1 JOHN 1 COMMENTARY EDITED BY GLENN PEASE

The Incarnation of the Word of Life

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have

heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we

have looked at and our hands have touchedthis we

proclaim concerning the Word of life.

1.BARNES, That which was from the beginning - There can be no doubt that the reference here is to the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Word that was made flesh. See the notes at Joh_1:1. This is such language as John would use respecting him, and indeed the phrase the beginning, as applicable to the Lord Jesus, is unique to John in the writings of the New Testament: and the language here may be regarded as one proof that this Epistle was written by him, for it is just such an expression as he would use, but not such as one would be likely to adopt who should attempt to palm off his own writings as those of John. One who should have attempted that would have been likely to introduce the name John in the beginning of the Epistle, or in some way to have claimed his authority. The apostle, in speaking of that which

was from the beginning, uses a word in the neuter gender instead of the masculine, ( ho.) It is

not to be supposed, I think, that he meant to apply this term directly to the Son of God, for if he had he would have used the masculine pronoun; but though he had the Son of God in view, and meant to make a strong affirmation respecting him, yet the particular thing here referred to was whatever there was respecting that incarnate Saviour that furnished testimony to any of the senses, or that pertained to his character and doctrine, he had borne witness to.

He was looking rather at the evidence that he was incarnate; the proofs that he was manifested; and he says that those proofs had been subjected to the trial of the senses, and he had borne witness to them, and now did it again. This is what is referred to, it seems to me, by

the phrase that which, ( ho.) The sense may be this: Whatever there was respecting the

Word of life, or him who is the living Word, the incarnate Son of God, from the very beginning, from the time when he was first manifested in the flesh; whatever there was respecting his exalted nature, his dignity, his character, that could be subjected to the testimony of the senses, to be the object of sight, or hearing, or touch, that I was permitted to see, and that I declare to you respecting him. John claims to be a competent witness in reference to everything which occurred as a manifestation of what the Son of God was.

If this be the correct interpretation, then the phrase from the beginning ( ap' arches

does not here refer to his eternity, or his being in the beginning of all things, as the phrase in

the beginning ( enarche) does in Joh_1:1; but rather means from the very

commencement of his manifestation as the Son of God, the very first indications on earth of what he was as the Messiah. When the writer says 1Jo_1:3 that he declares this to them, it

seems to me that he has not reference merely to what he would say in this Epistle, for he does not go extensively into it here, but that he supposes that they had his Gospel in their possession, and that he also means to refer to that, or presumes that they were familiar with the testimony which he had borne in that Gospel respecting the evidence that the Word became flesh. Many have indeed supposed that this Epistle accompanied the Gospel when it was published, and was either a part of it that became subsequently detached from it, or was a letter that accompanied it. See Hug, Introduction P. II. Section 68. There is, it seems to me, no certain evidence of that; but no one can doubt that he supposed that those to whom he wrote had access to that Gospel, and that he refers here to the testimony which he had borne in that respecting the incarnate Word.

Which we have heard - John was with the Saviour through the whole of his ministry, and he has recorded more that the Saviour said than either of the other evangelists. It is on what he said of himself that he grounds much of the evidence that he was the Son of God.

Which we have seen with our eyes - That is, pertaining to his person, and to what he did. I have seen him; seen what he was as a man; how he appeared on earth; and I have seen whatever there was in his works to indicate his character and origin. John professes here to have seen enough in this respect to furnish evidence that he was the Son of God. It is not hearsay on which he relies, but he had the testimony of his own eyes in the case. Compare the notes at 2Pe_1:16.

Which we have looked upon - The word used here seems designed to be more emphatic or intensive than the one occurring before. He had just said that he had seen him with his eyes, but he evidently designs to include an idea in this word which would imply something more than mere beholding or seeing. The additional idea which is couched in this word seems to be that of desire or pleasure; that is, that he had looked on him with desire, or satisfaction, or with the pleasure with which one beholds a beloved object. Compare Mat_11:7; Luk_7:24; Joh_1:14; Joh_11:45. See Robinson, Lexicon. There was an intense and earnest gaze, as when we behold one whom we have desired to see, or when one goes out purposely to look on an object. The evidences of the incarnation of the Son of God had been subjected to such an intense and earnest gaze.

And our hands have handled - That is, the evidence that he was a man was subjected to the sense of touch. It was not merely that he had been seen by the eye, for then it might be pretended that this was a mere appearance assumed without reality; or that what occurred might have been a mere optical illusion; but the evidence that he appeared in the flesh was subjected to more senses than one; to the fact that his voice was heard; that he was seen with the eyes; that the most intense scrutiny had been employed; and, lastly, that he had been actually touched and handled, showing that it could not have been a mere appearance, an assumed form, but that it was a reality. This kind of proof that the Son of God had appeared in the flesh, or that he was truly and properly a man, is repeatedly referred to in the New Testament. Luk_24:39; behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. Compare Joh_20:25-27. There is evident allusion here to the opinion which early prevailed, which was held by the Docetes, that the Son of God did not truly and really become a man, but that there was only an appearance assumed, or that he seemed to be a man. See the Introduction, Section 3. It was evidently with reference to this opinion, which began early to prevail, that the apostle dwells on this point, and repeats the idea so much, and shows by a reference to all the senses which could take any cognizance in the case, that he was truly and properly a man. The amount of it is, that we have the same evidence that he was properly a man which we can have in the case of any other human being; the evidence on which we constantly act, and in which we cannot believe that our senses deceive us.

Of the Word of life - Respecting, or pertaining to, the Word of life. That is, whatever there was pertaining to the Word of life, which was manifested from the beginning in his speech and

actions, of which the senses could take cognizance, and which would furnish the evidence that he was truly incarnate, that we have declared unto you. The phrase the Word of life, means the Word in which life resided, or which was the source and fountain of life. See the notes at Joh_1:1, Joh_1:3. The reference is undoubtedly to the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. CLARKE, That which was from the beginning - That glorious personage, Jesus Christ the Lord, Who was from eternity; him, being manifested in the flesh, we have heard proclaim the doctrine of eternal life; with our own eyes have we seen him, not transiently, for we have looked upon him frequently; and our hands have handled - frequently touched, his person; and we have had every proof of the identity and reality of this glorious being that our senses of

hearing, , seeing, &, and feeling, '&

could possibly require.

3. GILL, That which was from the beginning,.... By which is meant not the Gospel, as if the apostle's design was to assert the antiquity of that, and clear it from the charge of novelty; for though that is called the word, and the word of life, and is the Spirit which gives life, and is the means of quickening dead sinners, and brings the report of eternal life and salvation by Christ, yet the seeing of it with bodily eyes, and handling it with corporeal hands, do not agree with that; but Jesus Christ is here intended, who in his divine nature was, really existed as a divine person, as the everlasting Jehovah, the eternal I AM, which is, and was, and is to come, and existed "from the beginning"; not from the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel by John only, for he was before the Gospel was preached, being the first preacher of it himself, and before John was; yea, before the prophets, before Abraham, and before Adam, and before all creatures, from the beginning of time, and of the creation of the world, being the Maker of all things, even from everlasting; for otherwise he could not have been set up in an office capacity so early, or God's elect be chosen in him before the foundation of the world, and they have grace and blessings given them in him before the world began, or an everlasting covenant be made with him; see Joh_1:1; which we have heard; this, with what follows, proves him to be truly and really man; for when the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among men, the apostles heard, and saw, and handled him; they not only heard a voice from heaven, declaring him to be the Son of God, but they often heard him speak himself, both in private conversation with them, and in his public ministry; they heard his many excellent discourses on the mount, and elsewhere, and those that were particularly delivered to them a little before his death; and blessed were they on this account, Mat_13:16; which we have seen with our eyes: with the eyes of the body, with their own, and not another's; and they saw him in human nature, and the common actions of life he did, as eating, drinking, walking, &c. and his many miracles; they saw him raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, restore sight to the blind, cause the lame to walk, the dumb to speak, and the deaf to hear; and they saw him transfigured on the mount. John was one that was present at that time, and saw his glory, as he also was when he hung upon the cross, and saw him bleeding, gasping, and dying there; they saw him after his resurrection from the dead, he showed himself to them alive, and

was seen of them forty days; they saw him go up to heaven, and a cloud receiving him out of their sight: which we have looked upon; wistly and intently, once and again, and a thousand times, and with the utmost pleasure and delight; and knew him perfectly well, and were able to describe exactly his person, stature, features, and the lineaments of his body: and our hands have handled of the Word of life; as Peter did when Jesus caught him by the hand on the water, when he was just ready to sink; and as this apostle did, when he leaned on his bosom; and as Thomas did, even after his resurrection, when he thrust his hand into his side; and as all the apostles were called upon to see and handle him, that it was he himself, and not a spirit, which has not flesh and bones as he had. Now as this is said of Christ, the Word of life, who is so called, because he has life in himself, as God, as the Mediator, and as man, and is the author of life, natural, spiritual, and eternal, it must be understood as he, the Word, is made manifest in the flesh; for he, as the Word, or as a divine person, or as considered in his divine nature, is not to be seen nor handled: this therefore is spoken of the Word, or of the person of Christ, God-man, with respect to his human nature, as united to the Logos, or Word of God; and so is a proof of the truth and reality of his human nature, by several of the senses.

4. HENRY, The apostle omits his name and character (as also the author to the Hebrews does) either out of humility, or as being willing that the Christian reader should be swayed by the light and weight of the things written rather than by the name that might recommend them. And so he begins,

I. With an account or character of the Mediator's person. He is the great subject of the gospel,

the foundation and object of our faith and hope, the bond and cement that unite us unto God.

He should be well known; and he is represented here, 1. As the Word of life, 1Jo_1:1. In the

gospel these two are disjoined, and he is called first the Word, Joh_1:1, and afterwards Life,

intimating, withal, that he is intellectual life. In him was life, and that life was (efficiently and

objectively) the light of men, Joh_1:4. Here both are conjoined: The Word of life, the vital Word.

In that he is the Word, it is intimated that he is the Word of some person or other; and that is

God, even the Father. He is the Word of God, and so he is intimated to issue from the Father, as

truly (though not in the same manner) as a word (or speech, which is a train of words) from a

speaker. But he is not a mere vocal word, a bare logosprophorikos, but a vital one: the Word of

life, the living word; and thereupon, 1. As eternal life. His duration shows his excellency. He was

from eternity; and so is, in scripture-account, necessary, essential, uncreated life. That the

apostle speaks of his eternity, parte ante (as they say) and as from everlasting, seems evident

in that he speaks of him as he was in and from the beginning; when he was then with the Father,

before his manifestation to us, yea, before the making of all things that were make; as Joh_1:2,

Joh_1:3. So that he is the eternal, vital, intellectual Word of the eternal living Father.

5. JAMISON, 1Jo_1:1-10. The writers authority as an eyewitness to the gospel facts, having seen, heard, and handled Him who was from the beginning: His object in writing: His message. If we would have fellowship with Him, we must walk in light, as He is light.

Instead of a formal, John adopts a virtual address (compare 1Jo_1:4). To wish joy to the reader was the ancient customary address. The sentence begun in 1Jo_1:1 is broken off by the parenthetic 1Jo_1:2, and is resumed at 1Jo_1:3 with the repetition of some words from 1Jo_1:1.

That which was not began to be, but was essentially (Greek, een, not egeneto) before

He was manifested (1Jo_1:2); answering to Him that is from the beginning (1Jo_2:13); so Johns Gospel, Joh_1:1, In the beginning was the Word. Pro_8:23, I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was."

we apostles.

heard ... seen ... looked upon ... handled a series rising in gradation. Seeing is a more convincing proof than hearing of; handling, than even seeing. Have heard ... have seen (perfect tenses), as a possession still abiding with us; but in Greek (not as English Version have, but simply) looked upon (not perfect tense, as of a continuing thing, but aorist, past time) while Christ the incarnate Word was still with us. Seen, namely, His glory, as revealed in the Transfiguration and in His miracles; and His passion and death in a real body of flesh and blood. Looked upon as a wondrous spectacle steadfastly, deeply, contemplatively; so the Greek. Appropriate to Johns contemplative character.

hands ... handled Thomas and the other disciples on distinct occasions after the resurrection. John himself had leaned on Jesus breast at the last supper. Contrast the wisest of the heathen feeling after (the same Greek as here; groping after WITH THE HANDS) if haply they might find God (see Act_17:27). This proves against Socinians he is here speaking of the personal incarnate Word, not of Christs teaching from the beginning of His official life.

of concerning; following heard. Heard is the verb most applying to the purpose of the Epistle, namely the truth which John had heard concerning the Word of life, that is, (Christ) the Word who is the life. Heard, namely, from Christ Himself, including all Christs teachings about Himself. Therefore he puts of, or concerning, before the word of life, which is inapplicable to any of the verbs except heard; also heard is the only one of the verbs which he resumes at 1Jo_1:5.

6. C. SIMEON, THE BENEFITS ARISING FROM FAITH IN CHRIST

1Jn_1:1-3. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,

which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested,

and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father,

and was manifested unto us;) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may

have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

IT is impossible to read these words, and not be struck with the extreme earnestness of the Apostle in his

mode of giving the testimony before us. It seems evident, that the truths which he affirms had been much

controverted; and that the evidence on which they rested had been called in question. And the fact was,

that many heresies had arisen even whilst he was yet alive. Some even went so far as to deny that Jesus

had ever died and risen again: they asserted, that all those transactions, which were recorded of him by

the Evangelists, had taken place in appearance only, and not in reality. Against such absurd and impious

conceits, St. John, now at a very advanced age, bore his testimony with a zeal suited to the occasion. He

was the only surviving witness of the events referred to; and hence he repeats, even to tautology, the

evidence which he had had again and again, from all his senses, respecting the truth of all that he

affirmed: and he urges upon the whole Christian Church the reception of his testimony, by representing

the incalculable benefits which all who believed it would receive.

That we may enter fully into the declarations before us, let us consider,

I. His testimony

This may be understood as relating to the Gospel generally

[The Gospel is certainly called the word of life [Note: Php_2:16.]: and it was from eternity hid with the

Father [Note: Eph_3:9.], and at last, at the beginning of the Gospel dispensation

[Note: must of necessity be so understood in other parts of this epistle; 2:7, 24 and 3:11.],

was manifested to the Apostles [Note: Rom_16:25-26.], who had every possible means of examining and

ascertaining the truth of it [Note: Seeing and hearing of the truth are applied to Christ, as well as to the

Apostles. Joh_3:11. with Joh_8:26; Joh_8:38.]; and who, in consequence of the fullest conviction in their

own minds, bare witness to it as the means by which alone eternal life could be obtained

[Note: Mar_16:16.]. This sense, I say, the words before us may very properly bear: and, inasmuch as the

Gospel is elsewhere denominated the word of life, (which Christ is not;) and the words from the

beginning [Note:1Jn_2:13-14.], generally, though not always in the Epistles of St. John, import, from the

beginning of the Gospel dispensation, it is by no means improbable that this may be the true sense of

the passage.

On the other hand, his mode of expression is far less proper, if applied to the Gospel, than if applied

personally to the Lord Jesus Christ; to whom the generality of commentators suppose the Apostle to

refer. We therefore observe, that]

It may be understood also as relating personally to the Lord Jesus Christ

[He, though not called the word of life, is constantly known as The Word [Note: Rev_19:13.]: He also is

called The Life [Note: Joh_11:25.] and what seems more particularly to determine the point is, that he is

in this very epistle called, Eternal Life: This is the true God, and Eternal Life [Note: 1Jn_5:20.] He too

was from eternity with the Father [Note: Joh_1:18.], and in due time was manifest in the flesh

[Note: 1Ti_3:16.]. And it was his existence that was so determinately denied by the heretics whom the

Apostle wished to silence. He, too, not only had lived in closest intimacy with his disciples before his

crucifixion, but, after his death and resurrection, had appeared to them for forty days; and, when they

doubted whether it were he, or whether it were not a spirit whom they saw, he said to them, Handle me,

and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have [Note: Luk_24:39.]. Now, if we consider

the Apostle as speaking personally of him, we can account for the vast variety of expressions tending to

confirm the testimony which be bore respecting him: whereas, if we apply the expressions to the Gospel,

the terms are multiplied far beyond what the occasion called for, and the metaphors are stronger than he

could with propriety use. Besides, if we understand him as speaking of Christ personally, there is a

remarkable coincidence between the beginning of this epistle of St. John, and the beginning of his

Gospel. In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same

was in the beginning with God. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the Word was

made flesh, and dwelt amongst us; and we behold his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the

Father [Note: Joh_1:1-4; Joh_1:14.].

But, whether we understand the expressions as relating to the Gospel of Christ, or to his person,]

It must of necessity be understood as declaring, that in Christ Jesus there is life, even eternal life

[The Apostle testified of Christ, as he says in a subsequent chapter of this epistle: We have seen and do

testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world [Note: 1Jn_4:14.]. If we inquire more

particularly what the substance of his testimony was, he informs us: This is the witness of God which he

hath testified of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in

his Son: he that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life

[Note: 1Jn_5:9; 1Jn_5:11-12.].

Thus we see, in fact, that, whether we understand the passage as speaking of the Gospel, or of Christ

himself, it comes to the same point. If the Gospel be spoken of, it is as revealing Christ: if Christ be

spoken of, it is as revealed in the Gospel; or, in other words, as being the way, the truth, and the life

[Note: Joh_14:6.].

Bear in mind then, that all that is spoken of Christ in the holy Gospels is true: the Apostles were ear-

witnesses, and eye-witnesses, of it, even of all that they relate. They did not follow cunningly-devised

fables, when they made known the power and coming of the Lord Jesus, but were eye-witnesses of his

majesty: for they were with him in the holy mount, when he received from God the Father honour and

glory, and when there came to him a voice from the excellent glory, saying, This is my beloved Son, in

whom I am well pleased [Note: 2Pe_1:16-18.]. Whether therefore they speak of his sufferings or his

glory, their testimony may be relied on: and we may be sure that in Him is salvation, and in Him alone.]

The extreme urgency of the Apostle in commending to us his testimony, leads us to contemplate,

II. The benefit of receiving it

The Apostles themselves were brought into a most exalted state through faith in this Divine Saviour

[Hear what the Apostle speaks respecting it: Truly, says he, our fellowship is with the Father, and with

his Son Jesus Christ. By the Lord Jesus Christ they were brought into a state of reconciliation with God;

and were enabled to regard him in the endearing character of a Father. Through Him too, and by the

Holy Spirit, they had access to God [Note: Eph_2:18.] at all times, pouring out their hearts before him,

making known to him their every want, and committing to him their every care. Through the same divine

channel, God descended into their bosoms, revealing to them his will, communicating to them his grace,

and shedding abroad in their hearts a sense of his love. Nay more, the Father, the Son, and the Holy

Ghost had come down and taken up their residence within them, dwelling in them as in a temple, and

manifesting to them, as far as they were capable of beholding it, all the glory of the Godhead

[Note: Joh_14:16-18; Joh_14:21; Joh_14:23.]. From hence arose within them inconceivable peace and

joy, which were to them an earnest and foretaste of their heavenly inheritance; for they knew that Christ

was in the Father, and in them also; and that they too were in him [Note: Joh_14:20.]. Such had been

their happy state from the first moment that they had believed in Christ; more sparingly indeed in the first

instance, but progressively advancing as their knowledge of Christ became more intimate, and their

affiance in him more entire.]

And we also, by the same faith, are brought to a participation of all the same privileges

[These things, says the Apostle, we declare unto you, that ye may have fellowship with us. And in what

does that fellowship consist, but in a participation of all the same privileges and blessings which they

enjoyed? And this is indeed the portion of all who receive their testimony aright. All believers are brought

into one family, of which Christ is the Head [Note: Eph_1:10; Eph_3:15.]. The moment we believe, we

come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company

of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and to God

the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new

covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel [Note: Heb_12:22-

24.]. Now here we see the whole family: here is God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ the mediator;

here also are the angels who never sinned, and all the hosts of the redeemed in heaven, and all the

saints that are still on earth: all are brought together into one family, and all have fellowship with each

other as the head and the members of the same body: so that every individual believer now has the same

fellowship with the Apostles, as they had with each other and with the prophets who had gone before

them; and the same fellowship too with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Does this appear too

strong? It is not so strong as what our blessed Saviour himself has spoken upon the subject. For he not

only declares to us, that both He and his Father will come to us, and make their abode with us

[Note: Joh_14:23.]; but he declared to his Father also, I have given them the glory which thou gavest

me, that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect

in one [Note: Joh_17:21-23.]. Here, I say, the union of the different members of his body is compared

with the union which subsists between the different persons of the Godhead, than which nothing can be

conceived so entire, so mysterious, so unchangeable.

Know ye, then, that this is the state into which you will be brought, if only you receive the testimony of

God respecting his dear Son. Believe truly, that in him is life, and that through faith in him your souls

shall live; and then all the fulness of these blessings shall be yours: nor shall even the beloved Apostle

himself possess a blessing, of which you shall not, according to your capacity, partake with him.

And here let me say, that, if all the tautology which the Apostle makes use of in my text had been

multiplied an hundred-fold, it would not have been too much for the occasion; since nothing can exceed

the misery of those who reject this testimony, or the happiness of those who truly receive it.]

Contemplate now, I pray you, the object which the Apostle had in view in all these earnest solicitations

[These things, says he, I write unto you, that your joy may be full [Note: ver. 4.]. It was for this end that

our blessed Lord himself had so strongly and so continually inculcated them: These things speak I in the

world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves [Note: Joh_17:13.]. And this is the object which I

also would endeavour to attain. Beloved brethren, consider how unspeakable must be the joy of being

brought into fellowship with the Apostles in all that they ever did, or ever shall, possess! All that access to

God, all that intercourse with God, all that sense of Christs incomprehensible love, all that enjoyment of

his presence, and all that fruition of his glory! it is all yours by promise and by oath, if only you truly

believe in Christ! O, put it not from you: defer not to seek it, yea, to seek it with your whole hearts! Then

shall you know what it is to have a heaven upon earth: for, though now ye see not, the Lord Jesus with

your bodily eyes, yet shall you, by believing, be brought into such communion with him, that ld;your joy in

him shall be unspeakable and glorified [Note: 1Pe_1:8.].]

7. EBC, The Word of Life.

St. John sets forth in his writings no theory of life. He cannot, or does not, formulate his conception of it into a system; he simply feels a power, not of death, but of life, working in his own soul. He is sure there is nothing in the world or beyond the world that can destroy it. Its evident tendency to God attested its origin from God. There might be other media to other men; to him it came through Christ.

I. As a rule of life, bidding us be pure, and unselfish, and kindly affectioned; as a high ideal, stimulating us to forget the things that were behind and to reach forward unto things that were yet before; enlightening us where we saw but dimly; enabling and capacitating us where we Were feeble and incompetent; purifying us where appetite and passion were in danger of blunting the finer perceptions of the heart, the nobler purposes of the soul; laying the foundations of an ampler and higher life, first for the individual and then for society and the raceit was thus that the "word of life" presented itself to the mind of St. John. If it had free course; if all who preached it practised it; if the failure of other systems to explain the phenomena of humanity, and still more to relieve its admitted ills and sorrows, were more fairly estimated and more fully known, perhaps it would be thought and seen that Christianity had not said its last word.

II. We first frustrate the grace of God, and do despite to it, trample it under our feet, and then call the Gospel a failure. We make Christian influence impossible, and then ask, Where is it to be found? We first grieve, and finally quench, the Spirit of God, and then say we can recognise no tokens of His presence or His power. And yet, under all these circumstances of disadvantage, there are to be found in palaces and cottages pure, and brave, and noble souls; and where one such soul lives and breathes, diffusing the fragrance of its beneficent influence and the power of its saintly life, there is the proof of the truth of Christs Gospel, there is the witness that Christ still leaves of Himself in the world. Let us beware of separating religion from morality. When St. Peter has stirred our spiritual impulses by telling us, as St. John also tells us, of the exceeding great and precious promises by which we are, as it were, made partakers of the Divine nature, he at once brings us down from heaven to earth again by saying, "And, besides all this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue"; when St. Paul would pray for the best gifts for his Thessalonian converts, he prays that God would "sanctify them wholly, and that their whole spirit, soul, and body might be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Bishop Fraser, University Sermons; p. 154.

Reference: 1Jn_1:1-3.Clergymans Magazine, vol. ii., p. 158.

1 John 1:1-6 The Ground of Christian Ethics.

I. St. John begins with speaking of that which he saw, and heard, and handled. Those who read his letter could have no doubt that he was referring to the time when he saw the face of Jesus Christ, when he heard His discourses, when he grasped His hand, when he leaned upon His breast. There might be some still upon earth who had been in Jerusalem at that time, who had even been disciples of Christ. There would not be any of them upon the earth long. And there was none of them who would have thought he had as much right to use these expressions as the son of Zebedee had. Here, then, he claims for himself the full dignity of an Apostle.

II. St. John says that that face of His which he saw, that voice of His which he heard, those hands of His which he handled, were "about the word of life." A life there was within that body just as there is a life within the body of each man we converse with; but St. John says that this life which was in Him was not merely a life, but the lifethe life from which all the life that is in us and in the other creatures is derived.

III. St. John introduces a parenthesis here: "For the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness," etc. He must make the Ephesians understand that this is the beginning and end of all he has been saying to them since he began to dwell among them. A life has been manifested; the life has been manifested. That which he saw of Christ while he was with Him upon earth was to enable him to testify of this life. He had no other business than to tell them that it had been fully revealed. But that he may perform that task properly, he must tell them what kind of life it was. It was the eternal life, not a life of years, and months, and days, and instants, but a fixed, permanent lifethe life of a Being in whom is no variableness, nor the shadow of a turning. If the life is that which was manifested in Christ, in His words and acts, it is a life of gentleness, justice, truth. You cannot measure these by the clocks; you do not wish or try to measure them. And if that is the life of God, surely it is not a terrible thing, though it may be an awful thing, to recollect that He is, and was, and is to come, and that He is not far from any one of us.

IV. "That ye also may have fellowship with us." There is nothing which John claims for himself as an Apostle that he does not claim for those to whom he writes. The very highest privilege which can belong to him he affirms to be theirs. His reward is that he has the delight of announcing to them that it is theirs, and how they may enter into the enjoyment of it. Fellowship or communion with God, he is to tell them, is possible for man.

V. The proposition, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all," is the proposition from which all others start. It does not only tell you of a goodness and truth without flawthough it does tell you of theseit tells you of a goodness and truth that are always seeking to spread themselves abroad, to send forth rays that shall penetrate everywhere and scatter the darkness which opposes them.

F. D. Maurice, The Epistles of St. John, p. 19.

Reference: 1Jn_1:2.J. T. Stannard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 204.

8. SBC, The Word of Life.

St. John sets forth in his writings no theory of life. He cannot, or does not, formulate his conception of it into a system; he simply feels a power, not of death, but of life, working in his own soul. He is sure there is nothing in the world or beyond the world that can destroy it. Its evident tendency to God attested its origin from God. There might be other media to other men; to him it came through Christ.

I. As a rule of life, bidding us be pure, and unselfish, and kindly affectioned; as a high ideal, stimulating us to forget the things that were behind and to reach forward unto things that were yet before; enlightening us where we saw but dimly; enabling and capacitating us where we Were feeble and incompetent; purifying us where appetite and passion were in danger of blunting the finer perceptions of the heart, the nobler purposes of the soul; laying the foundations of an ampler and higher life, first for the individual and then for society and the raceit was thus that the "word of life" presented itself to the mind of St. John. If it had free course; if all who preached it practised it; if the failure of other systems to explain the phenomena of humanity, and still more to relieve its admitted ills and sorrows, were more fairly

estimated and more fully known, perhaps it would be thought and seen that Christianity had not said its last word.

II. We first frustrate the grace of God, and do despite to it, trample it under our feet, and then call the Gospel a failure. We make Christian influence impossible, and then ask, Where is it to be found? We first grieve, and finally quench, the Spirit of God, and then say we can recognise no tokens of His presence or His power. And yet, under all these circumstances of disadvantage, there are to be found in palaces and cottages pure, and brave, and noble souls; and where one such soul lives and breathes, diffusing the fragrance of its beneficent influence and the power of its saintly life, there is the proof of the truth of Christs Gospel, there is the witness that Christ still leaves of Himself in the world. Let us beware of separating religion from morality. When St. Peter has stirred our spiritual impulses by telling us, as St. John also tells us, of the exceeding great and precious promises by which we are, as it were, made partakers of the Divine nature, he at once brings us down from heaven to earth again by saying, "And, besides all this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue"; when St. Paul would pray for the best gifts for his Thessalonian converts, he prays that God would "sanctify them wholly, and that their whole spirit, soul, and body might be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Bishop Fraser, University Sermons; p. 154.

Reference: 1Jn_1:1-3.Clergymans Magazine, vol. ii., p. 158.

1 John 1:1-6 The Ground of Christian Ethics.

I. St. John begins with speaking of that which he saw, and heard, and handled. Those who read his letter could have no doubt that he was referring to the time when he saw the face of Jesus Christ, when he heard His discourses, when he grasped His hand, when he leaned upon His breast. There might be some still upon earth who had been in Jerusalem at that time, who had even been disciples of Christ. There would not be any of them upon the earth long. And there was none of them who would have thought he had as much right to use these expressions as the son of Zebedee had. Here, then, he claims for himself the full dignity of an Apostle.

II. St. John says that that face of His which he saw, that voice of His which he heard, those hands of His which he handled, were "about the word of life." A life there was within that body just as there is a life within the body of each man we converse with; but St. John says that this life which was in Him was not merely a life, but the lifethe life from which all the life that is in us and in the other creatures is derived.

III. St. John introduces a parenthesis here: "For the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness," etc. He must make the Ephesians understand that this is the beginning and end of all he has been saying to them since he began to dwell among them. A life has been manifested; the life has been manifested. That which he saw of Christ while he was with Him upon earth was to enable him to testify of this life. He had no other business than to tell them that it had been fully revealed. But that he may perform that task properly, he must tell them what kind of life it was. It was the eternal life, not a life of years, and months, and days, and instants, but a fixed, permanent lifethe life of a Being in whom is no variableness, nor the shadow of a turning. If the life is that which was manifested in Christ, in His words and acts, it is a life of gentleness, justice, truth. You cannot measure these by the clocks; you do not wish or try to measure them. And if that is the life of God, surely it is not a terrible thing, though it may be an awful thing, to recollect that He is, and was, and is to come, and that He is not far from any one of us.

IV. "That ye also may have fellowship with us." There is nothing which John claims for himself as an Apostle that he does not claim for those to whom he writes. The very highest privilege which can belong to him he affirms to be theirs. His reward is that he has the delight of announcing to them that it is theirs, and how they may enter into the enjoyment of it. Fellowship or communion with God, he is to tell them, is possible for man.

V. The proposition, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all," is the proposition from which all others start. It does not only tell you of a goodness and truth without flawthough it does tell you of theseit tells you of a goodness and truth that are always seeking to spread themselves abroad, to send forth rays that shall penetrate everywhere and scatter the darkness which opposes them.

F. D. Maurice, The Epistles of St. John, p. 19.

Reference: 1Jn_1:2.J. T. Stannard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 204.

9. CALVIN, He shows, first, that life has been exhibited to us in Christ; which, as it is an incomparable

good, ought to rouse and inflame all our powers with a marvelous desire for it, and with the love of it. It is

said, indeed, in a few and plain words, that life is manifested; but if we consider how miserable and

horrible a condition death is, and also what is the kingdom and the glory of immortality, we shall perceive

that there is something here more magnificent than what can be expressed in any words.

Then the Apostle object, in setting before us the vast good, yea, the chief and only true happiness which

God has conferred on us, in his own Son, is to raise our thoughts above; but as the greatness of the

subject requires that the truth should be certain, and fully proved, this is what is here much dwelt upon.

For these wordsWhat we have seen, what we have heard, what we have looked on, serve to strengthen

our faith in the gospel. Nor does he, indeed, without reason, make so many asseverations; for since our

salvation depends on the gospel, its certainty is in the highest degree necessary; and how difficult it is for

us to believe, every one of us knows too well by his own experience. To believe is not lightly to form an

opinion, or to assent only to what is said, but a firm, undoubting conviction, so that we may dare to

subscribe to the truth as fully proved. It is for this reason that the Apostle heaps together so many things

in confirmation of the gospel.

1That which was from the beginning As the passage is abrupt and involved, that the sense may be made

clearer, the words may be thus arranged; announce to you the word of life, which was from the

beginning and really testified to us in all manner of ways, that life has been manifested in him; or, if you

prefer, the meaning may be thus given, we announce to you respecting the word of life, has been from

the beginning, and has been openly shewed to us, that life was manifested in him. But the words, That

which was from the beginning, refer doubtless to the divinity of Christ, for God manifested in the flesh was

not from the beginning; but he who always was life and the eternal Word of God, appeared in the fullness

of time as man. Again, what follows as to the looking on and the handling of the hands, refers to his

human nature. But as the two natures constitute but one person, and Christ is one, because he came

forth from the Father that he might put on our flesh, the Apostle rightly declares that he is the same, and

had been invisible, and afterwards became visible. (59)

Hereby the senseless cavil of Servetus is disproved, that the nature and essence of Deity became one

with the flesh, and that thus the Word was transformed into flesh, because the life-giving Word was seen

in the flesh.

Let us then bear in mind, that this doctrine of the Gospel is here declared, that he who in the flesh really

proved himself to be the Son of God, and was acknowledged to be the Son of God, was always God

invisible Word, for he does not refer here to the beginning of the world, but ascends much higher.

Which we have heard, which we have seen. It was not the hearing of a report, to which little credit is

usually given, but John means, that he had faithfully learnt from his Master those things which he taught,

so that he alleged nothing thoughtlessly and rashly. And, doubtless, no one is a fit teacher in the Church,

who has not been the disciple of the Son of God, and rightly instructed in his school, since his authority

alone ought to prevail.

When he says, we have seen with our eyes, it is no redundancy, but a fuller expression for the sake of

amplifying; nay, he was not satisfied with seeing only, but added, which we have looked upon, and our

hands have handled By these words he shews that he taught nothing but what had been really made

known to him.

It may seem, however, that the evidence of the senses little availed on the present subject, for the power

of Christ could not be perceived by the eyes nor felt by the hands. To this I answer, that the same thing is

said here as inJoh_1:14 the Gospel of John, have seen his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the

Father; for he was not known as the Son of God by the external form of his body, but because he gave

illustrious proofs of his Divine power, so that in him shone forth the majesty of the Father, as in a living

and distinct image. As the words are in the plural number, and the subject equally applies to all the

apostles, I am disposed to include them, especially as the authority of testimony is what is treated of.

But no less frivolous (as I have before said) than impudent is the wickedness of Servetus, who urges

these words to prove that the Word of God became visible and capable of being handled; he either

impiously destroys or mingles together the twofold nature of Christ. It is, therefore, a pure figment. Thus

deifying the humanity of Christ, he wholly takes away the reality of his human nature, at the same time

denying that Christ is for any other reason called the Son of God, except that he was conceived of his

mother by the power of the Holy Spirit, and taking away his own subsistence in God. It hence follows that

he was neither God nor man, though he seems to form a confused mass from both. But as the meaning

of the Apostle is evident to us, let us pass by that unprincipled man.

Of the Word of life The genitive here is used for an adjective, vivifying, or life-giving; for in him, as it is said

in the first chapter of John Gospel, was life. At the same time, this distinction belongs to the Son of God

on two accounts, because he has infused life into all creatures, and because he now restores life to us,

which had perished, having been extinguished by the sin of Adam. Moreover, the term Word may be

explained in two ways, either of Christ, or of the doctrine of the Gospel, for even by this is salvation

brought to us. But as its substance is Christ, and as it contains no other thing than that he, who had been

always with the Father, was at length manifested to men, the first view appears to me the more simple

and genuine. Moreover, it appears more fully from the Gospel that the wisdom which dwells in God is

called the Word.

(59) It is more consistent with the passage to take the beginning here as from the beginning of the

Gospel, from the beginning of the ministry of our Savior, because what had been from the beginning was

what the apostles hadheard and seen. That another view has been taken of these words has been owing

to an over-anxiety on the part of many, especially of the Fathers, to establish the divinity of our Savior; but

this is what is sufficiently evident from the second verse. See 1Jo_2:7. Ed.

10. PULPIT, 1Jn_1:1-4 1. THE INTRODUCTION. It declares the writer's authority, based on personal experience; announces the subject-matter of his Gospel, to which this Epistle forms a companion; and states his object in writing the Epistle. These opening verses help to raise the reader to the high frame of mind in which the apostle writes. Emotion, suppressed under a sense of awe and solemnity, is shown by the involved construction through which his thoughts struggle for utterance. We are reminded of the introduction to the Gospel, especially in the first clause. Both announce to us the subject of the writing which followsthe Word who is the Life. Both set before us, in the simplest language, truths of profoundest meaning. But while in the Gospel he seems to lose sight of his readers in the magnitude of his subject, here the thought of his "little children" is uppermost. The construction of the first three verses may be taken in more ways than one; but almost certainly the main verb is , and the clauses introduced by give the substance of the . The sentence is broken by the parenthetical 1Jn_1:2, after which the main part of 1Jn_1:1 is repeated for clearness. Reduced to a simple form, the whole runs thus: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon, and our hands handled,

concerning the Word of life, we declare to you also, that ye also may have communion with us." 1Jn_1:1 The first clause states what or how the object is in itself; the next three state St. John's relation to it; "which," in the first clause nominative, in the others is accusative. The neuter ( ) expresses a collective and comprehensive whole (Joh_4:22; Joh_6:37; Joh_17:2; Act_17:23, etc.); the attributes of the rather than the himself are indicated. Or, as Jelf expresses it, "the neuter gender denotes immaterial personality, the masculine or feminine material personality." In the beginning is not quite the same as in Joh_1:1; there St. John tells us that the Word was in existence before the world was created; here that he was in existence before he was manifested. Thus far all is indefinite; the philosopher, about to expound a law of nature, might begin, "That which was from the beginning declare we unto you." What follows is in a climax, making the meaning clearer at each step: seeing is more than hearing, and handling than seeing. The climax is in two pairs, of perfects and of aorists; the aorists giving the past acts, the perfects the permanent results. Together they sum up the apostolic experience of that boundless activity of Christ, of which the world could not contain the full account (Joh_21:25). Beheld is more than have seen . Seeing might be momentary; beholding implies that steady contemplation, for which the beloved disciple had large and abundantly used opportunities. In our hands handled we may see a reference to Luk_24:39, where the same verb is used ; and still more to Joh_20:27, where the demanded test of handling is offered to St. Thomas, provoking the confession of faith to which the whole Gospel leads up, "My Lord and my God!" Had St. John merely said "heard," we might have thought that he meant a doctrine. Had he merely said "heard and seen," we might have understood it of the effects of Christ's doctrine. But "our hands handled" shows clearly that the attributes of the Word become flesh are what St. John insists on, and probably as a contradiction of Docetism. "Those who read his letter could have no doubt that he was referring to the time when he saw the face of Jesus Christ, when he heard his discourses, when he grasped his hand, when he leaned upon his breast" (Maurice). Between the first clause and what follows lies the tremendous fact of the Incarnation; and St. John piles verb on verb, and clause on clause, to show that he speaks with the authority of full knowledge, and that there is no possible room for Ebionite or Cerinthian error. The first clause assures us that Jesus was no mere man; the others assure us that he was really man. Precisely that Being who was in existence from the beginning is that of whom St. John and others have had, and still possess, knowledge by all the means through which knowledge can have access to the mind of man. (For "seeing with the eyes," cf. Luk_2:30; for of contemplating with delight [Stark Luk_16:11, Luk_16:14], Joh_1:14,Joh_1:34; Act_1:11.) Concerning the Word of life. "Concerning" may depend on "have heard," and, by a kind of zengma, on the other three verbs also; or on the main verb," we declare." "The Word of life" means "the Word who is the Life," like "the city of Rome,r the Book of Genesis;" the genitive case is "the characterizing or identifying genitive." The is strongly against the interpretation, "the word of life," i.e., the life-giving gospel. Had St. John meant this, he would probably have written r (Joh_5:24, Joh_5:37; Joh_8:43; Joh_14:24); is very frequent of persons (Joh_1:7, Joh_1:8, Joh_1:15, Joh_1:22, Joh_1:30, Joh_1:48, etc.). Moreover, the evident connexion between the introductions to his Gospel and Epistle compels us to understand in the same sense in both (see on Joh_1:1 in this Commentary, and in the 'Cambridge Greek Testament' or 'Bible for Schools'). What St. John has to announce is his own experience of the Eternal Word incarnate, the Eternal Life made manifest (Joh_14:6); his hearing of his words, his seeing with his own eyes his Messianic works, his contemplation of the Divinity which shone through both; his handling of the body of the risen Redeemer.

11. PAUL KRETZMANN, Concerning the person of Christ: v. 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with. our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life, v. 2. (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us,)

v. 3. that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and, truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. v. 4. And these thing's write we unto you that your joy may be full. The apostle here announces the topic, or subject matter, of his letter: Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, became flesh for the salvation of mankind. In the form which shows his intimate knowledge of the subject he writes: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we inspected and our hands touched, concerning the Word of Life. The Word of Life is his theme, the eternal, essential, personal Word, which was in the beginning with God and was God, Joh_1:1-14. It is Jesus Christ, called the "Word," because in Him, God has revealed Himself, has made Himself and His entire counsel of salvation known to men. He is the "Word of Life," because He, as the true God, has the fullness of true, everlasting life in Himself, because He is the Source and Fountain of all true life, and because He gives eternal life to all those that come to Him in truth. Of Him St. John says that He was from the beginning; He did not come into existence at the beginning, at the creation of the world, at the period when time first began to be reckoned, but He was. He already existed: He is from eternity. The eternal Son of God became man, for John says that he heard Him, that his own ears received the doctrine of life from His lips; that he saw Him with his own eyes. Yea, more: he had opportunity enough to gaze upon this wonderful God-man, to inspect Him closely, to note everything that He did: his hands even touched and handled Him, because he was the beloved disciple, and the evening of the Passover meal in the upper room was undoubtedly not the only time when he leaned on the breast of Jesus. John has still more to say of the incarnation and its purpose: And the Life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and declare to you the eternal Life, the very one which was with the Father and was manifested to us. The Life, He who is the Life, the embodiment of all true life. was manifested, revealed, to men. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, Joh_1:14. John purposely speaks of their seeing as having taken place for a long time. They were with the Lord long enough to know that they were not dealing with a phantom, but with the personal revelation of the second person of the Godhead. They had every reason, John and his fellow-apostles, to be so certain of their declaration and of their witness. They saw His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father. They knew that Jesus Christ was the true God and eternal Life. As such, as the eternal embodiment and source of all true spiritual life, as Him who was with the Father from eternity and was made flesh, was manifested to us, lived among men, God and Man in one person, John had proclaimed Him and was proclaiming Him. The apostle also states the purpose of this emphatic proclamation: What we have seen and heard we declare also to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. John and the other disciples made that the work of their entire life, to preach the wonderful Gospel-message, to tell the wondrous story of Jesus and His work of redemption, in order that other people also might learn to know Christ, to believe in Him, and thus to enter into the most intimate spiritual fellowship with the apostles and with all true believers. By faith all believers on earth, regardless of race and social position, are united in the communion of saints, in the Christian Church. This fellowship, moreover, involves still more: But our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. By faith the Christians are not only united in an association holding the same tenets and held together by the same profession, but they thereby become members of the body of Christ and enter into intimate relationship with God the Father Himself. For as the eternal Father of Jesus Christ, His Father also after the incarnation, as He Himself repeatedly testified, He is also our Father by virtue of the redemption of Christ. The Savior has removed all cause of enmity by bearing both our sins and their guilt and atoning for them with His blood, thereby reconciling God the Father to us. Thus we are all children of God by faith which is in Christ Jesus. It is a wonderful, a glorious relationship in which we stand. No wonder the apostle is constrained to add: And this we are writing that your joy may be complete. This assurance of the sonship of God, of the fact that all causes for apprehension and fear have been removed, will ever have the same effect upon the Christians, namely, that of making their joy in faith complete and perfect, of causing them to rest their salvation in Christ and their heavenly Father without the slightest hesitation or doubt, of imparting to them that inexpressible happiness of faith which no man can take from the believers, which they retain in the very midst of misery and tribulation. That is John's introduction to his letter, a remarkable example of the comforting quality of the Gospel-message.

12. BI 1-4, The preface to the First Epistle of John

This is a homiletical Epistle, the address of an absent pastor to his flock, or to disciples widely scattered and beyond the reach of his voice. It is a specimen of apostolic preaching to believers, a masterpiece in the art of edification. The address is based on the gospel history, which it presupposes throughout. Some have thought the Epistle written on purpose to accompany St. Johns Gospel, in order to serve as its practical application and enforcement. The two lie so near to each other in their cast of thought and dialect, and are connected by so many turns of expression, that it is evident they are the outcome of the same mind, and, we may safely say, of the same stage and state of mind. The preface to the Epistle is, in effect, a summary of the Gospel according to John, as we see at once when we compare it with the opening and closing words of that narrative (Joh_1:1-18; Joh_20:30-31). The revelation of God through His Son Jesus Christ, a revelation entirely human and apprehended already by his readers, is that which the writer desires to communicate and set forth in its living effect. This revelation is the spring of a new eternal life for all men, a life of fellowship with God Himself, in which St. John would fain make his fellows sharers with him. It is this preface that we have now to consider, consisting of 1Jn_1:1-4. Its subject is the eternal life manifested. We adopt the revised translation of these four verses, preferring, however, in verse 1, the marginal word of life, without the capital. For it is on life rather than word that the stress of the sentence lies (for the life was manifested, John continues); and Word must have stood alone to be recognised as a personal title, or could at most be qualified as it is in the Apocalypse (Rev_19:13): His name is called the Word of God. Johns word of life resembles the word of life that Paul bids the Philippians hold forth (Php_2:16), the words of life eternal which Peter declared his Master to possess (Joh_6:68), and all the words of this life which the apostles were bidden to speak in the temple to the people (Act_5:20). It is synonymous with the gospel, the message of the new life which those bear witness to and report who have first heard it and proved its living power. Concerning the word of life stands in opposition to the four preceding relative clauses (that which we have heard our hands handled) and states their general subject matter and import; while the first clause, That which was from the beginning, stands alone in its sublime completeness. Declare, in verses 2, 3

more precisely understood, signifies report ('). It is the carrying of tidings or

messages from the authentic source: What we have seen and heard we report also to you (cf. verse 5)we are the bearers to you of the word we received from Him. So in verse 2: We bear witness and report; where, as Haupt acutely says, in the former expression the emphasis lies on the communication of truth, in the latter on the communication of truth. Readers of the Greek will note the expressive transition from the perfect to the aorist tense and back again, that takes place in verses 1-3. When John writes, That which we have heard and have seen with our eyes, he asserts the abiding reality of the audible and visible manifestation of God in Christ. This is now the fixed possession of himself and of his readers, the past realised in the present; and to this immovable certainty he reverts once and again in verses 2, 3. The sudden change of tense in the middle of verse 1, missed by our authorised translation, carries us back to the historical fact. Looking with Johns eyes upon this mysterious Person, feeling and grasping with his hands its flesh and blood reality, and pondering its meaning, we say with him: The life was

manifested, the eternal life that was with the Father, was manifested to us. While

(we beheld) implies an intent contemplative gaze, , occurring, in the New

Testament, only in Act_17:27, and Heb_12:18 beside these two passages, denotes not the bare handling, but the searching, exploring use of the hands, that tests by handling. So much for the verbal elucidation of the passage. Let us look at its substantial content.

I. St. John had witnessed, as he believed, the supreme manifestation of God. The secret of the universe stood unveiled before his eyes, the everlasting fact and truth of things, the reality underlying all appearances, that which was from the beginning. Here he touched the spring of being, the principle that animates creation from star to farthest star, from the archangel to the worm in the sod: The life was manifested, the life eternal which existed with the Father, was manifested to us. If the life of this passage is identical with that of the Gospel prologue, it has all this breadth of meaning; it receives a limitless extension when it is defined as that which was from the beginning. The source of spiritual life to men is that which was, in the first instance, the source of natural life to all creatures. Here lies the foundation of St. Johns theology. It assumes the solidarity of being, the unity of the seen and unseen. It contradicts and excludes, from the outset, all Gnostical, dualistic, and docetic conceptions of the world. This essential and aboriginal life, he tells us, became incarnate, that it may have fellowship with men; it was slain, that its blood may cleanse them from iniquityfor the cross is not far off, we shall find it in the next paragraph. It is the fourth verse, rather than the first of the Gospel, which supplies the text for the Epistle: That which hath come to be, in Him was life; and the life was the light of men (R.V. margin).

II. In the second place, observe the energy with which the apostle asserts the actuality of the manifestation of the life of God in Jesus Christ. Thrice in three verses he reiterates, we have seen it, twice we have heard; and twice he repeats, the life was manifested. This stupendous fact has, naturally, always had its doubters and deniers. In any age of the world, and under any system of thought, such a revelation as that made in Jesus Christ was sure to be met with incredulity. It is equally opposed to the superstitions and to the scepticisms natural to the human mind. In truth, the mind that is not surprised and sometimes staggered by the claims of Christ and the doctrines of Christianity, that has not felt the shock they give to our ordinary experience and native convictions, has hardly awakened yet to their full import. St. John feels that the things he declares demand the strongest evidence. He has not believed them lightly, and he does not expect others to believe them lightly. This passage, like many besides in the New Testament record, goes to show that the apostles were well aware of the importance of historical truth; they were conscientious and jealously observant in regard to this cardinal requirement. Their faith was calm, rational, and sagacious. They were perfectly certain of the things they attested, and believed only upon commanding and irresistible proof, that covered the whole extent of the case. But the facts they built their faith upon are so largely of the spiritual order, that without a corresponding spiritual sense and faculty they can never be absolutely convincing. Already, in St. Johns old age, the solvents of philosophical analysis were being applied to the gospel history and doctrine. The Godhead incarnate, the manifestation of the infinite in the finite, was pronounced impossible and self-contradictory; we know beforehand, the wise of the world said, that it cannot be. The incarnation, the miracles, the resurrection, the ascensionwhat are they but a myth, a beautiful poetic dream, a pictorial representation of spiritual truth, from which we must extract for ourselves a higher creed, leaving behind all the supernatural as so much mere wrappage and imaginative dress! So the Apostle John confronts them, and their like in every time, with his impressive and authoritative declaration. Behind him lies the whole weight of the character, intelligence, and disciplined experience of the witnesses of Jesus. Of what use was it for men at a distance to argue that this thing and that thing could not be? I tell you, says the great apostle, we have seen it with our eyes, we have heard Him with our very ears; we have touched and tested and handled these things at every point, and we know that they are so. As he puts it, at the end of his letter, We know that the Son of God is come; and He hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true. The men who have founded Christianity and written the New Testament were no fools. They knew what they were talking about. No dreamer, no fanatic, no deceiver, since the world began, ever wrote like the author of this Epistle.

III. And now, in the third place, there is founded upon the facts thus attested, there is derived from the eternal life revealed in Christ, a new Divine fellowship for men. To promote this end St. John writes: That you also may have fellowship with us. To communicate these truths, to see this fellowship established and perfected amongst men, is the apostles one delight, the business and delight of all those who share his faith and serve his Master: These things we write, that our joy may be fulfilled. We have a great secret in common, we and the apostles. The Father told it to Jesus, Jesus to them, they to us, and we to others. Those who have seen and heard such things, cannot keep the knowledge to themselves. These truths belong not to us only, but to the whole world (1Jn_2:2); they concern every man who has a soul to save, who has sins to confess and death to meet, who has work to do for his Maker in this world, and a way to find for himself through its darkness and perils. The Apostle John is writing to Greeks, to men far removed from him in native sympathy and instinct; but he has long since forgotten all that, and the difference between Jew and Greek never once crosses his mind in writing his letter. He has risen above it, and left it behind through his fellowship with Christ. The only difference he knows is that existing between men who are of God and men who are of the world. In St. John the idea of the Church catholic as a spiritual brotherhood is perfected. But our fellowship is not only with prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints of God. We do not hold with the apostle merely such fellowship as we have with other great minds of the past; nor was Johns communion with his Lord that which we cherish with our beloved dead, the communion of memory, or at best of hope. If the facts the apostles test are true, they are true for us as for them. If the life manifested in the Lord Jesus was eternal, then it is living and real today. As it was from the beginning, it will be to the end. Jesus Christ had brought His disciples into spiritual union and fellowship with the living God. He had shown them the Father. He had made them individually children of God, with Himself for elder brother. He had passed away from their sight, to be with them forever in His Spirit. In this way He had really come to them, and the Father with Him, when He seemed to be going (Joh_14:18-23, R.V.). They felt themselves to be in direct communion and communication, every day they lived, with the Almighty Father in heaven, and with His Son Jesus Christ whom they had known and loved on earth. To this fellowship they invite and summon all mankind. The manifestation of God in Christ makes fellowship with God possible in an altogether new and richer way. Does not the very distinction revealed in the Godhead render such communion accessible, as it could not be otherwise to human thought? Our communion, writes John, is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christwith each distinctly, with each in and through and for the other. We have fellowship with Christ in the Father. He has explained the Father (Joh_1:18), and talked to us about Him; and we are entering into His views. We share Christs thoughts about God. On the other hand, we have fellowship with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is Gods; but He is ours as well! God has told us what He thinks about His Son, and wishes us to think with Him. Showing Him to the world, He says: This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I am ever well pleased. And we agree to that: we are well pleased with Him too! We solemnly accept the testimony of God concerning His Son. Then we are at one with God in respect to Christ. And all harmony and peace centre there. The Father Himself loveth you, said Jesus to His disciples, because you have loved Me, and believed that I came out from the Father. In Him God is reconciling the world to Himself. Only when we think aright of Christ, and are rightly disposed toward Him, can we have fellowship with each other, and work together with God for the worlds redemption. (George G. Findlay, B. A.)

Johns testimony to Christ

I. The faith which came by seeing Jesus. Too often intimate acquaintance lowers our reverence even for the great. How different the result of Johns close friendship with Christ! Such was the

faith which came by seeing Christ. What a faith it was! It breathes in all his writings; it breathed in his actions; it fitted him to look through heavens open door and tell us what he saw.

II. The faith which comes by hearing of Jesus. We cannot as yet rise to the level of the faith which grew by seeing Jesus; but we, too, hope to see, hear, handle Christ. And even now there is a special blessing promised to them who have not seen, and yet have believed.

III. The joy of faith. Clearly the writers joy was full. A faith so vigorous could not be otherwise. And St. John seeks to fill us with the same. We are unworthy servants, weary pilgrims, fainting soldiers, desponding amid sorrows, led astray by deceptive joys. We want a faith which shall make our courage strong, and our joy full. (T. M. Herbert, M. A.)

The apostles doctrine

The very mistakes of the primitive Churches have been to us the sources of unspeakable advantage. Principally to refute existing errors, the apostles gave out those beautiful expositions of Christian doctrine and duty which make the glory of the epistolary scriptures. Thus we see how, under the reign of omnipotent love, error itself is made to elicit truth, and the evils of a day to work out forms of good that shall brighten and unfold forever.

I. The declaration respecting Christ.

1. The eternal existence of Christ. He says, He is that eternal life; and at the close of his appeal he adds the assertion, This is the true God and eternal life. Try to take in the meaning of the word eternal! You are unable to do it. We can explain nothing which lies beyond the horizon of our limited life. To us, that which is infinite never can be definite. Mysterious as is the word eternity, this one thing is clearHe who is eternal must be Divine. He who is before all things must be the cause of all things; and creation, however wide in range or rich in splendour, must be less by infinity than its author.

2. Jesus assumed human nature. The mystery is no argument against its truth. You are unable to explain the wonderful union of God and man in the nature of Christ; but are you more perfectly able to explain the union of matter and spirit in your own?

3. Jesus is the Word. What words are to thought, Christ is to God? He utters God; and of every imaginable manifestation of God, He is the manifestor. Nature shows the Divine perfections, but we may still doubt if it proves the Divine personality. The personal man yearns for the knowledge of a personal God. Age after age rose the ceaseless cry of man, For God, for the living God! Christ heard that cry, and said, Lo, I come, I come! In the earliest times He shadowed out the Divine personality by His appearance as the Angel of the Presence; and when the fulness of time arrived He broke the silence of ages, and in Him, at last, the unutterable found utterance. But Christ has given a yet more advanced revelation than this. He has uttered the Divine love to sinners. Great God! conscience threatens us; the law threatens us; death threatens us, and we deserve it all. Art thou with us, or with our adversaries? The Cross furnishes the reply. 4 Jesus is our Life. As the Word, He is the Revealer of what we need; as the Life, He is the Communicator of what we need. As the Word, He is God uttering Him self; as the Life, He is God giving Himself. As the Word, He is God without us; as the Life, He is God within us. (C. Stanford, D. D.)

Fellowship with the Father

I. St. John was now an old man in a new world. It was an age of busy thought and daring speculation. It had its realists, who held that Jesus was but a man, and Christianity but one of

the religious movements of the last century. It had its dreamy idealists, who spiritualised away all the facts of Christianity. The age, in fact, called for a restatement of Christian truth. We too have our realists in art and literaturepainters who strip the halo from Christs brow, and set before us simply the man Jesus, the peasant saint of Galileeauthors who write lives of Jesus as the Son of Mary, but not of Christ the Son of the living God. We too have our idealists, who regard Christianity as a dream of mans spirita beautiful dream, yet capable of being improved, and so they wish, not to destroy, but to remake the Christ, to pull the Gospels to pieces, but only to put them together again after a better fashion. Here we have the last word of inspiration. The revelation that began in Genesis ends here.

II. We have in our text the substance of the Gospelwhat it is in the last analysis.

1. It is something eternalthat which was from the beginning. Christianity is not one of the religious movements of a recent age. It is not one of a class. It cannot be compared with other religions. Its sources are out of sight. It was manifested in time, but it was from the beginning.

2. It is something historical. That which we have heard, that which we have seen [not in vision] with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled declare we unto you. We do not announce fancies of our own. We bear witness to factsto an eternal truth revealed in time.

3. It is something absolutely unique. The word of life, the eternal life, which was with the Father. Christ approaches humanity. He comes not, as one of many, on a common errand of sympathy with sorrow. His mission is unique. He comes alone. He comes to give men lifeeternal lifelife as it was with the Father the very life of God Himself in its purest form.

III. Again, we have the end aimed at in the Gospel stated in its largest, fullest form. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us. Men are to be saved for something as well as from something, and that is for the fellowship of holy spirits, the commonwealth of souls, the city of God. Truth says to all who possess it, I am sacramental bread and wine; eat of me, drink of me, and pass me on to others. As every stream of water makes for the sea, every rill of truth is making for fellowship. The missionary spirit is often spoken of as something separate, peculiar to certain people. No! it is the spirit of all truth. Get Christ into men, and the Christ in them will straightway want to get into other men; for the great end for which every Christian truth is making, is fellowshipthe perfect brotherhood of all souls.

IV. Yes! But brotherhood can only be through fatherhood. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Union is union with God. Cicero has said that there can be no friendship but between good men. Bad men may combine, but cannot unite. Their combination is a rope of sand. God only unites. Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. The hope of the world lies not in agitation, nor in revolution, nor in reformation, but in regeneration.

V. Communion with men must then begin as union with God. And this is the messageGod is lightis holiness and love. Do you say, It is a message that crushes? Nay, it consoles too, it inspires. There is a gospel in it. The sun looking down at the green wheat blade, says, You must be like me. But how? By looking at me. I, by shining on you, will make you to be what I want you to be. God is light! If He is holiness without spot, He is also love without measure. He gives Himself away like the light. (J. M. Gibbon.)

The perfect Saviour

I. The apostles testimony concerning Christ as a perfect Saviour (verses 1, 2).

1. No stronger evidence can be conceived.

2. The statement of such evidence proves the importance of giving facts as the foundation of Christianity.

3. The terms of this statement deserve careful study.

(1) The pre-existence of our Lord.

(2) The real, objective humanity of our Lord.

(3) The life-giving power of our Lord.

II. The design of this testimonythat others might participate in the peculiar privileges of the apostles of Christ (verse 3).

1. Fellowship.

2. Fulness of joy.

III. The evidences of real union with Christ as perfect Saviour.

1. A life of practical holiness (verses 5-7).

2. A Scriptural sentiment (verses 8-10).

3. Compliance with the condition of forgiveness and cleansing (verse 9).

Lessons:

1. The solid basis of Christianitya historical Christ, attested by unimpeachable witnesses.

2. The distinguished privileges of a believer in Christ.

(1) Divine fellowship.

(2) Divine cleansing.

(3) Divine forgiveness.

3. The blessed and royal life of the Christian. To walk in the light. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)

Witnesses of the Word of life

These words are as a head to the body, a gate to the field, a porch to the building of this epistle; an introduction which very much speaketh the writer to be St. John, because it is as it were a resounding to the proem of his Gospel.

I. The apostles care of publishing the Gospel is that which St. John doth here insert in the behalf not only of himself, but his fellow apostles, for it is not the singular I, but the plural we.

1. The first we meet with is 2, bear witness. This was indeed the chief office to

which the apostles were designed by Christ, to bear witness of Him; and that they might be enabled to the faithful discharge of it, He promised the power of the Holy Ghost (Joh_15:26-27; Act_1:8).

2. The next expression, , is twice repeated, verses 2, 3, but Englished by two

several words, we show and we declare, it is that which intimateth what kind of bearing

witness the apostle here intended. The nature of light is to discover, the business of an ambassador is to impart his message; and accordingly the work of an apostle is to reveal the gospel. We declare, as being sent by God to publish this errand; and that which hereby is intimated to us is that these holy apostles did not run before they were sent, but had a mission and commission to show and declare the things of the gospel.

3. There is yet one term more behind, verse 4, and that is , we write unto you:

and as declaring showeth what kind of bearing witness the apostle chiefly relateth to, so this writing what kind of declaring he especially speaketh of; for whereas there are but two ways of declaring the gospel, to wit, sermo and scriptio, word and writing, by the tongue and the pen, this latter is that which the apostle principally intendeth when he saith, We declare, we write; that is, we declare by writing.

(1) By this it is we speak to many, very many, even those that are absent and far distant from us; in which respect writing is wittily styled an invention to deceive absence.

(2) Again, by this it is we speak, not only whilst alive, but when we are dead, and so declare the truth, not only to them who are coetaneous with us, but shall in future ages succeed after us; in which regard that of the Psalmist is very suitable (Psa_102:18).

II. The Gospels excellency.

1. The appellation here affixed to the gospel is choice and comfortable, it is the word of life; a title which is made use of by St. Paul (Php_2:15-16).

2. The reason of this appellation is fit and pregnant, because those words, eternal life is manifested to us, are such a confirmation that they are withal an explication of the title in both the branches of it.

(1) Would we know what this life is, whereof the gospel is the word? The answer is, it is eternal life; in which respect St. Peter saith to Christ (Joh_6:68).

(2) Would we know in what respect the gospel is the word of this life? The answer is, because this eternal life which was with the Father is by it manifested to us. To apply this, what should the consideration teach us but

1. Thankfully to acknowledge what a rich treasure, a precious pearl, God hath vouchsafed to us in bestowing the gospel on us!

2. To endeavour that what this word of life is in itself it may be to every one of us; and as it is the word of life by way of manifestation, so it may be also by way of operation, effectual to bring us to that life which it revealeth to us. (N. Hardy, D. D.)

Christ the revealer of God

I. Him of whom John is here speakingthat which was from the beginning. What God is in His nature, persons, life, blessedness, glory, immortality, and eternity, is, and ever will be, incomprehensible (Job_11:7-9). The person of Christ was from the beginning. He was as God-man before the world, and had a glory with the Father before the world was (Joh_8:58). This most glorious one, who was God-man before the world was, became incarnate in the fulness of time. John lived in the days of Christs Incarnation; he had the honour to see Christ, the Messiah, and was favoured with communion with Him. This was grace and glory inexpressible.

II. He had heard, he had seen, he had handled Him. So had others also. These various terms of hearing, seeing, looking, handling, are designed to express the reality of our Lords Incarnation. That He had a real body. It was a palpable one; it was seen; it was touched; it was heard. The

truth of this was denied by some heretics in the apostolic age; to refute which the apostle expresseth himself as he here doth. There was satisfaction given, and such demonstration given to every sense of body and mind, that Christ had a body like our own, that no greater proof could be given. He was made in all things like unto His brethren. It was in our nature He obeyed. Bore the sins of many in His own body on the tree. The person of Christ is a most transcendently excellent subject. The Incarnation of Christ, a deep and most momentous subject.

III. The persons who had thus seen Himwhich we have heard, etc. They were the apostles themselves. He speaks in their and his own name here. Not but other saints beside them saw the Lord in His incarnate state; yet they were not called and appointed to be witnesses of this, as the apostles were. The evidence the apostles had of His person and Incarnation was different from ours. We receive ours from them: and that in a way of believing. They had the evidence of sense as truly as we have the evidence of faith. True believers hear the voice of Christ in His Word, and in hearing it their souls live. They see Christ in the light of the gospel, and behold salvation and everlasting life in Him; but this is with the eyes of their mind. They touch, they taste, and handle Christ mystically and representatively in their fellowship with Him in His holy supper, yet this is quite different from what the apostle is here speaking. Yet it is as effectual to us for our souls benefit as theirs was. Yet notwithstanding this, the different ends answered by the same are so essential, that they ought to be distinguished. They were to record His life, His wo