%20(2).webp)
The Incarnate Word (1:1a)
The strained grammar of verses 1–3 underscores John’s emphasis on the centrality of the incarnate Word. A literal rendering makes the sense clear:
1What was from the beginning;
what we have heard;
what we have seen with our eyes;
what we beheld and our hands touched
—concerning the word of life—
(2and the life appeared
and we have seen and testify, and announce to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was revealed to us);
3What we have seen and heard
We proclaim also to you.
Placing the main verb of the sentence in verse 3 permits John to stack four relative clauses at the beginning (a fifth is in 3a) and thereby emphasize the object of proclamation (the Word) rather than the act of proclaiming itself. It is also peculiar that the relative pronoun is neuter (“what,” Gk. ho, rather than “who”). Since “Word” (Gk. logos) is masculine, it would seem appropriate and grammatically correct to place the relative pronoun in agreement with its intended subject, Jesus, the incarnate Word.2 However, using a neuter pronoun can be a way to express “the whole career of Jesus.”3 Neuter pronouns can function “comprehensively to cover the person, words and works.”4 Therefore, John is saying that the whole sweep of Jesus’ life bears importance to his subject, not simply particular events or even the abstract appearance of God in history. In Christ, God walked with humankind, and anyone who had contact with that reality, anyone who had heard, seen, and touched that reality, could never make it less than pivotal.
All this is to say that John’s singular interest is not some abstract doctrine about Jesus or the importance of preaching about Jesus (though some commentators take it this way); rather, it is the reality of Jesus’ personhood—his incarnation or his entry into history. He is described as “the Word,” not as if Jesus is an idea preached or message that enlightens. This term rather harks back to the Gospel’s prologue, where Jesus is called “the Word” as a personal title of importance to both Greek and Jewish ears. The Word is the creative self-expression of God by which the cosmos was made (Judaism, Gen. 1:1ff.). It is the divine reason that gives the universe coherence and purpose (Hellenism; cf. Philo). Thus in verse 1 John writes that this word was “from the beginning” (cf. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God”). This does not refer necessarily to the beginning of Jesus’ life on earth (though some have argued for this). It instead sets out the marvelous tension of Christian thought: He who existed from limitless eternity has entered time and space and taken up residence here on earth.
Thus, of critical importance is the relationship of this Word to human history. John’s present verses serve as a reflection, an expansion perhaps, on the Gospel prologue’s primary verse, John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory.” To dispel any suggestion that this appearing in history was imagined or partial, John speaks graphically of the sensory confirmation (hearing/seeing/touching) that accompanied this revelation.
The Word of Life (1:1b–2)
However, this is not simply any Word. Nor is this a Word “about life,” as if it were a message that explained the meaning of living. The final phrase of verse 1 is pivotal because it explains the importance of this revelation. Once again the Fourth Gospel’s prologue in John 1:4 gives us our clue. There we learn that this incarnate Word is the source of life: “In him was life.”5 “Concerning the Word of life” is almost an awkward parenthesis inserted into the paragraph to make absolutely certain that the eternal life described here is grounded in the historical events of Jesus’ life. In other words, eternal life is not the by-product of some enlightenment or knowledge acquired mystically. Eternal life is historically anchored in what we may call the scandal of particularity unique to Christianity. The life of God has been channeled to us through a historical event, an event that John says has been verified by people who saw it.
It is interesting that in verse 2 the authority behind John’s affirmation is not merely some tradition or doctrinal convention. It springs from experience. It would be one thing for John to defend the particularity of the Incarnation as a logical requirement of some theological system. And no doubt he could do this. The repeated emphasis on personal experience—seeing and testifying what was revealed to us—is not just a way to shore up his defense of the Incarnation. John’s authority rests in what he knows to be true because he has touched it. He is making a compelling appeal; he is offering a testimony, not just to coherent, orthodox theology, but to a living Word, Jesus Christ, whose reality is the principal reference point of his life. In the earliest Christian community when the apostolic replacement for the deceased Judas Iscariot was sought, the chief criterion for nomination was possessing this experience of the incarnate Lord. Matthias was a candidate because he had seen and heard and touched Jesus Christ, “beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us” (Acts 1:22).
The Word and Fellowship (1:3–4)
Embracing this Word, experiencing this life, gaining this reference point—these are all prerequisites for Christian community. The purpose of John’s letter is fellowship, “so that you also may have fellowship with us” (v. 3a). The Greek word translated “fellowship” in the niv is koinonia, which means to have something in common. Koinonia may describe a shared labor (such as the fishing of James, John, and Simon, Luke 5:10) or the common enjoyment of some gift or experience (such as the grace of God, Phil. 1:7; the blessings of the gospel, 1 Cor. 9:23; or the Holy Spirit, 2 Cor. 13:14).
This is the crux of John’s thought and the purpose of his writing. Christian community is not some passing association of people who share common sympathies for a cause. Nor is it an academy where an intellectual consensus about God is discovered. It cannot be so superficial. Christian community is partnership in experience; it is the common living of people who have a shared experience of Jesus Christ. They talk about this experience, they urge each other to grow more deeply in it, and they discover that through it, they begin to build a life together unlike any shared life in the world.
But Christian community is not merely horizontal; it is not just a social phenomenon. John asserts that this fellowship is also “with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (v. 3b). This puts one more dimension to the meaning of community. Fellowship is not just the coincidence of a shared experience of God, where we compare our private spiritual walks; it is living and experiencing the Father and the Son together as believers. Christian fellowship is triangular: my life in fellowship with Christ, your life in fellowship with Christ, and my life in fellowship with yours. The mystical union I enjoy with Christ becomes the substance that binds the church together. In verse 4 John adds that the net result of such a community will be joy—“to make our6 joy complete.” This is a benefit, a by-product, of a genuinely Christ-centered fellowship.
The themes seen here find a close parallel in Jesus’ teaching in John 15. Abiding in Christ, the vine, is the way to becoming Jesus’ disciple (John 15:8) and experiencing his joy (John 15:11). Moreover, our union with the vine is the prerequisite for loving one another (John 15:12–17). Christian community once again grows from a matured relationship with God in his Son, Jesus Christ. And no doubt where this relationship with Christ is absent, such community is an impossibility.
https://biblia.com/books/nivac83jn1/Page.p_56
Shop for NIV Application Commentary | NIVAC One Volume Edition and 44 volumes Editions on Logos
Shop for The NIV Application Commentary New Testament Series On ChristianBook
|
July's free Book
- 52 Weeks Through the Bible: Fall in Love with the Book That Changed Everything
JULY'S FREE EBOOK
- July's free Audiobook
- Try this link: https://www.logos.com/free-book
- Now this link: https://www
.logos.com/free-ebook - Next try this link: https://www.logo
s.com/free-audiobook
- Furnished by Rick Livermore Webmaster220
- San Juan Capistrano California –
- Read the current issue of the Capistrano Dispatch here:
- https://www.picketfencemedia.com/thecapistranodispatch/current-issue/
Posts
.jpg?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/quality,q_70/resize,m_mfit,w_350,h_350/format,webp)
No comments:
Post a Comment