First John 1:1-4

Introduction

Before we dive into the lesson I want to review some of the things we learned in the introduction.

The theme of the book of First John is assurance. John wrote to assure the believers in his community. John was confronting a heresy called Proto-Gnosticism. They were in direct opposition to Christianity. They had a false view of Jesus. They did not believe that Jesus was who Jesus said he was and what the scriptures say Jesus is. They believed that knowledge was of utmost importance. Knowledge was the way someone was saved, this is how someone could have a relationship with God. Because knowledge was the way to salvation their view of Jesus is not important. They do not need Jesus to be saved. Only a select few could be in this group. They wanted it small so only a few would have this knowledge. This knowledge, they claimed was given to them by God. It was a special or higher knowledge, higher than the knowledge the apostles had, and we will see in this lesson how John reacts to that.

There were people who were in the community of people to whom John wrote this letter who began to follow this false teaching. They also began, it seems, to teach other people in the church this false teaching. They threw the churches faith into turmoil, therefore John wrote this letter, and we find the purpose of First John in chapter 5:13.

Before we dive into the first four verses of chapter one I want to clue everyone into what the structure of the lessons will be. What will happen in these lessons is we will go through and explain the text. Sometimes we will go word by word because it will be necessary. Other times we can explain the passage as a whole. After we explain the passage, which is being covered we will look at how the passage we look at ties into the theme of the whole book.

That Which Was From The Beginning

What exactly is John trying to get at here. The start of this letter is quite puzzling. The reason being it does not start out like a normal letter did at this time. This has led some to say this is not a letter but is rather a sermon (Marshall, The Epistles of John, NICNT, 99).

This is also very eerily similar to the beginning of the gospel, which bears John’s name (see John 1:1-4, will be discussed later). But what exactly does this phrase, that which was from the beginning mean here? There are many different views on this. Some say that which was from the beginning points to the incarnate life of Jesus Christ (Kruse, The Letters of John, PNTC, 51, Akin, 1,2,3 John, NAC, 51) One commentator said this pointed to the beginning of time (Stott, The Letters of John, TNTCS, 64) and another person said this phrase pointed to the permanence and unchanging nature of the gospel (MacArthur, 1-3 John, 15). So where are to come down? What is John speaking of here, is this important?

Lets look at some of the clues, which John is giving us here. That which was from the beginning is something or rather is a someone who he has heard, he has seen with his own eyes, he has touched with his own hands, and he has looked upon, that which was from the beginning seems to point to someone, some person. So we can throw out one of the three options above, which is the unchanging nature of the gospel, even though I hate disagreeing with John MacArthur but the scriptures do.

I think the option that fits the best with what John is speaking of here is the incarnate life of Christ. Just so this makes sense let’s answer the question what is the incarnation? The incarnation is defined as follows: “The way in which the Son of God assumed a human form in Jesus Christ.” (I. Howard Marshall, Incarnation NDBT, 577) Put simply it is God becoming a man, and that man is Jesus Christ.

I think this is the reason this option is correct and faithful to what John has written here. John went through stressing all of the physical things in this verse, the touching and hearing and seeing (Akin, 51). If he were wanting this to echo exactly what the fourth gospel said he would have gone a different route, and possibly taken a more similar stance like we see in John 1.

That which was from the beginning is pointing to the historical significance of the incarnation. Remember we said in the last lesson the heretics, the Gnostics, denied the incarnation. There was no way the incarnation could have happened, but we see John here pointing to the historical reality and significance of the incarnation. John is saying this was a real event, but what exactly gives John the authority to say such a things as this?

This is where are next point comes in John was an eyewitness to that which was from the beginning.

John As Eyewitness

John was an eyewitness to the incarnation, to the life of Jesus. John uses very vivid terms here.

First we see that John heard that which was from the beginning. Not only did John hear, but he also saw. These two verbs are in the perfect tense in the Greek. The Perfect tense signifies an action that was brought to completion in the past but still had implications on the present. These were things, which happened in the past but still had bearings on the present. These may have happened in the past but they were still and are affecting the present.

Next John says he looked upon that which was from the beginning. This word can also mean observed. John looked with intent on Jesus. There was a deep look that happened not just a mere quick look but a deep look (See Boice, The Epistles of John, 24).

Why does John use the plural here, we instead of I?

A good question to ask about this verse is why does John use the plural here. It seems like it would have been just as easy for him to use I here, but he did not. Have you ever wondered why he did this? I gave this a lot of thought this week, and we cannot have a definitive answer but I believe we can answer.

First we can give a sure answer, I believe, to who the we is. It is not all Christians, or all of John’s readers that he is referring to. It is rather the apostles John is speaking of (Boice, 22; Possibly Stott, 62). John is referring to all the apostles, those who were actually with Jesus and commissioned to be His apostles.

So now to answer why does John refer to all of the Apostles? John says this here to back up his point. The heretics, the Gnostics, were saying the incarnation never happened. John’s reply to them is, it did happen, and I was there. But not only was I there the rest of the Apostles were with me as well. I was not the only one who witnessed the incarnation. Peter saw it he touched, he heard. James saw and heard, I was not the only one. If you think I am making this up I am telling a story go to these men they were there with me.

This is John’s reply to these Gnostics, these false teachers. He is saying I was there when it happened. Where were you? The other Apostles were there when it happened, and where were you all again? Oh that’s right you were not there, so how can you speak as to whether the incarnation actually happened.

Concerning The Word of Life

Moving on to the next phrase we come to concerning the word of life. This is what was from the beginning. We will not linger here, but will return later. The word of life is referring to Jesus, we will look at what this means later on.

The Life Was Made Manifest

The word of life was made manifest. The word manifest literally means revealed. The life was revealed to John and the other apostles. This is what John and the other Apostles had seen and they testify to it and they proclaim the eternal life. John all of the sudden shifts from the word of life to eternal life. This eternal life was with the Father and was revealed to John and the other apostles.

This life existed from the beginning. It was with the Father. It is real, it was revealed.

John’s Reason for Proclaiming

John in verse three gives his reasoning of why he is proclaiming the word of life. His reasoning is two fold.

First so his readers may have fellowship with him and the other Apostles. What the Apostles were teaching. This is John’s first reason but this is not the main reason. John proclaims this message so his readers may have fellowship with God the Father and God the Son Jesus Christ. This is John’s real reason for proclaiming the word of life. We should have this as our ultimate goal. There may be times when we develop friendships and that is good, but if that person is not a Christian our goal in that relationship should be to see them have fellowship with the Father and Jesus Christ.

If you recall from the Introduction the Gnostics were a very secretive group. They did not want many people to be involved in their group. They wanted it to be exclusive. John and the other Apostles received this message, the Gospel, but it was not for them only. It was also for others. This was in direct contradiction to what the Gnostics were doing. The few had heard the truth about Jesus Christ, the Apostles, but they were to spread the truth with others, not leave to the select few (Boice, 25).

Unfortunately we as Christians act like the Gnostics many times. We have heard the truth and we know the truth about Jesus Christ, but we do not tell others, which we are commanded to do (Mt. 28). We are to emulate the Apostles and what they did. We are to spread the truth about who Jesus is, and not be like the Gnostics.

Is John Selfish?

Verse four is a rather peculiar verse. It does seem odd to some people, but in the ESV and the NASB this verse has been translated and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. I will admit a face reading of this smacks of selfishness on the part of John. Here is the reason why, in 5:13, where John states his purpose for writing, he says he writes for those who believe in Jesus so they may know they have eternal life. He is writing for their behalf. But here in chapter one verse four “we write these things so that our joy may be complete.”

If you are using a different version than the one I use, the ESV, your version may say we write these things so that your joy may be made complete or full. The translation here of OUR instead of YOUR seems to be the right and best one (Akin, 58).

Lets try to look at this verse and how in the world could this not be TOTALLY selfish on the part of John. Recall the situation to which John is writing. These people were close to him. They were probably in the church he pastored or possibly he pastored more than one church. Any pastor will tell you it pains them and hurts them when their people hurt, the people’s joy is the pastor’s joy. Colin Kruse in his commentary on this verse says, “The author recognizes that his own joy in Christ cannot be complete if fellow believers for whom he feels some responsibility for are in danger of departing from the truth.” (Kruse, 59). John’s joy came from these people being assured they were true believers. They were really Christians and not the false teachers who were seeking to lead them astray. John is not being selfish here at all. His joy will be complete when these people are assured that they are of the truth, they are the real Christians.

How Do These Verses Relate to the Theme of Assurance

One last thing to cover and that is what do these opening verses have to do with why John ultimately wrote this, which is assurance. In what way or ways does John attempt to lead these people to assurance.

The answer to these questions is very simple, he points them to Christ.

Assurance can only come to a person who has a correct view of who Jesus is. So John right at the beginning does not waste any time at all. He points these people straight to Christ. In order for anyone to be assured they must have a correct view of Christ.

My Assurance Comes From A Correct View of Jesus Christ

John points two four things about Jesus in these first four verses which I want to cover and at the end we will tie in these four things with how they relate to assurance.

The first two things have to do with the nature of Jesus. Jesus has two natures. We see in verses 1-2 that Jesus was a physical human being. He was real. So real that John touched him with his own hands. If Jesus was not flesh and bones there is no way John could have actually touched him, but Jesus is not only a physical being, He also possesses deity. Jesus is God. He was with the Father and was made manifest to John and the other Apostles. Jesus has always been. There was never a time when Jesus was not. Jesus was involved in creation, he created the world. Jesus is God. He was with the Father.

In order for a person to have a correct view of who Jesus is they must believe both of these things. Jesus is not just a man and He is not just God, He is the God-man and any view short of that is not good enough. The Gnostics had missed it you see. They saw Jesus as only being a man. And there was no way possible He could be God in any way shape or form because He was a man. Man was matter, which is evil, and God is spirit, which is good. Therefore God could not indwell Jesus because Jesus was matter He was evil. But John says NO. Jesus was a man, a real man with flesh and bones, but at the same time He was also God. He was God incarnated in human flesh.

There are still people today who believe they are Christians and do not know why they cannot find assurance. There are some people who live with a false assurance because they go to church or something like that, but both of these groups of people usually have the same problem. Their view of Jesus is off, it does not line up with what the Bible says about Jesus. There are some people in this area who claim to do miraculous things for God and they go to church everyday basically, but if you ask them who Jesus is, they do not believe He was God. He was the Son of God, but somehow being the Son of God does not make you God. These people will, and can never have assurance they are Christians because they do not have a biblical view of who Jesus is.

John also teaches us two more things about Jesus. John gives two absolute statements about Jesus, He is THE word of life, and He is the eternal life.

First Jesus is the word of life. What does this mean? It means that Jesus has life within himself. We see numerous examples in the New Testament where Jesus brought people back to life. In John 1:4 John says in him was life and in verse three of the same chapter John says all things were made through him. Life only comes because of Jesus. All people everywhere are spiritually dead. There is not one person live on this earth at this point in time, or at any other point in time of history, that is good enough to earn acceptance from God. They cannot and will never be able to. Only through the death of Jesus can we have life. We can have spiritual life, we can be made right with God. Jesus is life.

Secondly we see that Jesus is the eternal life (v.2). There is no other way to eternal life except through Jesus Christ. In John 14:6 Jesus says He is the way the truth and the life that is pretty exclusive is it not. In John 17:3 Jesus says eternal life is knowing Him. A person can only have eternal life because of Jesus Christ. There is no other way. Notice that John said Jesus is THE eternal life. If John wanted to say Jesus was one option in the midst of many He could have easily said Jesus is AN eternal life. But John did not do that. He used the word THE to drive home the exclusiveness of this. This is offensive to our culture, people do not and will not like this. People do not like it when we say Jesus is the ONLY WAY to salvation, the ONLY WAY to heaven. That rubs people the wrong way. But this is what he Bible says, this is what John is teaching here, and most importantly it is what Jesus said about Himself.

A person must have a correct view of who Jesus is in order to have assurance of salvation, because this is where salvation starts essentially. If a person does not believe the witness Jesus said about Himself then they cannot be a Christian. It is important to remember that Christianity is not a system of thought it is about Jesus Christ. James Montgomery Boice said it this way, “It is Jesus and not a system of thought who is the essential core of the Christian proclamation.” (Boice, 22). Our assurance as believers comes from a correct view of Jesus Christ. When we are in doubt we should and must run to Christ for who He is, for what His nature is. This is where John pointed his readers right off the bat in this letter and we would be wise to keep this in mind when we as believers are in seasons of doubt in our Christian walk.