1 John 1.2c-The Word which is Eternal Life Has Always Existed Face to Face with the Father
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday March 21, 2017
First John: 1 John 1:2c-The Word which is Truly Life Has Always Existed Face to Face with the Father
Lesson # 22
1 John 1:1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us. (NASB95)
“Which was with the Father” is composed of the following: (1) nominative feminine singular form of the qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις), “which” (2) third person singular imperfect active indicative form of the verb eimi (εἰμί), “was” (3) preposition pros (πρός), “with” (4) articular accusative masculine singular form of the noun pater (πατήρ), “the Father.”
The qualitative relative pronoun hostis emphasizes the eternal nature of this life, which is eternal.
The verb eimi (εἰμί), “was” is used in an absolute sense meaning “to exist” indicating that this life which is eternal existed with the Father.
The imperfect tense of this verb eimi is a customary imperfect tense, which can be used to indicate a regularly recurring activity in past time (habitual) or a state that continued for some time (general) and here in verse 1 the latter is in view.
The customary imperfect here refers to an ongoing state indicating this life which is eternal has always existed with the Father.
The noun patēr means “Father” referring to the first member of the Trinity and emphasizing the church age believer’s familial relationship to God through regeneration emphasizing the familial relationship between the Word who is eternal life incarnate and God.
This word patēr is the object of the preposition pros which means “face to face with” since the word functions as a marker of association.
The implication here is that this Word who is eternal life incarnate has always enjoyed a perfect and perpetual fellowship with the Father.
“And was manifested to us” is composed of the following: (1) conjunction kai (καί), “and” (2) third person singular aorist passive indicative form of the phaneroō (φανερόω), “was manifested” (3) dative first person plural form of the personal pronoun egō (ἐγώ), “us.”
The apostle John employs the conjunction kai one last time in 1 John 1:2 which is emphatic meaning it is introducing the assertion ἐφανερώθη ἡμῖν, which advances upon and intensifies upon the similar but not identical assertion at the beginning of the verse, namely ἡ ζωὴ ἐφανερώθη.
The advancement and intensification is indicated by the fact that the latter describes this life as eternal and was revealed to John and others whereas the former does not mention these things.
Once again, we have the verb phaneroō which again is used here of the Word who is eternal life incarnate and refers to the fact that the Word who is eternal life incarnate “was revealed” to the apostles and disciples of our Lord 2000 years ago.
The dative first person plural form of the personal pronoun egō means “each one of us” since the word refers to John and his fellow eyewitnesses to the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ and is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.
1 John 1:1 We are now proclaiming to each of you what has always existed from eternity past, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we observed for ourselves, even what we touched with our hands concerning the Word which is truly life. 2 In other words, this life was revealed. As noted previously, we have seen so therefore we are now proclaiming by testifying to each of you this life, which is eternal, which because of its eternal nature has always existed face to face with the Father. Indeed, it was revealed to each one of us. (My translation)
1 John 1:2 contains six more assertions regarding the Word which is truly life, which are in addition to the five presented by John in 1 John 1:1.
Of course, all eleven assertions are about Jesus Christ since He is the member of the Trinity who revealed God to human beings (cf. John 1:18).
Furthermore, He Himself declared to John and his fellow apostles and disciples that He was eternal life incarnate (John 5:26; 6:33, 35, 48, 54, 63, 68; John 8:12; 10:28; 11:25; 14:6; 17:1-3).
When John speaks of “we” in these verses or “us,” he is referring to himself, and his fellow apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ.
The fifth assertion further states that because of its eternal nature, this incarnate Word which is truly life has always existed face to face with the Father.
The implication here is that the Lord Jesus Christ who is the eternal life of God incarnate has always enjoyed a perfect and perpetual fellowship with the Father.
Thus, John is affirming the deity and preexistence of Jesus of Nazareth.
The sixth and final assertion in 1 John 1:2 advances upon and intensifies upon the similar but not identical assertion at the beginning of the verse, namely that this Word which is truly life was revealed.
The advancement and intensification is indicated by the fact that this fifth assertion describes this life as eternal and was revealed to John and others whereas the first does not mention these things.
Like the first, this fifth and final assertion maintains that this Word which is truly life was revealed.
Therefore, in this assertion John is maintaining that Jesus of Nazareth was revealed to him and his fellow apostles and disciples as being the Word which is eternal life incarnate.
So, the apostle John in verse 1 asserts that the Word which is truly life has always existed from eternity past.
Therefore, John is declaring that Jesus of Nazareth is God since He has always existed from eternity past.
He then asserts that he and others have come into personal contact with this Word who is the life as demonstrated by the fact that they heard, saw, observed and touched this Word who is the life.
Therefore, John is maintaining that he and his fellow apostles and disciples of Jesus were eyewitnesses to the fact that He was the incarnate Word which is truly eternal life.
Then, in verse 2, he summarizes these five assertions in verse 1 by stating that this Word which is truly life was revealed with the implication that it was unknown to human beings.
Therefore, he is maintaining that Jesus of Nazareth revealed to him and his fellow apostles and disciples that He is incarnate Word which is truly life.
He then asserts that he and others are proclaiming this incarnate Word which is truly eternal life by testifying to this fact.
Therefore, John is declaring that he and his fellow apostles and disciples of Jesus were proclaiming that He is the incarnate Word which is truly eternal life by testifying to this fact.
John also states that because of its eternal nature, this life which is eternal, has always existed face to face with the Father.
Therefore, the apostle John is stating that Jesus of Nazareth is God since He has always existed face to face with the Father.
Then, John advances upon the first assertion in verse 2 by stating that this incarnate Word which is truly eternal life was revealed to himself and his fellow witnesses.
Therefore, the apostle is stating that Jesus revealed to His apostles and disciples that He was in fact the incarnate Word which is eternal life.
A comparison of verses 1 and 2 reveals that this incarnate Word which is eternal life was revealed to John and other witnesses because they each personally heard, saw, observed and touched this life which is eternal in nature.
Furthermore, this incarnate Word which is eternal life has always existed from eternity past with the Father.
As a result of receiving this revelation, John and his fellow eyewitnesses were now testifying with the result that they were now proclaiming to the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia this incarnate Word which is eternal life.
The purpose of this proclamation is four-fold which is reflected by several statements in this epistle (1:4, 2:1, 26; 5:13a).
However, the first of these contains the overall purpose for the epistle: (1) “These things we write” in 1 John 1:4 points back to John’s statements in 1 John 1:3. (2) “These things we write” in 1 John 2:1 points back to 1 John 1:5-10. (3) “These things I have written” in 1 John 2:26 points back to his statements in 1 John 2:18-24. (4) “These things I have written” in 1 John 5:13a points back to his statements in 1 John 5:6-12.
So, the four-fold purpose of First John is first to secure the joy of the believers he is writing to.
Secondly, this epistle is to assure these believers that they have a provision for sin when they do sin and thus eternal security.
Thirdly, John wanted to protect his readers from false doctrine by encouraging them to continue in the doctrine he taught them.
Lastly, the apostle wanted to reassure his reader that they possess eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
However, John’s overall purpose is revealed in 1 John 1:1-4 in that John wants his readers to continue to obey his apostolic message so as to protect their fellowship with God which would bring him joy.
In these verses, there is an authored-centered purpose meaning that John sought to benefit by his readers continuing to obey his apostolic teaching.
There is also of course an audience-centered purpose meaning that John sought for his readers to benefit from fellowship with God.
Therefore, there are two interrelated purposes reflected in 1 John 1:1-4.