Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are constantly diving into the ocean of truth. We are going to return to our Trinitarian Commentary tonight after our honoring of those who have died for our country last night and a reminder of how we should be vigilant as a church. I ask for your continued prayers that I should be the man that I need to be as God is working on me more and more and I believe his truth is starting to sink in. I also ask for prayers for my financial situation. Finally, I ask for your prayers with the major events going on in my life right now that I will be pleasing to him in them. For now, we are going to go to the text and start the book of 1 John with the first verse. Let’s go to the text:
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 touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.
I love the writings of John, but the epistles are spectacular especially and this is my favorite epistle of his. I find it amazing that this was the one who was called a Son of Thunder for his hot temper. He wanted to send fire down to destroy the Samaritan city. Now what do we see in this letter? Go through it sometime as a whole and see how the love of Christ changed him.
However, let’s look at the words now. There is some speculation by some scholars that this book could have actually been a prologue to the gospel of John. Whether that was true or not we cannot say for sure, but there is a strong Johannine theology here with the idea of Jesus as the Word.
Let’s see how it begins. That which was from the beginning. This is a reference to the eternity of Christ. From the very beginning, there was Jesus. An orthodox Jew would have understood it and could have very well tied it in with the idea of Jesus as God’s Wisdom.
Which we have heard. Christ  spoke to us. We heard his words. He was the teacher who walked among us and explained to us the lessons of the Scriptures. John in his own gospel records many discourses of Jesus. In fact, he is most noted for the long sayings of Jesus.
Which we have seen. Jesus really did dwell in a physical body, but John will go into further detail with that. Jesus was not an illusion. He really came down. We really saw him. He who was from the beginning is he who dwelt among us.
Our hands have touched him. There was a voice first and then that voice was put with a body and then we were able to touch that body. John is countering the docetic notion here that Jesus only appeared in a body. He literally did have a physical body and it could be touched just like your body and my body can be.
John has not named Jesus yet, but he says that this is what is being proclaimed concerning the Word of life. John uses the term Word, which is key in the opening of his gospel, and he speaks of Jesus as life, a theme that is also prominent in John’s gospel. All of this will fit in to form a beautiful tapestry of who Jesus is and how we ought to live accordingly. All of this in just one verse.
We shall continue looking at this wonderful epistle tomorrow.
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