John 1:38-51

Second Section: 1:38-52. Beginnings of the Work of Jesus. Birth of Faith.

Testimony is the condition of faith. For faith is, at the outset, the acceptance of a divine fact on the foundation of testimony. But there is here only an external relation between the believer and the object of faith. In order to become living, faith must enter into direct contact with its object. In the case which occupies our thought, this contact demanded personal manifestations of Jesus, fitted to change believers into witnesses, and to form a direct connection between their hearts and Jesus. This is precisely what the following narratives describe to us. They are divided into two groups; the first comprising that which relates to the three earliest disciples, Andrew, John and Peter (John 1:38-43); the second, that which concerns Philip and Nathanael (John 1:44-51).