PROCLAIMING THE WORD OF LIFE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

1 John 1:1-4

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we embark on this study of John’s first letter, we find a recalling of the opening to his Gospel in the first four verses of this first letter which is believed to have been written around ten years after the Gospel was. Of interest, these letters of John, along with the Book of Revelation, are also thought to be the last entries into the New Testament from a chronological perspective, written towards the end of first century A.D.

Before we go into our passage for today, let’s go back to the Gospel and its beginning verses along with verse 14:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him, all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-4, 14

Here we find the scriptures informing about Jesus’ existence before Creation. The Book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, begins with four simple words, “In the beginning, God” and in John’s Gospel, we see where the Word was God, affirming the very proclamation of Jesus that He was one with God, His Father (John 10:30).

Jesus, the “Word” who “became flesh”, was one with His Father God and with Him in the beginning and therefore, through Him all things were made and as we know presently, all things through Him are saved (Acts 16:30-31, Romans 10:9). He is the only one who can bring anyone to God, the One who is the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).

With this in mind, let’s now go to the first four verses of 1John, chapter 1:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

Although the audience this letter is intended for is unknown, we find John asserting his authority to write what he does. For Jesus, who “was from the beginning”, had been heard by John, seen and looked at by John, and touched by John. This is what offered legitimacy to everything he was going to say as he proclaimed Christ, “the Word of life”, the One sent by God the Father to bring “eternal life” to anyone who would simply place their belief in Him.

Through our belief in Jesus as Savior, John and other Christian believers (including all of us today) not only were brought into “fellowship” with Him but with God, “the Father”, as well. This is what allowed John’s “joy” to be made “complete” as he writes these words, and our joy and hope is reaffirmed in reading them.

In the end translation, true life is only found through the One, Jesus, who is the Word of life. Thanks be to God for the gift of His Son!

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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