That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing this that our joy may be complete. 1 John 1:1-4
I once memorized the whole book of 1John, so I guess I never blogged on it because I figured what's left to know? Haha. As I read the first 4 verses, the first thing I notice, which I never noticed before, he doesn't say "I", he says "we" or "our" 13 times. Who is he with or including in his letter? By now he has outlived all the apostles and Mary, so it appears that he is writing on behalf of all those eyewitnesses like him who knew Jesus personally probably 50 years after Jesus' death. He's saying," this teaching doesn't come from me but from Jesus who not only I heard, touched, saw, lived with for 3 years but others did, too. There was Peter who was crucified upside down for preaching about the resurrected Jesus, who is no longer with us. Herod killed my brother John in Jerusalem by beheading him, but God avenged him as Herod died of worms eating him from the inside out. Andrew, Peter's brother, was crucified on an X shaped cross in Greece, Philip was crucified in Hierapolis and Simon the zealot sawn in half for testifying about Jesus. Matthias and James were stoned, Thomas was speared in India, Thaddeus killed by an axe, Matthew killed by a sword in Ethiopia and Bartholomew flayed alive all because they wouldn't deny that Jesus was God come in the flesh who died for our sins and rose from the dead. If it wasn't true at least one of them would have recanted but it was and I alone am left to boldly speak about Him."
I know I just put words in John's mouth, but he must be thinking, I must be alive for a purpose so I'm going to get this message out as long as I have breath left. Therefore, the epistles of John take on extreme importance to us as a summary of what he thought Jesus would want us to know from His closest friend speaking on behalf of all His other friends who are no longer with us.
The first thing he wants us to know is He is life. He previously recounted in his gospel that Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life". He wasn't just alive on Earth, but He was alive in Heaven with the Father and sent down here as a human so we could get a glimpse of God without disintegrating. Not only was He alive here and previously in Heaven, but as God he is the source of life. The Achilles heel of evolution and secular biology is "how did life begin?" Since every effect has a cause, in order to have life there must be an uncaused cause that started it. That being would have to be eternal, thus God is life. He never had a beginning. He just is and even once, for which they took up stones to kill Him, said "I am." That's the cosmological argument for the existence of God and 2000 years ago, John is giving it and saying this person, Jesus, who we all lived with was and is that God.
Christianity and the Bible is to be believed because it was given to us by eyewitnesses recorded by themselves, circulated in their lifetime and we have the manuscripts, in some cases, the first copy. These eyewitnesses died for their faith in brutal ways because they knew it was true. It gives eternal life to those who believe it, along with fellowship with God and fellow believers here on Earth and a joy to life that one can't experience without knowing Him. Are you in?
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