Bibliotheca
Sacra 145 (July, 1988) 197-210.
Copyright © 1988 by
An Expositional Study of 1 John
Part 1 (of 10 parts):
An
Exposition of 1 John 1:1-4
D.
Professor Emeritus of New Testament
Mennonite Brethren Biblical
Seminary,
The forceful simplicity of its
utterances, the grand theological
truths it portrays, and the unwavering ethical demands
of its
teaching have made 1 John a favorite with
Christians every-
where. It is as vital and relevant today as it was
when it was
first written.
Introduction to 1 John
This epistle does not display the regular
features of a letter as
seen in the models of contemporary correspondence;
yet in the
early listings of the New Testament books it was
always classi-
fied as a
"letter." Its contents indicate that it arose out of a defi-
nite life situation and was
intended to meet the needs of its
recipients. It was a written communication to a
group or groups of
readers personally known to the writer. The
absence of all that is
merely local supports its description "as
encyclical or circular in
nature and pastoral in function."1
1 Donald W. Burdick, The Letters of John the Apostle: An In-Depth
Commentary
(Chicago:
Moody Press, 1985), p. 70.
197
198 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April—June 1988
The
epistle is anonymous, but from earliest times the view has
prevailed in the church that John the Apostle was
its author.2 It
portrays an author who was well known to the
readers, one who
spoke from direct personal knowledge with an inner
sense of au-
thority that felt no need to
justify his position of authority among
believers. This view was held almost unanimously
until the rise
of modern critical scholarship. The varied
arguments against the
traditional view have not proved convincing to
theologically
conservative scholars.3
"There is . . . no good reason," Hodges as-
serts, "for denying the
traditional belief that the letter is of
apostolic authorship."4 The view
of apostolic authorship agrees
with the persistent Christian tradition that the
Apostle John
spent the closing years of his long life at
ried out an extensive
evangelistic and pastoral ministry to the re-
gions around.5
The writer apparently had no direct
part in the original
evangelization of the readers
addressed (2:7, 24). Yet he was in-
timately acquainted with their
spiritual condition and felt a
warm personal affection for them. These churches
apparently
had already existed for many years and most members
were ad-
vanced in their knowledge of
Christian truth (2:7, 20-21, 24, 27;
3:11).
They were characterized by a certain homogeneity; they
faced a common spiritual peril because of false
teachers who
sought to lead them astray (2:26).
In support of the traditional view
that the letter was written
at
statement of Irenaeus (Against Heresies 3. 1. 1) as well as the
fact
that "the earliest-known references to the
epistle are by church
leaders from
2 For a fuller discussion see D. Edmond Hiebert, An Introduction to the
New-Tes-
tament,
vol. 3: The Non-Pauline Epistles and Revelation (
1977),
pp. 182-97.
3 See Burdick, The Letters of John the Apostle, pp. 7-37, and the literature cited
there.
4 Zane C. Hodges, "1 John," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testa-
ment, ed. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck (
cations, 1983), p. 881.
5 On John's
Ephesian ministry and the question of "John the
elder" see Hiebert,
An Introduction to the
New Testament,
pp. 191-97.
6
Glenn W. Barker, "1 John," in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, ed. Frank
E.
Gaebelein (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing
House, 1981), p. 294.
An Exposition of 1 John
1:1-4 199
of John's arrival at
some time before writing this epistle. There is no
mention of the
church being persecuted by the state; if this marks
the actual ab-
sence of persecution, the
epistle may be dated after the death of
Emperor
Domitian in A.D. 96, or more probably before the
beginning
of the Domitian
persecution, which according to Eusebius (Ec-
clesiastical History 3. 18) began in the
latter part of his reign.
This
suggests a date around A.D. 97, or more probably around A.D.
80-85.
More recently a date between A.D. 60 and 65 has been sug-
gested.7
The purpose stated in 1 John 5:13,
looking back over the whole
epistle, indicates John's desire to ground his
readers in the per-
sonal assurance of salvation.
Related is his desire for their vic-
tory over sin (2:1),
assuring fullness of joy in Christian fellowship
(1:4).
He also sought to alert them against increasing susceptibil-
ity toward the world and
its views (2:15-17), and to arrest any
proneness to reinterpret their faith in terms of
prevailing "modern
thought" by exposing them to the errors of
false teachers (2:26).
The Greco-Roman world of the first
century was a veritable
babble of competing voices, and there was a strong
desire on the
part of various individuals to syncretize
these divergent religious
and philosophical views. It is generally agreed
that the heresy
confronted in 1 John was some form or forms of
Gnosticism, but it is
unwarranted to identify it with the full-blown
Gnosticism of the
second century. Among the numerous converts won to
Christianity
in
marked by Gnostic tendencies. Some of those converts
soon sought
to syncretize their old
views with their newly accepted Chris-
tianity. Sharp controversy
arose when they sought to propagate
their new interpretations and they withdrew (2:19).
But they did
not sever all their contacts with members of the
churches (2:26). A
fuller development of the varied Gnostic views may
indeed have
been promoted by these heretics after their
withdrawal from the
churches. That the incipient elements of
Gnosticism were active
in the first century is clear.
As a speculative philosophy of
religion, Gnosticism was
marked by a kaleidoscopic variety of views. Basic was
the dual-
istic view that spirit is
good and matter is inherently evil, and.
7 Hodges, "1 John," p. 882. See John
A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976), p 307.
200 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April—June 1988
that the two are in perpetual antagonism. This
assumed dualism
created a gulf between the true God and this
material world. The
Gnostics,
meaning "knowing ones," held that spiritual excellence
consisted not in a holy life but in their superior
knowledge, which
enabled them to rise above the earthbound chains
of matter in
their apprehension of the heavenly truth that had
been made
known to them. This knowledge, they claimed, had been
made
known to them through Christ as the Messenger of the
true God.
Thus
"the gnostic Christ was not a saviour; he was a revealer. He
came for the express purpose of communicating his
secret gnosis."8
This
undermined the Christian view of sin and the atonement.
Acceptance of Gnostic dualism made
the Christian doctrine of
the Incarnation unthinkable; two alternative views
were ad-
vanced. Docetic
Gnosticism9 held that Christ seemed to have a
human body; His supposed humanity was a phantom. Cerinthian
Gnosticism,
named after Cerinthus, a late contemporary of John at
preeminent in righteousness and wisdom, that
"the Christ" came
on Him at His baptism and empowered His ministry,
but left Him
before His crucifixion; it was only a man who died and
rose again.
Either
view eliminated the Incarnation and nullified Christ's
atoning work.
Since the Gnostics held that
fellowship with God comes
through the esoteric knowledge brought by
Christ, they often ex-
pressed their assumed enlightenment in
scandalous disregard of
the ethical demands of Christianity. At other times
their view
led to asceticism. In opposition, John insisted
that true Christian
knowledge, which comes as a result of the
anointing of the Holy
One
(2:20), involves spiritual enlightenment as well as holiness of
life (1:5-2:5). For true assurance of eternal life
(5:13) the Christo-
logical test as well as the ethical test must be
applied.
The
Reality of the Incarnation
What was from the beginning, what we
have heard, what we
have seen
with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled,
concerning
the Word of life
8 Ronald H.
Nash, Christianity and the Hellenistic
World (
Zondervan
Publishing House, 1984), p. 222.
9 The name is derived from
the Greek verb doke<w meaning "to
seem." The expres-
sion to>
dokei?n denoted something in appearance (only).
An Exposition of 1 John
1:1-4 201
and the life was manifested, and we have seen
and bear witness
and
proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and
was
manifested to us--
what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you
also, that you
also may
have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with
the Father,
and with His Son Jesus Christ.
And these things we write, so that our joy may be made com-
plete (1 John 1:1-4).
This weighty and challenging opening
paragraph plunges into
the heart of the Christian message, proclaiming
that eternal life
has been manifested in the incarnate Son of God,
Jesus Christ.
This
paragraph is unusually involved and intense, unlike John's
normal style. "It gives the impression that the
author was so 'full
of his subject,' so overwhelmed by the truth he
sought to express,
that his thoughts became crowded and his expression compli-
cated."10
John asserted the reality of the
apostolic encounter with the
incarnate Word of life (v. 1), parenthetically
declared the his-
torical manifestation of eternal
life (v. 2), and set forth the per-
sonal issues of the apostolic
proclamation (vv. 3-4). The very
structure of this opening paragraph is
illustrative of the spiraling
movement of John's thought.
THE APOSTOLIC ENCOUNTER
WITH THE WORD OF LIFE
The four opening clauses, each
beginning with "what" (o{), are
parallel in scope and declare the reality of the
Incarnation. All
four are the direct objects of the verb
"proclaim" (a]pagge<lomen),
which is not actually expressed until verse 3.11
This use of the
neuter "what" does not mean that John had in
view an abstract
message; rather he was thinking about the
comprehensive reality
of the historical manifestation of eternal life in
the incarnate
Christ.
The first clause relates to the Incarnation itself, the re-
maining three declare the
apostolic experiences with Christ.
The
opening clause, "What was from the beginning" (o{ h#n
a]p ]
a]rxh?j), has been variously understood. Ebrard
remarked, "These
words, considered in themselves, may say all that it
is possible to
say; and yet, when they are isolated, they declare
fundamentally
10 Harvey J. S. Blaney, "The First Epistle of John," in Beacon Bible Commentary
(Kansas
City, MO: Beacon Hill Press, 1969), 10:349.
11 The NIV inserts
"this we proclaim" in verse 1 because of the suspended con-
struction created by verse 2.
202 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April—June 1988
nothing."12 Clearly their
significance must be seen in the light of
what follows.
Some hold that these words
"apparently mean nothing other
than
what John 1:1 expresses in the form ]En a]rx^?
h#n o[ lo<goj
('In
the
beginning was the word')."13 Plummer accepted this connec-
tion with a recognized
difference; in John 1:1 "the point is that the
Word
existed before the creation; here that the Word existed be-
fore the Incarnation."14 But in view
of the four parallel clauses,
such a time reference is not obvious; the others
clearly refer to the
Incarnation. The force of these
words depends on the intended
meaning of "was from the beginning" (h#n a]p ] a]rxh?j). The imper-
fect verb "was"
denotes continuing existence as limited by "from
the beginning." The "beginning" in
view here has been variously
understood. Some, like Plummer15 and
Burdick,16 understand the
expression to mean "from all eternity."
The expression has also
been taken to mean from the beginning of creation,
from the begin-
ning of Christ's ministry,
or even from "the earliest stage of the
Christian
Church."17 The meaning of "the beginning" must al-
ways be determined by the context.18 In
keeping with the follow-
ing clauses, it seems best
to understand that "beginning" here
points to the unique events, described in Luke 1–2
that character-
ized the actual Incarnation,
which John is proclaiming. "John's
message must seem incredible until we start
where he starts—at
Used without the definite article,
"beginning" (a]rxh<) does not
so much point to a specific event, which went
largely unnoticed by
12 John
H. A. Ebrard, Biblical
Commentary on the Epistles of
B.
Pope (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1860), p. 46.
13 Rudolf Bultmann, The Johannine
Epistles, Hermeneia (
Press,
1973), pp. 7-8.
14 Alfred Plummer, The Epistles of S. John,
Colleges
(reprint,
15 Ibid.
16 Burdick, The Letters of John the Apostle, p. 97.
17 R. R. Williams, The Letters of John and James,
New
English Bible (Cambridge: University Press, 1965), p. 17.
18 "Beginning" (a]rxh<) occurs nine times in 1
John, with varied shades of meaning
(cf.
2:7, 13; 3:8).
19 R. E. O. White, Open Letter to Evangelicals (
mans Publishing Co., 1964), p. 27.
An Exposition of 1 John
1:1-4 203
the world, but rather serves to characterize the
event as a new
beginning in God's manner of speaking to mankind
(Heb. 1:1-2).
This
clause starts with the Incarnation, while the following
clauses focus attention on the manifestation of
the incarnate
Christ
during His ministry. The manifestation of the Christ did
not begin at Jesus' baptism, as Cerinthus
taught; the verb "was"
(h#n) marks the continued
fact of the Incarnation since the birth of
the Virgin Mary's Babe in
verse parallels John 1:14, "The Word became
flesh, and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory."
The three following neuter clauses
depict aspects of the apos-
tolic experiences with the
incarnate Christ. "We," the personal
subject of all the following verbs in verse 1,
is not to be limited to
John
alone as an "editorial" we; rather, John was speaking as the
representative of the apostles, all of
whom bore united witness to
the reality of the Incarnation. These four verbs
summarize their
experiences with Jesus during the years of His
ministry and imply
a growing intimacy with Him.
"What we have heard" (o{ a]khko<amen) implies a speaker from
whom they received a message; that message came from
a
historical Person and includes all the varied
statements and ac-
tivities of the Speaker in
communicating His message. The words
"have heard" imply that their hearing Him personally has
ter-
minated, but His message still
continues to ring in John's ears.
The words "what we have seen
with our eyes" (o{
e[wra<kamen
toi?j
o]fqalmoi?j h[mw?n) declare the visual
encounter of the apostles
with the incarnate Christ. "With our eyes"
underlines that what
they observed was no phantom, or inward or spiritual
vision.
"The
addition with our eyes, like our hands below, emphasises
the idea of direct personal outward experience in a
matter mar-
vellous in itself."20
The perfect tense again implies that what
they had seen still lingered before the mind's eye.
Further evidence for the Incarnation
from the sense of sight
and of touch is given in the words "what we
beheld and our hands
handled." "What we beheld" is no
mere repetition. The verb now
used (e]qeasa<meqa) denotes intelligent
beholding, "a careful and
deliberate vision which interprets . . . its
object."21 The use of the
20 Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistles of St. John (reprint,
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1950), p. 6.
21 G.
Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament,
3d ed.
204 Bibliotheca
Sacra I April—June 1988
aorist tense now points back to this gazing on Him as
a historical
fact, as in John 1:14, "we beheld His
glory."
"And our hands handled" (kai> ai[ xei?rej
h[mw?n e]yhla<fhsan)
brings in the experience of deliberate touch as the
culminating ev-
idence for the reality of the
Incarnation. The aorist tense points to
the historical fact. John spoke not of a mere
accidental brushing
against the body of Jesus, but of a purposeful
touching of His body
as a verification of its reality. This verb was
used by Jesus, after
His
resurrection, to challenge the disciples to prove the reality of
His
bodily presence (Luke 24:39; cf. John 20:27). But, as Burdick
well notes, "In the context of 1 John 1:1, the
apostle is not trying to
prove the reality of the resurrection. His point here
is that Jesus
was most surely incarnate in a 'flesh-and-bones'
body."22
Following these four object clauses
no governing verb is ex-
pressed. Instead of the governing verb, John
continued with a
prepositional phrase standing in
apposition to all that has pre-
ceded, "concerning the Word of life" (peri> tou?
lo<gou th?j zwh?j).
"Concerning"
(peri>) summarily relates all
that has preceded as
gathering around "the Word of life,"
setting forth the central sub-
ject of the epistle. The use
of the definite article with both nouns
(lit. "the Word of the
life") makes both nouns distinct while com-
bining the two concepts.
Some interpreters, like Westcott,23 Dodd,24 and Houlden,25
hold that "the Word" refers here to the
message conveyed by the
gospel. Thus Westcott holds that it refers to
"the whole Gospel,
of which He is the centre and sum, and not to
Himself personal-
ly."26 It is suggested that the
four preceding neuter clauses support
this nonpersonal meaning.
But the use of the neuter pronouns may
well be understood to refer to what John declares
concerning the
incarnate Word of life. Advocates of the personal
meaning here
point out that the preceding statements are not
really impersonal.
Thus
(Edinburgh:
T. & T. Clark, 1937), p. 203.
22 Burdick, The Letters of John the Apostle, p. 99.
23
Westcott, The Epistles of
24 C. H. Dodd, The Johannine
Epistles, The Moffatt New Testament Commentary
(New
York: Harper & Row, 1946), pp. 3-6.
25 J. L. Houlden, A Commentary on the Johannine Epistles, Harper's New Testa-
ment Commentaries (New York:
Harper & Row, 1973), pp. 50-52.
26 Westcott, The Epistles of
An Exposition of 1 John
1:1-4 205
and the qualification 'with our eyes' leaves no
doubt that literal
seeing is meant."27 And it may be
asked, How can a manifestation
of the gospel be handled and personally touched?
That "the
Word"
here carries a personal implication seems obvious. But in
reality the subject matter and the Person are
identical in a unique
fashion. The incarnate Christ is both God's
message and Himself
the Messenger. He is the embodiment of divine life
and the Re-
vealer of that life to mankind
(John 14:6-9).
THE
HISTORICAL MANIFESTATION OF THE ETERNAL LIFE
Structurally verse 2 forms a
parenthesis in John's involved
opening sentence. The conjunctive
"and" (kai>) points to another
thought added to what has already been said,
affirming the his-
torical appearing and eternal
nature of "the life" just mentioned.
The
clause "and the life was manifested" (kai>
h[ zwh> e]fan-
erw<qh) declares the
historical fact, comprehensively setting forth
the appearing of the incarnate Life here on earth.
For John this
Life
was not an abstract principle but a real Person. The verb "was
manifested," common in John's writings,
comprehends the process
whereby this Life became visible and tangible;
the passive im-
plies the divine initiative behind the disclosure.
Vine notes that
in Scripture this verb denotes more than mere
appearance: "to be
manifested is to be revealed in one's true
character."28
Another "and" connects
this historical reality with the per-
sonal experience and
testimony of the apostles: "and we have seen
and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal
life." "We have
seen" (e[wra<kamen) again declares that
this incarnate Life was the
object of intelligible, abiding sense perception on
the part of the
apostles. They perceived His true identity, again
viewed as
having an abiding impact. Another "and"
further connects their
past experience with a double present activity:
"and bear witness
and proclaim to you" (kai> marturou?men
kai> a]pagge<llomen u[mi?n).
The
two present tense verbs convey two aspects of the same activ-
ity. As Haupt
noted, in the first verb "the emphasis lies on the
communication of truth," while in the second "the emphasis lies
27
on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1978), p.
101.
28 W. E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words with Their
Precise Meanings for English
Readers
(reprint,
206 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April—June 1988
on the communication
of truth."29 "We," as the subject of both
verbs, expresses John's deep sense of solidarity with
the apostolic
testimony. "More than one man's personal
memories lay behind
the apostolic testimony."30
The object of their authoritative
proclamation was "the eter-
nal life" (th>n zwh>n
th>n ai]w<nion),
literally, "the life, the eternal
[life]." The article with the adjective
"eternal" underlines the
quality of this life. While
this adjective, like the cognate noun.
ai]w<n, "age," may
at times be applied to a long but limited period
of time, its predominant usage in the New
Testament denotes
eternal or unending duration. As Hogg and Vine
note,
It is used of persons and things
which are in their nature endless, as,
e.g., of
Pet. 5. 10; of the Holy Spirit, Heb. 9. 14; of the redemption effected
by
Christ, 9. 12, and
of the consequent salvation of men, 5. 9, as well as of
His future rule, 2
Pet. 1. 11, which is elsewhere declared to be without
end, Luke
1. 33; of the life received by those who believe in Christ,
John 3. 16,
concerning which He said "they shall never perish," 10. 28,
and of the
resurrection body, 2 Cor. 5. 1.31
This life is characterized not
merely by unending continuance
but by the very nature of God. Its eternal,
preexistent quality is
explicitly declared in the added identification,
"which was with
the Father" (h{tij h#n pro>j to>n pate<ra).
The word "which" (h!tij)
is a compound relative pronoun that carries the
idea of charac-
teristic quality as well as
identity, "which was such as." It marks
the distinctive identity of this Life as a Person
who "was with
the Father." The verb "was" denotes
past continuing existence,
while the preposition "with" (pro>j) depicts the continuing
"face-
to-face"
relationship with the Father, distinct from the Father
yet in active fellowship with the Father as equals.
In John 1:1
this relationship with the Father is assigned to
"the Word," and
here it refers to "the life" as personal
and preexistent, that is, the
preincarnate Christ.
This personal, preexistent Life
"was manifested to us" in the
incarnate Jesus. The repeated verb "was
manifested" underlines
29 Erich Haupt, The First Epistle of
trans. W. B. Pope (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark,
1893), p. 17 (italics his).
30 White, Open
Letter to Evangelicals, p. 29.
31 C. F. Hogg and W. E. Vine, The Epistles to the Thessalonians
(reprint,
Pickering
& Inglis, 1959), pp. 232-33.
An Exposition of 1 John
1:1-4 207
this fact as a unique historical reality. The words
"to us" return
the thought to the personal encounter of the
apostles with this
incarnate Life.
THE
PERSONAL ISSUES OF THE APOSTOLIC PROCLAMATION
In verses 3-4 John advanced to the
crucial significance of the
Incarnation for himself and his readers. He summarized the con-
tent of the proclamation (v. 3a), indicated their
aim in making
that proclamation (v. 3b), asserted the true nature
of their
fellowship (v. 3c), and stated the intended goal in
writing (v. 4).
In verse 3 John resumed the sentence
begun in verse 1, but be-
cause of the parenthesis in verse 2, he repeated two
verbs, "what
we have seen and heard," in reverse order and
united under one
relative pronoun, "what" (o{). The observed reality
of the Incar-
nation and the instructive message heard was then
proclaimed.
As
John wrote, "we proclaim to you also" (a]pagge<llomen
kai> u[mi?n).
This
compound verb, which occurs only here in this epistle in
verses 2-3, suggests the thought of passing on to
others what has
been given to them. Orr observes, "The habitual
sense of the pres-
ent tense may be understood
here: we make it our business to pro-
claim."32 The
sense of privilege and duty prompted their procla-
mation. The "also" (kai>)33 may mean that others
beside John were
proclaiming this message to the readers, or more
probably that
the apostle was giving his message to them as well
as to others.
John's proclamation to his readers
has a clear intended result
horizontally, "that you also
may have fellowship with us" (i!na
kai>
u[mei?j koinwni<an e@xhte meq ] h[mw?n).
The words "you also" suggest
that though the readers did not have the same
personal experi-
ence with the incarnate
Christ that the apostles had, yet they
could experience the same spiritual fellowship with
them. The
present-tense verb "may
have" (e@xhte) indicates that by continu-
ing to adhere to the full
truth in Christ they could continue to en-
joy the full fruit of the revelation. John was
anxious that his
32 R. W. Orr, "The Letters of John,"
in A New Testament Commentary, ed. G. C.
D.
Howley (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House,
1969), p. 609.
33
The kai> is omitted in the Textus Receptus. See Zane C.
Hodges and Arthur L.
Farstad, The
Greek New Testament according to the Majority Text (
Thomas
Nelson Publishers, 1982), p. 705. For the strong textual evidence in support
of including Kai see Kurt Aland
et al., Novum Testamenturn Graece, 26th ed. (Stutt-
gart: Deutsche Bibelstiftung, n.d.). The NIV
does not represent the kai>
in its ren-
dering.
208 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April—June 1988
readers would not allow the false teachers to
mar or disrupt their
mutual fellowship by perverting the apostolic message.
The noun "fellowship" (koinwni<an), based on the Greek adjec-
tive meaning
"common" (koino<j), denotes the active
participation
or sharing in what one has in common with others.
The nature of
what is mutually shared molds the nature of the
group. Here, as
in Acts 2:42, the intimate bond of fellowship that
unites the group
is their common faith in Christ, based on the
apostolic message.
By
its very nature the new life in Christ creates and stimulates
the desire for such fellowship. The Christian life
is a call not for
isolation but for active participation with other
believers in this
new life.
Desiring to preserve and promote
this horizontal fellowship,
John
declared the vital vertical aspect of Christian fellowship:
“and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His
Son
Jesus
Christ.” That more needs to be said about Christian fellow-
ship is stressed by John's use of two conjunctions
rendered "and in-
deed" (kai>
. . . de>).
"And" (kai>) again is connective,
while the sec-
ond conjunction (de>) indicates that
something more but different
needs to be said. The words "and indeed our
fellowship" (kai>
h[
koinwni<a de> h[ h[mete<ra,
lit. "and the fellowship, moreover, the
ours") prepare for this vital Godward aspect of Christian fellow-
ship. The expression h[
h[mete<ra is a strong one; it is not the geni-
tive of the personal pronoun
but rather the first person plural of
the possessive pronoun, emphasizing an actual
mutual possession.
This
plural may be understood as restricted to the apostles, but it
is more natural to hold that John deliberately
chose this form to
include his readers with him in this further
aspect of their fel-
lowship. No verb is used in the
Greek, but English versions gener-
ally supply "is" to denote a positive
assertion. For true believers
this Godward fellowship is
a fact, though a call to deepen it is
always in order. This vertical fellowship is vital for
true fellow-
ship horizontally. Each reflects and influences the
other.
The true grandeur of this vertical
fellowship is grounded in
the fact that it is "with the Father, and with
His Son Jesus
Christ"
(meta> tou? patro>j
kai> meta> tou? ui[ou? au]tou? ]Ihsou?
Xristou?).
The
repetition of both the preposition and the definite article
emphatically marks the distinction
and equality of the Father
and the Son. Both the Father and the Son are one in
Godhood.
The
preposition meta> marks the thought of
association between
the persons involved in the fellowship. Dammers remarks that
the thought is of "communion with God, not
absorption in Him; a
An Exposition of 1 John
1:1-4 209
vital distinction to make in Hindu and Buddhist lands
today as it
was in John's Hellenistic world."34
John had learned the designations
"the Father" and "His
Son" from the lips of Jesus. The full designation
"His Son Jesus
Christ"
is solemn and weighty, uniting the two aspects of His
Person. The words "His Son" explicitly
declare the divine nature
of the Person historically known as "Jesus
Christ." "Jesus," which
means "The Lord is salvation," is the name
associated with His
humanity, while "Christ," meaning
"the Anointed One," denotes
His messianic identity. "This
identification," Burdick notes,
"leaves no room for any kind of Gnostic distinction between
the
divine Son and the human Jesus."35
While clearly marking the
distinctness and equality in nature
between the Father and the Son, John draws them
together as the
true object of our Godward
fellowship. Candlish well observes,
In some views and for some ends it
may be quite warrantable, and
even
necessary, to distinguish the fellowship which you have with the
Father from that
which you have with his Son Jesus Christ. As Christ
is the way,
the truth and living way to the Father, so fellowship with
him as such
must evidently be preparatory to fellowship with the Fa-
ther. But it is not thus that Christ is here
represented. He is not put
before the
Father as the way to the Father, fellowship with whom is
the means,
leading to fellowship with the Father as the end. He is
associated
with the Father. Together, in their mutual relation to one
another and
their mutual mind or heart to one another, they consti-
tute the one object of this fellowship.36
In verse 4 John stated the goal of
his letter: "And these things
we write, so that our joy may be made
complete." "And" (kai>) in-
troduces another aspect to this
glorious picture. While some have
understood "these things" (tau?ta) as referring to the whole epis-
tle, the pronoun, which
more naturally refers to the things near at
hand, seems best understood as denoting the things
discussed in
verses 1-3. In saying "we write" (gra<fomen
h[mei?j) John now nar-
rowed the scope of the apostolic witness and
proclamation to the
written communication that was presently
engaging his attention
34 A. H. Dammers, God Is
Light, God Is Love: A Running Commentary on the First
Letter of John (New York: Association
Press, 1963), p. 19.
35 Burdick, The Letters of John the Apostle, p. 106.
36 Robert
S. Candlish, The First Epistle of
John (
lishing House, n.d.), pp. 7-8.
210 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April—June 1988
and efforts. His emphatic "we" (h[mei?j)37
underlines that he was
doing so in keeping with his apostolic commission.
The statement of purpose, "so
that our joy may be made com-
plete" (i!na h[ xara>
h[mw?n ^# peplhrwme<nh),
presents a well-known
textual variant. The manuscripts are fairly
evenly divided be-
tween the pronouns
"our" (h[mw?n) and "your" (u[mw?n).
Both make
good sense. "Your joy," the reading of the
Textus Receptus,38
gives
the normally expected sense and agrees with John's
expressed con-
cern for his readers. If
"your" was the original reading it is diffi-
cult to see why the scribes would make the change.
Remembering
John
16:24, "that your joy may be made full," they would be prone
to change the unexpected first person plural to
the second person.
The
reading "our joy," intrinsically more difficult, seems to be the
original reading. This reading may be understood
as a delicate
personal touch referring to the writer
personally, being "similar to
one the same author made in 3 John 4: 'I have no
greater joy than
to hear that my children are walking in the
truth."'39
"Our joy" may also be
understood in an inclusive sense to in-
clude both writer and
readers. Thus The New English Bible reads,
"the joy of us all."40 This inclusive meaning
seems natural in view
of the possessive plural pronoun "our
fellowship" in verse 3 above.
It
is an instance of pastor and people rejoicing together in the fel-
lowship of the gospel (cf. John
4:36).
The "joy" in view is
"that serene happiness, which is the re-
sult of conscious union with
God and good men, of conscious posses-
sion of eternal life . . .
and which raises us above pain and sorrow
and remorse."41 The perfect
subjunctive "may be made complete"
(h# peplhrwme<nh)
sets forth the final goal of the apostolic ministry,
but because of present circumstances that joy may
not yet be an
abiding reality.
37 "To you" (u[mi?n) is the reading of the majority of the manuscripts; see
Hodges
and Farstad, The Greek New Testament according to the
Majority Text. But some
textual critics hold that "copyists were
more likely to alter gra<fomen h[mei?j to the
expected gra<fomen u[mi?n . . . than vice
versa" (Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commen-
tary on the Greek New Testament [
38 See
Hodges and Farstad, The Greek New Testament according to the Majority
Text.
39 Hodges, "1 John," p. 884.
40 The New
English Bible, 2d ed. (Oxford University Press, 1970).
41 Plummer, The Epistles of S. John, p. 77.
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