The Word of Life
[Verse 1] John begins to speak without any introduction about the Lord Jesus. He does that in an exceptional way. He presents Him as “the Word of life” which “was from the beginning”. John and the apostles had Him with them in this way. The ‘Word of life’ was perceivable to people.
‘The beginning’ John is speaking about is not the beginning of Genesis 1 [Gen 1:1], where we are brought back to the beginning of the world, the creation. It also does not refer to the beginning he is speaking about in the first verse of his Gospel. That beginning surpasses time, to what had no beginning, for it is said what “the beginning was” [John 1:1]. What John means to say here with ‘beginning’ is the manifestation of eternal life on earth through the life of the Lord Jesus. This ‘beginning’ therefore refers to the revelation of the Lord Jesus as Man on earth, as God revealed in the flesh.
The letter is a response to the error of the so-called ‘gnosticism’. This error is found with people who claim that they ‘know’ – the word ‘gnosis’ means ‘to know’ or ‘to be familiar with’. Gnosticism denies that the Lord Jesus really became flesh and it proclaims the error that He had only been on earth in a human appearance. In response to that John describes Him as true Man Whom he and his fellow apostles have truly seen and with Whom they had fellowship.
The response to all errors and deviation is Christ. In order to see Who He is, we ought to go back to the beginning, i.e. His coming and His life on earth. In Him ‘the Word of life’ has been manifested in all its perfection. Herewith John points back to the first verses of his Gospel: “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” [John 1:4]. The fact that John calls Him here ‘the Word of life’, means that in Him you can see what life is. There is no life outside of Him. That what is separated from Him has no life. He alone is life and indeed life in perfection.
John and the apostles – he writes about “we” – have “heard”, have “seen”, have “looked at” and have even “touched” the Lord Jesus. In the words that John uses you draw nearer and nearer to Him:
1. ‘To hear’ can happen from a great distance;
2. ‘to see’ is closer;
3. ‘to look at’ is very close to it;
4. ‘to touch with the hands’ is the closest you can get.
The life that John is presenting to you in this way is therefore not a mythical story, but a concrete reality that is perceivable with the senses. He speaks about a true Person and not about a fictional person (cf. [Luke 24:39]).
In your discovery of the Lord Jesus you, in a certain sense, also have gone through the four phases John mentions:
1. You first heard about Him and owing to that you came to faith. Faith comes by hearing [Rom 10:14].
2. That made your eyes got opened for Him and you began to see Him by faith.
3. That caused you to look at Him by exploring further in God’s Word Who He is.
4. The result is that you also have touched Him with your hands in a spiritual way: you have really experienced that He is there and that He is Who He says to be.
[Verse 2] If eternal life had not been revealed, you could never have known what it is. As it was with the Father, you did not know it. The awesome thing is, that it has been revealed. The eternal God has come out in His Son, the Lord Jesus, and He did that in a place of humiliation and contempt. In that way He can be heard, He can be seen and looked at and also be touched with the hands. He came out to introduce Himself to man. He came to bring you into the overwhelming fellowship with the Father. He manifested the eternal life.
What eternal life is, is seen in Him. He has shown it. He was born as a Baby, He, the eternal life, which was with the Father. Men were able to come that close to Him that they could even touch Him [Mark 5:27]. He came to give to you too that exalted place of fellowship and the full enjoyment of it. As a human being you could not perceive it, let alone enjoy it, if it had not been revealed to you by God’s Spirit [1Cor 2:9-10]. What John mentions here, is also written in Micah 5 [Mic 5:2]. There you read about the Lord Jesus as born in Bethlehem and at the same time as the eternal One.
Before we continue with the next section, I would like to make a general remark about ‘eternal life’. Eternal life is presented in two ways by John. In the first place he is talking about eternal life which is in God and that He has given to you when you believed in the Lord Jesus [John 3:16]. That’s how you got eternal life within you. In the second place he also talks about eternal life as a sphere of the life in which you live, a life sphere or a living environment that you have entered and in which you enjoy eternal life [John 17:3].
You can compare it with your natural life. You live, you move and you think. Those are expressions of the life that is within you. At the same time you also live somewhere. You may live in a city or in a rural area. That is your living environment.
Both aspects of eternal life show how full eternal life is. It is within you and you are living in it. It includes everything. Isn’t it awesome to partake of that? The next verses will demonstrate that to you.
‘The beginning’ John is speaking about is not the beginning of Genesis 1 [Gen 1:1], where we are brought back to the beginning of the world, the creation. It also does not refer to the beginning he is speaking about in the first verse of his Gospel. That beginning surpasses time, to what had no beginning, for it is said what “the beginning was” [John 1:1]. What John means to say here with ‘beginning’ is the manifestation of eternal life on earth through the life of the Lord Jesus. This ‘beginning’ therefore refers to the revelation of the Lord Jesus as Man on earth, as God revealed in the flesh.
The letter is a response to the error of the so-called ‘gnosticism’. This error is found with people who claim that they ‘know’ – the word ‘gnosis’ means ‘to know’ or ‘to be familiar with’. Gnosticism denies that the Lord Jesus really became flesh and it proclaims the error that He had only been on earth in a human appearance. In response to that John describes Him as true Man Whom he and his fellow apostles have truly seen and with Whom they had fellowship.
The response to all errors and deviation is Christ. In order to see Who He is, we ought to go back to the beginning, i.e. His coming and His life on earth. In Him ‘the Word of life’ has been manifested in all its perfection. Herewith John points back to the first verses of his Gospel: “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” [John 1:4]. The fact that John calls Him here ‘the Word of life’, means that in Him you can see what life is. There is no life outside of Him. That what is separated from Him has no life. He alone is life and indeed life in perfection.
John and the apostles – he writes about “we” – have “heard”, have “seen”, have “looked at” and have even “touched” the Lord Jesus. In the words that John uses you draw nearer and nearer to Him:
1. ‘To hear’ can happen from a great distance;
2. ‘to see’ is closer;
3. ‘to look at’ is very close to it;
4. ‘to touch with the hands’ is the closest you can get.
The life that John is presenting to you in this way is therefore not a mythical story, but a concrete reality that is perceivable with the senses. He speaks about a true Person and not about a fictional person (cf. [Luke 24:39]).
In your discovery of the Lord Jesus you, in a certain sense, also have gone through the four phases John mentions:
1. You first heard about Him and owing to that you came to faith. Faith comes by hearing [Rom 10:14].
2. That made your eyes got opened for Him and you began to see Him by faith.
3. That caused you to look at Him by exploring further in God’s Word Who He is.
4. The result is that you also have touched Him with your hands in a spiritual way: you have really experienced that He is there and that He is Who He says to be.
[Verse 2] If eternal life had not been revealed, you could never have known what it is. As it was with the Father, you did not know it. The awesome thing is, that it has been revealed. The eternal God has come out in His Son, the Lord Jesus, and He did that in a place of humiliation and contempt. In that way He can be heard, He can be seen and looked at and also be touched with the hands. He came out to introduce Himself to man. He came to bring you into the overwhelming fellowship with the Father. He manifested the eternal life.
What eternal life is, is seen in Him. He has shown it. He was born as a Baby, He, the eternal life, which was with the Father. Men were able to come that close to Him that they could even touch Him [Mark 5:27]. He came to give to you too that exalted place of fellowship and the full enjoyment of it. As a human being you could not perceive it, let alone enjoy it, if it had not been revealed to you by God’s Spirit [1Cor 2:9-10]. What John mentions here, is also written in Micah 5 [Mic 5:2]. There you read about the Lord Jesus as born in Bethlehem and at the same time as the eternal One.
Before we continue with the next section, I would like to make a general remark about ‘eternal life’. Eternal life is presented in two ways by John. In the first place he is talking about eternal life which is in God and that He has given to you when you believed in the Lord Jesus [John 3:16]. That’s how you got eternal life within you. In the second place he also talks about eternal life as a sphere of the life in which you live, a life sphere or a living environment that you have entered and in which you enjoy eternal life [John 17:3].
You can compare it with your natural life. You live, you move and you think. Those are expressions of the life that is within you. At the same time you also live somewhere. You may live in a city or in a rural area. That is your living environment.
Both aspects of eternal life show how full eternal life is. It is within you and you are living in it. It includes everything. Isn’t it awesome to partake of that? The next verses will demonstrate that to you.
Verses that belong to this explanation: 1-2
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; 2 (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;)
 | Author: Ger de Koning Rank: Author Posted on: 2023-09-26 Source: Title: 1 John Author: Ger de Koning Copyright: kingcomments.com Note General: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author or the publisher. |
Read the testimony of John: "That which we have seen, which we have heard, which we have looked upon with our eyes, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life."
But the very same apostles testify that they had both seen and "handled "Christ.
"That "says John, "which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life."
But what is that which, in a certain way, has been grasped by hand.
To God their beauty, to God their youth (is dedicated). With Him they live; with Him they converse; Him they "handle"
 | Author: Tertullian of Carthage Rank: Author AD: 220 |
"The evangelist, on the other hand, has not prefixed his name even to the catholic epistle; but without any circumlocution, he has commenced at once with the mystery of the divine revelation itself in these terms: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes."
 | Author: Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite AD: 550 |
Nativity, His passion, His resurrection, His conversation with His disciples, and His twofold advent,-the first in the humiliation of rejection, which is now past, and the second in the glory of royal power, which is yet in the future. What marvel is it, then, that John brings forward these several things
| Author: Caius Presbyter of Rome Posted on: 2022-11-13 |
Who is he that with hands does handle the Word, except because The Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us? Now this Word which was made flesh that it might be handled, began to be flesh, of the Virgin Mary: but not then began the Word, for the Apostle says, That which was from the beginning. See whether his epistle does not bear witness to his gospel, where ye lately heard, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. John 1:1 Perchance, Concerning the word of life one may take as a sort of expression concerning Christ, not the very body of Christ which was handled with hands. See what follows: And the Life was manifested. Christ therefore is the word of life. And whereby manifested? For it was from the beginning, only not manifested to men: but it was manifested to angels, who saw it and fed on it as their bread. But what says the Scripture? Man did eat angels' bread. Well then the Life was manifested in the flesh; because it exhibited in manifestation, that that which can be seen by the heart only, should be seen by the eyes also, that it might heal the hearts. For only by the heart is the Word seen: but the flesh is seen by the bodily eyes also. We had wherewith to see the flesh, but had not wherewith to see the Word: the Word was made flesh, which we might see, that so that in us might be healed wherewith we might see the Word.
 | Author: Augustine of Hippo Rank: Bishop AD: 430 |
The listed verse explanations of the individual persons have nothing to do with the explanations of the other persons. This also applies to the Bible translations.
