1 John 1.4-Adherence to the Apostolic Testimony Will Cause the Eyewitnesses to Experience Joy to the Maximum
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday March 28, 2017
First John: 1 John 1:4-Adherence to the Apostolic Testimony Will Cause the Eyewitnesses to Experience Joy to the Maximum
Lesson # 25
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, 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. (NASB95)
Verse 4 presents a purpose which is the direct result of the previous one recorded in 1 John 1:3 which presents the overall purpose of this epistle.
“We write” is composed of the following: (1) first person plural present active indicative form of the verb graphō (γράφω), “write” (2) nominative first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ), “we.”
The personal pronoun ego means “we” and is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions and is referring of course to John and his fellow eyewitnesses to the historicity of the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ emphasizing a contrast between them and the recipients of this letter.
The verb graphō refers to the act of communicating in writing to the recipients of this epistle various subjects, which pertain to the Christian way of life.
“These things” is the demonstrative pronoun houtos (οὗτος), which refers to the information provided by John in the three preceding verses and is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions indicating that each of these verses are of critical importance to the recipients of this epistle.
“So that our joy may be made complete” presents the purpose for which John and his fellow eyewitnesses communicated in writing to the recipients of this epistle the information which appears in verses 1-3.
“Our joy” is composed of the following: (1) articular nominative feminine singular form of the noun chara (χαρά), “joy.”
The noun chara refers to the apostle John and his fellow eyewitnesses to the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ experiencing joy.
It would be produced in them by the Holy Spirit as a result of hearing of the recipients of their letter adhering to and conducting their lives by means of their testimony concerning the person of Jesus Christ.
The noun chara contains the figure of speech called metonymy of the effect where the recipients of this letter conducting their lives by means of this testimony is a cause for joy for John and his fellow eyewitnesses.
Here we have the effect for the person producing it, thus the recipients of this letter will produce joy in the lives of John and his fellow eyewitnesses because the former was obeying their teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ.
“May be made complete” is composed of the following: (1) third person singular present active subjunctive form of the verb eimi (εἰμί), “may be” (2) nominative feminine singular perfect passive participle form of the verb plēroō (πληρόω), “made complete.”
The verb eimi means “to exist in a particular state or condition” and the verb plēroō means “maximum” since it is a Greek idiom for joy that is filled to the brim and continues to stay full to the point of overflowing.
Therefore, this denotes the joy of the recipients of John and his fellow eyewitnesses existing in a maximum state as a result of the recipients of this epistle adhering to their teaching in 1 John 1:1-3.
The verb plēroō functions as a periphrastic participle and is used with the verb eimi here to form a finite verbal idea, which is an intensive perfect periphrastic participle construction.
This emphasizes a present state of joy being experienced by the apostle John and his fellow eyewitnesses to the hypostatic union as a result of the past action of the recipients of this epistle adhering to 1 John 1:1-3.
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. 3 What we have seen as well as heard, we are now proclaiming to each of you in order that each of you would also continue to regularly experience fellowship with each of us. Also, our fellowship is in fact, as an eternal spiritual truth existing in the state of being with the Father as well as with His Son, who is Jesus, who is the Christ. 4 Thus, we ourselves are now communicating in writing concerning each of these things in order to cause our joy to exist in a maximum state. (My translation)
In 1 John 1:4, the apostle John presents a purpose for his writing which is the direct result of the one he presented at the end of 1 John 1:3.
In the latter, he expresses his Spirit inspired desire that the recipients of this epistle would continue to regularly experience fellowship with himself and the other surviving disciples of Jesus Christ and those who adhere to his apostolic teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ.
Then, John emphatically asserts that this fellowship is also with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Thus, John is telling the recipients of this epistle that this fellowship that he was experiencing with the other eyewitnesses was divine in origin.
Now, here in verse 4, John expresses another Spirit inspired desire which asserts that his joy and the joy of his fellow eyewitnesses would continue to exist in a maximum state as a result of the recipients of this letter adhering to their testimony in 1 John 1:1-3.
Therefore, 1 John 1:4 presents the second purpose which John is writing to the recipients of this epistle and is the direct result of the first purpose recorded in 1 John 1:3.
As we noted in our study of verses 2 and 3, the purpose for which John was writing this epistle is four-fold which is reflected by several statements in this epistle (1:4, 2:1, 26; 5:13a) but the first of these contains the overall purpose for the epistle.
“These things we write” in 1 John 1:4 points back to John’s statements in 1 John 1:3 and “these things we write” in 1 John 2:1 points back to 1 John 1:5-10.
“These things I have written” in 1 John 2:26 points back to his statements in 1 John 2:18-24 and “these things I have written” in 1 John 5:13a points back to his statements in 1 John 5:6-12.
Therefore, the four-fold purpose of 1 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.
The joy mentioned by John in 1 John 1:4 refers to he and his fellow eyewitnesses continuing to experience joy to the maximum as a result of hearing of the recipients of their letter adhering to their testimony.
This joy is pastoral rather than personal.
John’s happiness or joy is two-fold: (1) Personal (2) Pastoral.
Personal happiness or joy for the believer is primarily based upon obedience to the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the teaching of the Word of God (Jn. 4:34-36; 15:11; 17:13; Rm. 15:13, 32; 2 C. 1:24; 7:4; Phlp. 1:25; Col. 1:11; H. 10:34; 12:2; Jm. 1:2; 1 P. 1:8; 1 Jn. 1:4).
John’s pastoral happiness is related to his spiritual gift rather than his own personal spiritual life (2 C. 2:3; 7:13; Phlp. 1:4; 2:2; 4:1; 1 Th. 2:19-20; 3:9; 2 Jn. 1:12; 2 Jn. 4).
His pastoral happiness was based upon the fact that his spiritual children were obeying his apostolic teaching which resulted in these children experiencing fellowship with God.
However, the failure of John’s readers to obey his apostolic teaching would not destroy his own personal happiness, which he acquired by being obedient to the will of the Father, which is revealed by the Spirit in the Word of God.
1 John 1:4 echoes 2 John 4, 12 and 3 John 4.
2 John 4 I was prompted to greatly rejoice because I found some of your children making it a habit of living by means of truth just as we received the command from the Father. (Author’s translation)
2 John 12 Even though I am able to communicate in writing many other subjects to each and every one of you, I by no means want to with paper and ink. But rather, I am absolutely certain and confidently expect to arrive in the presence of all of you, that is, to speak face to face in order to cause our joy to exist in a maximum state. (Author’s translation)
3 John 4 I never experience a greater joy than this, namely that, I regularly hear about my own spiritual children because they are making it their habit of living by means of the truth. (Author’s translation)
