1 John

Chapter 1

Man this guy is exited! He comes on like gangbusters! Traditionally John the Apostle wrote this letter in his 90's, and he still seems as excited as when he first followed Jesus! Can that kind of excitement last? I've read a half a dozen books by the Methodist evangelist and missionary E Stanley Jones, two of which were written in his 90's, about the time he was doing a preaching trip through Japan! Yes, your experience with Christ can continue to grow and excite you! Age is irrelevant. Continuing experience is not!

How long has it been since Christ has excited you?

1 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. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 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. 4 We write this to make our joy complete. 1 John 1:1-4 NIV

This is the language of experience. “Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt!” He writes as one who has first hand experience, not just from the reports of other followers or what he has read. He heard. He saw. He even touched. Can you think of John and Jesus rubbing shoulders as they struggled with Peter and the others to bring in 159 fish?

He repeats again: The life appeared and we saw it! Remember Thomas, who got the bad rap as doubting Thomas. Well, wouldn't you raise your eyebrows if I said I ran into Joe in Walmart today after I buried him over the weekend. But Thomas got the chance to handle the risen Christ! And so had John! Evidence. Personal testimony of the resurrection.

Back up a bit...

That which was from the beginning...He's obviously linking to the Gospel of John and its opening verses. “In the beginning was the Word.” John in turn was linking to the opening of Genesis: In the beginning, God...! The disciple's experience of Jesus and the risen Christ links to the Creator of the Universe, the One Who Is, Was, and Is to Come!

In Christ you too are so linked. The God we worship is the God of Abraham, Moses, David, John, Peter, and Paul!

Onward

Depending on the translation, he says three times that his group (we) are proclaiming or announcing this message to you. One Greek word is “witness” from which comes our word “martyr.” A martyr is a witness. If he is killed, attacked, or hurt, that pain itself testifies to his commitment to his Lord.

The second word here is the verb connected to the word “gospel” He is gospelizing us. He is sharing the good news. He is so full of excitement from his personal experience that he is bursting to share it. We are witnessing and evangelizing you, telling you the good news of Christ. Holman translates them testify and declare,” which shows they gave those words some thought.

And sharing is one of the hearts of the Christian faith. Twice he uses the word fellowship. In the NT fellowship is a basic doctrine that doesn't get enough attention. But it's foundational. As I'm posting this in blog form, I have no way of knowing who may decide to read it. But if anyone who reads this is involved in a 'church fight,” think long and hard whether the issue is worth disrupting the fellowship of the church. Very, very few things are. Especially since most disputes I've seen or heard about involve personalities and jealousies, not fundamental doctrines. And fellowship IS a fundamental doctrine!

Note that experience leads to excitement, and excitement leads to proclamation and sharing! If your experience with the Lord is fresh, and your following Him excites you, sharing that enthusiasm with others is the most natural thing in the world. If you have trouble witnessing, don't pray for strength to witness. Ask God to give you a fresh renewal encounter with Him as Moses and Elijah did. He will send you out renewed and give you much to share.

Why is this important to us?

Because John was writing to us and everyone who picked up his letter. And God's Spirit who inspired that scroll is able to speak to you through John's words. So listen up! God did not lead the church to save this letter through the centuries so we could study the thoughts of a first century Jew. Rather 1 John can speak, even shout, to you and me today.

Now for something not completely different...

(Technical Stuff)

Greek or Hebrew? Gnostics? Or maybe not...

Many Greeks in the olden days believed spirit is good and matter, including flesh, is bad. Jesus saves our souls, but not our bodies. So we have to fight our bodies to make them better. One group decided to punish the body to make it behave. Some whipped themselves (flagellation if you like big words), fasted and prayed a lot, and one guy even lived for years on top of a pillar. (I always wondered if he had a pillow on his pillar, but I guess not.)

That was not a popular way to live, so a much larger group of Gnostics arose from this reasoning: if my soul and body are separate and my soul is saved, it doesn't matter what my body does. So let's live it up! I notice a lot of people seem to be of that persuasion today!

Both groups thought it was impossible for spirit to become flesh, therefore Jesus only appeared to be a man and only seemed to die on the cross. Their legends had plenty of gods coming to earth, so that was no problem. They did not dispute the divinity of Christ. What they had lots of trouble accepting was that He was really a man and really died like all people do. To them the virgin birth was a problem because that meant he shared Mary's likeness and really was human.

Most – or all – of the NT books were written, at least partially, to counter this line of thought. Jesus was both Divine and human. He really died and really came back to life. And Jesus saves our entire selves, not just part. So even though we are saved, we still battle with sin and must grow in both spirit and control of the flesh. 1 John deals with that issue.

Those Hebrews …

Every NT author except possibly Luke was a Jew. They wrote in Greek, but were likely thinking in Hebrew. Their Bible was what we call the Old Testament. Remember they had no New Testament yet. John may have had one or more of the other gospels as he wrote and possibly he had read one or more of Paul's letters. Remember John wrote most of his stuff between 80-100 AD, and many students put them all in the 90's.

Jesus himself was a Jew and called 12 Jewish men to follow him. When He left, the faith was carried on by Jews. The book of Acts shows the Twelve still worshiped in the Temple. So the question arose – has anything changed? The answer came in parts. Peter had a dream that enabled him to tell a Roman Centurion about Jesus, and the man believed. Philip witnessed to an Ethiopian and baptized him on the spot, before he left Israel for Egypt. Neither of these says anything about their being circumcised or warned to observe the Jewish diet.

Then Paul, a super-Jew, began to preach to Gentiles and add them to his churches without any requirements beyond faith in Christ. At that point, some Jews began criticizing him for not requiring Gentiles to become Jews in order also to be Christians. They kept coming after Paul, and he kept standing up to them and arguing against them.

The New Testament was forged between the hard-line Jewish Christians on one side and Gentile Gnostics on the other. The NT writers went right down the line saying Jesus was truly a man and truly the divine Son of God. Faith in Christ made you a Christian without anything else, but being a Christian meant to grow in the likeness of Christ. We will keep an eye out for both of these opponents as we continue in 1 John.

Specifically and word by word, well some of them anyway...

Verse 1: What was from the beginning... Well, what WAS from the beginning?

Two possibilities: As in John 1, Jesus was the Word that was in the beginning. But in 2:7 John speaks of commandments they had “from the beginning.” That makes sense here too. He's teaching the same message the Twelve preached from the start. But it's all about Jesus, whichever way you go!

Sense words: Words from the senses, seeing, hearing, even feeling! Words that emphasize personal experience.

The word of life – the word or message or person who brings life. The gospel or the Subject of the gospel. Life is a key word in John. We'll see it again.

Verse 2: The life appeared – Compare to John's gospel 1. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

God's abundant life appeared, and from our personal encounters we are sharing those experiences with you.

Eternal life – more than everlasting, a quality of life. Life in the Kingdom.

With the Father – echoing John 1. maybe add points to the view in verse 1 that he's referring to Jesus as the Word from the beginning?

Appeared – a revelation from God. The Father showed Him to us.

Fellowship – in Greek, koinonia. The latter word has been adopted into English usage because popular usage among Christians has made fellowship equal to party or church socials. In the NT the word means deep companionship as develops among people who have been through a lot of things together. It means we have each other's backs. Koinonia is like a salad. Combine loving Christ with loving each other and add time.

With the Father... A divine fellowship. We want to introduce you to the One we know and initiate you into our group.

4 - our joy...full – I like it when the church claps after someone is baptized. It's a powerful way of celebrating that they are now one of us. They are part of what has been called our forever family. “The Lord added to the church those who were being saved.” That's what it's all about!

Now go back and scan the four verses.

Now go back and re-read them more slowly.

Now about that sin! Onward!

Look at the next block of material.

Hey sinners! Don't sin! But if you do...

(to be continued...)