1 João 1

1 João 1:1

Morris - Tradition suggests John was writing from Ephesus where he served many years as bishop and pastor, possibly intending his letter to be circulated among all the churches of the region, including the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3. He stressed to his readers of the younger generation that he and the other apostles had actually heard Jesus speak (John 5:24), seen Him with their own eyes (John 1:18), "beheld" Him in His glory (John 1:14) and handled Him with their own hands (Luke 24:39). (BORROW Defender's Study Bible) Brian Bell observes that "The word “heresy” means to “select or choose.” False teachers teach some truth but then mix in their opinion as they select certain themes and ideas to focus on (Ed: or "to choose"). John is dealing with a false teaching called Gnosticism which taught that matter is evil and only the spirit is good. This has a lot of nuances but the most dangerous is that they believed Jesus did not really have a flesh and blood body but was more like a phantom. According to this view, Jesus didn’t really die or rise from the dead. Gnosticism, which got its name from the word “knowledge” in Greek, also taught that only those who had special knowledge could be saved. Because of this belief, two behaviors emerged. By the way, wrong beliefs always lead to wrong behaviors. Flesh fasting – Since the body is evil, any urge must be purged. In this view, people would unplug from the world. Flesh feasting – Do whatever you want because matter doesn’t matter. These people went to the other extreme and unplugged from any moral restraint. There’s a legendary story that one day John went to bathe and noticed that a false teacher named Cerinthus was beginning to descend into the pool. John immediately rushed out and is reported to have said, “Let us fly, lest even the bathhouse fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.” John doesn’t waste any time getting to the core issue of Christianity, which is Christ Himself. I don’t have to tell you that there is much confusion today on the street about the essence of true Christianity. As we will see, Christianity is not just a system of thought or a philosophy. It is a person – Jesus Christ – and He is a fact, He is to be proclaimed, He is to be shared and He leads us to joy. (Walk the Talk) Related Resource: Chart Illustrating the Main Beliefs of Gnosticism (Note - this link allows you to download a Word Document) D Edmond Hiebert writes that… It is generally agreed that the heresy confronted in First John was some form or forms of Gnosticism, but it is unwarranted to identify it with the full-blown Gnosticism of the second century. Among the numerous converts won to Christianity in Asia doubtless were former adherents of religious systems marked by Gnostic tendencies. Some of those converts soon sought to syncretize their old views with their newly accepted Christianity. Sharp controversy arose when they sought to propagate their new interpretations and they withdrew (1Jn 2:19 But they did not sever all their contacts with members of the churches (1Jn 2:26). A fuller development of the varied Gnostic views may indeed have been promoted by these heretics after their withdrawal from the churches. That the incipient elements of Gnosticism were active in the first century is clear. As a speculative philosophy of religion, Gnosticism was marked by a kaleidoscopic variety of views. Basic was the dualistic view that spirit is good and matter is inherently evil, and that the two are in perpetual antagonism. This assumed dualism created a gulf between the true God and this material world. The Gnostics, meaning “knowing ones,” held that spiritual excellence consisted not in a holy life but in their superior knowledge, which enabled them to rise above the earthbound chains of matter in their apprehension of the heavenly truth that had been made known to them. This knowledge, they claimed, had been made known to them through Christ as the Messenger of the true God. Thus “the Gnostic Christ was not a Saviour; he was a revealer. He came for the express purpose of communicating his secret gnosis.”8 This undermined the Christian view of sin and the atonement. Acceptance of Gnostic dualism made the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation unthinkable; two alternative views were advanced. Docetic Gnosticism held that Christ seemed to have a human body; His supposed humanity was a phantom. Cerinthian Gnosticism, named after Cerinthus, a late contemporary of John at Ephesus, held that the man Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary, was preeminent in righteousness and wisdom, that “the Christ” came on Him at His baptism and empowered His ministry, but left Him before His crucifixion; it was only a man who died and rose again. Either view eliminated the Incarnation and nullified Christ’s atoning work. Since the Gnostics held that fellowship with God comes through the esoteric knowledge brought by Christ, they often expressed their assumed enlightenment in scandalous disregard of the ethical demands of Christianity (Ed: "Licentious Living" = Practicing Sin as a Lifestyle). At other times their view led to asceticism. In opposition, John insisted that true Christian knowledge, which comes as a result of the anointing of the Holy One (1Jn 2:20), involves spiritual enlightenment as well as holiness of life (1Jn 1:5–2:5). For true assurance of eternal life (1Jn 5:13) the Christological test as well as the ethical test must be applied. (Online An Exposition of 1 John 1:1-4 - excellent) Luke records Peter's address to the other 10 disciples [Acts 1:12, 13+] in the upper room as they prepared to select a replacement for Judas Iscariot)… Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us— beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection." (Acts 1:21, 22+) THOUGHT - May we go to His Word desiring to hear from Him even as John first heard Him. And may this "foretaste" make us long for (and live for) eternity future when we shall have the holy privilege of hearing His voice… and see His glorious Face… forever and ever! Amen! The prophet Isaiah's words should be our "watchword" as we await His return… Your eyes will see the King in His beauty… -- Isaiah 33:17 HALLELUJAH! SEEN WITH OUR EYES What we have seen with our eyes - The verb have seen is in the perfect tense signifying past completed action with abiding results or effect. In other words the apostles had seen Jesus in the past (the 3 years they traveled with Jesus) and an image of the living Word of God (Jn 1:1) had, so speak, been "burned" on their mind's eye. They were "eyewitnesses". One can only imagine--what an image it must have been! John adds the phrase with our eyes (opthalmos) to emphasize that they did not imagine they saw Him (they did not see Him in their mind), but they literally saw Him physically. He was not a phantom or vision, but a flesh and blood Man they saw with their eyes. Wuest beautifully conveys the idea of the perfect tense in his excellent paraphrase - "That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard with the present result that it is ringing in our ears, that which we have discerningly seen with our eyes with the present result that it is in our mind’s eye, that which we gazed upon as a spectacle (theaomai), and our hands handled with a view to investigation, that which is concerning the Word of the life." (Eerdmans Publishing - used by permission) John could have just said "we have seen" but he adds the phrase "with our eyes" which emphasizes the apostle's "direct, personal experience in a marvelous matter." (