Study 1: First John

1st John

“That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard with the present result that it is ringing in our ears, that which we have discerningly seen with our eyes with the present result that it is in our mind’s eye, that which we gazed upon as a spectacle, and our hands handled with a view to investigation, that which is concerning the Word of the life—and this aforementioned life was made visible, and we have seen it with discernment and have it in our mind’s eye, and are bearing witness and bringing back to you a message concerning the life, the eternal life, which is of such a nature as to have been in fellowship with the Father and was made visible to us.
3, 4 That which we have seen with discernment and at present is in our mind’s eye, and that which we have heard and at present is ringing in our ears, we are reporting also to you, in order that as for you also, you may be participating jointly in common with us [in our first-hand knowledge of the life of our Lord]. And the fellowship indeed which is ours, is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things, as for us, we are writing in order that our joy, having been filled completely full in times past may persist in that state of fullness through present time.”[1]

Outline:
1: 1-4 Introduction or Theme of the letter – The Word of Life
1: 5-2:2 If you have fellowship with God you cannot sin
2: 3-11 To know God is to obey him
2: 12-17 To love God = to not love the world
2: 18-29 The antichrist is already coming
3: 1-3 Christians are children of God
3: 4-10 Children of God cannot sin
3: 11-18 Children of God love one another
3: 19-24 Children of God have confidence before God
4: 1-6 How to distinguish the Spirit of God from the spirit of the antichrist
4: 7-5:4 We should love one another because God loves us
5: 5-12 God gives witness about his Son
5: 13-21 Final remarks

Background:
Most of the commentators accept that the author is John. He presents himself as an eyewitness of Jesus’ life and shows how those who can’t see Jesus physically now can still partake of the blessings that came from it.
John’s church was like a housegroup community in or around Ephesus. There would appear to be 3 groups in John’s community:
· Johnannine Christians who followed John’s theology
· Jewish Christians – with a high priority on observing the law and who probably struggled with Jesus as messiah
· Hellenistic Christians – who came from a pagan background and who probably struggled with Jesus humanity. These Christians would have come from a Gnostic background. Both groups denied Jesus humanity.

The purpose of the letter, or sermon, would appear to be to combat the false teaching of the Gnostics. gvinwskw = to know. They claim to have a special knowledge that is over and above the Scriptures. The Gnostics believed that matter was evil and the spirit was good therefore a good God would be separate from an evil, material world. The obvious conclusion is that God could not have come in the flesh because that would make him take on evil. They got round this by believing:
1. Docetic Gnostics – Jesus didn’t have a real body – comes from dokew = to seem
Or

2. Cerinthian Gnostics – Christ came upon Jesus when the Holy Spirit descended on him and Christ left him before Jesus suffered on the cross.

The Gnostics believe that salvation comes not through faith but by this special knowledge. John uses the Greek words for knowledge 40 times in this sermon to make clear that we “know” that our salvation is in Christ and is sure – 1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who  believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have  eternal life.”

Some Gnostics also believed that it wasn’t evil to break God’s law as it was only matter that was evil.

Hebrew thought views all of life as spiritual; you cannot separate physical from spiritual. Greek thought did separate the two. John is trying to make clear, showing that Jesus came in the flesh that the physical and the spiritual are tied together. Physical is not evil.

The letter has themes: love, sin, the world, knowledge and truth. And John weaves in and out of these themes with the overall purpose that the believer “know Him who is true” 1 John 5:20 “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”

In this sermon John 9 times shows how to determine truth and uses the verb gvinwskw to present each one. He emphasises the fact that he and the disciples had a real living experience with Jesus, touching him, seeing him and hearing him.
Verse1:

The words"That which" link to the words "Concerning the Word of life" by the following linking phrases:
. Was from the beginning
. We have heard
. We have seen with our eyes
. We have looked upon
and
. Our hands have touched

That which – not to be confused with “He who”. This refers to the things relating to Jesus, not Jesus himself.
From the beginning – means that “The Word” not only appeared at the moment mentioned but it has existed and has been active ever since.
They heard his audible voice – he stresses this with his use of the perfect tense that implies a process completed in the past with an impact in the present. If he wanted to communicate only that he heard him he would have used the aorist tense. He also communicates that he heard him over and over again, not just once.
They saw him with their own eyes – the word he uses for “seeing” here is oraw, which refers to the physical act of seeing, giving prominence to the discerning mind, to mental perception, and to mental activity. Here John emphasizes that he physically saw Jesus with his own eyes, this was no vision or dream. Again, he uses the perfect tense.
He gazed upon him - Here he uses another word which means “to see” - θεαομαι, which means, “to behold, view attentively, contemplate.” It includes the idea of wondering regard or “such a looking as seeks merely the satisfaction of the sense of sight.” The Greek word comes over into our language in the word “theatre.” They looked at that unique life as upon a spectacle. Here John uses the aorist tense, referring merely to the fact of seeing without mentioning details.
They touched him - “have handled” - ψηλαφαω, “to handle, touch, feel.” In late Greek it meant “to examine closely.” The verb means, “to handle with a view to investigation.”
Ø The word is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament when blind Isaac felt the hands of Jacob (Gen. 27:22). The old man, puzzled at the voice of Jacob, handled his hands with a view to investigating whether the speaker were really Esau.
Ø The same word is used in Luke 24:39, where our Lord said, “Handle Me with a view to investigation and see; because a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Our Lord’s proof to the disciples that He was raised in the physical body in which He died was based on the scientific evidence of their sense of touch
· What they heard had to do with the word of life.
Ø logoß (word), is comes from λεγω, “to speak,” and refers to the total concept of something. Our Lord is the Logos of God in the sense that He is the total concept of God seen through a human medium, His humanity consisting of His human body, His human limitations, and His human life lived on earth in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Ø John calls Him here, “the Word of the life,” the definite article appearing in the Greek text, not any general idea of life here, but the particular life that God is and which was revealed in concrete form in the humanity of our Lord. It is the Word of Life incarnate in Jesus.

Verse 2:
and this aforementioned life was made visible, and we have seen it with discernment and have it in our mind’s eye, and are bearing witness and bringing back to you a message concerning the life, the eternal life, which is of such a nature as to have been in fellowship with the Father and was made visible to us.
This Life appeared- it could be touched
It could be seen
We testify to it
We proclaim to you eternal life which was with the Father
· John 5:26 For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;
· 1 John 5:11-13 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and  this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
· John uses “life” and “eternal life” interchangeably.
· John refers to eternal life almost always as an experience that is present.
Ø It is with the Father and revealed in Jesus I John 1

What is eternal life?
Ø John 5:26: "For just as me Father granted the Son also to have life in himself."
Ø John 1:4: in him was life, and the life was the light of all peo­ple.
Ø John 11:25: Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live."
Ø John 14:6: Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Ø John 17:2: "since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him."

Jesus is eternal life because, just as God the Father has life in himself, so he has given the incarnate Son to have life in himself.

Those who have the Son have eternal life. 1 John shows that God has promised them eternal life (2:25) and also ex­plains that this gift of eternal life is tied up with God's Son.
The key text is 1 John 5:11-13:
And this is the testimony: God gave 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.
Ø The eternal life which was with God has been revealed to us in the incarnate Son.
Ø God's promise of eternal life for those who believe is intimately connected with God's Son.
Ø When God gives eternal life to human beings, he gives it with his Son.
Ø To have the Son is to have life; not to have the Son is not to have life.
Ø What it means to 'have the Son' is closely related to believing in the Son. And believing in the Son is connected with accepting the proclamation about him.

Is the expression 'having the Son' a syn­onym for 'believing in the Son'?
Ø John 6:56: "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them."
Ø John 14:23: Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them."
Ø John 15:4:"Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me."
Ø John 15:5-7 "I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and with­ers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

To abide in Christ means
Ø continuing loyalty and obedi­ence to Christ,
Ø to be indwelt by the Son, initiated when people believe in him. To 'have the Son' is to have eternal life because the Son himself is the eternal life that was with the Father.

What does it mean to have eternal life?
Ø 1 John 3:14 he speaks of believers passing from death to life, indicating that the experi­ence of eternal life expressed negatively is escaping death.
Ø John’s Gospel shows eternal life as escaping death and judgement. Not to have eternal life is to perish (John 3:16; 10:28); to endure God's wrath (John 3:36); to come under God's judgement (John 5:24); and to experience the resurrec­tion to condemnation (John 5:29).
Ø to have eternal life means to have one's spiritual hunger and thirst satisfied (John 4:14; 6:35);
Ø to be raised up on the last day and to live forever (John 6:40,51,54);
Ø to have the light of life so that one does not walk in darkness (John 8:12);
Ø to have abundant life (John 10:10);
Ø to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he sent (John 17:3);
Ø Though we die, we will live (John 11:25).

Evidences of eternal life.
Ø belief that Jesus is the Christ (5:1),
Ø avoidance of sin and doing what is right (2:29; 3:9; 5:18),
Ø overcoming the 'world' (5:4),
Ø love of fellow be­lievers (4:7).

Verses 3 & 4
3, 4 That which we have seen with discernment and at present is in our mind’s eye, and that which we have heard and at present is ringing in our ears, we are reporting also to you, in order that as for you also, you may be participating jointly in common with us [in our first-hand knowledge of the life of our Lord]. And the fellowship indeed which is ours, is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things, as for us, we are writing in order that our joy, having been filled completely full in times past may persist in that state of fullness through present time.”[2]
The fellowship here is to have a personal relationship, in this case with John, and to be in partnership with him in proclaiming the message about the “Word of life” as opposed to being in fellowship with those that were dedicated to the false teachings that John was trying to counter.

[1]Wuest, K. S. (1997, c1961). The New Testament : An expanded translation. First published in 3vols., 1956-59, under title: Expanded translation of the Greek New Testament. (1 Jn 1:1). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
[2]Wuest, K. S. (1997, c1961). The New Testament : An expanded translation. First published in 3 vols., 1956-59, under title: Expanded translation of the Greek New Testament. (1 Jn 1:1). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.