1 John 4.14-The Apostles Testified that the Father Sent His Son to Save the World
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday July 12, 2018
First John: 1 John 4:14-The Apostles Testified that the Father Sent His Son to Save the World
Lesson # 178
1 John 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (ESV)
“And we have seen and testify” is composed of the following: (1) conjunction kai (καί), “and” (2) nominative first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ), “we” (3) first person plural perfect middle active indicative form of the verb theaomai (θεάομαι), “have seen” (4) conjunction kai (καί), “and” (5) first person plural present active indicative form of the verb martureō (μαρτυρέω), “testify.”
The conjunction kai is introducing an assertion which advances upon and intensifies the assertions John made in 1 John 4:9-13.
The nominative first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego means “we” and refers to John and his fellow disciples who observed Jesus of Nazareth during His First Advent.
As was the case in 1 John 1:1, the verb theaomai here in 1 John 4:14 means, “to observe” in the sense that it implies paying strict attention to what one sees or perceives.
Therefore, theaomai is expressing the idea that John, the other apostles and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ observed or scrutinized carefully the fact that the Father manifested His love by sending His Son to the cross for the sins of the entire human race.
Once again, we have the conjunction kai which is used this time as a marker of result which means that it is introducing an assertion that presents of the previous assertion.
As was the case in 1 John 1:2, the verb martureō here in 1 John 4:14 is employed in a legal sense and means “to testify” and is used for the function of an eyewitness.
Therefore, the word is expressing the idea that John and his fellow disciples of Jesus of Nazareth during His First Advent are “testifying” that God manifested His love by sacrificing His Son on the cross for sinners as a result of observing this carefully for themselves.
“That the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” is composed of the following: (1) conjunction hoti (ὅτι), “that” (2) articular nominative masculine singular form of the noun pater (πατήρ), “the Father” (3) third person singular perfect active indicative form of the verb apostellō (ἀποστέλλω), “sent” (4) articular accusative masculine singular form of the noun huios (υἱός), “his Son” (5) accusative masculine singular form of the noun sōtēr (σωτήρ), “the Savior” (6) articular genitive masculine singular form of the noun kosmos (κόσμος), “the world.”
“That the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” is a direct object clause which means that this clause is receiving the action of the verbs theaomai (θεάομαι), “have seen” and martureō (μαρτυρέω), “testify.”
The noun patēr means “Father” referring to the first member of the Trinity.
As was the case in 1 John 4:9, the verb apostellō here in 1 John 4:14 means “to dispatch someone, to send someone” with authority to a particular location implying for a particular purpose.
In other words, it means “to cause someone to depart for a particular purpose” and to do so with authority or by delegated them authority for a particular purpose.
Therefore, this verb indicates that God the Father dispatched or sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ and invested Him with His sovereign authority to planet earth in order that His Son would be the Savior of the world.
The noun huios is used in relation to Jesus Christ and is employed here as a title for His deity describing the relationship between the Father and Himself and the articular construction of this word is employed with the intensive person pronoun autos which means “His” referring to the Father.
Together, they denote possession expressing the Father/Son relationship between Jesus Christ and God and thus, they emphasize that Jesus of Nazareth and the Father share the same divine nature.
The noun sōtēr means “Savior” and is a title for the Son of God, Jesus Christ emphasizing that He is the member of the Trinity who accomplished salvation through His substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross and resurrection from the dead.
The articular form of the noun kosmos means “the world” and refers to the world in its arrangement of the inhabitants of the earth in tribes and nations or peoples (Acts 17:26; John 3:16; 1 Cor. 4:9; 1 John 2:2; 2 Pet. 2:5) and so therefore, it speaks of the entire human race in 1 John 4:14.
1 John 4:14 In fact, we have observed for ourselves so that each of us are now testifying that the Father dispatched with authority His one and only Son to save the world. (Author’s translation)
The apostle John asserts in 1 John 4:14 that he and others have observed for themselves so that each of them is now testifying to the world that the Father dispatched with authority His one and only Son to save the world.
1 John 4:14 is the third time that John speaks of God the Father sending His Son (cf. 1 John 4:9-10) and this is the second time in First John that we find the apostle John testifying about something.
The first was in 1 John 1:1-3, which records him testifying to the historicity of the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ.
“We” (ego) in 1 John 4:14 refers to John and his fellow disciples who observed Jesus of Nazareth during His First Advent.
Therefore, this word is not referring to John and the recipients of First John since few if any of the recipients of First John would have been eyewitnesses to Jesus life, death and resurrection.
John wrote this epistle in the final decade of the first century A.D. and the First Advent took place between approximately 30-33 A.D.
This word used for both emphasis and contrast.
First it is emphasizing the eyewitness testimony of John and his fellow disciples of Jesus during His First Advent who could testify that God manifested His love by sending His Son to the cross for the sins of the entire world.
Secondly, it is contrasting John and his fellow eyewitnesses with those who could not testify to this fact like the recipients of First John.
This assertion in 1 John 4:14 and the ones in 1 John 4:15-16 are advancing upon and intensifying the assertions John made in 1 John 4:9-13.
Therefore, a comparison of 1 John 4:9-11 with 1 John 4:14-16 indicates that the advancement and the intensification is four-fold.
The first is that John goes from asserting that God the Father manifested His love by sacrificing His one and only Son to die for the sins of the church to asserting that he and others were eyewitnesses to this.
The second is that John goes from asserting that the Father did this for those are His children to asserting that He did this also for those who are not His children while the third is that John goes from teaching how this act of love on the part of the Father relates to His children to how it relates to the non-believer.
The former obligates the child of God to divinely love their fellow child of God while the latter obligates the non-believer to trust in Jesus Christ as Savior in order for God to live in fellowship with them and vice versa.
Lastly, the fourth is that not only does the child of God confirm they are living in fellowship with the Father and the Father with them by the Spirit but also by testifying that God the Father manifested His love by sending His Son to save the world.
Both are accomplished by obeying the command to love one another.
Also, 1 John 4:14 picks up the thought from 1 John 4:12 since both passages contain the verb theaomai (θεάομαι), “seen” in the perfect tense.
Therefore, if we compare these two verses, we can see that the believer manifests God’s attribute of love like Jesus did when they obey the command to love one another.
Jesus manifested the love of God at the cross and the child of God does so by obeying the command to love one another.
Furthermore, the child of God testifies that the Father manifested His love by sending His Son to save the world by obeying the command to love one another since obedience to this command manifests God’s attribute of love.
It also confirms that this love was manifested by the Father sacrificing His Son for sinners since obedience to this command manifests that they are children of God, which is the result of believing that Jesus is the Christ and the incarnate Son of God.
This faith in Jesus and obedience to His Spirit inspired command to love one another affirms the reality of God’s love.
Now, we must compare the assertion in 1 John 4:14 with John’s assertions in 1 John 4:1-6 since they teach that to obey John’s apostolic teaching that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world and the incarnate Son of God is to obey the Spirit’s testimony about Jesus.
Therefore, to summarize, 1 John 4:1-6 teaches that if a person obeys John’s apostolic teaching about Jesus that He is the Christ and the incarnate Son of God, then they are obeying the Spirit.
On other hand, those who reject this teaching are disobeying the Spirit.
Therefore, since John is teaching in this passage that the Spirit inspired John’s apostolic teaching about Jesus of Nazareth, we can infer in 1 John 4:14 that the Spirit was testifying through John and his fellow-eyewitnesses that the Father manifested His love by sending His Son to save the world.
This interpretation is also supported by Jesus’ teaching in John 15:26-27.
1 John 4:13-14 contains a triadic pattern since they have specific references to all three members of the Trinity since the Spirit is mentioned in verse 13 while the Father and the Son are mentioned in verse 14.