Testimony, Fellowship and Joy
1 John 1:1-4
The Epistle of John "defies outlining," says
one commentator. It is probably true. There are no great brush
strokes here, no three point sermon outlines. This is the
writing of a man deeply in love with God, with Christ and with
the church. As happens in deep love, the communication hits only
the most important points. So, like condensed cream, we shall
have to take it a bit at a time.
Overview
Authorship
Until the late 19th century the
authorship of the letters attributed to John was not in doubt.
The letters under his name were universally taught to be those
of John the Apostle. In the furious bustle of "higher criticism"
of the late 19th century, the critics introduced an unknown
"John the Elder," who was supposedly the author of these
letters. This theory is still around, and often the innocent
Christian is taken in by the sweeping assertions of
commentators. But it is not so. The universal testimony of the
early church - including Polycarp, who was John's disciple - is
that these are the letters of John, the Apostle, the disciple
whom Jesus loved.
Some doubt exists as to the date of writing.
Some scholars feel that, because there is writing about
sacrifice but no mention of the Temple being destroyed, John
must have written before AD 70. It cannot have been too much
before that, however. Other scholars hold it was closer to AD
100, for this would allow time for the Gnostic heresy to develop
- which John was clearly addressing in this letter. We cannot
say for sure (there are other pieces of evidence as well), but
it seems to me that the later date is more likely correct. This
is the writing of a mature Christian.
Watchman Nee has given us a fruitful
comparison of three Apostles which will tell us much about the
writing:
Peter is a fisherman - to whom Christ
gives the task of being the fisher of men. He is the
prototype preacher.
Paul is a tentmaker - to whom Christ gave
the task of building the church in its various locations.
John was called by Christ while he was
mending his nets - and thus he is the mender of things in
the church, the one who puts things right.
Purpose
John clearly shows us his purposes in writing
this letter:
First, that our joy may be full.
Next, that we may not sin.
Then, to warn us about those who would
deceive us.
And finally, that we may know we have
eternal life.
General Themes
While this letter is difficult to outline, it
is not hard to see the themes which drive it:
This letter is a guide to authentic
Christianity. It is designed to give us the tests which
will tell the real from the fake.
This letter is about fellowship -
fellowship with God the Father, fellowship with God the Son,
and fellowship with each other.
This letter is about truth - and
how to live it.
The Nature of Christ
We must begin at the beginning - with the
nature of Christ:
(1 John 1:1-4 NIV) 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. {2} The life appeared;
we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the
eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
{3} We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you
also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the
Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. {4} We write this to make
our joy complete.
It seems deep and mysterious. Perhaps the
Phillips translation will make it clearer:
We are writing to you about something which
has always existed yet which we ourselves actually heard and saw
with our own eyes: something which we had opportunity to observe
closely and even to hold in our hands, something of the Word of
life! For it was life which appeared before us: we saw
it, we are eye-witnesses of it, and are now writing to you about
it. It was the very life of all ages, the life that has always
existed with the Father, which actually became visible in person
to us. We repeat, we really saw and heard what we are now
writing to you about. We want you to be with us in this--in this
fellowship with the Father, and Jesus Christ his Son. We write
and tell you about it so that our joy may be complete.
From the beginning
As C. S. Lewis once put it, "All that is not
eternal is eternally out of date." It is most important for us
to make the distinction between creature and creator. There are
many good and wonderful things which God has given us in this
world, but these will all pass away. We need to know those
things which will never pass away. These are the things that do
not change:
If something is eternal, it is always
true. It cannot change; it is connected, somehow, to the
very character of God the Father, and therefore it must be
truth. So, if you seek for truth, you must seek the eternal.
It is always important (dare we
say "relevant?") For if it is eternal, then God intends it
to last forever - and thus must be important no matter what
time it is.
It is therefore the foundation of
all things temporal. If you wish to build something that
will last, the foundation must be right. If it is to last
for the rest of eternity, it must be built on eternal
foundations.
And what is this "eternal?" None other than
Christ Himself.
With the Father
John's Gospel amplifies this nicely, in that
Christ is both "with God" and "is God." But this particular
phrasing may be seen to tell us three things about Christ:
First, it is testimony to his divinity.
Next, Jesus is our model for our
relationship with god the Father (who better?) The key to
that relationship is, of course, Jesus' complete
dependence upon and obedience to his Father.
Their relationship with each other should
be the model for our relationship with each other. The key
to that relationship is love.
The Word
Jesus is "the Word." This is very deep stuff,
but we may safely point out two things:
He is the ultimate message from God to
mankind. If you want to know what God wants, you must look
to Jesus.
He is, personally, the source of all
truth and wisdom. If you want these things, you must look to
him.
Testimony
John does not see himself as a peer of Jesus
- far from it. He sees himself as a witness to Jesus - one who
testifies. We must see this as a chain reaction:
Testimony leads to fellowship
Fellowship leads to joy.
Let us examine, then, the testimony of the
Apostle.
Nature of his testimony
"Testimony" is almost a "legal only" word in
our day. Some translations don't use the word "testify;" they
use "announce" instead. If we could include both words we'd come
closer to the original meaning. John both announces the good
news to his hearers, and also serves in the capacity of a legal
witness to that good news. This can be seen in the nature of his
testimony: it's very physical. He tells us that he has seen, he
has heard, he has touched the very Word of Life. This may seem
strange to us today - but you need to consider the attacks that
were made, and were going to be made, upon the doctrine set
forth by John, the mender of nets and churches.
The attacks on the church
Almost all the attacks on the church come in
one of two forms: either they deny the divinity or humanity of
Christ, or the reality of the Resurrection.
Some (the Arian heresy) deny the
divinity of Christ. He is somehow subordinate to God, the
chief of the angels perhaps. This doctrine is taught by the
Mormons in our day (which is why they vilify Athanasius).
Some (the Gnostics) deny the
humanity of Christ. They start with the philosophical idea
that matter (physical reality) is inherently evil. Since God
is not the author of evil, he could not have created
physical reality (which is certainly a contradiction of
Scripture). Therefore Jesus (while God) could not be man,
for God could not be in an evil, physical body. Two flavors
of this heresy had appeared early:
Docetism claimed that Jesus
merely appeared to have a human body (from a Greek word
meaning appearance). He left no footprints when he
walked, they claimed. (Put your hands in my side,
Thomas).
Those following Cerinthus
held that Jesus was man - but Christ was not. Christ
entered Jesus at baptism, and left before the
Crucifixion.
You can see how readily the
Gnostics would deny the Resurrection - for if there is no
body, there need be no Resurrection. This is one form of the
attack.
John's letter is set forth against these
things. It proclaims forever his testimony that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of the Living God - God in the flesh.
Testimony leads to fellowship
One of my students once taught me this: "The
secret of true fellowship is utter and complete devotion to
Jesus Christ." It makes sense, for Christ is what we all have in
common. One old sailor defined fellowship as a bunch of fellows
on board a ship. Navy veterans know the pull of reunion with old
shipmates. It's true: we're all in the same boat, the good ship
Zion. We are the ones who share Christ; we share Him because of
the testimony of John and the other disciples - and having him
in common we have fellowship one with another.
What kind of fellowship?
Fellowship begins with "who?" We have
fellowship with:
God the Father. Think of this: because of
the Word brought to us, we have fellowship - something in
common - with God the Father! What could we possibly have in
common with God? How about the Holy Spirit?
God the Son. We also have fellowship with
Jesus, the Christ. What do we have in common with Him?
Perhaps our humanity, our life in the flesh - and the love
of God the Father!
Each other. As we have Christ in common,
we have fellowship one with another.
Which, taken all in all, leads to joy. This
is one purpose of John's writing: that our joy might be made
complete. It is joy because we celebrate what Jesus has done for
us, the great victory over sin and death. It is complete because
He is the Word, the final revelation of God to Man.
