Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 John 1:2
(For the life was manifested, and we have seen [it,] and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
2. For the life was manifested ] Better, And the life &c. It is S. John’s characteristic use of the simple conjunction. ‘Manifest’ ( ) also is one of S. John’s characteristic words, frequent in Gospel and Epistle and occurring twice in Revelation. Words and phrases which connect the Epistle with the Gospel, or either of these with the Apocalypse, should be carefully noted. ‘Was manifested’ means became such that He could be known by man. Note that the sentence does not begin with a relative, ‘which was manifested’, but that the noun is repeated. This repetition, carrying on a part of one sentence into the next for further elucidation and development, is quite in S. John’s style.
have seen ] This is the result of the manifestation: the Divine Life has become perceptible by the senses. In what way this took place is told us in 1Jn 4:2 and Joh 1:14.
and bear witness ] The simple connexion of these sentences by ‘and’ is also in S. John’s style; and ‘bear witness’ ( ) is another of his favourite words, occurring frequently in Gospel, Epistle, and Apocalypse. Testimony to the truth, with a view to producing belief in the Truth, on which eternal life depends, is one of his frequent thoughts. But the frequency of ‘bear witness’ in his writings is much obscured in A. V., where the same verb is sometimes rendered ‘bear record’ (1Jn 5:7), ‘give record’ (1Jn 5:10), and ‘testify’ (1Jn 4:14, 1Jn 5:9), and so also in the Gospel and the Revelation. Similarly the substantive ‘witness’ ( ) is sometimes translated ‘record’ (1Jn 5:10-11) and sometimes ‘testimony’. The R.V. in this respect has made great improvements. Comp. ‘This Jesus did God raise up, whereof (or, of whom) we all are witnesses ’ (Act 2:32).
and shew unto you ] Better, and declare unto you: it is the same verb as occurs in the next verse; rare in S. John (Joh 16:25, but not Joh 4:51 or Joh 20:18) but frequent in S. Luke. In this parenthetical verse, as in the main sentence of 1Jn 1:1 ; 1Jn 1:3, the Apostle emphatically reiterates that what he has to communicate is the result of his own personal experience. ‘He that hath seen hath borne witness, and his witness is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye also may believe’ (Joh 19:35: comp. Joh 20:30-31, Joh 21:24).
that eternal life ] Rather, the life, the eternal ( life). “The repetition of the article brings forward separately and distinctly the two notions of life and eternity” (Jelf). It is well known that the translators of 1611 did not perfectly understand the Greek article. Sometimes they ignore it, sometimes they insert it unwarrantably, sometimes (as here and 1Jn 5:18) they exaggerate it by turning it into a demonstrative pronoun. Comp. ‘ that Prophet’, ‘ that Christ’, ‘ that bread’ (Joh 1:21; Joh 1:25; Joh 6:14; Joh 6:48; Joh 6:69; Joh 7:40). For ‘the Life’ as a name for Christ comp. ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life’: ‘I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life’ (Joh 11:25; Joh 14:6). ‘Eternal life’ is another of S. John’s characteristic phrases, a fact somewhat obliterated in A.V. by the Greek phrase being often rendered ‘everlasting life’ or ‘life everlasting’. ‘Eternal’ is better than ‘everlasting’, although in popular language the two words are synonymous. S. John’s ‘eternal life’ has nothing to do with time, but depends on our relation to Jesus Christ. S. John tells us over and over again that eternal life can be possessed in this world (1Jn 5:11; 1Jn 5:13; 1Jn 5:20, 1Jn 3:15: see on Joh 3:36; Joh 5:24; Joh 6:47). He never applies ‘eternal’ ( ) to anything but life, excepting in Rev 14:6, where he speaks of an ‘eternal gospel’.
which was with the Father ] Or, which indeed was with the Father: it is not the simple but compound relative, denoting that what follows is a special attribute; ‘which was such as to be with the Father’. For the ‘was’ see on 1Jn 1:1. ‘With the Father’ is exactly parallel to ‘with God’ in Joh 1:1. It is anticipated in the passage on the Divine Wisdom; ‘Then I was by Him as one brought up with Him’ (Pro 8:30). It indicates the distinct Personality of ‘the Life’. Had the Apostle written ‘which was in God’, we might have thought that he meant a mere attribute of God. ‘With the Father’ is apud Patrem, ‘face to face’ or ‘at home with the Father’. Comp. ‘to tarry a while with you’ (1Co 16:7); ‘when we were with you’ (1Th 3:4); ‘whom I would fain have kept with me’ (Phm 1:13).
was manifested unto us ] Repeated from the beginning of the verse. In both cases we have a change from the imperfect tense (of the continuous preexistence of Christ) to the aorist (of the comparatively momentary manifestation). But S. John’s repetitions generally carry us a step further. The manifestation would be little to us, if we had no share in it. But that Being who was from all eternity with the Father, has been made known, and made known to us.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For the life was manifested – Was made manifest or visible unto us. He who was the life was made known to people by the incarnation. He appeared among people so that they could see him and hear him. Though originally with God, and dwelling with him, Joh 1:1-2, yet he came forth and appeared among people. Compare the Rom 1:3 note; 1Ti 3:16 note. He is the great source of all life, and he appeared on the earth, and we had an opportunity of seeing and knowing what he was.
And we have seen it – This repetition, or turning over the thought, is designed to express the idea with emphasis, and is much in the manner of John. See Joh 1:1-3. He is particularly desirous of impressing on them the thought that he had been a personal witness of what the Saviour was, having had every opportunity of knowing it from long and familiar contact with him.
And bear witness – We testify in regard to it. John was satisfied that his own character was known to be such that credit would be given to what he said. He felt that he was known to be a man of truth, and hence he never doubts that faith would be put in all his statements. See Joh 19:35; Joh 21:24; Rev 1:2; 3Jo 1:12.
And shew unto you that eternal life – That is, we declare unto you what that life was – what was the nature and rank of him who was the life, and how he appeared when on earth. He here attributes eternity to the Son of God – implying that he had always been with the Father.
Which was with the Father – Always before the manifestation on the earth. See Joh 1:1. The word was with God. This passage demonstrates the pre-existence of the Son of God, and proves that he was eternal. Before he was manifested on earth he had an existence to which the word life could be applied, and that was eternal. He is the Author of eternal life to us.
And was manifested unto us – In the flesh; as a man. He who was the life appeared unto people. The idea of John evidently is,
(1)That the Being here referred to was forever with God;
(2)That it was proper before the incarnation that the word life should be given to him as descriptive of his nature;
(3)That there was a manifestation of him who was thus called life, on earth; that he appeared among people; that he had a real existence here, and not a merely assumed appearance; and,
(4)That the true characteristics of this incarnate Being could be borne testimony to by those who had seen him, and who had been long with him. This second verse should be regarded as a parenthesis.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Jn 1:2
For the life was manifested
Christ the manifestation of the eternal
1.
We may think of Christ as the manifestation of that eternal life whence has come all that has ever been–all creation, all nature, all time, all history; of that mysterious life which ever beats at the heart of the universe, which ever feeds its unfailing springs.
2. Christ is the manifestation of the eternal, in the extent to which He has brought more fully to light, and more practically established, the spiritual kingdom of likeness to God, of fellowship with God, for which all hearts are intended and required. He at once so guaranteed and illustrated its existence and meaning, as everywhere to lift this spiritual kingdom to a higher plane. He made it far more possible and certain than any other teacher or messenger from God had ever desired or conceived. He brought it within the reach not alone of the chiefest and the best, but also of the commonest and the lowest. He showed it to be the proper life of every man–showed that purity, righteousness, justice, mercy, patience, love, are as essential and necessary to every man as they are to God; that the true and blessed life for man means supremely this–after His own example, fellowship with God, likeness to God, sonship to God.
3. Christ manifested the eternal, not alone by the transcendent excellence and spiritual elevation of His life, but also by the power which He displayed of showing the inherent oneness of material and moral forces–in other words, of proving the rightful control of spirit over matter. What to us may look like signs or wonders or unusual phenomena, to Him were but natural facts, natural revelations or efforts of the deep, underlying oneness between things outward and inward, between all nature and life.
4. Christ manifested the eternal by revealing to us the afterlife, the future world. Of the two, that world seemed to Him even more real than this. He spoke of it with even the same deep intensity, and yet with the same calm, self-evident truthfulness as He did of the existence, and name, and character, and purpose of His Father. To Him the future world, the immortal life, were but the natural outcome of the existence and kingdom and purpose of His Father. To Him, because God is, and ever will be, man, His child, will continue to be as living, as personal as He. Jesus, knowing Himself to be the outcome, the evidence, the gift of all spiritual and eternal realities, could look beyond the seeming defeat and dread suffering of His last days, beyond the bitterness and sting of His own death, beyond the gloom and corruption of His own grave, to an existence for Himself that should be as changeless and lasting as the Fathers, whose presence and truth and love He declared; nay, more–He could look beyond all the failure, pain, and death with which any of His brothers or sisters on earth should have to struggle, or to which they should succumb, and could give to them the offer, the assurance, the possession of a life as spiritual, as blessed, as immortal as His own. (J. T. Stannard.)
The only life worth living
What is the conception that St. John had of the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ? In his gospel he looks upon it as the manifestation of God: The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth. But in the Epistle he looks upon the Incarnation as the manifestation of life. He here declares the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was toward the Father–for so it literally should be–which was Fatherward and was manifested unto us. Now, it is no uncommon thing for a young man setting out in life to set some high ideal before him. You can understand a young man in business setting before him the ideal of a George Peabody or a George Moore. It is not so much the success the man has achieved, as the way in which he spent the well-earned wealth, which fires the ambition of the youth. But what was St. Johns ideal? The Lord Jesus Christ. There was the life. The life was manifested, and we have seen it. It is a question often asked, Is life worth living? And that depends very much upon the kind of life you mean to live. If you mean a life of selfishness and self-pleasing, the answer must be distinctly, No! Or a life of worldliness or luxury? No! A life of avarice and covetousness? No! For these kinds of lives are very disappointing now, and the issue of them hereafter is terrible to contemplate. If you think of life simply as amassing wealth, if you think of life simply as acquiring esteem, as winning pleasure, you have not seen life. But the life has been manifested, the only life worth living, and he points you back to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what were the characteristics of the life which was thus manifested to us? It was a life Fatherward, that was the life, that eternal life, which was toward the Father. There are some who live a life towards the world; their whole inspiration is drawn from the world; their whole pleasure is found in the world. You have a very striking picture of such a life in Eze 17:6, where Israel is likened unto a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him. Towards whom? Toward the great Assyrian power, and so it became a vine, and brought forth branches and shot forth sprigs. Instead of seeking all their strength from God, they turned their roots towards Assyria, and tried to draw strength from Assyria. Now, there are a great number of people living who have these earthward lives, their roots turning towards the world–drawing in all their strength, all their sustenance, all their pleasure from the world. St. John says: Life which was manifested was not towards the world, it was towards the Father. This implies absolute obedience. The work that my Father hath given me to do, shall I not do it? This life implies perfect trust. Your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him. This life implies perfect, complete resignation. Father, not My will, but Thine be done. This life implies the most blessed intercourse. Our Lord Jesus Christ is able to go out on the mountainside and continue all night in prayer to God. Why? Because God was His Father. This life Fatherward means also love to the brethren, for if God is our Father we must love one another. It is not our Fathers will that one of these little ones should perish. This life Fatherward implies ambition for the Fathers glory. We must let our light so shine before men that they may glorify our Father which is in heaven. And this life Fatherward contains the blessed hope of a reunion. I go to My Father. If ye loved Me ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father. So you see how, during all our Lord Jesus Christs life, it was a life Father-wards. And St. John says, We have seen it. Oh, it is a different life to what we see in the world. If you look at a man living towards the world, what a life of fear it is, what a life of terror: he is afraid lest he should break the customs of the world; he is afraid lest he should endure obloquy from the world. A life which is lived towards the world is always a slavish life, because it must be in entire accord with the dictates of worldly policy, But a life towards the Father is without fear. Perfect love casteth out fear. Now St. John says, We have seen that life; we walked with Him three and a half years, and we saw all through His life this was His great characteristic–What would my Father wish Me to do? And he goes on to say, Not only did we see it, but we bear witness of it–that is to say, We have tried to follow it ourselves; and now we want to tell you that there is no life worth living compared with this; that we can bear witness to it, and have learned something of what it means. More than that, we come to tell you about it, because we want you to have fellowship in this life. We have seen this life towards the Father; we have tasted it, and can bear witness that it is the sweetest life, that it is the purest life, that it is the life most worth living, and now we want you to have fellowship with us. And one thing more he goes on to say: And this is eternal life. It is life not only on the earth here, but in heaven. (E. A. Stuart, M. A.)
Christ the life
Christ, God-man, Mediator, is the life, that eternal life, in respect of His threefold offices of king, priest, and prophet. As prophet, He is the life by way of revelation, discovering this eternal life to us; as priest, by way of impetration; securing this eternal life for us; as king, by way of collation, conferring this eternal life on us. And as the fulness of water is dispensed by the sea to the earth, and the fulness of light is communicated by the sun to the air, and the fulness of corn was divided by Joseph among the people, so the fulness of grace and glory, of life, even eternal life, is conveyed by Christ to His Church, and therefore very justly doth this character belong to Him. And now, what should this consideration teach us?
1. To bewail our sad condition whilst we are without Christ; for if Christ be the life, all that know Him not, or believe not in Him, must needs be in a state of death and damnation.
2. To seek after this life, because it is eternal, and to seek it by union with Christ, who is the life.
3. To set an high value upon Christ, and give Him the glory of this great mercy, even eternal life. (N. Hardy, D. D.)
The incarnate life
I. The person spoken of, the titles given Him, and what is here said concerning Him. For the life was manifested–that Eternal Life which was with the Father.
1. It is Christ, God-Man, is the Person spoken of.
2. I will next glance at the titles given Him in the words before us. He is entitled, The Life. He is so most emphatically. He is expressly called the living God by the apostle (Heb 3:12). He is life essentially, He is life communicatively, He is life spiritually, He is life eternally. He is the life of the whole creation, the life of grace, the life of glory. And He is all this as God-Man, the Lord, the Creator, the Proprietor of every creature. He is Eternal Life. His life never decays. He lives in all generations, and His Name and memorial are from everlasting to everlasting. Our spiritual and eternal life cometh from Christ only. He is the fountain of it. The knowledge of Him is our eternal life. Communion with Him is the means whereby the blessedness contained in the knowledge of Him is imparted to us and enjoyed by us.
II. The apostles having seen this great sight, God incarnate. We have seen it, or rather Him. We have seen Him as manifested in the flesh. We have seen and bear witness, and show the truth of this in our ministry of the gospel unto you. To have seen Christ, God manifest in the flesh, must have been a great sight. To retain the true sense and apprehension of what they saw in Him, and heard and received from Him, must have been to them life everlasting. Their whole ministry was filled up with giving a simple narrative of the Person, Incarnation, Life and Actions, Crucifixion, Death, Burial, Resurrection, Ascension and Exaltation of the Lord Jesus. This they were called to bear their immediate testimony unto. This forms the foundation of the four Gospels. And it is by the spiritual apprehension of Christ, as set forth therein, we live. Nor must the history, nor the mystery of Christ be rejected, nor neglected by us. The one being the foundation of the other, therefore the one must be of as great importance as the other.
III. What the apostles declared of Him, which was what they knew, from the Divine knowledge which they had of Him, that He was that Eternal Life which was with the Father. This must be the fruit of Divine revelation and inspiration: by which, their minds being renewed by the Holy Ghost, they were, under His further illumination, enabled to receive true apprehensions of the Person, Incarnation, Mission and Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ into their minds. They found real blessedness in the subject–in declaring the same, in bearing their witness and testimony to the truth thereof, in showing forth the eternity, the dignity, the personal glories of their, and our, Lord Jesus Christ.
IV. This was a very particular part of the witness which they dare of Him–that He was manifested unto them. A very singular favour. Such as I conceive we can form no adequate ideas of. How should we? That age is past. It will never return. All the Lords ministers and people, and that to the end of time, will be witnesses for Him, and show forth the truths of His gospel, some in a greater, some in a less measure and degree, yet not in the same way, nor to answer the same end, for which the apostles were appointed. (S. E. Pierce.)
The manifested life
This chapter, this verse, concerning the life which was manifested, is the record of St. Johns whole Christian experience given in the last years of his life; it is St. Johns full thought, his mature, final testimony to the Christ. Think of the phrase which he uses–the word of life. A word is a means of expression, a way of disclosing some secret thought, a manifestation of mind to mind. The word of life, then, is the expression of life, the means of making the life known, the revelation of its nature. And the word, or revealing, of life, of which John speaks, was not a writing from heaven, not even a voice becoming articulate from out the skies; it was the life manifested in a person, it was the personal Word of God; it was the eternal life, the life with the Father, making itself known in the person of the Lord. The life–what is it? What is its nature? What has it been from the beginning? We have seen and heard, says John, what it is, what it has been from the beginning–it is such a life as we have seen Christ live; He is its spoken word, He is its manifestation; we declare unto you that which we have seen and heard. So much, then, in general as to what this text meant to John himself. Following the leading of St. Johns experience of the Christ in this passage, let us think, in the second place, what it may mean to us. John saw the life in its personal manifestation in the Christ; we see it in its increasing spiritual attraction and universal beneficence. Let us think more closely what this eternal life, which was with the Father, may be, the life from the beginning, concerning the personal word of which St. John bore witness, and of whose continuous and increasing power the world, becoming Christian, witnesses. The word life, which St. John uses, is still, even in its lowest physical manifestations, the unexplained word of our science. Our best definitions of life are but learned words thrown out into the darkness. Our clearest cut conceptions of the nature of living matter run out into the indefinite and the unimaginable. The life that awakens from the wintry sleep, that gives colour and grace to the tops of the elm trees which we have seen for months as dark lines etched against the sky; the life that turns the prose of the dull landscape into the poetry of fresh meadows and waving forests; the life with which this earth has been for ages richly endowed, and whose abundant energy fails not nor grows dim with the centuries; it is a manifestation of energy which even more directly than other forms of force seems to be the touch thrilling through nature of the living God! And this life which we behold manifested in the world around us, we know more intimately in our own self-consciousness. For this is the additional marvel, this the wonder of it all–that the life which was from the beginning, which stirs in the least portion of living matter, at last feels itself throbbing in our veins, and grows conscious of its own power in our wills, and rises to its perfection of spirit in the love of our human hearts. And beyond our knowledge of personal life in us, according to the witness of the apostles, and all the worlds subsequent spiritual verification of the truth of their gospel, another even higher, richer manifestation has been given of the life which was from the beginning. The life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, has summed up all its revelations, completed its ages of working, carried its whole manifestation to utmost perfection in the word of life, in Him who at last, standing upon this earth, could say, I am the life of the world! I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it abundantly. Thus the world leads at last to the perfect man, and the perfect man is Gods explanation of the world. Thus the manifested life of the world reveals its eternal purpose and end. It is from the Father, and it goes to the Father. But from these thoughts which carry us far and deep, let me turn to some nearer, perhaps plainer, applications of our Scripture. One immediately following is this: it is of the utmost practical importance for us to be impressed with the fact that the life which we may live is the sacred thing. Death is not the supreme power, but the life is. Death is not the end, but the new beginning of life. It was not possible for the Holy One to see corruption. Henceforth life shall be strong and pure, sacred as the true word of the living God, and full of promise as of love, because Christ has shown how life may be lived and death over come; and Christ is risen as the firstfruits of the resurrection. The one further application which I would now make of this most fruitful subject is this: The one single object of all the Scriptures, of the whole gospel, of all true preaching of it, is to bring us into fellowship with the life, even that life which from the beginning was with the Father, and which has been lived perfectly in the Son, and which is glorified in Him and all who live with Him. (N. Smyth, D. D.)
The manifested life
Like draws to like, is mans maxim, and mans principle of action. But such is not the heavenly law. The principle of Divine action, the regulating power of the infinite heart above, is the reverse of this. The law of grace is what man would call the law of unfitness, and unworthiness, and unlikeness. Well for us that it is so! What would have been our hope had it been otherwise? In Gods dealings with man, it is the unlike that we see uniting. What more dissimilar than heaven and earth? yet they have come together! The life has been manifested! This is our gospel. It is not the life is, but the life has come forth from its eternal mystery. The life has been manifested! What has given it opportunity to come forth? Death! It is not life that has attracted life, nor light that has given occasion for the outshining of light. Thus God, the God of all grace, revealed to us the breadth and length of His infinite love. As it needs darkness to bring out the glory of the starry heavens, so it needed death to show forth the life–life such as had not been possessed before, nor could be, by man unfallen, or upon a sinless earth. Hence the deep significance of the Lords words (Joh 10:10). Thus and then the life entered! Not like a monarch, to take possession of a fitting palace; but like a physician, to take possession of an hospital; like spring, coming to take possession of a wintry earth; like dayspring, coming to take possession of the darkened skies. What an entrance! Not invited by kindred life, still lingering among men; but uninvited, nay, repelled. It is the absence of life here that is the cause of its manifestation from on high. The life was manifested! And we have seen it! Life in the realms of the dead; light in the land of darkness; God manifest in flesh: this is what our eyes have seen. Yes; at the cradle, and the cross, and the tomb, the life has been manifested! Blessed manifestation for us, the dead in sin! The life has come; and because He liveth, we shall live also; for he that hath the Son hath life. Surely there is no lack of life for us. But what if it be rejected and despised? Here is life for you; but is it in you? Here is life come down to earth; but has it quickened you? Life died that death might live. Immortality went down into the tomb, to bring up thence for us immortality and incorruption. Life for the dead! This is our message to the sons of men. This is our gospel; a gospel for the dead, not for the living. It is the gospel of the manifested life. You say, perhaps, that it is just your state of death that makes this no gospel to you. Your consciousness of death leads to despondency. Ah! were you not so dead you would not need the life, and would present fewer attractions, as well as fewer necessities, to the living One; there would be less in you to call out the life. The danger lies, not in your being too dead, but in your not knowing how thoroughly dead you are. So long as there is the unconsciousness of death, there is a barrier, a non-conducting medium between you and the Life. The Holy Spirit, in revealing to you your true condition of utter death, is throwing down that barrier, and substituting a conducting for a non-conducting medium. This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. His Son is the manifested life, the resurrection and the life, and he that hath the Son hath life. What have you found in it? Have you read in it the love of God? Have you obtained from it the life of your soul? But the manifestation of this Life is not yet over. The Life has, as it were, retired for a season, and gone within the veil; but this same Jesus, who came the first time, as the Life, shall come, as such, the second time also; and that day of His manifestation shall be the day of ours as well. The resurrection unto life shall be the completion of the great manifestation. As His first coming was its alpha, or beginning, so shall His second coming be its omega, or end. He comes to give His Church the full benefit of the manifested life. (H. Boxcar, D. D.)
The manifested life to be observed
I know a great scientific man whose greatest cause of regret is that on one occasion there were brought under his observation certain phenomena of human disease which might have enabled him to anticipate a great discovery which was made in Germany in late years. He had the very facts under his eye, and he did not notice them. What would be our feeling if we should find that in a region more important than any with which science is concerned, we had had under our eye, in the intelligible revelation of Jesus Christ, a disclosure of the character of God, and from mere lack of moral observation, had refused to take notice of it? (Canon Gore, M. A.)
The eternal life manifested
His unlikeness to this world implies His likeness to another world. One evening you find among the reeds of your lake an unknown bird, whose broad breast and powerful pinions are not meant for this inland scene. It is resting midway between two oceans, and by tomorrow will have gone. Does not that bird prove the ocean it left? does it not prove the ocean whither it has flown? Jesus, knowing that He was come from God, and went to God, is the revelation and confirmation of ageless life. (John Watson, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. For the Life was manifested] The Lord Jesus, who is the creator of all things, and the fountain of life to all sentient and intellectual beings, and from whom eternal life and happiness come, was manifested in the flesh, and we have seen him, and in consequence bear witness to him as the fountain and author of eternal life; for he who was from eternity with the Father was manifested unto us his apostles, and to the whole of the Jewish nation, and preached that doctrine of eternal life which I have before delivered to the world in my gospel, and which I now farther confirm by this epistle.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He interrupts the stream of his discourse by this seasonable parenthesis, while he therein gives an account how the Word of life, the life, that eternal life, ( already noted to be here all one, and chiefly to mean the Son of God), which being
with the Father must be to us invisible, came to be so sensibly known to mortal men on earth; which he doth by telling us he
was manifested; and that was sufficiently done, both who he was, and what he designed, in his partaking with us of flesh and blood, and being found in fashion as a man, whereby he subjected himself to the notice of our senses; and was hereupon said to have been manifested in the flesh, 1Jo 3:5; 1Ti 3:16; the glory of his Divinity also shining forth most conspicuously in his God-like conversation, and wonderful works, through this veil, and confirming the truth of his heavenly doctrine, which more distinctly declared both that it was the Son of God who was come down into this wretched world of ours, and what the kind design was of his descent hither. So that what here the apostle says more briefly, that he was manifested, well admits the larger account which he gives of it in his Gospel, Joh 1:14; And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth. Whereupon (as he adds) he bears witness, and shows forth what he had seen so manifested, as it belonged to his apostolical office to do.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. the lifeJesus, “theWord of life.”
was manifestedwho hadpreviously been “with the Father.”
showTranslate as in1Jo 1:3, “declare”(compare 1Jo 1:5). Declareis the general term; write is the particular (1Jo1:4).
that eternal lifeGreek,“the life which is eternal.” As the Epistle begins, so itends with “eternal life,” which we shall ever enjoy with,and in, Him who is “the life eternal.”
whichGreek,“the which.” the before-mentioned (1Jo1:1) life which was with the Father “from thebeginning” (compare Joh 1:1).This proves the distinctness of the First and Second Persons in theone Godhead.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the life was manifested,…. That is, the Word of life, who is life itself, the fountain of life, having it as God, in and of himself, without derivation from, and independent of another, originally and eternally, and who is the cause, author, and giver of life in every sense to others; this living God, who from all eternity was invisible, was in the fulness of time manifested in human nature; see Joh 1:14.
And we have seen [it]; as before with the eyes of their bodies:
and bear witness; for they were both eye and ear witnesses of the Word, and of the truth of his incarnation, and bore a faithful record to his proper deity, and real humanity:
and show unto you that eternal life; Jesus Christ, the true God, and eternal life, as in 1Jo 5:20; so called, because he has everlasting life in himself; as he is the living God, and because he has eternal life for all his people; not only the purpose and promise of it are in him, but the thing itself; and it is in his power and gift to bestow it on all the Father hath given to him, and to them he does give it. The beginning of it lies in the knowledge of him, and the consummation of it will be in the lasting vision and enjoyment of him:
which was with the Father; that is, which life, eternal life, and Word of life, was from the beginning, or from all eternity with God the Father; which phrase is expressive of the eternal existence of Christ, as the Word and Son of God, with his Father, his relation to him, his oneness in nature, and equality with him, and his personal distinction from him; see Joh 1:1;
and was manifested unto us; in human nature, as before observed, and that to the apostles, as he was not to the patriarchs and prophets; for though they saw him in promise, in prophecy, in type, and figure, and he sometimes appeared in an human form for a short time to them, yet they did not see him incarnate, in actual union with human nature; nor had they him dwelling among them, and conversing with them, as the apostles had; this was an happiness peculiar to them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Was manifested (). First aorist passive indicative of , to make known what already exists, whether invisible (B. Weiss) or visible, “intellectual or sensible” (Brooke). In Col 3:4 Paul employs it of the second coming of Christ. Verse 2 here is an important parenthesis, a mark of John’s style as in Joh 1:15. By the parenthesis John heaps reassurance upon his previous statement of the reality of the Incarnation by the use of (as in verse 1) with the assertion of the validity of his “witness” () and “message” (), both present active indicatives (literary plurals), being the public proclamation of the great news (Joh 16:25).
The life, the eternal life ( ). Taking up of verse 1, John defines the term by the adjective , used 71 times in the N.T., 44 times with and 23 in John’s Gospel and Epistles (only so used in these books by John). Here lt means the divine life which the Logos was and is (John 1:4; 1John 1:1).
Which (). Qualitative relative, “which very life.”
Was with the Father ( ). Not , but , and with the accusative of intimate fellowship, precisely as in Joh 1:1 (was with God). Then John closes the parenthesis by repeating .
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
This verse is parenthetical. Compare, for similar interruptions of the construction, ver. 3, Joh 1:14, Joh 3:16, 31; Joh 19:35.
And [] . See on Joh 1:10; Joh 8:20.
The Life [ ] . The Word Himself who is the Life. 59 Compare Joh 14:6; Joh 5:26; 1Jo 5:11, 12. Life expresses the nature of the Word (Joh 1:4). The phrase, the Life, besides being equivalent to the Word, also indicates, like the Truth and the Light, an aspect of His being.
Was manifested [] . See on Joh 21:1. Corresponding with the Word was made flesh (Joh 1:14). The two phrases, however, present different aspects of the same truth. The Word became flesh, contemplates simply the historic fact of incarnation. The life was manifested, sets forth the unfolding of that fact in the various operations of life. The one denotes the objective process of the incarnation as such, the other the result of that process as related to human capacity of receiving and understanding it. “The reality of the incarnation would be undeclared if it were said, ‘The Life became flesh. ‘ The manifestation of the Life was a consequence of the incarnation of the Word, but it is not coextensive with it” (Westcott). Have seen – bear witness – shew. Three ideas in the apostolic message : experience, testimony, announcement.
Bear witness. See on Joh 1:7.
Shew [] Better, as Rev., declare. See on Joh 16:25. So here. The message comes from [] God.
That eternal life [ ] . A particularly faulty translation, since it utterly fails to express the development of the idea of life, which is distinctly contemplated by the original. Render, as Rev., the life, the eternal life; or the life, even the eternal life. For a similar repetition of the article compare 1Jo 2:8; 1Jo 4:9; 2 John 11. This particular phrase occurs only here and 1Jo 2:25. John uses zwh aijwniov eternal life, and hJ aijwniov zwh the eternal life, the former expressing the general conception of life eternal, and the latter eternal life as the special gift of Christ. Aijwniov eternal, describes the life in its quality of not being measured by time, a larger idea than that of mere duration.
Which [] . Not the simple relative h which, but defining the quality of the life, and having at the same time a kind of confirmatory and explanatory force of the word eternal : seeing that it was a life divine in its nature – “with the Father” – and therefore independent of temporal conditions.
With the Father [ ] . See on with God (Joh 1:1). In living, active relation and communion with the Father. “The preposition of motion with the verb of repose involves eternity of relation with activity and life” (Coleridge). The life eternally tended to the Father, even as it emanated from Him. It came forth from Him and was manifested to men, but to the end that it might take men into itself and unite them with the Father. The manifestation of life to men was a revelation of life, as, first of all and beyond all, centering in God. Hence, though life, abstractly, returns to God, as it proceeds from God, it returns bearing the redeemed world in its bosom. The complete divine ideal of life includes impartation, but impartation with a view to the practical development of all that receives it with reference to God as its vivifying, impelling, regulating, and inspiring center.
The Father. See on Joh 12:26. The title “the Father” occurs rarely in the Synoptists, and always with reference to the Son. In Paul only thrice (Rom 6:4; 1Co 8:6; Eph 2:18). Nowhere in Peter, James, Jude, or Revelation. Frequent in John’s Gospel and Epistles, and in the latter, uniformly. 60
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For the life was manifested’ – the term (Greek he zoe) means the life of God, the Word -“Was manifested” means made to shine or break forth – God the Father shined forth into humanity in the person and through the flesh of Jesus Christ Rom 16:25-26; 1Ti 3:16.
2) “And we have seen it, and bear witness,” John declares that in Jesus he and the other early apostles and disciples had seen The Life of God Divine and sinless life – shine forth or break forth. Heb 1:2-3.
3) “And shew unto you that eternal life” Even to you and me, persons addressed by John, eternal life, God life is to be recognized. 1Jn 2:25; Joh 14:9.
4) “Which was with the Father, ‘ The kind of life innate (Eternal life) in God the Father, was also in Jesus Christ the Son, and is given to every believer, when he believes. Joh 5:26 declares that “as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.” And this eternal life He gives to every Child of His. Joh 10:27-30; Joh 5:24.
5) “And was manifested unto us” John asserts That supernatural, eternal, divine life was inherent – self existent in God the Father, manifested or shined forth in Jesus Christ, and had shined forth upon, unto, and within the life and experiences of the apostles and disciples. The testamentary and necessary interference therefore indicates, that to us this eternal life may too be manifested, experimentally, Joh 1:1-2; Joh 1:4; Joh 1:9; Mat 5:15-16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
2 For (or, and) the life was manifested The copulative is explanatory, as though he had said, “We testify of the vivifying Word, as life has been manifested.” The sense may at the same time be twofold, that Christ, who is life and the fountain of life, has been manifested, or, that life has been openly offered to us in Christ. The latter, indeed, necessarily follows from the former. Yet as to the meaning, the two things differ, as cause and effect. When he repeats, We shew, or announce eternal life, he speaks, I have no doubt, of the effect, even that he announces that life is obtained for us in Christ.
We hence learn, that when Christ is preached to us, the kingdom of heaven is opened to us, so that being raised from death we may live the life of God.
Which was with the Father. This is true, not only from the time when the world was formed, but also from eternity, for he was always God, the fountain of life; and the power and the faculty of vivifying was possessed by his eternal wisdom: but he did not actually exercise it before the creation of the world, and from the time when God began to exhibit the Word, that power which before was hid, diffused itself over all created things. Some manifestation had already been made; the Apostle had another thing in view, that is, that life was then at length manifested in Christ, when he in our flesh completed the work of redemption. For though the fathers were even under the law associates and partakers of the same life, yet we know that they were shut up under the hope that was to be revealed. It was necessary for them to seek life from the death and resurrection of Christ; but the event was not only far remote from their eyes, but also hid from their minds. They depended, then, on the hope of revelation, which at length in due time followed. They could not, indeed, have obtained life, except it was in some way manifested to them; but the difference between us and them is, that we hold him already revealed as it were in our hands, whom they sought obscurely promised to them in types.
But the object of the Apostle is, to remove the idea of novelty, which might have lessened the dignity of the Gospel; he therefore says, that life had not now at length began to be, though it had but lately appeared, for it was always with the Father.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
2. For St. John interrupts himself with this parenthesis to guard us against supposing, for a moment, that his material phrases overlook the true eternal spiritual nature of Christ. He holds that the apostles handled that eternal Word, existing even from the beginning, when they touched his bodily person. Word of life, I say, for that essential life which he originally was became corporeally realized in him to whom we bear witness.
That eternal life A life which has neither beginning of existence nor end. And this light was so manifested that we saw it and touched it as a human person.
With the Father Just as in Joh 1:1, the “Word” was “with God.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Jn 1:2. For the life was manifested Jesus Christ is here called the Life, not only as having life in himself, but as the author of eternal life, or that great and glorious Person, who revealed,and will bestow, that immortal glory and felicity, which was in former ages comparatively concealed in the breast or council of Deity; and which the Lord Jesus Christ so clearly manifested unto the apostles, and brought to light in the gospel. See Joh 1:4; Joh 11:25; Joh 14:6 and 1Jn 5:11-12; 1Jn 5:20. All this second verse ought evidently to be read in a parenthesis.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Jn 1:2 . Without bringing to an end the thought begun in 1Jn 1:1 , from the exact continuation of which he has already digressed in . ., the apostle in this verse expresses the double thought, that the life was manifested, and that this eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested, has been seen and is declared by him; so that in this both and , how the former, namely, could have been the subject of sensuous perception, find their more particular determination. This whole verse is of course parenthetical; but that it is not regarded by John as mere parenthesis (contrary to Dsterdieck) is clear, partly from the connecting , and partly from this, that in 1Jn 1:3 it is not , but only . . ., that is resumed, while the former is fully dealt with in this verse.
] is not put for , but is copulative, “not dis junctive, but con junctive” (Lcke); the thought with which it is connected is that which lies in , that the life, before it became subject of perception, was, as it is afterwards put, . [36]
] Instead of a relative, the noun is repeated, as is peculiar to the diction of John; instead of , because the emphasis, as has been already remarked, is on , is analogous to Gospel of Joh 1:4 , where also, after it is said of the : , it is not , but , that is the subject of the following sentence. [37] It is plainly incorrect to understand by the doctrina de felicitate nova = evangelium (Semler), or, with others: the felicitas of believers; but neither is S. G. Lange’s explanation, according to which = “auctor vitae, the Life-giver,” sufficient, for Christ is so designated not merely according to the operation that proceeds from Him, but at the same time according to the peculiarity of His nature. [38]
] In what way the took place is taught in chap. 1Jn 4:2 and Joh 1:14 . In this way, that the life which was in itself hidden appeared in the flesh or became flesh, did it become perceptible by sense, subject of the , . . . Ebrard rightly remarks: “the indicates the objective event of the incarnation as such; the , the result of it for our faculty of perception.”
. . . ] The object that belongs to the verbs is ; according to de Wette, Brckner, and Dsterdieck, this object is only attracted to , and the object is to be supplied to both of the first verbs from what precedes ( ); but the two ideas and . are thereby unduly separated from each other; there is more in favour of supplying only an with (1st ed. of this comm., Myrberg), by which the idea of this verb is significantly brought out: “the life was manifested, and we have seen it;” but as in the context even this construction is not indicated, it is better, with most commentators, to connect . . also with .
By the apostle brings out that the eternal Life which was made manifest and perceptible was seen by himself; the verb , which signifies the utterance of that which one has personally seen or experienced (comp. Gospel of Joh 19:35 ; also 1Jn 1:3-4 ; 1Jn 3:23 ), [39] is directly connected with this, and thereupon first follows the more general idea ; Baumgarten-Crusius incorrecty refers specially to and to , with the assertion that “the former two have more objective, the latter more subjective meaning.” Myrberg’s explanation also: est expertae veritatis simplex confessio, qua homo sibi ipsi potius, quam aliis consulat: annuntiatio veritatis cognitae, qua aliis potius, quam sibi ipsi providere studeat, is without grammatical justification.
By , is put in reference to the readers of the Epistle; hence it does not follow, however, that it is to be understood only of the writing of this Epistle, and is therefore simply resumed by in 1Jn 1:4 ; but the former is the more general idea, in which the more special one of the writing of the Epistle is embraced; the is a particular kind of the . [40] Ebrard incorrectly separates the two, by referring to the written Gospel of John, and to this Epistle.
] The noun is here put for the pronoun , not only in accordance with John’s usual mode of expression, but because the idea of was to be more particularly defined by . Baumgarten-Crusius erroneously explains by “bestowing higher, unending life;” rather the , which Christ is, is marked by as such as , or still more comprehensively as such as, though by the incarnation it entered into time, is in itself nevertheless without measure of time, eternal (Brckner; similarly Braune). It is true, the idea has elsewhere in the N. T. admittedly another signification, but this does not justify the explanation of Calvin: ubi secundo repetit: annuntiamus vitam aeternam, non dubito quin de effectu loquatur, nempe quod annuntiet: beneficio Christi partam nobis esse vitam. De Wette’s explanation also, that is an idea “which hovers in the middle between the eternal true life which is to be appropriated by believers (Joh 17:3 ), and life in Christ, so that the first is to be considered in closest connection with , but the second in reference to the reflexive ,” can so much the less be held correct as the simple and clear thought of the apostle is thereby rendered complicated and obscure. Of that which the believer possesses in Christ there is here no mention at all, but only of Christ Himself; and, besides, that . is to the Apostle John not merely a subjective, but also an objective conception, is proved by chap. 1Jn 5:11 .
] is more significant than the simple , inasmuch as it makes the twofold relative clause as containing a confirmation of the preceding statement: . . ., . [41]
The imperfect also does not here indicate the intemporal existence, but is used in reference to : ere the appeared, it was with the Father.
] comp. Gospel of Joh 1:1 : . The preposition is often combined with the accusative in the N. T. in the sense of “with:” comp. Mat 13:56 ; Mat 26:55 ; but with the accusative differs from with the dative in this, that it describes being with one another not as a mere being beside one another, but as a living connection, a being in intercourse with one another (so also Braune); but we put too much into it, if we find the relationship of love directly expressed by . [42] John does not mean to bring out that the (Christ) was connected with the Father in love, but that Christ already was, before He appeared ( ); before He was with men, He was therefore in heaven with God, and indeed in lively union with God as He afterwards entered into a lively communion with men. Quite erroneously, Socin, Grotius, and others understand the expression of the concealment of the . in the decree of God. From the fact that John here calls God in His relation to Christ , it follows that the sonship of Christ to God is to be regarded not as first begun with His incarnation, but as premundane.
] is not a mere repetition of what has been already said, but in a new element is added, by which and . . . , 1Jn 1:1 , find their explanation.
[36] Ebrard wrongly conceives the logical relation thus, that by the thought that is latent in the preceding verse: “that Christ was of eternal being, but became incarnate and was manifested,” is confirmed.
[37]
[38] The chief elements which are contained in the idea are differently stated by the commentators; Frommann mentions as such: “the truth, perfection, or the living and happy character of being;” Kstlin: “the mightiness, blessedness, and endlessness of being.” If we keep to the scriptural mode of conception, the chief elements appear to be “consciousness, activity, and happiness;” true activity is only where consciousness is, and happiness is activity which is not disturbed or hindered by any opposition. Weiss wrongly infers from Joh 17:3 , that by is to be understood only the knowledge of God, and it is erroneous for him to maintain that does not here signify Christ Himself, but “His peculiar knowledge of God,” which He possessed even before His . The relative clause , which is connected with , is opposed to this interpretation; inasmuch as it shows that here , and just as much , is to be considered as the same subject which John in the prooemium of the Gospel calls , and of which he says there that it .
[39] Incorrectly a Lapide: quasi martyres i.e. testes Dei tum voce, tum vita, tum passione, morte et martyrio.
[40]
[41] The statement of Ebrard is inapposite, that by the subject-matter of the relative clause is stated as an already (from ver. 1) known and at the same time acknowledged element of the substantive idea on which the relative clause depends. The right view seems to lie at the base of the explanation of Sander: “I declare unto you eternal life, even as such as,” etc., at least it is not touched at by the remark of Ebrard in opposition: “The meaning of John is plainly this, that the . . is really and in itself one which was with the Father and was manifested to us, and is by no means represented as such merely in the proclamation of it.” Dsterdieck rightly says: “By the twofold extension of the predicate is connected with the subject . ., not merely in simply relative manner, but in such a way that the extension of the predicate contains at the same time an explanatory and confirmatory reference;” but it is difficult to admit that by virtue of the in its close connection with . . . is marked as the connecting link which unites to . the accessory elements . . .
[42] Besser: “The Word was with God, related to the Father in filial love. ” Still less justifiable is Ebrard’s explanation: “The was a life flowing forth indeed from the bosom of the Father, but immediately returning into it, floating in the inner circulation of the life of God.” (!)
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
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;)
Ver. 2. For the life was manifested ] Christ, who is “life essential,” swallowed up death in victory, and “brought life and immortality to light by the gospel,” 2Ti 1:10 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Jn 1:2 . A parenthesis reiterating the assurance of the reality of the manifestation. The Apostle heaps assurance upon assurance with elaborate emphasis, and the cumbrousness of his language should not be removed by devices of construction or punctuation, making 1Jn 1:1 a complete sentence: (1) “That which was from the beginning (is) that which we have heard, etc.”; (2) “That which was from the beginning, which we have seen beheld, our hands also handled”. Cf. Tert. in crit. n. , according to the Lord’s parting charge ( cf. Joh 15:27 ; Luk 24:48 ; Act 1:8 ). (Rev 1:2 ; Rev 1:9 ; Rev 19:10 ) was the apostolic . , . . .: “Whence we gather that Christ cannot be preached to us without the Heavenly Kingdom being opened to us, so that, being wakened from death, we may live the life of God” (Calvin). Observe the note of wonder in the Apostle’s language. Speech fails him. He labours for expression, adding definition to definition.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
For = And.
manifested. App-106.
bear witness. See Joh 1:7, and p. 1511.
shew = report. Greek. apangello. See Act 4:23.
unto = to.
eternal. App-151. “Eternal life” Occurs in this epistle six times.
with. App-104.
Father. App-98.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1Jn 1:2. , was manifested) gave Himself in the flesh to our eyes, ears, and hands: Joh 1:14. The same word is used of His coming in glory: ch. 1Jn 2:28.- , and we testify and declare) Testimony is the genus; there are two species, declaration and writing, 1Jn 1:3-4. Declaration lays the foundation, 1Jn 1:5-10; writing builds upon it, 1Jn 1:4, note.-, to you) who have not seen.- , Life eternal) In the beginning of the epistle mention is made of that Life eternal, which always existed, and afterwards appeared to us: at the end of the epistle mention is made of the same Life eternal, which we shall always enjoy. This title of itself teaches, that the goodness of Jesus in its highest sense is not denied: Mar 10:18, note.-, was) A repetition by the figure Epanodos; comp. 1Jn 1:1, at the beginning.- , with the Father) So Joh 1:1, with God.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
the life: 1Jo 5:11, 1Jo 5:20, Joh 1:4, Joh 11:25, Joh 11:26, Joh 14:6
was manifested: 1Jo 3:5, 1Jo 3:8, Rom 16:25, Rom 16:26, 1Ti 3:16, 2Ti 1:10, Tit 1:2
and bear: Joh 15:27, Joh 21:14, Act 1:22, Act 2:32, Act 3:15, Act 5:32, Act 10:41, 1Pe 5:1
show: 1Jo 5:20
that eternal: Joh 17:3
which was: Pro 8:22-30, Joh 1:1, Joh 1:2, Joh 1:18, Joh 3:13, Joh 7:29, Joh 8:38, Joh 16:28, Joh 17:5, Rom 8:3, Gal 4:4
Reciprocal: Psa 72:15 – And he Pro 8:23 – General Isa 44:8 – ye are Mat 19:16 – eternal Luk 24:48 – General Joh 1:14 – we Joh 5:37 – Ye have Joh 6:33 – cometh Joh 17:2 – give Joh 20:27 – Reach hither thy finger Joh 21:24 – we know Col 3:4 – our 1Pe 1:20 – but 1Jo 2:25 – General 1Jo 5:13 – ye may know
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
MESSAGE OF THE CHURCH
The life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us; that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us; yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
1Jn 1:2-3 (R.V.)
There are three questions that lie deep in the spirit of man. Sooner or later, if he thinks at all, he must encounter them, and they will ask him for an answer.
I. Mans questions and Christs answers.The first is, What is the real nature of this unseen, infinite, eternal life which lies behind the things we see, creating, sustaining, controlling them? The second is, What is the life in man which can bring him into harmony with the infinite and eternal life? The third is, How can this life, if it may be known, be won and kept? He who is in doubt about the answer to these questions stumbles on in darkness. He who can find an answer has the light of life. And it was the light of life let in upon these great problems that Christ brought in His revelation. To the first of these questions He answered, by Himself coming forth from the unseen life in which eternally He was, and disclosing so far as human eyes can see it, or human minds can understand itdisclosing it as eternally a life of love, moving forth in the eternal relationships of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; a life of which the most perfect human family knit together in the love of its members is only a faint and imperfect reflection. To the second of these questions He gave the answer by bringing that very Divine life into our human nature, living it under human conditions, revealing what it was to be a Son of the most high God, and thus bringing our humanity into union with the Divine life. To the third of these questions He gave the answer that His Spirit was ever dwelling within the heart of our humanity, leading it to respond to the Divine love, infusing into it the Divine life, and so gradually bringing all its energies, desires, and affections into union with God. And that life bestowed by the Spirit is given in a body; so that, by our birth into that body and by our fulfiment of its life and service, we know that the life is within us, even the Divine life which was for ever with the Father. God, infinite, eternal, unfathomable God was in Jesus ChristJesus Christ known and loved is eternally in Godthe Spirit of the Father and of the Son is with us bringing that Divine life to us, raising us into fellowship with it. This is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It is expressed for us in those words which I have chosen as the textwords which summarise from age to age the everlasting witness and message of the Church in every place and in every time.
II. The message of the Church.This, then, is the revelation which is entrusted to the Christian Church. It is with this revelation in its hand that it goes forth to meet all the movements of human thought and human life in every country and in every age. The attitude of the Christian Church as it goes forth is not that of learning or of seeking: it is that of bearing witness. It knows that this revelation, the secret of Divine life coming down into the world, bringing the world into union with itselfthat this is what the world when it comes to know itself wants and must find.
(a) The power with which the Church of Christ can give this witness to the world depends upon its recognising that this revelation cannot change. There is no room in it for development or alteration. It is in itself eternal, all-sufficient, final; and it is the finality of it, the completeness of it, that can alone give the Church that confidence with which it can bear up in its long toil to bring the movements of human life and thought into union with its Christ.
(b) The power of the Churchs witness will depend upon its recognising that while the revelation cannot change, the forms of thought and speech in which men try to explain it and to express it must inevitably change from age to age and clime to clime. In other words, put shortly, revelation is one and constant; theology is varied and variable. It is inevitable, of course, that men must try to put this revelation into words, to explain it to themselves by the use of the forms of thought with which they are familiar. A man must think out his life, even the Divine life, when it reaches him. He must relate it to the rest of his experiences, and in so doing he must use the modes of thought and of speech that are natural to him. And inevitably these modes of thought and speech will be coloured by his own temperament, by the race whose instincts he shares, by the time whose spirit he cannot fail to feel. Therefore these forms and methods of thought and of speech which are called the theology of the Church must shift and vary continually from age to age. There are indeed some forms of thought and speech which have an abiding authority of their own. There are, for example, (i) those forms, those symbols, those ideas which the eternal Christ was pleased in the days of His flesh to use. It was part of the reality of His human nature that they reflect, in many ways, the age in which He lived, the race from which after the flesh He sprang; and yet we must believe that there was a quite peculiar and unique correspondence between these, the forms of His thought and speech, and the everlasting revelation which He came to give. Then (ii) there are forms and words which were used by those whom He Himself instructed. It is true that the thought, for example, of St. Paul moves along the lines of Jewish theology, which are unfamiliar and often unreal to us. It is true that the thought of St. John more and more moved along the lines of thinking of Greece and Alexandria; but yet, who can doubt that the minds which themselves had been impressed by the power of the living Personality of the Divine Teacher Himself, must have expressed themselves in modes of thought and speech which once again have a very real correspondence with the revelation which He came to give. And (iii) there are forms of thought and speech with which the Christian Church has sought to summarise for its children the truth of the revelation. They are embodied in the Creeds. Of course, the language of the Creeds is limitedlimited not only by the necessary limitations of human knowledge, but also by the circumstances of thought and language in which they were drawn up. But may we not believe that by the ordering of Divine Providence those modes of thought and of speech, which the Church found best to preserve the integrity and freshness of that first revelation when it was first challenged by the speculations of the human mind, must have always a special authority for every time and for every country?
III. Then this thought enables us to understand the spirit with which the Church should approach other races in the world than those here in the West, which have at least nominally accepted the Christian Faith. The business of the Church, let us say, in the East, to which, with ever-deepening fascination, our thoughts are attractedthe business of the Church in the East is to present the Revelation and leave the East to find out its own theology. We cannot wishno one with any real vision of what Christ meant His Catholic Church to be can wishthat any race should lose itself in finding Christ, but rather that it should find itself, find all that is deepest and most characteristic in its own God-given attributes, interpreted, fulfilled, claimed, enriched, and deepened in the Divine life which was manifested in Jesus. It must be admitted that in past times this has not always been the spirit with which the Church has fulfilled its missionary vocation. Do we not find everywhere that among other races Christianity is accepted as the white mans religion? Let me read to you these striking words by one well qualified by knowledge and sympathy to speak of the problems of India: Our educated Christians and native clergy are too often undeveloped Europeans, and they present the gospel to their people in its foreign dress. Chunder Sen summed up the situation in the words, England has sent to us after all a Western Christ. It seems that the Christ Who has come to us is an Englishman, with English manners and customs, and the temperament and the spirit of an Englishman. National feeling is against our Lord to-day, not because He is Holy, not because He is the Saviour, but because He is Western, and not seen to be the Son of Man and the Saviour of India. This is true. Before India can be Christianised, Christianity must be naturalised. In the old days when zeal was right in its instincts, but narrow in its outlook, the main thought was to rescue individuals from impending loss; and still, God knows, there must be this impulse to bring to individuals the knowledge of the Christ. But surely the conquest is infinitely the greater if the Indian, the Japanese, the Chinaman finds his way to Christ by his own methods, because he finds in Christ that which interprets best his own national self; and for the future the objective of the Church in its mission to the world must be not only the individual, but the race. It must feel that the object of Christianity is not to deepen but to fulfil all that is most ancient, most true, most deep in the life and thought of all races of the world.
Archbishop Lang.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
The Christ Chapter
1Jn 1:2-10; 1Jn 2:1-2
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
There is a striking similarity between the opening verses of the first chapter of the Gospel of John and the first chapter of the First Epistle of John. In the Gospel we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It goes on to say that the Word was made manifest.
The Epistle says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our bands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it).”
As we study the statements of the Epistle we wish to suggest a few things lying open before us.
1. In the opening verse Christ is described as the Word of Life which we have heard.
2. He is the Word which we have seen,
3. He is the Word which we have looked upon.
4. He is the Word which we have handled.
5. He is the Word which we declare and of which we bear witness.
We would like to take these statements up step by step.
Just now we ask you to observe the opening words of the Book of Luke. The beloved physician writes: “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the Word.” Here is the same thing. They spoke of that which they knew, of that which they had seen. There was no guessing in it whatsoever. The Spirit gave the Word; their experience verified it.
1. The Word of Life which we have heard. It was the Lord who opened their minds that they might understand what they heard. It must have been a wonderful privilege to have sat at the feet of the Master, and to have heard Him as He opened His lips and spoke to them: words so full of love, light, and life. It was in after years that the Spirit brought to their remembrance the things which they heard.
2. The Word of Life which we have seen. Not only did they hear with their ears, but they saw the “Word” with their eyes, for Christ was the Word, and the Word was Christ, He did not speak apart from His own personality. His words were His own personality shining forth in all Divine beauty and glory,
3. The Word of Life which we looked upon. This is a deeper experience than simply having “seen” the Word. It carries with it the thought of gazing-gazing with admiration and wonder. They heard, they saw, and they looked upon. Even Peter fell down and said, “I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
4. The Word which we have handled. Here is something which grips. They knew that Christ was no fairy, no phantom, no fable. Thomas was invited to touch the Lord, for Christ said, “A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have.” Christ, the Word of Life have we handled.
5. The Word of Life which we declare, to whom we bear witness. Thank God that we have such a Messiah to preach.
I. CHRIST, THE LIFE (1Jn 1:2)
Our verse reads, “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.”
1. The expression, “that Eternal Life.” The sentence means that the Christ whom the Apostles heard, and saw, and looked upon, and handled, and to whom they bore witness, was the Christ who in the eternal past was with the Father. He Himself said, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.” Eternal life is without beginning and also without ending. Jesus Christ is the great “I Am,” not merely the great “I Was,” or “I Will Be.” There is no past with Him, and there is no future, for, He dwells in an eternal n-o-w. He said, “I am Alpha.” that is, the Beginning; He also said, “I am * * Omega,” the Ending; He did not say I was, and I will be.
2. The expression, “the Word of Life.” Jesus Christ was not only life. He was the Word that creates life, the Word that gives life. The Epistle of Peter says, “Being born again, * * by the Word of God.” James, in his Epistle, writes, being begotten “by the Word of truth.”
3. The expression, “the Life * * manifested.” Here is something that we need to study. Christ was the manifestation of the life. The first chapter of John says, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten, of the Father,) full of Grace and Truth.” Joh 1:18 says, “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” Thus, Jesus Christ was the manifestation of the Father. He said, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known * * the Father?”
II. CHRIST AND FELLOWSHIP (1Jn 1:3)
“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
These words hold in them all the throbbing tenderness of those other words, “Abide in Me, and I in you.” They hold the deeper significance of the words, “I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one.” Our Lord gave us the invitation to abide in Him, then He gave, in return, the promise, “I will abide in you.”
One day D. M. Stearns said to me, “Brother Neighbour, would you like a little string of pearls for your ten fingers?” Then he repeated the words of Hosea, “Thou shalt be for Me,” Dr. Stearns said, “Now let me give the other five.” “I will be for thee.” There they were: ten pearls in all, How true is their story. That sweet union of Christ and His children is precious.
Our fellowship, however, is not only with the Lord, but first of all with the Father, then, with the Son. This brings to our mind the statement of Joh 14:1-31 : “I will come unto you, and My Father will come unto you, and We will take up Our abode in you.” It is not the Father alone without the Son, nor the Son without the Father, but the twain in the Spirit.
What a hallowed relationship!
III. CHRIST AND JOY (1Jn 1:4)
Our Scripture is short but wonderfully full of truth. Here it is: “And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.”
1. The purport of His message. All we have been reading and considering thus far was written to give us joy. The Lord God does not want His children to be unhappy. He wants them to be filled with gladness and with song. Thirteen times in the little Epistle to the Philippians we read of joy and rejoicing. What, then, is the source of our joy? Here it is from His written Words. His Word is our joy, the Word of His promise, the Word of His revelation.
2. He, Himself, is our joy. There is no contradiction here, We have just said His Word is our joy. Now, we say that He is our joy; for, He is the Word. Therefore, whatsoever the one does to us, the other will do. In Joh 15:1-27 Christ said the same thing: “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” He was anointed with the oil of gladness, and with joy above his fellows. If we have Him dwelling in us, we will have His joy dwelling within.
One of the greatest verses in the Bible on joy is found in Gal 5:22. “The fruit of the Spirit is * * joy.” joy does not depend upon the thing which we possess. It depends upon Him. He must be present with us. His Word must indwell us.
IV. CHRIST OUR LIGHT (1Jn 1:5)
The absence of light is darkness. The way to dispel the darkness is to turn on the light. We have just spoken of life; how fitting that we shall now speak of light. Where there is no joy, there is darkness and gloom. Wherever there is joy there is light. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. Therefore, He is the joy of the world. Jesus Christ is the joy of the world, therefore He is the Light of the world. As long as the world knows Him not, and receives Him not, the world will be in darkness, not only intellectual darkness, but the darkness of despair.
There is a striking statement in the Book of Jude concerning those who deny our only Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Jude says, To them is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. There is a solemn and illuminating statement found in the Book of Revelation: They have no need of sun, or moon, or stars to give them light, for the Lord God giveth them light “and the Lamb is the Light thereof.”
How sad is the statement, “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil!”
Light illumines the mind in the knowledge of Him. Light shines upon the pathway on which we walk. Light opens up the things to come. It scatters the shadows of the great beyond. The path of the just is as a lamp that shineth brighter and brighter unto the perfect day-the day of perfect light.
V. FELLOWSHIP AND LIGHT (1Jn 1:6-7)
1. Pretentiousness rebuked. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him. and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.”
How many there are who delight in boasting of their religiousness, of their piety, pride, and holiness. They like to say that they walk with God and talk with God, and that God walks and talks with them. In other words they pretend that they are intimate in their relationship with the Father, and with the Son.
God strongly rebukes those who falsely claim fellowship with Him, while they still walk in darkness.
These pretentious people are like those in Ezekiel, who came as the people came, and sat before the Lord as His people. They even heard His words, but they never did them. They spoke much with their mouths, prating about their love, yet their hearts were going after covetousness. They spoke of the Lord as a. very lovely song, and yet they did not show Love.
God demands sincerity, and despises pretense. The scribes and Pharisees loved to pray long prayers. They enlarged the borders of their garments, and made broad their phylacteries; and yet, they were not clean; they were merely “whited sepulchres, * * [filled with] dead men’s bones.”
2. Realities confirmed. “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” It is not saying, we have fellowship with Him that counts, it is having fellowship. It is when we walk in the light “as He is in the light,” that we have fellowship with Him.
Incidentally, as a sequence, we then have fellowship with one another. The greatest tie that binds believers one to another is the tie that binds us to Christ, As the spokes of a wheel get nearer the hub, they get closer together. As we get nearer to our Lord, we get nearer to one another.
VI. SCRIPTURAL HOLINESS (1Jn 1:8-9)
Let us carefully peruse our Scripture. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1Jn 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1. Inherent sinlessness is impossible. Paul wrote, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.” Some people boast that they are holy, but they arc not inherently holy.
2. Sin is never in the new man, because the new man is begotten of God in righteousness, and in true holiness. That which is begotten of God sinneth not.
We deceive ourselves when we say that we have no sin, We may not live in sin. In fact, we may not sin, but we have a nature that is corrupt, and is capable of sinning.
3. If we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of our sinful nature, That, however, will not change our nature.
Holiness, Scripturally understood, is Christ in us; the Holy Spirit ruling, Christ reigning, the old nature reckoned dead.
If the old nature were dead, we would not need to reckon it dead.
4. We should put off the old nature, pay no attention to it, refuse to listen to it. At the same time we should put on Christ, and walk in the new man, Let us remember, however, if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves.
It does not read, “if we say we are not sinning”; for we should all be able to say that we are not living in known sin. None of us, however, can say that we have no sin. If we took our eyes off Christ and walked in the old man, we should soon fall.
VII. OUR HUMAN ASSERTIONS MAKE GOD A LIAR (1Jn 1:10; 1Jn 2:1-2)
1. Destroying the basis of all redemption. “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.” This expression looks backward to our past walk and life.
If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar inasmuch as He has written “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
We do more than this. If we say we have not sinned we proclaim that God sent Christ to the Cross unnecessarily, inasmuch as he who is not a sinner, requires no Saviour.
2. The call to a sinless life. The opening verse of chapter 2 reads. “My little children, these things write. I unto you, that ye sin not.”
We have sinned in the past, because we were walking in divers lusts. We were children of darkness, followers of Satan.
Now, however, we are God’s children, begotten of the Spirit. To us God says, “sin not.” It is not necessary for us to sin because God has provided us with victory along every line.
With the shield of faith we can quench all of the fiery darts of the wicked one.
By faith we can overcome the world; and, if we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
Why, then, should Christians sin? For, “greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world.”
3. Sin and the sin-bearer. While the Apostle writes to us not to sin, he immediately adds, “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1Jn 2:2 continues with “And He is the propitiation for our sins: and. not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” “Propitiation” means that He is the “mercy seat” for our sins. We need not sin.
We should not sin, we need not sin, but if we do sin, thank God there is a mercy seat, a place of cleansing through the Blood of Jesus Christ. We may not say we have not sinned; we may not say we have no sin; we may and should say, we are not sinning.
AN ILLUSTRATION
CHRIST, THE INEVITABLE
The story has come down to us from the early centuries that when the storm of persecution broke over the Christian church In Rome, the little company of believers besought Peter to seek refuge in flight. His sense, both of loyalty and of honor, rose up in protest. But his friends pleaded that their deaths would be only the loss of a few sheep of the fold, his would be the loss of the shepherd. He set out by night along the Appian Way. But as he traveled a vision flashed upon him of a figure clothed in white and a face crowned with thorns. “Quo vadis, domine?” “Whither goest Thou, Lord?” Peter cried to Christ, who answered, “To Rome to be crucified-instead of thee.”
“Into the night the vision ebbed like breath.
And Peter turned and rushed on Rome and death.”
That is a parable of the inevitable Christ. Whether we seek Him or seek Him not, whether we are in the way of our duty or out of it, the vision of Christ shall meet us face to face.-Rev. W. M. Clow.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
1Jn 1:2. This verse gives some more details of the general truths that are stated in the preceding one. The life is the same as “Word of life” above which was with the Father before the inhabitants of the earth ever heard about it. It was manifested to the extent that it could be seen with human eyes as well as be “handled” as stated in the first verse. The manner in which this was done is expressed somewhat more directly by this same writer in Joh 1:14 which says that “the Word was made flesh.” Everyone will understand this refers to the fact of the life of Christ in a fleshly body on the earth. Show unto you that eternal life. Such a life is spiritual and thus cannot literally be shown, but John means that when a man sees Christ he is seeing eternal life in that He is the one who gives us the hope of eternal life.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
As if the apostle had said, “Christ Jesus, that eternal life which was with the Father from eternity, as being his eternal Son, was in the fulness of time manifested in the flesh, and we his apostles saw him in his assumed human nature, and do now testify, publish, and declare him unto you; he was pleased to subject himself to the notice of our senses; and what we have heard, seen, and felt, and has been manifested unto us, that we do with all integrity declare and manifest unto others.”
Note here, 1. The title given to Christ, he is life, eternal life, he is so in himself, and he is the fountain of life to us; we now live by him a life of justification; and we hope to live with him a life of glorification.
Note, 2. This eternal life was from all eternity with the Father, and distinct from him; he was with the Father, not as an instrument but as an agent, in making of the world, Heb 1:2-3 And as his Father’s delight, Pro 8:31.
Note, 3. This eternal life which from the beginning was with the Father, in the fulness of time was manifested to the sons of men; manifested, not as he was to the prophets by faith, so they rejoiced to see him, John 8; nor in the similtude and likeness of flesh, so he sometimes manifested himself to the patriarchs, Genesis 18; but manifested in the flesh to his apostles, who eat and drank, discoursed and conversed with him.
Note, 4. That what the apostles saw of Christ they made manifest to others; they had themselves sufficient satisfaction of the verity of Christ’s human nature, and of the certainty of his doctrine, and therefore with mighty assurance they declare it unto others, and the reason of that declaration follows in the next verse.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
1Jn 1:2. For the life The living Word; was manifested In the flesh to our very senses; and we have seen it In its full evidence; and bear witness Testify by declaring, by preaching, and writing, 1Jn 1:3-4. Preaching lays the foundation, writing builds thereon: and show unto you Who have not seen; the eternal life The eternal Word and Son of God, who lives himself for ever, and is the author of eternal life to us, Joh 10:28; Heb 5:9; which was with the Father Joh 1:1-2; in his bosom, Joh 1:18; of the same nature and essence with himself, and was with him from eternity; and was manifested to us With all the genuine characters of the Son of God and the promised Messiah. That the apostle speaks of his eternity a parte ante, (as they say,) and as from everlasting, is evident, in that he speaks of him as he was in and from the beginning; when he was with the Father, before his manifestation to us; yea, before the making of all things that were made, as Joh 1:2-3. So that he is the eternal, vital, intellectual Word and Son of the eternal, living Father. Now here was condescension and kindness indeed! that a person possessed of eternal, essential life, should put on flesh and blood, or the entire human nature; should assume infirmity, affliction, and mortality, in order to visit sinful mortals, to dwell among and converse with them; to reveal to them, procure for them, and then confer on them, eternal life; even felicity and glory unspeakable with himself for ever!
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 2
And show unto you; declare John in unto you.–Which was with, the Father. This corresponds in a striking manner with the declaration in 1 John 1:1,2:14. that he who was manifested in the flesh, as the Savior of men, previously coxisted with the Father.–Was manifested; by becoming flesh, and dwelling upon the earth.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1:2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen [it], and bear witness, and {c} shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
(c) Being sent by him: and that doctrine is correctly said to be shown, for no man could so much as have thought of it, if it had not been thus shown.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
"Life" is a title of Jesus Christ here as "Word" is in John’s Gospel (Joh 1:1). It reflects Christian experiences about which John wrote here whereas "Word" (Gr. logos) reflects the facts Jesus declared and that John recorded in the fourth Gospel. Grace and truth explain the Logos in John’s Gospel (Joh 1:14), but light and love clarify Life in his Epistles.
In 1Jn 1:1 the progression in the series of verbs (heard, seen, beheld, and handled) reflects increasingly intent attention to Jesus as the essence of fellowship. The progression in the verbs in 1Jn 1:2 (manifested, seen, bear witness, and proclaim) shows the result of contemplating Jesus Christ and enjoying His fellowship, namely, witness. One first sees the manifested Christ. Then, having seen, he or she is able to bear witness. Finally one feels impelled by what that one has seen to announce to others the message of life.
There is a strong stress on the eternality of the life, Jesus Christ, in this verse. The emphases on the quality of the life (eternal) and its equality with the Father make this point (cf. Joh 1:2). The Incarnation is in view.
Eternal life is such a dominant theme in this epistle that one writer even entitled his commentary on 1 John, The Epistle of Eternal Life. [Note: G. Goodman.] In John’s writings "eternal life" is synonymous with "salvation." [Note: Smalley, p. 10.]