1 John 1:1-4, "Life-giving Fellowship and Complete Joy"

Starting a new book - John’s context: John writing to a church experiencing what we would call a “split”. The community he’s writing to lived in a pluralistic culture, like ours. Any and every religion and philosophy were available. Some members of the community were trying to mix together the gospel of Jesus with other philosophies and religions in the culture around them. They were moving “past” the gospel John had taught them to a “higher knowledge” that, in the end, denied the essentials of the faith about Jesus. John’s purpose is to remind this community that eternal life and complete joy come from fellowship with God through Jesus Christ.

Our context: How do we love our neighbors in a pluralistic culture (differing views of gender, life of unborn, marriage, justice) without abandoning faith in Jesus? Just like any road we travel, there are two possible ways to fall off into the ditch. We could get distracted by trying to fit into the culture to the point that we abandon the gospel and miss out on eternal life in God through Jesus. Or we could be so fearful of losing our distinctives as Christians that we forget that our primary distinctive is love. John is writing to keep us on the way of Jesus, experiencing eternal life in fellowship with God. Staying on this road will give us confidence in our identity as a community of believers in Jesus so that we live lives of both purity and love.

John’s open letter to the church is more important than ever if we are going to stay focused on our identity and mission. John’s method is exactly the method we should be using today: testify about Jesus, explain the implications, invite people to walk with Him. And right here in the opening paragraph of his letter, he tells us why he is writing these things to us. He wants us to experience life-giving fellowship and complete joy. Life-giving fellowship and complete joy come from walking with Jesus by faith.

Testify about Jesus

John begins with eye witness testimony about Jesus. He heard Jesus speak, he saw Jesus with his own eyes, he looked into who He was, he touched Him with his two hands. And this is the conclusion John reached, that Jesus is the “word of life”. What does that mean?

This might seem strange to us, but for over a thousand years, Jewish families had told their children the story of the day Yahweh, the Ever-living God descended on Mount Sinai to speak His words to Moses to give to the people. As the story goes, they saw the voice of God, and it was like thunder and lightning and loud trumpets (Exodus 20:18). The word of the Lord is a powerful reality that can be seen. And His words impart life to those that accept them and live by them. And the message of the apostles is that Jesus was the visible manifestation in human form of the word of God that gives life.

If we think back to the beginning, to creation, when God created life in the first place, how did He create? He spoke words. If we had consistently continued to listen to the voice of God, it would have been like eating from a tree of life. His words would nourish us and show us the path of eternal life. But Eve listened to the voice of the serpent, and Adam listened to the voice of Eve. And we all have chosen the sin of listening to other voices than God’s, and we suffer for it. When God wanted to speak one final word that would restore to us eternal life, He sent Jesus as the word of God in human form. This is the conclusion John and the other apostles came to as they spent time with Jesus. Here are the details as John lays them out here.

As we look back to the beginning of all of God’s work in our world, Jesus Christ is there working from that point until this one. “That which was from the beginning…(verse 1).” John recognized that their experience with Jesus was consistent with everything they had seen God doing through His word from the beginning of time.

Jesus’ words were His primary ministry. Jesus came to testify to human beings the plans, the character, and the words of God the Father (John 3:11-13; 12:49-50; 14:10). So John begins his testimony in verse 1, and ends it in verse 3 with, “that…which we heard...” When he and the other apostles heard Jesus speak, He sounded like God the Father.

Three times John says that he is testifying to what they saw with their eyes (verses 1, 2, and 3). Life itself, the eternal kind of life, became manifest, visible in the person of Jesus. Eternal life is not life that goes on forever. Eternal life is a communion with the Eternal One, Yahweh. When they saw Jesus, they saw someone in touch with the Eternal.

John follows up “which we have seen with our eyes” with “which we looked upon”. The difference in language here is like the difference between noticing a bird fly by your window and capturing the bird to study it. “Look upon” is the kind of seeing that contemplates what you’re looking at. John spent time studying Jesus, examining Him, looking deeper into who He is. He wasn’t satisfied to just notice He was there. He wanted to understand Him. This is one difference between those that study the Bible, theology, or Jesus as an academic exercise and those that really want to understand the person of Jesus. Anyone can see that Jesus came and that He was important, and you can see all the facts laid out in the Bible. But when you really seek to understand Him personally, then and only then do you find eternal life.

John concludes with “touched with our hands”. John is making clear from the beginning that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was a real human being with flesh and blood. John handed him food and Jesus ate. Jesus slept and John shook Him to wake Him up. John took Jesus’ hand when he wanted to express appreciation for Him. John experienced a very human Jesus, with all of the human weaknesses and frailties. And he still concluded that this man was with the Father from the beginning, and was the word of God incarnate.

Why is all this testimony important? There are implications. 1 John 1:3-4 “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”

Implications: Fellowship and Joy

Jesus to His disciples - John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

God’s intention for us is to give us the fullness of joy. Our most complete joy comes in fellowship with Him. St. Augustine said in a prayer to God, “our souls are restless until they find their rest in You.” John and the apostles, and the rest of the Jesus community have found life-giving fellowship with God and complete joy through seeing, believing, and walking with Jesus, and they are inviting us in. Their joy isn’t complete until others join them in walking with Jesus.

What do you find life-giving? Extreme sports, quiet time, reading a good book, entertainment, a walk in the woods or on the beach. These are good things to enjoy. What John is offering us is a different kind of life altogether. It is a life that communes with the Eternal One. Your life right now can intersect with God and His eternal purposes. And when you begin to walk through life with this orientation, you will find a joy you’ve never experienced doing anything else.

This is the kind of joy that cannot be taken away, because even the things that rob most people of their joy, hardships and suffering, teach us to know Jesus and fellowship with Him there. People are no longer obstacles and enemies. They are opportunities to learn love. As they join the fellowship of Jesus-followers, your joy will increase. And seasons like Advent, the holiday season in general, which brings so many mixed feelings to so many people, become a season to rejoice as we reorient ourselves to the good news that God is overcoming evil and establishing His rule and reign in and through Jesus Christ.

Questions for Discussion

What do we learn about God in this passage?

Why is it so important that John gave us eye-witness testimony about Jesus? What do we learn from him?

What are some implications of the fact that Jesus is the “word of life”?

How does John define fellowship, and how can we build that kind of fellowship? What are the implications for existing relationships in the church, and what are the implications for evangelism?