15:9–11).

Akin, D. L. (2001). 1, 2, 3 John (Vol. 38, pp. 60–61). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
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Well, for quite different reasons, the church that received the letter of 1 John also had doubts and concerns about their own faith.
Am I saved. Is this news about Jesus the real deal. Do I face an eternal glory with a loving God, or have I misunderstood his plan.
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 5. The Purpose of Writing Announced (1:4)

Returning to the context of 1 John 1:1–4, it is the joy that results from fellowship with the apostolic witnesses and with the Father and with the Son. Consequently, this fulfillment61 of joy is enjoyed during our earthly sojourn through faith in Christ, even though the full experience of it must await Christ’s return and the consummation of all things. In effect, John’s purpose to achieve the fulfillment of his and his readers’ joy (v. 4) is one and the same as his purpose to keep his readers’ in fellowship with him and the other apostolic eyewitnesses (v. 3).

People from within their own church had started to teach that Jesus, was not actually the Son of God, and not actually the Christ - The promised saviour from the OT.
Christianity they said, was not the same as being a Jesus Follower.
We hear it today still. Churches who deny Jesus as the only way to God, welcoming any path we care to think of as acceptable.
Churches who preach that moral living and loving your neighbour is enough to satisfy a Loving God.
We can side step the need for repentance, Jesus’s death. Just be a ‘good person’.
In fact, to believe in Jesus as the only way to God is enough to qualify you as a bad person and disqualify you from heaven!
So weather you’re hear today anxious about your church, about your family, about your church pastor, your job, your new routines.
Or weather you are here anxious about the truth of Jesus, or weather you are ‘good’ enough, or weather perhaps there are other ways to God.
Well, you’re in the right place, and we are in the right book of the bible.
The book of 1 John over the next 8 weeks is going to do 1 of 2 things for us.
1 - For some of us, 1 John is going to assure us that we are true Jesus Followers, (Christians - as defined by God). You are going to be brought back to a place of great joy, great assurance and great confidence. There will be challenges, areas to pray about, lessons in humility and pride, love and theology, but Your faith should be strengthened.
2 - For others, 1 John is going to initially confuse and challenge everything we thought we knew. It may show us a God we realise we don’t believe in, because we have misunderstood Jesus. And then, if you’re willing to accept the truth, and by God’s grace, you are going to discover the real Jesus for the first time. And your life will NEVER be the same again.
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If you’d like a couple of verses that acts as a key to 1 John as we go through it, make a note of:
Firstly,
Firstly - you need to take one of these
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 5. The Purpose of Writing Announced (1:4)

In John’s theology it is impossible to take away this joy from the true believer (cf. John 16:22; also 17:12–13). Those who depart from the visible fellowship of the church never were part of the fellowship, that is, they never believed in Christ Jesus and never had eternal life (1 John 2:19; cf. John 6:60–71). Yet John’s theology of perseverance is precisely a theology of perseverance in faith in Christ Jesus64 and persevering by Christ Jesus (John 10:27–30)

1 John 5:11–13 NIV
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
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JOY!!!!!
John, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, who wrote this letter, has one core aim as he writes - he wants us to be assured, to know, that we have eternal life with God if we are in Jesus.
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 5. The Purpose of Writing Announced (1:4)

Believers are sustained in their faith by a fresh proclamation of Christ Jesus and his teachings, applied [in this context] in specific ways to combat the Christological heresy that threatened the health and life of the church by denying that the Christ is Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.

I hope that excites you as it does me.
In fact, here is the summary I noted down of 1 John when I was planning what book we would preach through this term:
‘Salvation through our Lord Jesus brings a life of fellowship with God, joyfulness, victory, safety and certainty.’
Salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ brings a life of fellowship with God, joyfulness, victory, safety and certainty.
I hope that excites you as it does me.

Intorduction

So today, v1-4 are going to reassure us by reminding us that Christianity is All about Jesus.
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 2. The Object of Proclamation Clarified (1:2)

This truth is the key to the purpose of the epistle: John is fighting a Christological heresy that involved the denial of the incarnation of deity, that is, the denial that the Christ was the historical Jesus. Apparently, the heresy involved the separation of “Christ” and “Son of God” from “Jesus.” The issue this epistle addresses is not that the heretics believed Jesus to be someone other than the Christ (and believed in Jesus anyway), but rather that they believed the Christ to be someone other than Jesus. This was a direct assault on the person of Jesus (a denial of his deity) and one that would call into question his work of atonement as well. John writes to assure his readers that they and only they, who believe in Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, deity enfleshed, have eternal life (cf. 1 John 5:11–13). By so doing, John equips his readers to heed his concluding command to guard themselves from idols, that is, false christs and false religion. In short, John’s central purpose is to encourage his readers to persevere in their belief in the apostolic proclamation of the Christ as Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.

Todays opening verses are very exiting. They do 2 very simple things:
1 - They give us a vision of what a Jesus Follower should aim for.
2 - They show us the strategy by which we can achieve the vision.
So, point 1

1 - Vision - Joyful Fellowship

1 John 1:3–4 NIV
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
The goal of being a Jesus Follower is Fellowship with other Jesus Followers, Fellowship with God the Father and Fellowship with His son, Jesus.
And it is this fellowship, v4 that makes our joy complete.
Being a Jesus Follower look like ‘Joyful fellowship’.
That is the aim of the Gospel.
v3 - We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard (What Jesus did and who he is), so that you may have fellowship with us, The Father and the Son.
1 john 1 3
v3 - We procliam to you what we have seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us, The Father and the Son.
We’re not saved just so we don’t have to face punishment for our sin against God - although that is true and does happen.
We’re not saved so that we can live life the way we want with less fear or guilt.
We are saved for fellowship.
So let’s define fellowship.
The original greek word is ‘koinonia’, and it used in the bible to mean slightly varying things. But the common thread with it’s main uses is a shared responsibility or task.

Fellowship. The essence of the Christian life—fellowship with God and fellowship with other believers in Christ.

OK, so that agrees with what we’re seeing in 1 John, but it doesn’t yet tell us what fellowship really is.
The original greek word is ‘koinonia’, and it used in the bible to mean slightly varying things. But this definition is very helpful.
Jesus Followers here today, we have fellowship in

κοινωνία (koinōnia). n. fem. fellowship, communion, sharing, participation. A term that conveys a sense of commonality, solidarity, and shared responsibility among households or individuals.

Lexham Bible Definition -
FELLOWSHIP: A term that conveys a sense of:
1 - commonality,
2 - solidarity,
3 - shared responsibility.
Let’s then define Fellowship here in 1 John 1
1 - Commonality - we share eternal life with Jesus and every other Jesus Follower. We’ll look more into this in a minute, but by nature, Jesus is eternal as we see in v2. So to be in Fellowship with Him, means we too have eternal life with Him and the Father in Heaven. We have eterenal life in common becasue of, and through, and with Jesus. It’s all about Jesus.
2 - Solidarity - we live with the same priorities, we understand each other, because we all believe in the same proclaimed Jesus
1 John 1:1 NIV
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.
To enjoy Fellowship is to hold to the truth about Jesus as a Team, as a Unit, in solidarity, against any distraction, lies or temptation. Who he was and what he did. It’s all about Jesus.
3 - Shared responsibility - This is the angle of fellowship I think we are least aware of, yet it’s heavily important to biblical fellowship.
Jesus Followers share a common task/responsibility. We ought not to just meet here on Sundays to believe the same things, we ought not to attend home groups or have people round for lunch just to understand each other (as important as both those things are)
Jesus Followers here today, we have fellowship in
We ought to fellowship together in order to take up arms together for our common task.
And that task is to ‘Proclaim Jesus’. John is modelling our common task as he set’s straight the record about who Jesus is for his readers.
End of v1 - Proclaim the Word of Life (Jesus)
start of v3 - We proclaim Jesus - so that you might have fellowship!
When we hear the word fellowship, we must hear the words ‘together we Proclaim Jesus!’ so others may join His Fellowship.
In Lord of the Rings, As the ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ that band of men, all of shapes and sizes agreed to help destroy the ring, it wasn’t just a common belief that it had to be destroyed that made them a fellowship. It wasn’t just they they shared solidarity, that life would be better without the ring. They were a Fellowship because they embarked on a great and significant task together, that demonstrated their common beliefs and solidarity.
But don’t forget - we have fellowship not just with each other, but also v3b with God the Father and His Son. God himself is part of this fellowship and shares the same task with us, to proclaim Jesus!
Our victory therfore is certain, our fellowship will prevail.
Because true Christian fellowship shares the responsibility with each other and God to Proclaim Jesus.
Not only that, but We’ll find out in a second that having Jesus on our team is a guarantee of success, because eternal life is part of who he is - so we are confident that our Fellowship will succeed.
Surely that is enough to make our joy complete as John writes in v4.
1 John 1:4 NIV
We write this to make our joy complete.
When he says ‘our’ that is an inclusive ‘our’. for all in the fellowship, not just a personal one for John and his buddies. All those in the fellowship, all of us, our joy is complete.
We are not Jesus Followers so that we can enjoy sitting on a cloud playing a harp forever and ever!
We’ll breifly unpack all that from the passage in a second, butthis is properly exciting and reasurring.
We are not Jesus Followers so that we can enjoy sitting on a cloud playing a hard forever and ever!
We are not Jesus followers so that we can feel good about ourselves on Sunday at church.
We are Jesus Followers so that both now and all eternity we might have fellowship with others and God the Father and God the Son.
The aim of Christianity?!
A comminality - Eternal life in JEsus
With others
Solidarity - shared beliefes in Jesus
Resposibility - shared task of procaliming Jesus.
IF you’re a Jesus Follower, you need to Know it’s all about Jesus.
What a privilege, what a joy.
We have responsibilities, work to do, a King to serve as he works with us. We have Jesus to proclaim.
What a privilege, what a joy.
With the Father
The end goal of being a Jesus Follower, our vision is ‘Joyful Fellowship’.
With Jesus
Now, that vision may sound exiting - but we haven’t actually established how we reach that vision.
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 1. The Object of Proclamation Highlighted (1:1)

In other words, John and other eyewitnesses saw this deity, who has life in himself from eternity, incarnated in time/space/history.

The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 1. The Object of Proclamation Highlighted (1:1)

“Concerning the Word of life” designates the object around which these verbs of perception orbit.19 In short, the eyewitnesses heard, saw, and touched the Word of life. The eternal Son of God, Jesus the Christ, had come in the flesh (cf. John 1:14)

So, every good vision needs a strategy attached.
And our strategy is VERY, VERY SIMPLE...

2 - Strategy - Jesus

How is our eternal life realised? How do we get it? We don’t. Jesus does.
There are 3 very important things that John wants his readers to know so that they are certain about their fellowship with God, and they are all about Jesus.

1 - Jesus’s Deity

1 John 1:1 NIV
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.
Deity
Jesus was from the beginning. As we read this we can’t help but think to , and .
John 1:1–5 NIV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1–4 NIV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
Do not ever be mistaken or confused on this point. Jesus is God. Right from the beginning, before creation itself. God gave himself to us in Jesus. There is no other way to reconcile mankind to God. No other religion, no amount of being good. Simply know that Jesus is God. Only a perfect God could carry out a rescue plan for a far from perfect people. Only God could defeat the death penalty of sin.
The second point John sees as central to our strategy is

2 - Jesus’s Humanity

Secondly, Jesus who is God, really became a man. Fully man. Listen to the words that John uses.
v1
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched
v2

we have seen it and testify to it,

v3

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard

We walked with him, touched him, saw him, heard him. Jesus, God became man is real! He is no Lockness monster with the odd blurred photo or sketchy report.
Jesus is KFC - finger linkin good. They saw the drumstick in the bargain bucket, the touched it, they heard the greases drip off the side with a splash, they tasted it and it was good. You can’t eat KFC and not know about it!
That’s the point John’s Making! There’s no mistake!
The eternal God became man in Jesus - Human! Eternal life revealed in Jesus. The ‘Word of Life’ John calls him. Do not be mistaken.
And as a man, he was able to pay the price of death for all humanity, so that we might take on his life of eternity. Fellowship with Jesus.
So, His deity is central to God’s strategy, His humanity is central to God’s strategy and thirdly:

3 - Jesus Proclaimed

Proclamation
Proclamation is the key verb in this paragraph. We’ve mentioned it already as part of our shared task as Jesus Followers. But John is making the point here that you cannot separate the deity and humanity of Jesus (who he is), from the proclamation of Jesus.
The message and the person ultimately cannot be separated. Each explains the other. The message about Jesus is intimately related to who Jesus is.
He came to save, but we are only saved if we hear Him proclaimed.
It is hard to imagine a fellowship of people who do not proclaim Jesus can be true believers at all.
If God kept Jesus a secret, where would we be now!
No, God’s vision for True Jesus Followers is ‘Joyful Fellowship’ with others, and with Him, now and into eternity.
And he achieves it all through Jesus. Fully God, Fully Man, Proclaimed for all to hear.
If you don’t have eternal life with God, then you need to hear Jesus Proclaimed.
If you aren’t sure, or are feeling weak, then you need to hear Jesus Proclaimed.
If you are currently confident in your faith, then you still need to hear Jesus proclaimed!
Just like John sought to give joyful confidence back to the chruch he wrote to by proclaiming Jesus in these first few verses. So today

Word of Fellowship?

we are sustained in our faith by a fresh proclamation of Christ Jesus, his deity and his humanity.
Knowing Jesus all about Jesus doesn’t make sense of Jesus. Jesus didn’t come to be know about. He came to be proclaimed
IF you know those 2 things to be true and accept his offer of eternal life through his death and ressuretcion on the cross. Then you can be confident and your joy can be complete as you continue in JOyful fellowship with us all here, with God the Father, and with Jesus the Son.
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 1. The Object of Proclamation Highlighted (1:1)

Why, then, did John use the neuter pronoun “that which” to begin v. 1? It is because he wishes to draw attention equally to the “Word proclaimed” and the “Word as person.” The message and the person ultimately cannot be separated. Each explains the other. The message about Jesus is intimately related to who Jesus is.

xxx
v1 - The object of proclamation - Word of Life - Jesus (His Deity)
Jesus Followers: Know it is all about Jesus.
v2 - The detail of proclamation - Eternal life in seen/proclaimed/revealed etc in Jesus (His Revelation - Eternal Life)
v1-2 = 5v20 - deity and eternal life
And if you do know that, then tick off week one of 1 John and thank God that you are reassured in your faith.
v3a - The pupose of proclamation
Thank Gof that you have a Joyful Fellowship of eternal life with others here today, and with God the Father, and with Jesus the Son.
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 3. The Purpose of Proclamation Announced (1:3a)

First, it is through the proclamation of the incarnate Word of life that John envisions the accomplishment of his purpose of bringing his readers to fellowship with him and other eyewitnesses. As Eichler observes, “[To] ‘have fellowship’ with one another and with Christ (1 Jn. 1:6f.) is to ‘know’ him (1 Jn. 2:3) and to ‘abide’ in him (v. 6).” This fellowship’s basis, then, is in the apostolic preaching of the historical Jesus as well as the readers’ response of faith in the subject of that proclamation.

joy

The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 4. The Nature of This Common Fellowship Clarified (1:3b)

Such fellowship for John is, in fact, inseparable from having eternal life: to have eternal life is to have fellowship with the apostolic witnesses who have testified concerning the Word of life. Fellowship with these witnesses is, in turn, nothing less than fellowship “with the Father and with his Son, Jesus the Christ.”42 John’s purpose statements in 1 John 1:3 and in 1 John 5:13 are, thus, practical equivalents: John proclaims Jesus as the Christ, the incarnate Son of God, to assure them in their faith and encourage them to persevere (cf. 1 John 5:21). Failure to persevere in this faith is, by implication, to exclude oneself from the apostolic fellowship, fellowship with God the Father and with his Son, and eternal life.

Pray
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John 5. The Purpose of Writing Announced (1:4)

In John’s theology it is impossible to take away this joy from the true believer (cf. John 16:22; also 17:12–13). Those who depart from the visible fellowship of the church never were part of the fellowship, that is, they never believed in Christ Jesus and never had eternal life (1 John 2:19; cf. John 6:60–71). Yet John’s theology of perseverance is precisely a theology of perseverance in faith in Christ Jesus64 and persevering by Christ Jesus (John 10:27–30). Believers are sustained in their faith by a fresh proclamation of Christ Jesus and his teachings, applied [in this context] in specific ways to combat the Christological heresy that threatened the health and life of the church by denying that the Christ is Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.

Believers are sustained in their faith by a fresh proclamation of Christ Jesus and his teachings, applied [in this context] in specific ways to combat the Christological heresy that threatened the health and life of the church by denying that the Christ is Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.
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