John is a bit of a meandering, fanciful character. If you’re going to read along on this one I’d recommend taking it slow and re-reading a few times.
The first part really spends time laying out the reality of Jesus coming and being among His creation. John says multiple times that they heard him, looked upon him, touched him, saw him, etc. Of course, he’s tied this earthly Jesus to the “word of life” and “that which was from the beginning”, which has a lofty, Greek feel to it. Broad point is that something, eternal, major and awesome has come into the world and John and the boys saw it and they be telling everyone.
The reasons John gives for telling everyone is so that they can have fellowship with John and the other Jesus folk which then leads to the whole party having fellowship with Jesus and God the Father. And everyone gets joy. Seems like a plan.
Also sounds a lot like following Jesus and taking someone with you, but I kind of have a thing for that phrase so pardon if I overstep the application.
In the second half of the first chapter, John relays that one of the things Jesus wanted made known is that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” Best to think of this as God being pure and altogether good. So if someone proclaims that they have fellowship with God but that person doesn’t reflect the characteristics of God, they lie, they aren’t walking with God.
But as we walk with God, reflect his characteristics to the world, we get fellowship with one another and Jesus’ sacrifice clears up where we fall short. That’s Kingdom living. We fellowship with one another under the identity, relationship, and mission Jesus died for.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Just like James, John ties together our freedom with Jesus and ability to walk in his ways with confession, truth telling. It’s just a thing, fellas. Truthy truth truthburger. Gotta do it. Hiding things isn’t protecting how you live, it’s picking how to die.