1 John 1:1-4

The Author's Purpose. The writer is concerned with the HYPERLINK "file:///Vord" of life. Life, which from the beginning had been contained in the Word, found at length in Jesus a manifestation to which John and others could bear witness (p. 745). He writes, therefore, so that his readers may share both his convictions and his experience, and in so doing may reflect his joy. The repeated we, though possibly simply a plural of majesty, may be a true plural (especially since I is used in 1 John 2:1; 1 John 2:7), John claiming to speak in the name of the whole circle of apostolic witnesses. Even so, however, the natural interpretation of heard, seen, beheld, handled, is that the writer himself had known Jesus in the flesh.

1 John 1:1. from the beginning (cf. Genesis 1:1; John 1:1): the phrase suggests the eternal existence of the Word whose manifestation in the historic Jesus was but a phase in a timeless life. the Word of life: in view of the Prologue in John 1 (cf. especially In him was life), this phrase is best taken as meaning the life-giving Word or Logos, and not (as Findlay and others) the revelation concerning life. Life (often with the epithet eternal) is one of the key-words of this epistle. It is a symbol of the highest good, life which is life indeed, and which, regarded as being in Christ, is meant to be ours through His historic manifestation (see 1 John 4:9; 1 John 5:11).

1 John 1:2. eternal life in the Johannine writings denotes quality of life rather than enduring life, though the latter idea is not absent, life which is spiritual being above the power of time to limit or destroy (cf. JThS, Oct. 1916).

1 John 1:3. fellowship with us: John's aim is that his readers should share not simply his convictions, but his experience of communion with God in and through Christ.