This week we are are looking at 1 John.  We talked yesterday about some of the bigger things happening within the book and the purpose behind the letter, who wrote and who read it.  These “catholic” or universal letters are very different than the directness of Paul’s more specific letters.  But they are just as powerful and have just as much to tell us.  Today we’ll look at the world of the text of the first part of 1 John 1.

One of the things that we see a lot in the introduction of this letter by John is the statement we were witnesses or we have seen.  I mentioned yesterday that one of the concerns about false teachers.  That is why, for John, it is such a big deal that everyone knows, hey, I saw this.  I saw what Jesus did.  My words do not come from some third-hand accounts, but I was there. We saw and we were witnesses to what Jesus did.

We see another theme that we see in the Gospel of John, especially John 17, eternal life.  In John 17:3,  we are told that eternal life is knowing the Father and the Son whom He sent.  Eternal life is not just a future thing, but it is something that everyone can know today, right now. This eternal life was revealed to them.  And they reveal to us.  So that we can know and have eternal life not just in the future, but in the present.

Know that life makes our fellowship complete. That is where the fullness of fellowship occurs, not in the things of this world, but in the things of the Spirit.

They have been given so much and now they are called to give, in the same manner.  Light and life have been given to them and now they pass it to the readers of this letter. They are expected, and so are we, to pass it on to someone else.

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