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1Jn_4:14-15. That love brings with it fellowship with God, is caused by the fact that God is love and love springs from God. But God’s love was made manifest by the sending of His Son, and this is testified by the apostles, who themselves have seen Him. The last thought which 1Jn_4:14 expresses serves as an introduction to the thought that follows in 1Jn_4:15, in which the believing confession (and therefore faith) is described as the condition of fellowship with God, and hence also of true love.
καὶ ἡμεῖς ] By ἡμεῖς John means here himself and his fellow-apostles; comp. 1Jn_4:6.
τεθεάμεθα καὶ μαρτυροῦμεν , comp. chap. 1Jn_1:1-2. τεθεάμεθα expresses the direct seeing (Gospel of Joh_1:14), not knowledge through the medium of others. The apostles saw that the Father sent the Son, inasmuch as they saw the Son Himself—and not after the flesh merely, but also as the μονογενὴς παρὰ πατρός . With τεθεάμεθα corresponds the closely-connected idea μαρτυροῦμεν , which presupposes one’s own direct experience; comp. Gospel of Joh_1:34.
The subject of this testimony is: ὅτι ὁ πατὴρ ἀπέσταλκε τὸν υἱὸν σωτῆρα τοῦ κόσμου , comp. 1Jn_4:9-10; σωτῆρα τ . κ . states the purpose of the sending, which does not refer to particular elect ones, but to the whole number of sinners (comp. chap. 1Jn_2:2 and Gospel of Joh_3:16).—1Jn_4:15. With ὁμολογήσῃ , comp. 1Jn_4:2. The subject of the confession is: ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ; this is precisely what the antichrists deny; comp. 1Jn_4:2-3.
Weiss erroneously interprets: “Whosoever abides in this confession, in him it is seen that God is in him;” the words “in him it is seen” are a mere interpolation.