BIBLE STUDY: THE FIRST LETTER OF ST. JOHN

The First Letter of St. John, Chapter One

We do not have definite information on when this letter was written or to whom, specifically, it was meant.  However, we can infer a few likelihoods from the interior evidence of the letter itself, and also from what we know of St. John's whereabouts after the ascension of the Lord, and from our knowledge of the history of the ancient near east.  John evidently is writing to a group of people who already know him and with whom he is on good terms.  These are gentile Christians, and not Jewish converts.  John is concerned with the problem of gnostic teachers appropriating the person of .Jesus and his Gospel into their own system, leading to confusion for the Christian believers.  This last indicates that the letter probably was addressed to Christians in Asia Minor, where Gnosticism became popular among many people, especially among the Greeks.  Basic gnostic teachings included the idea of the earthly and material as evil, while the mind and that which was immaterial and spiritual was good.  For this reason, when the Gnostics began to adopt Jesus as one of their own, some of them said that he was a higher being who took merely the form of a man, and only appeared to die on the Cross.  Other Gnostics taught that Jesus was a spirit who had possessed a man so as to walk among human beings and teach them his philosophy, and who, at the time of his crucifixion, abandoned the man and returned to heaven.  We see the problem with both ideas: if the Son of God could not redeem humanity if he did not assume a human nature and "become man".  St. John vehemently rejected the Gnosticism he saw encroaching on the new Christians, even referring to those who denied the Lord's human nature as "antichrists".  The vehemence is personal, for John had stood at the Cross and watched his Master die.

One final preliminary note: since no particular recipient is addressed by John, it would seem that his letter was meant to be handed on from one community to the next.  It seems safe to say that the communities in question would be those of the seven churches to whom the Lord writes (through John) in the Book of Revelation.  Early Church writers such as Eusebius associate John in the region of these churches, especially with that of Ephesus.

1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life.  John speaks of "the beginning", echoing his introduction to his Gospel, which, in turn, echoes the opening words of the Book of Genesis.  John might mean God the Father as this "beginning", keeping in mind that while the Son refers to himself as "the beginning and the end" in Revelation, the Father calls himself "the first and the last" in Isaiah 44, 6.  These terms, in fact befit each Person of the Holy Trinity.  John may be confirming for us here that the Son whom "we have heard . . . seen with our eyes . . . touched with our hands" is indeed from the eternal Father.  John would be linking, very deliberately, this Letter with his Gospel in order to show that what he himself was about to say about the human nature of the Lord Jesus was simply a reiteration of what Jesus himself had revealed.  "The Word of life" -- Jesus tells us that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  "Word" here, a translation of the Greek Logos, may be understood as coming forth directly from the mouth of the Father, with the Holy Spirit the breath accompanying the sound.

2For the life was manifested; and we have seen and do bear witness, and declare unto you the life eternal, which was with the Father, and hath appeared to us.  Again, the insistence of John that this Word could be seen, heard, and touched.  This is not a myth from long ago or some abstract philosophy.  Life is a Person.  Truth is a Person.  The eternal Word of God, spoken for all to hear, is a Person, and John and many others knew him.

3That which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.  Jewish Christians knew a firm sense of community both in their local group and with others far away, but this idea of union with Christians all over the world was completely new to the gentile Christians.  Paul repeated this teaching again and again, and so does John.  Furthermore, John says, we have this universal fellowship because it is with God himself, in what the Church would come to describe as "the mystical Body of Christ".

4And these things we write to you, that you may rejoice, and your joy may be full.  John adapts the words of Jesus in John 15, 11, in which Jesus speaks of the disciples abiding in him and him in them as the cause and completion of their joy.

5And this is the declaration which we have heard from him, and declare unto you: That God is light, and in him there is no darkness.  These words may remind us of how we profess that the Son of God is "Light from Light", in the Niceness Creed.  Light and Darkness were terms the Gnostics used in talking about spirit and flesh, and good and evil.  John "takes back" these terms for the Christians and uses them to describe God's utter transcendence.  There is no "darkness" in him, no weakness of any sort, no need for learning, no possibility of growth.  He is infinite in his knowing, in his power, and in his presence.

6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not have the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he also is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.  We walk in darkness, John means, if we deny that the Son became man.  We modern Christians may think we have gotten beyond this question, but this is not so.  We often behave in ways (we "walk in darkness") when we act as though the Lord had not come among us, had not become one of us.  We act as though he were a distant figure unconcerned with our individual actions.  It is our faith in the truth about the Lord, that he is God and man, that gives us "fellowship with one another".  And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.  Faith in the Lord leads to the experience of the effects of his redemption, wrought for us on the Cross.  It is his blood that saves us, not a magic spell or secret knowledge.  His blood saves.

8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.  It might seem silly to us that anyone would presume to say that he "has no sin", but how many of us act as though we have not sinned, or that we could not sin?  We do this when we forget that we belong to the Lord, who has purchased us with his blood (cf. 1 Peter 1, 18-19), and we have in our minds that we are our own.  The reference to confessing our sins may be a reference to baptism as well as to a regular practice of the devout Christian.  "We make him a liar" -- if we have not sinned, then his death was for nothing.

NEXT WEEK, CHAPTER TWO!  FEEL FREE TO ADD COMMENTS OR ASK QUESTIONS IN THE COMMENT SECTION!