What is the Word of life in 1 John 1:1?

The 'word of life' does not here mean 'a spoken utterance concerning life'. It is a reference to the Son, Jesus Christ. The name 'Word' tells us both who He is and what characterises Him. Our words give expression to our thoughts. All that is in God's mind is expressed in the Word - in a Person. What is distinctly in view here, however, is life. All that God has in mind concerning life is expressed in the Word, here called 'the Word of life'.

It is asked if the expression - "the Word of life" - refers to the written Word. This is to miss the point and significance both of the words used and of their connection. John speaks of "that 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 (peri) the Word of life." It is true that he stops short of saying (and our hearts can understand it) "our hands have handled the Word of life"; but the next verse makes it, nevertheless, very plain that he alludes to the person of Christ, for "that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us," was brought down to earth, and displayed in, and through, the Son become incarnate. The term, "the Word of life," may be used because the living Word was the manifestation of the life. Thus, in the gospel, it is of the Word, who was with God, and who was God, that John says, "In Him was life," and also that He "was made [became] flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten with the Father,) full of grace and truth." In chapter 8, moreover, in answer to the question, "Who art Thou?" the Lord Himself replied, "Even [the same] that I said unto you from the beginning," more accurately rendered, "Altogether that which I also say to you;" that is, His words were the perfect expression of who, and what, He was. The Word (in the phrase, the Word of life) cannot therefore be dissociated from Himself, for His word contained the revelation of Himself, and here of Himself as that eternal life which was with the Father, and which had now been brought down to earth, and manifested before the eyes of His disciples. (Compare John 14:9-10.) It might thus be truly said that Christ Himself was the Word of life, even as He is afterwards described as "the true God, and eternal life."

Thus the Epistle opens by reminding us of what has been set forth in Christ, the Word of life. Eternal life has not simply been described to us by abstract doctrinal statements; it has been livingly expressed in a living Person, Who was seen by the eyes of the apostles, contemplated as an Object before them, and handled with their hands. This Person is spoken of as the Word of life, for as the Word He perfectly expressed the life.

That which was from the beginning (of Christianity; that is, in the Person of Christ), that which they had heard, had seen with their own eyes, had contemplated, had touched with their own hands, of the Word of life — that was it which the apostle declared. For the life itself had been manifested. That life which was with the Father had been manifested to the disciples. Could there be anything more perfect, more excellent, any development more admirable in the eyes of God, than Christ Himself, than that Life which was with the Father, manifested in all its perfection in the Person of the Son? As soon as the Person of the Son is the object of our faith, we feel that perfection must have been at the beginning. The Person then of the Son, the eternal life manifested in the flesh, is our subject in this epistle.

In verses 1 and 2 the Lord Jesus is not mentioned personally, for the point is rather that which was presented to us in Him. He was "the Word of life." In John 1, He is "the Word," and being such He creates, so that creation may express something at least of God. Also He becomes flesh and dwells amongst us that He may express God fully to us. Here the thought is similar, but more limited. Life is the point: He was "that eternal life which was with the Father" and in Him it has been manifested to us. We are to have the life in having Him; but the first thing is to see the full character of the life as it came out in Him.

The life was eternal life, but it also was "with the Father." This statement, we are told, gives the character of the life; so that it is not merely a statement of the fact that it was with the Father, but rather that it was such a life as that. It was with the Father inasmuch as He, who is the Fountain Head of that life, was with the Father, and in Him it has been manifested to us. He became flesh that it might be manifested.

How truly inspired was the Psalmist when he used the word, fountain, in this connection; Life surely lies inherently and equally in each Person of the Godhead, yet He who is the Word is particularly and specially the Fountain of it to others. This becomes more clear when we turn to the first epistle of John. There He stands before us, not simply as the Word in whom was life, but rather as "the Word of life": that is as the One in whom life has been perfectly and exactly expressed. "In Him was life," tells us that the life existed in Him. "The Word of life," assures us that the life is expressed in Him.

Moreover the life expressed, of which the Epistle speaks, is life of the highest character. The apostle John proceeds to say, "The life was manifested." Life, as we know it in the realms of creation may take many forms, but only one life can be spoken of as THE life, and that is, "the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us." The Fountain of life truly was with God, but since the Psalmist's day all has come forth into manifestation in the Son incarnate.

He says: "That which was from the beginning," not who, as we should expect. He is speaking, as he tells us, of the Word of life — the Word of God, according to the Gospel, and in whom was life; but in the presence of such an One he can only speak of "what we have heard and seen." It was not, as it were, the whole Person fully told out, just because it was impossible that He should be fully told out; and this accounts for the peculiarity of the expression. Yet he allows of no distance in which they were from Him. Every expression here seems to be designed only to bring Him nearer, and to assure the soul more fully of its right, through grace, to Him. Thus, first it is, "We have heard;" but that, if it stood alone, might be a distant Voice, the Person Himself hidden. Therefore he goes on to say: "Which we have seen with our eyes;" but then that is not enough. It was not a momentary vision. It was not as when He appeared to the two going to Emmaus, when they knew Him and He vanished out of their sight. No, he says: we have "contemplated" Him. He has been before our eyes so that we could take in and dwell upon the blessed One before us. But that even is not enough; as He says to Thomas, for perfect conviction of who He is, "Handle Me and see," so says the apostle here: "Our hands have handled." Thus He is known in the most intimate way, the Word of Life, the Giver of it surely, but at the same time the One in whom it was, whose every act and word was the expression of it, "that Eternal Life which was with the Father."

This life, he adds, "was manifested." It was, as he says in his Gospel, "the light of men" — light in the midst of surrounding darkness which knew it not and could not comprehend it; but a light, nevertheless, manifesting all else, a divine life in Man, a revelation of personal glory. And then it was not an exceptional one, simply to those meant to be distinguished from all else by receiving it. True, the One manifesting it has not remained among us, He is gone back where He was before; but those who have seen it are witnesses of the revelation, designed witnesses, sent to declare to others "that Eternal Life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us." We are to think of it as of a life lived actually upon earth, but manifesting the unseen energy which was beneath it all, divine and eternal. It was the Son of God in the world, as he delights to tell us, "The only-begotten Son," with an excellency entirely His own, and which could not be communicated to others, and yet at the same time with a fulness of power and blessing in it such as could be communicated and enjoyed: thus producing a living fellowship which followed (for those who received it in faith) the report made, on the part of those who, whatever they had, they had for others also besides themselves, and whose joy it was to communicate to others that which only enriched themselves the more by the communication.*

Having expanded on the method of manifestation, in the remainder of the verse he expands on the subject of the manifestation. What was manifested? The eternal life. In what sense was it eternal? It was with the Father. This, clearly, refers to eternity past but the eternal life which was with the Father has been manifested. It was manifested to the apostles. How? In a Person!

'The eternal life' expresses the unoriginated existence of the Person; 'which was with the Father' demonstrates His Godhead in relation to the Father; 'and has been manifested to us' recalls His manifestation through incarnation.

It must be noted that the apostle speaks of Him as "the Word of Life"; he does not say therefore "who was from the beginning" but, which was from the beginning. First he mentions what they had heard; but one may hear a person and not be near to that person. But they were closer to the Word of Life, he writes, "which we have seen with our eyes"; yet one may have seen a person without being close to that person; but they had more than a passing vision "which we have contemplated" which is more than a mere seeing, it denotes gazing with a purpose, with a desire and with admiration. A statement of still greater nearness follows, "our hands have handled"--John and the other disciples had known Him, the Word of Life, intimately.

"And the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and hath been manifested unto us." He whom they heard, with whom they were in touch, whom they knew and gazed upon is the eternal Life which was with the Father. It is more than that He spoke of eternal Life and promised eternal Life; He Himself is eternal Life. He was with the Father and came into the world, to manifest what that life is. While He manifested the Father, as He witnessed "whosoever seeth Me seeth the Father," He also displayed as man what eternal life is in His blessed and perfect life He lived on earth. And this eternal life is communicated to all who believe on the Son of God. This life which was with the Father, manifested in the Lord Jesus on earth, is the life which is in us. ("The life has been manifested. Therefore we have no longer to seek for it, to grope after it in the darkness, to explore at random the indefinite, or the obscurity of our own hearts, in order to find it, to labor fruitlessly under the law, in order to obtain it. We behold it: it is revealed, it is here, in Jesus Christ. He who possesses Christ possesses that life.") To know then what life we possess as believers, we must not look in ourselves, or to other believers, but to Christ and the life He manifested on earth. As another has said, "When I turn my eyes to Jesus, when I contemplate all His obedience, His purity, His grace, His tenderness, His patience, His devotedness, His holiness, His love, His entire freedom from all self seeking, I can say, that is my life. It may be that it is obscured in me; but it is none the less true, that it is my life."

In the Word was life. He is called the Word of life, and as such He was seen, contemplated, heard and handled by His favoured disciples. He is the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to those disciples, who have declared Him unto us. Yet though He had come so near to men, He was always the Son of the Father’s love and “the true God and eternal life.”