1 John 1:1-4
1 John 1:1-4
Big Idea: Through the life of Jesus, we have fellowship with each other.
John spent the last few years of his life around Ephesus, and at this time, the church was compromised of 2nd and 3rd generation Christians, it was unlikely these Christians had met or known Jesus physically, like John did. False teaching was beginning to creep in to the churches, and so John was writing to set things straight. You’ll notice as we go through 1 John that he has a deep concern for right doctrine and for right living. He says things like “if you are a child of God, you will keep his commandments” (1 John 5:3)
Yet, John was very pastoral in his writing. He often refers to his audience as “little children”. John would have been much older in the faith at this time and he would have been a source of great encouragement to this church filled with younger men and women, and families both young and old.
John has an interesting way of writing, especially in this first letter. He starts a topic, then he goes on to a couple of different topics before returning to his first topic. 1 John is written circular rather than linear. So with this in mind, we should think in terms of paragraphs rather than chapters.
1 John is one of the only books in the NT to have a prologue. The gospel of John is another one (and Hebrews is another).
Before we look at the intro to 1 John, let’s take a quick look at the opening to the book of John (the Gospel of John):
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
In those opening verses of John, what does he call Jesus? — The Word.
In the book of Revelation, also written by John, he again calls Jesus the Word:
Revelation 19:13: He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.
1 John 1:1–4
[1] That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—[2] the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—[3] that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. [4] And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Those 4 verses, — it’s just one long sentence in the original language— the intro to this letter, can be a little complicated to understand. Its 4 verses is one very long sentence. And if you were a student and passed in a sentence like this, your teacher would hand it right back at you and tell you it’s a run-on sentence, too much is going on, simplify it, break it apart, re-write it.
One theologian has called this sentence a “grammatical obstacle course” (Raymond Brown). And someone else has called this a “grammatical tangle” (C.H. Dodd).
Let’s take a look at it again, and notice that the verb of the sentence doesn’t appear until verse 3 — “we proclaim to you”. The first 2 verses are filled with a number of relative clauses. “That which…”
That:
-> which was from the beginning,
-> which we have heard,
-> which we have seen with our eyes,
-> which we looked upon
-> (which we) have touched with our hands,
John has set us up with 5 relative clauses — phrases that modify the noun, and in this case, it’s simply the word “that.” But what or who are we talking about? After these 5 relative clauses, John says the “that” refers to “the word of life."
-> concerning the word of life
And then John inserts a parenthetical thought:
(the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us)
That was just parenthetical, but now John goes back to the word “that”….
-> that which we have seen and heard
And now he finally gets to the verb:
-> we proclaim also to you
And lastly, why? Why is he writing? He gives us the reason:
-> so that you too may have fellowship with us
And finally one more parenthetical thought:
(and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.)
John starts with 5 clauses (that which…), tells us we’re talking about the Word of life, takes a quick detour for a parenthetical thought on the word of life, then adds another clause (which) before stating the reason for his letter, then adds one more small parenthetical thought about John’s fellowship with the Father and the Son, Jesus.
For the next few minutes, I want us to dissect these 4 verses and look at what they mean, and then’ll we’ll talk a bit about how this applies to us today.
If I had to summarize these 4 verses, I would give the following "big idea:"
Big Idea: Through the life of Jesus, we have fellowship with one another.
John is one of those authors who makes it easy for us to determine the reason for his writing. In John 20:31 tells us the reason for his writing his gospel:
but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
And 1 John is similar, he clearly states why he wrote that letter:
…we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Let's take a look at what John is proclaiming (the Word of Life):
- from the beginning:
What does John mean, from the beginning?
John is talking about from before time began, from the beginning of eternity, from eternity past. He doesn’t just mean from Jesus’ birth. He’s not saying that the Word of Life was born in Bethlehem on Christmas Day, although that’s partly true. But John is saying the Word of Life existed way back in Genesis, way back at the time of creation, and even further back still.
Colossians 1:16
For by him (the word — Jesus) all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word Was God.
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
If there’s one thing we can be sure of in this world: it’s Jesus — the son of God, the 2nd person of the Godhead who’s always existed, who created the world, who was prophesied about all throughout the old testament, who came down from heaven and entered the world we live in, the world he created (he entered into his canvas), and he saved us from our sins, from the works of the devil and from the wrath of God.
John is reminding us that Jesus — the Word of Life is outside of time.
2) we have heard
John is writing as a first-hand eyewitness. He didn’t just hear stories from friends, he actually heard Jesus speak and teach with his own ears.
John wrote this letter years after Jesus was crucified, resurrected and after he had ascended into heaven. There were many people who had since come into the Christian faith, churches were planted, disciples were being made, and most of the people John was writing to probably had never been with Jesus and heard him speak. They wouldn’t have heard his parables and teachings on the mountainside and on the lakeshore. But John is telling them: "I have; I’ve heard him with my own ears, I’ve sat down on the mountain listening to his preaching. Jesus thought us how to pray, he taught us the way to the father. I’ve studied his life."
3) have seen with our eyes
John saw Jesus, the son of God, with his own eyes. These weren’t legends that were passed down, this wasn’t a family story, this wasn’t something that he only read about. He actually saw him.
John was one of Jesus’ three closest disciples. He would have seen many miracles and heard the inside story on secrets known only to a few.
4) have looked upon
John was there when Jesus took him, Peter and James up a mountain, where they were able to truly look up Jesus as he was transfigured — his face and clothes became dazzlingly white — and when Moses and Elijah also appeared. John saw into the face of Jesus as few men have. He saw the son of God with his own eyes.
5) have touched with our hands
And John touched him. Jesus wasn’t a ghost; he wasn’t a spirit. He was flesh and blood. And John would have remembered touching Jesus after his resurrection
John was there when Jesus told Thomas, to “put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
That conversation took place 50 or more years earlier, but to John, it was as if it had happened yesterday.
6) have seen and heard
Again, John writes that he’s a direct, close, eyewitness and earwitness of the Word of Life.
Notice all throughout this first sentence in 1 John, John says “we” and not “I”. He could have said, “I have seen and heard; I have touched with my hands; I have looked up.” But he doesn’t; he says “we”.
The first century Christians did not consider Christianity to be an individualist thing; it wasn’t a “me” thing. To be a follower of Jesus meant you were in community with other followers of Jesus.
And this is the reason for what John writes. He says we’re proclaiming all of this SO THAT (verse 3) you would have fellowship with us. He doesn’t even talk about our fellowship with the father… yet. He goes there later on, but not yet. But for now he says, this is Jesus, and I’m telling you all of this so that you would have fellowship with us, the other apostles and disciples of Jesus.
Application
(1) fellowship
Intimate fellowship among us and our church is only possible through the true identity of Jesus.
What makes us different is not some abstract idea about religion, but a real person that was seen, heard, touched and looked upon: Jesus.
What makes us different is not some abstract idea about Jesus, but Jesus himself: the real, live, flesh and blood Jesus, the Word of Life, as John calls him at the end of verse 1. He is what sets us apart, and it’s because of Him that we are able to fellowship together.
Think about it: we, without Jesus, are just a social club, just people hanging out. But with Jesus we’re something entirely different. The Greek word John uses is “koinonia” and it implies an intimate spiritual communion and sharing among the disciples. Picture Jesus and his 12 disciples — they shared that same fellowship, that same “koinonia,” they spent a significant amount of time together over the course of 3 years. They ate a lot of meals together, they travelled, they learned from Jesus, they fellowshipped — they “koinonia”-ed together. This is the same type of fellowship that John wants for us.
The unfortunate thing is fellowship is one of of those Christian-ese words that has lost some of its meaning. We drink coffee and tea before and after and call that fellowship. Although it’s part of it, there’s so much more to fellowship than just a short coffee time before and after.
One of the most prominent examples of “Koinonia” in the NT was when the church was just born. The early church shared everything and had everything in common.
Acts 2:42: And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship (koinonia), to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Because of our western modern individualist society, we tend not to put importance on what it truly means to fellowship together. And because of our culture, we often miss the true essence of the type of fellowship that John is drawing our attention to.
What would it look like for the church today to take one more step closer to what true fellowship looks like?
(2) the Word of Life
John calls Jesus the Word of Life, for that is who he is. He gives life; he’s the author of life; he’s the way, the truth and the life.
John makes it very clear that Jesus was a very real person that he saw, heard, looked upon and touched. So what does it mean to see/hear/look upon and touch Jesus today? Is John suggesting that there were only a few people who were able to see/touch/look upon Jesus and the rest of us just have to take his word? I don’t think so. If all we have is an idea of something, then we’re back to religion.
Jesus said in John 14:18 that he would not leave us as orphans:
John 14:18–20
[18] “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. [19] Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. [20] In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
As a Christian, The Spirit of Jesus indwells our life. As we have true fellowship with each other, so, too, do we have fellowship with God through Jesus Christ. Jesus is very alive and his spirit is here with us.