"Regarding that which was from the beginning, that which we
have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we have gazed
upon and have handled with our hands, the Word of life that was made manifest
and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you even the life eternal
that was with the Father and was revealed to us, that life which we have seen
and heard we also proclaim to you that you may indeed have fellowship with us
and join us in our fellowship with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ.
And we write these things that our joy may be complete."
The first four verses are one thought, a
sentence. John's purpose in writing this epistle is that we may be assured of our
position in Christ. John goes to some length to make it clear that what he is
writing is not, as some think, simply a record of his personal subjective religious
experience; rather it is subjective rooted and grounded in the objective. It seems from the way he is writing that he is opposing Gnostic teaching that either began in the early Christian church with an admixture of Platonic thought by the adoption of Gnostic doctrines. That may be a useful detour at some point. I think it can be said that both subjectively and objectively, body and soul, we are in Christ is a notion contrary to Gnostic teaching.
John begins with an appeal to the objective as encountered by
very human senses. “We have heard…” This was not something conjured up in their minds to satisfy some personal spiritual need. As we hear the sound of
birds and the voices of friends, John is saying, we heard with our ears this teaching. “We have
seen with our eyes” the Teacher. These
are not our own thoughts that came to us from the ether in some moment of
meditation, spiritual enlightenment or ‘spiritual’ sight. Modern day self-proclaimed “prophets” and "apostles"like to
say, “I was in the Spirit and I saw, the Lord told me etc.” No, John is saying, that is not the
experience that I nor the others proclaim. Rather “we saw with our eyes….” the same eyes with which we see the sun rise. Moreover, that
which we saw was not some fleeting apparition, or phantom conjured in some
state of spiritual excitement. “We have gazed upon it,” we observed it intently
as spectators engrossed in watching something objective presented to the
physical senses. Such is the import of the word translated simply as gazed. Not
only, John says, did we see and hear but we “have handled with our hands,”
literally touched, groped, palpably examined, laid my head upon the breast of Him to which we bear witness and
proclaim to you; even the “Life Eternal that was with the Father and was
revealed to us.” We have seen that Life, we have heard that Life, we have
touched that Life and we proclaim that Life to you so that you may “join us in
our fellowship with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ.”
We profit if we note that the fellowship of men, “our fellowship” or
partnership with one another, properly understood and lived out in its fullness
is rooted in our first having fellowship, partnership in the Father through the Son
by the work of the Holy Spirit within us. He is the vine; we are the branches
(John 15:5). We find our life in him and his life flows through us so that “the
life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20)
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