“to deepen our understanding of Jesus”
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The First Letter of John was not written in a vacuum. John’s Jewish upbringing, as well as the background of at least some of his audience, gave him a starting point for both the gospel and the letters he wrote.
Continuity
We began our study of John’s letters with a look back – all the way to Genesis and the introduction to God’s larger story.
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- In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
- That which was from the beginning, which we have seen with our eyes… (1 John 1:1
The first words of the gospel according to John and the opening of his first letter are more than a coincidental continuity with Genesis. In both documents, John establishes a strong, clear connection to the Jewish Scriptures.
Construing 1 John 1:1 in light of John 1:1 and Gen 1:1 means that what “we” have heard, have seen, and have touched is the message about the Word (ὁ λόγος [ho logos]), who was the agent of creation.[1]
There are cults that would affirm that Jesus was “the agent of creation.” In a previous discussion, we considered the Apostle Peter’s warning against the deception of false, or “plastic” words (2 Peter 2:3) that are easily twisted (2 Peter 3:16) into misleading meanings. Cults use this tactic when they acknowledge Jesus as “the agent of creation” while claiming He was first created by God. In the gospel, John eliminates that erroneous exegesis.
Accordingly, in John 1:1 we are dealing with a thesis that means that just as in Genesis 1:1, where there was allowed no hint of the creation of God, there is here no time envisaged when the Word was not in existence or in relationship to God.[2]
Likewise, this first letter begins with a similar clarification., also rooted in the Old Testament.
The first point is that in Jesus Christ what is eternal and transcendent has become palpably immanent. In other words, John affirms the incarnation. Transcendence or eternality is implied by the words “what was from the beginning” (1:1). ‘Aπ᾽ ἀρχῆς (ap’ archēs) occurs frequently in the LXX [“Septuagint,” the Greek version of the Jewish Scriptures – mw] to refer to what extends to the dawn or even predawn of time (Wis. 6:22; 9:8; Sir. 16:26; Isa. 43:13). Habakkuk 1:12 asks, “O Lord, are you not from everlasting [ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς]?”
John goes out of his way to emphasize that Jesus, the incarnate Christ, is the uncreated “agent of creation.”
Our comparison between Genesis, John, and 1 John didn’t end with “the beginning.” We noted numerous other ideas that John continues and develops.
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- In/from the beginning – Genesis 1:1, John 1:1, 2; 1 John 1:1
- God – Genesis 1:1-5 (6x); John 1:1 (2x), 2, 6, 12, 13; 1 John 1:5
- Created/made – Genesis 1:1, John 1:3 (3x), 10
- Light/darkness – Genesis 1:2-5 (8x); John 1:4-5 (4x),7-9 (5x); 1 John 1:5-7 (5x)
“Putting It All Together”
John goes on to develop and expand themes from the gospel into 1 John.
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- Life is identified with light in John 1:4, and that life is described as touchable and visible (1 John 1:2a) but also as eternal in 1 John 1:2b.
- The Creator God of Genesis 1:1 is knowable through belief in His Incarnate Son (John 1:12), and that belief involves a lifestyle of walking in the light (1 John 1:7) and practicing (lit., “doing”) the truth.
- The people who failed to know God (John 1:10-11) now have the incredible prospect of joyful, intimate fellowship “with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3b).
- God is the Creator of light (Genesis 1:1), and light is an extended symbol of His Son’s mission to mankind (John 1:5-9). Ultimately, light is a metaphor for the God who created it (1 John 1:5) and an expression of the lifestyle of His people (1 John 1:6-7).
Light is an apt metaphor for God, for it is the first fundamental property of the universe created by God (Gen 1:1), it allows and sustains all life, it makes life far more pleasant and safer than living in the dark, and it reveals what is hidden.[3]
One person commented that John is “putting it all together” in the progression from Genesis through the gospel according to John and into 1 John. Another member described the progress from basic knowledge about God to details about knowing and following Him as “kindergarten, ninth grade, college.”
Like any good teacher (kindergarten to college), John repeats and restates main ideas in order to show how they interconnect. In a previous discussion we noted that 1 John doesn’t read like a typical first-century letter, nor like a sermon.
The structure of 1 John is difficult to outline because its thought is circular more than linear. It returns to the same intertwined themes – sin, love, and sound Christology – again and again, developing each further in light of what has been said of the other two.[4]
Another writer offers an even more stimulating lens for viewing 1 John as
…the literary equivalent of musical variations on a theme – a constant circling around the basic issues, coming at it from a variety of angles, developing now this aspect and now that aspect, balancing one statement with another to clarify what is and is not entailed, returning to a point already made that it may be seen afresh in the light of what has been said subsequently.[5]
That “circling” and “developing” perspective may be helpful as we see John “putting it all together” through the five chapters of his letter.
Timeline and Message
Another comment concerned the timetable of the New Testament documents. If the gospel and letters of John were written late in the first century, the gospels written by Matthew, Mark, and Luke (all from similar viewpoints or “synoptic” gospels) would have been in circulation for twenty years. In addition, John’s first canonical writing, Revelation (or the Apocalypse), would also likely have been widely available. John had all that time to reflect on his “personal historical reminiscence of the life, teaching, and abiding will of Jesus.”[6] And he probably saw a number of misunderstandings or even intentional distortions of the life and teachings of Jesus.
First John may have been written to clarify and correct the misunderstanding or misuse of his writing in Revelation and the gospel. As someone suggested, John’s intention in this letter is “to deepen our understanding of Jesus.”
May our study of John’s letters deepen our understanding and our relationship with Jesus.
[1] Karen H. Jobes, 1, 2, and 3 John, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic, 2014), 45.
[2] Gerald L. Borchert, John 1-11, The New American Commentary (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 104
[3] Karen H. Jobes, 1, 2, and 3 John, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic, 2014), 63.
[4] Karen H. Jobes, 1, 2, and 3 John, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic, 2014), 38.
[5] Walter Moberly, quoted in Karen H. Jobes, 1, 2, and 3 John, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic, 2014), 38.
[6] Robert W. Yarbrough, 1-3 John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2008), 5.