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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
1:1-2:6 God Is Light and Christ Is the Way. John begins his letter by directing attention to Christ's divinity, incarnation, saving death, and intercessory ministry. He also stresses God's ineffable brilliance ("light," 1:5) and the ubiquity of human sin.
1:1-4 Prologue. A dozen or so first-person plural references ("we," "our," "us") highlight the eyewitness testimony of John and other early Christians, particularly the apostles. They know "fellowship with the Father and with his Son" (v. 3) and yearn to see it extend to readers.
1:1 From the beginning could refer to the time of Jesus' birth or the beginning of his ministry. But it more likely refers to the predawn of time (see John 1:1), just as the Septuagint uses the same expression (Gk. ap’ archēs) to say that the Lord existed "from the beginning" (Hab. 1:12 LXX) and that the origins of the Promised One would be "from the beginning" (Mic. 5:1 LXX). In other words, John is pointing to Christ's preexistence. seen . . . looked upon . . . touched. John was an eyewitness to the physical and historical reality of Jesus' life on earth. His message is not based on an ecstatic vision, grand idea, or mere human religious conviction.
1:2 The repetition of made manifest (publicly seen and known) stresses the revelatory nature of Christ's coming: he was sent from and revealed by God. Life . . . eternal life refers to the nature and quality of life in fellowship with God (cf. John 5:24), as revealed primarily in the life of Christ and then experienced secondarily by Christians. Such fellowship grows out of the vital and dynamic existence enjoyed by the Son with the Father.
1:3 John is moved to proclaim what he has witnessed in keeping with the commission he and other apostles received (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). The purpose of this proclamation is not just forgiveness of people's sins (as a simplified view of evangelism would have it) but is far richer, for the gospel message binds together those who receive it: so that you too may have fellowship with us. Yet the purpose is still richer than mere human fellowship, for believers' fellowship is with the Father and with his Son. Such "fellowship" is personal communion with the Father made possible by the mediation of the Son.
1:4 writing . . . so that. One of 1 John's several stated purposes is to promote joy. Jesus promoted joy as well (John 15:11; 16:24). It is difficult to decide between "our joy" (ESV text) and "your joy" (ESV footnote), for several very early and reliable manuscripts have one reading, and several have the other (the only difference is one letter in Greek). "Our" probably includes the readers (with the sense "all of our," cf. 1 John 1:3).
