That which was from [the] beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life;
This letter opens with no greeting, no author's name, and no finished sentence. It opens by pointing at Someone. Two questions come up at once. Which "beginning" does John mean, since it is not the wording of his Gospel? And why does he say that which instead of who?
John's Gospel starts "in the beginning"; the letter starts from the beginning. Darby once read the phrase as a statement of Christ's pre-existence. Writing to someone who still held that view, he explains why he changed his mind:
As to 1 John 1:1, for a time, long ago, I thought as you do, and you cannot separate the pre-existence of the divine nature from the person. However, I think that in saying, "That which is from the beginning," the Spirit speaks of what Jesus was on earth, of what John had seen and handled. In the Gospel, "in the beginning," relates to the whole previous existence of God — that is, the phrase states the eternal existence of Christ as the Word. John's great subject is the manifestation of God, and of divine life on earth.
Kelly argues the same from the phrase itself. It marks a point in time, not eternity:
The phrase "from the beginning" never means "in the beginning," even when it is used of Him Who was also the Eternal One. By its very nature it points to a relation in time. We see this in Luke 1:2. There "those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word" can only mean from the time Christ was shown openly in public testimony... The phrase therefore does not and can not refer to eternity but to what was before its witnesses in time.
The wording is strange, and there is a reason for it. No words can tell out the whole Person:
He says: "That which was from the beginning," not who, as we would expect. He is speaking, as he tells us, of the Word of life. But in the presence of such a One he can only speak of "what we have heard and seen." The whole Person was not told out in full, because it was impossible that He should be told out in full. That accounts for the odd wording.
The four verbs are not repetition. Each one brings the witnesses nearer. Where the ESV has "looked upon" and "touched," other translations read "contemplated" and "handled" — the words used below:
First he mentions what they had heard. But you can hear a person and not be near to that person. They were closer than that, he writes: "which we have seen with our eyes." Yet you can see a person and still not be close to him. They had more than a passing look: "which we have contemplated." That is more than seeing. It means gazing with purpose, with desire and with admiration. Then comes a statement of still greater nearness: "our hands have handled." John and the other disciples knew Him, the Word of Life, closely.
John knew what a vision was — he had them at Patmos. But the incarnation, Christ's coming in a real body, could be touched:
At Patmos, what John saw was a vision. But he saw Jesus in this world with his own eyes. That was no vision, for the incarnation was a divine reality... To stress that the incarnation was real, he says, "and our hands handled." Both before and after His death their hands had handled the body of the Lord Jesus. John had been in closest touch with Him; he had leaned on His chest.
Eternal life could have reached us as a set of statements. It came another way:
Eternal life has not only been described to us in abstract doctrinal statements. It has been expressed in a living Person. The apostles saw Him with their eyes, contemplated Him as an Object before them, and handled Him with their hands. This Person is called the Word of life, because as the Word He perfectly expressed the life.
The verse also answers a claim. Teachers of that day said the apostles gave only a seed that later thinkers had grown:
This is the testimony of eye-witnesses. The apostle's language fits the situation of the believers, who at that time were threatened by the heresy of the Gnostics. These teachers laid claim to development. They said: the Gospels have given us the truth as a seed, and now we have its full growth. Not so, replies the apostle of God. We have that which was in the beginning, and it is great and perfect enough to allow no development. These false teachers also denied that the Christ had come in flesh. John says the opposite: we have seen Him and have handled Him.
- Beginning. Not eternity past, but the point where the eternal Word began to be seen and heard on earth.
- Shown. The life appeared in a living Person: they heard Him, then saw Him, then contemplated Him, then handled Him.
- Handled. Touch is the test. You cannot handle a vision, so His body was real — before His death and after it.
- Expressed. He is the Word of life: as the Word, He expressed the life instead of leaving it as doctrine alone.
- Finished. What John saw at the beginning needs no improvement. Hands that touched Christ answer every claim to move past Him.
(and the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us)
Verse 2 interrupts John's opening sentence to press one fact: the life that belongs to eternity stepped into time where people could see it. Everything that follows in the letter rests on that — what this life is, where it was before, and how anyone who was not there can receive it.
The whole of verse 2 sits inside brackets. One writer points out how we can spot it:
We can see it by looking at the main parenthesis that encloses verse 2. What makes it clear is the repetition of "…seen and heard…" in verse 3. Why does John repeat himself? It is because he is returning from a diverted train of thought back to the main track.
"The life was made manifest" is the hinge of the sentence, and of the letter. Life is one of those words no one can pin down — and God's answer to that was not a sentence but a Son:
"Life" is a word that stands for a quality very hard to define. Scientists and philosophers may try to define it, but their definitions will never satisfy the heart or mind. God did not tell us the meaning of life, eternal life, by putting words in a dictionary. He manifested it in the person of His own Son in this world.
This is what governs the rest of the letter:
"And the life was made manifest": this is the keynote of the letter. It is not, as at first, hearing and seeing. It is now seeing, bearing witness, and reporting the eternal life to God's people. That life had the character of being with the Father [that is, in eternity], and was made manifest to us in time when He lived here on earth.
The phrase points back before the Son ever took flesh. It rules out the idea that this life started when it appeared:
That life had always been with the Father, for it was the life of Divine persons. But it was never seen until the Son took flesh and blood… The Son taking flesh added nothing to it, and could add nothing to it. What appeared was what had always been… It would be a fatal mistake to think that it began when it appeared.
Commentators also read the phrase as describing what kind of life it is, not only where it used to be:
The life was eternal life, but it also was "with the Father." That statement gives the character of the life. It does not simply say that the life was with the Father. It says the life was that kind of life.
John does not say the Son brought eternal life. He says the Son is eternal life. Yet God gives that same life to us:
It is not possible for us to separate the life from the Person — "He is the true God and eternal life" (1 John 5:20). But we can tell the life apart from the Person, and see that this life can be given to us — "God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (1 John 5:11).
"We have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you" describes two routes to the same life:
The apostles received this life directly. God's people receive it through the testimony given about this life.
They passed on only what their eyes and ears took in. That limit still marks healthy teaching:
John did not report his impressions of Christ. He did not try to describe how it felt to touch Him… The truths about Christ Himself are the basis and the substance of Christian fellowship, and they bring us full joy. Beware of Christian teaching that focuses mainly on our own feelings.
Notice the order: the fact came first, the witnesses second.
Notice that the Holy Spirit begins with the infinite truth as it really is, a fact truly present here on earth, before a single chosen witness had heard or seen it… Here is the foundation; not Adam, but Christ. It is the Word made flesh, the Person of Christ.
- With the Father. The life had no beginning. It belonged to eternity before it belonged to history, and the Son taking flesh added nothing to it.
- Manifested. God answered the question "what is life?" not with a definition but with a Person seen, heard and handled on earth.
- Personal. The eternal life is Christ Himself — inseparable from Him, yet given to us, because this life is in His Son.
- Witnessed. The apostles received it directly. Everyone since receives it through their testimony, which reports only what they saw and heard.
- Foundational. The fact stood before any witness existed. So the Person of Christ — not our impressions of Him — is the ground that nothing can shift.
that which we have seen and heard we report to you, that *ye* also may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship [is] indeed with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
John had seen and heard the One he preaches, and he passes that on so that his readers may share what he shares. Then comes the startling part: that fellowship reaches the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
The word means more than friendliness or kindness. One writer draws a sharp line between sympathy and fellowship:
There is great confusion about what fellowship is. People confuse love with fellowship. Sympathy is not fellowship; that is my coming down to your level, suiting myself to you. Fellowship is more the bringing of you up to my level. Christ comes down to my level to sympathise with me. But He does it to lift me above my circumstances, and to bring me into fellowship with Himself. Fellowship is heart knit to heart. It is a shared mind, a shared object, aim, desire, interest, and affection. Now just think that God has brought us into fellowship with Himself. The way He speaks of fellowship in this chapter is overwhelming. It is not just fellowship with the apostles through their writings, but fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
The apostles reported what they had seen and heard, so that others could stand where they stood. One commentator points out that the last of these eyewitnesses was about to die. He asks what could steady us more:
Soon the last apostle would be gone. But suppose he had lived until now. What could he write that is more comforting and reassuring than this? The fellowship the apostles had at Pentecost still stands. Fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ still stands too, for us to enjoy by faith today, because of eternal life in the Son — theirs and ours alike. So the declared purpose of this message from God is that we might have the same fellowship the apostles had with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. His gracious aim in it is to fill our hearts with joy.
John does not speak of fellowship with God in general. He names the Father, and then the Son:
Why does he say that our fellowship is with the Father? The Father delights in His Son, the Lord Jesus; He finds all His joy in Him. So when we learn to find our joy in the Lord Jesus, when we learn to appreciate Him, we have fellowship with the Father. John had learnt to share a common object with God the Father, but he does not limit it to that. John says, "and with His Son Jesus Christ." The Lord Jesus delighted in the Father. He loved to show the Father and make Him known.
These men gained no place among the religious leaders of their day. Their new standing was not a step up in that world. It was right outside it:
They did not become the companions of the scribes. They did not enter the fellowship of the proud Pharisees. They gained no place beside the chief priest, and the royal court never looked on them with favour. No — they were carried beyond all these. They were carried beyond the highest and most exclusive circles on earth, and beyond angels too, into a wholly divine circle.
People often quote this verse to settle who may join a congregation. One writer warns against reading it that way, though he grants that the two are linked:
Some people tell us that fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ is the only fellowship Scripture ever speaks of. So they take it to mean Church fellowship. This is a serious mistake. It is true that no one really shares in Church fellowship without sharing in the fellowship of the Father and the Son… but they are different things. You can see this, because some share in the fellowship of the Father and the Son who do not share in Church fellowship.
This fellowship also guards us. One writer says that entering it keeps sin out:
If we enter into the holy fellowship that 1 John 1:3 speaks of, we shall be preserved. Enjoying that fellowship shuts sin out. And sin shuts us out of that enjoyment, until we confess it.
- Seen — the apostles told what they had seen and heard, so that others could share it too.
- Shared — fellowship is not sympathy. It is shared thought, aim, desire and affection. Christ comes down to lift us to His level.
- Named — the Father's joy is His Son, the Son's joy is the Father; to share their delight is to have fellowship with both.
- Beyond — this circle lies past every exclusive group on earth, and past angels, in God's own company.
- Kept — the fellowship itself abides. Enjoying it shuts sin out, and confession restores what sin interrupts.