Transcript
In this course thus far, we have been dealing with Paul's letter to the Galatians, Peter's letter to people including Galatians, but Cappadocians, people in Pontus, Asia, so on. Now we turn to the third of the three letters that we give attention to in this course, what's known as the first epistle, the first letter of John. Three such letters, the first letter directed generally to Christian believers, the second letter of John directed to a congregation, and the
third letter of John directed to an individual rather like concentric circles. Our attention will be given to the first epistle directed generally to people who live in Galatia as Paul wrote to them, or whether they live in areas of Asia Minor, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, etc., or whether they live anywhere, a general letter, a universal letter, a Catholic letter. Now may I just see quickly in general a show of hands how many in the class have read
in English in the last two, three weeks maybe, 1 John. Thank you. I will therefore make some general comments for the benefit of those who've read it, and those particularly who have not read it recently, some general comments about the nature of this letter. This letter is very hard to make an outline of its progression, because unlike Paul that generally in his letters has two parts, the doctrinal part followed by the practical application. That's characteristic of
Paul's letters, two main divisions, unlike 1 Peter, which touches upon a variety of topics largely on the basis, I think, of the kind of preaching that Peter gave various places, various times. Now he incorporates the elements of his preaching in this letter directed to a variety of needs. 1 John, very difficult to analyze because it has a sort of circular motion of argument, perhaps better described as a spiral. It does repeat itself, and those of you
who have read it recently maybe got the impression that many people do get, that it has an awfully great amount of repetitiveness, that the argument is not closely articulated, there seems little progression, the author seems to think around a succession of related topics. And so the ordinary person gets the idea, and one can understand how this would happen, that the author is very repetitive and rehashes, it seems, the same thing over and over and over again
with very little variation of language. Well, that is the characteristic of this letter, quite different from the style of Paul, who darts from one point to another in a very aggressive and idiosyncratic way, unlike Peter, who develops a topic and deals with this and then another topic. The author of 1 John circles around a topic and looks at that from various points of view, and then he will repeat himself to some measure, but on a higher
plane, as it were, so that you have a spiral that is repetitive, but when it comes around again the second time, it's at a somewhat different angle, different level. I think this is quite deliberate on the part of John. He deliberately restricts his vocabulary to very simple words. He has a limited vocabulary, and the limited vocabulary is made up of ordinary, everyday words, water, light, life, darkness, love, hate, and he makes use effectively of that limited
vocabulary by having the most profound of the thoughts of any of these three authors that we're considering in this course. What at first sight seems to be tiresome, repetition, is that way because the author is so careful lest his readers miss some aspect of what he's talking about. And as we teach children by repetition, so he goes about in what he wants to say and repeats himself, but frequently at a different level of a different point
of view. There's another difference we can notice at once when we look at this letter, the kinds of subject matter topics that he deals with. Of course, in part, he's writing to Christian believers as Paul, as Peter, but there's nothing at all here about the problem of circumcision of the Gentiles, not a syllable. That kind of problem was very hotly debated in the 50s, 60s. Paul deals with it at that time among people that were being
troubled by it. Nothing in this letter, at least very few syllables, about persecution. First Peter says, the fiery trial that is coming upon you, don't be discouraged. When as Christians you are charged with doing what is wrong, take it. Nothing about that. Some of the problems that surface in this letter to which he addresses his comments have to do with the doctrine of Christ. Is Christ the eternal Son of God or was he a phantom, a
spirit being that is not incarnate in a man, in a human being? This writer has to deal with the heresy of dosatism, that Jesus only seemed to be a human being, that he was a spirit being, a phantom. Our author addresses this at several places. Going with this kind of problem, doctrinal problem, the author, many places, addresses another concern in this letter. What seems to be two ways psychologically of regarding the Christian commitment, that what a
person does in his or her soul, spiritual life, has no impingement whatever on the practical living and vice versa. You can do anything you like in practical living provided you have the right doctrine. He is against that and also against the idea too of perfectionism, that only the person who never sins has any hope of eternal life. He speaks directly against both of these opposite tendencies. That is to say, among some of the heretical groups, there
were those that were like Tertullian said, a second repentance cannot be countenanced. And on the other hand, those of the various heretical groups that said, the person's practical life in the flesh has no impingement on his or her spiritual life. So these are some of the things that our author addresses. He addresses these things in a repetitive way, that to the casual reader seems sleep-producing as you read it. But which, if you pay attention to
the profound thought, really involves some of the most monumental theology, brought out in very simple package form in this letter. The spiral motion then of his reasoning is not in the Greek manner of progressing from thesis to antithesis to synthesis, not in the manner of Aristotelian logic, but in the manner of the way in which the Hebrews looked at a matter from all possible angles. And the seemingly inane repetitions and the frequent retrogressions to a proceeding
point before adding a new idea. These are his devices which, though appearing so tedious to a hasty reader today, reveal how very solicitous John was that his readers comprehend all the varied implications of what he wished faithfully to transmit to them. Now I said it is difficult to outline the letter, but I think we ought to try it nevertheless. And there are different ways that different people have understood how to divide the letter with its argumentation.
I follow now the outline that is given in the one-volume Bible commentary brought out earlier this century under the editorship of J.R.R. Dummelow, D-U-M-M-E-L-O-W. A one-volume commentary still in print through the Macmillan Company, which of course is out of date in some respects, but a one-volume commentary that I go to more than once for the spiritual sensitivity of those who contributed to it. And I can
recommend it to you, I think also, that along with a more up-to-date one that has archaeological material and so forth, 20th century, this from the late 19th, earliest 20th century, I think has very much what you might call spiritual help of the meaning of passages of the books of the Bible, J.R.R. Dummelow. In the comments on 1 John, this outline is supplied. The first four verses, of course, are introduction. Everybody notices that. Then
the book is divided into three sections. 1 verse 5 to 2 verse 28 deals with the theme, God is light. The corollary to this as developed in that section is that fellowship with God means walking in the light and realizing a sense of brotherhood and forgiveness of sins. 2 verse 29 to 4 verse 6. Again, I borrow from J.R.R. Dummelow. The theme, God is righteous. And hence the corollary follows that fellowship with God involves doing
righteousness. And this is an evidence of divine sonship. And thirdly, 4 verse 7 to 5 verse 12, God is love. Hence, fellowship with him involves our walking in love. Now, after making the necessary adjustments for masculine-oriented language here in that outline, it does seem to me that the author has focused upon the main topics of this letter, theologically speaking, God is light, God is righteous, God is love. And the short letter concludes then 5 verse
13 to 21 with a conclusion. Let me read you now the opening preamble of the first four verses. I'll read it in the RSV translation, calling your attention the interlude of verse 2. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the word of life, now a dash. Others print a parenthesis mark beginning with verse 2. He's talked about concerning
the word of life, now a parenthesis. He talks now about specifically that life. The life was made manifest and we saw it and testify to you and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. Now the RSV has a dash, others have the closing parenthesis mark. So verse 3 latches on to verse 1 with verse 2 as a parenthesis in which he explains something about this life. And
so verse 3 repeats a little bit some of what he had begun to say in verse 1, namely, that which we have seen and heard. He condenses the first part, that which was from the beginning, which we've heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the word of life. Then, as I said, this interlude. And then he switches himself back on the track again, that which we have
seen and heard. We proclaim also to you so that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be complete. That's a long and complicated sentence in Greek and in English. It's not difficult to parcel out once you observe that all of the first verse comprises grammatically the object of the main verb in verse 3 paired down to
the bare bones, the subject and the verb in verse 3 that controls the whole long sentence. We proclaim to you. We, that's a subject, proclaim what? Well, all of what is said in verse 1, we proclaim that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which was seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the word of life. Now he has this interlude describing what life involves. He goes back
and catches up that idea in verse 3, that which you have seen and heard. Now the subject, we. What does the subject do? We proclaim, we explain, we set forth. So that's the structure grammatically in thought with regard to this lengthy sentence. Very simple. We are proclaiming, we're telling you such and such things. Now who are the we? C.H. Dodd in his very good commentary on 1 John says that here the author speaks for the
whole church. And he says something similar happens in 4 verses 4 to 6 and 4 verse 14. The difficulty arises because the writer was a person holding two positions. In one sense he was associated now with his fellow Christian believers. In another sense he was associated with the original apostles. So he writes as a call to his readers and he says you and I are alike, Christian believers. But he also uses we in the context of
his unique position as a witness to Jesus Christ. On the one hand he can address his readers as brothers on an equal footing with them. We would say brothers and sisters today. But on another footing he speaks as Paul did speak in the opening of Galatians as an apostle. Someone that's commissioned by God to speak authoritatively. Well what does he set forth? He sets forth here theological understanding of the import of the incarnation. That which was
from the beginning, which we have heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the word, the logos, the logos of life. Now everybody that reads 1 John ought to be thoroughly acquainted with the Gospel of John. Because some of the same notes and themes are struck in both these documents. At once we are reminded of the opening of the fourth Gospel. In the beginning was the logos, the
word. The word was with God. The logos was God. And this logos became flesh, dwelt among us. The author here likewise makes use of the term word. That's a very significant expression to use in describing the nature of Jesus Christ. The word of God. It is significant both because of what it means, which I will go into in a moment, and because of the way in which other people used that expression word at this first century.
Among Jewish people, the Targums on the Old Testament, Targums are Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrew Old Testament. Targums at that time frequently made use of the Aramaic word Memra in describing what God does in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. That the word of God does such, speaks in this way. That is to say, among Jewish people at this time, it was in synagogue worship, frequent, that an explanation was given about what the Old Testament
attributes to God doing, that it was the word of God that did or said that, the Memra of God. Secondly, at this time among Gentiles, certain philosophical ideas spread through Stoics, used ideas from a pre-Christian time among Greek philosophers about the Lagos, which is disseminated throughout the cosmos. And the Lagos somehow is that which provides what is reasonable within what exists. The Stoic philosophers influenced the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, who lived from about 40
BC to about 20 AD, and whose writings involve frequently in Greek the word Lagos, in referring to it as it were an intermediary between Jehovah and the universe. That is to say the term Lagos was being used at this time by both Jew and Gentile. In the Gospel of John and here, he makes use of that term, but with the special overtone not present in the Jewish or pagan ideas of the Lagos, he uses it in
terms of describing a human individual, who as Jesus embodied within himself the co-extensive deity with God, truly God and truly a human being in one person. The idea of the Christian teaching of the incarnation goes significantly beyond what either Jew or pagan philosopher had said about Lagos. Now let us examine how John at this verse understands the term Lagos. He talks about the word of life and that they, the apostles, had seen and heard and
had companionship, had touched him who embodied the word of life. That this life, he says, was made manifest, we saw it, we testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father. This life, which is the Lagos of life in Jesus, existed before the birth of Jesus and had been with the Father. He uses here the term was, the Greek word ein. The Lagos existed before he was manifested. Later, third, fourth
century, fourth century, the Aryans would say there was a time when the Lagos was not. Ein, haute, uke, ein. Our author says that which was from the beginning we have seen. There was no time when the Lagos was not. The Lagos existed when time began. The purpose of our author here, as Calvin noted, the purpose of the author, in saying what he said, is to remove the idea of novelty which could lessen the dignity of the
gospel. The purpose of his saying what he said, that in the beginning was the word, is to remove the idea of novelty which could lessen the dignity of the gospel. In John 1 verse 1, the Lagos existed before the creation. In 1 John 1 verse 1, the Lagos existed before the incarnation. The term Lagos is, as I said, a very happy term to use in describing the nature of Christ. If you look up in a large
classical Greek dictionary, the word Lagos, you will find that about 40 different definitions are given for Lagos. It is a very widely used term, meaning word, comment, observation, detail, question, many, many things. But all of these seem to cluster around two main foci. In Greek, the word Lagos, Lagos means, now I use two Latin words, before I mention what the English means, in order to indicate the relationship of these. Lagos in the Greek means, that which
is hidden in the mind, the reason. The Latin word is ratio. And other usages of Lagos have to do with what is spoken out, the oratio. Now those two Latin words are convenient, I think, to show that of all the different meanings of the term Lagos, they cluster around two aspects. The Lagos means that which is within a person and constitutes his reason, his purpose, his will. And that's hidden. You don't know what I'm thinking unless
I tell you. I don't know what you're thinking unless you tell me. The Lagos in you, in me, the reasonableness, the thought, that exists co-evil with the individual. But this author says that that which existed co-evil with the Father and was hidden, involving the purpose, the thought, the plan of God, this which is hidden was made manifest, it was spoken, it was revealed, it was made manifest in the incarnation through the person, his work,
his teaching of what Christ said and what he was. The incarnation lays forth for people to observe and know what God is because his hidden Lagos, plan, purpose is now disclosed in Jesus Christ. Well, I think that's a very profound thought in a very simple language. Christ is said to be the Word of God. And that is proclaimed both through what he was historically and what he taught to his followers. And that which was from the
beginning, which was co-eternal with the Father, which being incarnate, we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Lagos of life. Here he adds a Christian note, not just the Lagos in general, is qualified as the Lagos of life. So he takes verse two as a kind of parenthesis to describe the life was made manifest, we saw it, testified to it, proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was
with the Father and was made manifest to us. The Greek language has in Maine two words, both of which mean life. It has the Greek word bios, from which we get biology, teaching about life, and it has the word that's here, zoe. The zoe, well let me start this way. The term zoe allows for a deeper understanding of life than bios. The New Testament uses zoe only of God and of people, not of animals, not of
a plant that's living. And zoe in the New Testament is restricted in speaking about God and of people. And the New Testament uses the word zoe as to what God is and as to what we have. The difference between what God is and what we have has been given to us. In a physical sense, zoe is used in the New Testament a few places of the physical earthly existence of a certain individual. James 4 verse 14,
what is your zoe? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. This use of the term zoe of a physical earthly existence is contrasted in the New Testament with the usual way that zoe is used. An indestructible life is not merely a temporary antithesis to death, but is a perfect and abiding antithesis to death. This zoe speaks about the abiding fullness of God. It's the essential quality that belongs to God.
And through the logos of this life, it's been communicated to human beings. The gospel says the same thing, for as a father has life in himself, so he is granted the son also to have life in himself. John 5:26. John 1 verse 4, in the logos was zoe, and the zoe was the light of human beings. So here, first John 1 verse 1, the logos has life in itself and communicates that life to others. That's
the logos of life. The Old Testament frequently speaks in contrast to idols, to the living God. The emphasis in the Old Testament to God being the living God, draws a sharp line of contrast between the true God, whose reality is known by his acts, and on the other hand, the idols, they're dumb and that need to be carried about, who cannot see or hear or speak. Contrast is made in 1 Samuel 17:36, 1 Kings 18:26
to 29. Furthermore, in the Old Testament, God is called the living God, not only as the creator, but as the restorer of life in those that are his. The psalmist, my soul thirsteth for the living God, Psalm 42 verse 2. But the term living God in the Old Testament, as it's used there, not only suggests what I've said about God being the source of life, but in a very interesting way, the Old Testament uses that
phrase, the living God, to describe the providence of God. To describe God's watchfulness over you and me, that he guards, he corrects, he cares for the individual life. And Jesus took this up and he said, why even the hairs of your head have been numbered. And without God's knowledge, not even a sparrow falls to the ground. That is to say, God who is living is vitally concerned about every living creature. 2 Samuel 14:11, Psalm 18:46,
Matthew 10:29 and 30. The zoe then that this author is talking about is life real and genuine. It's not only the opposite of death, but this life is a positive freedom from death. Death has been swallowed up by zoe, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 4. It is the first and the last blessing that God gives to us. It's the essence of all happiness. Well, this is a Johanan idea that occurs many times. The gospel reports
that Jesus said, I am come that they may have zoe and have it abundantly. John 10 verse 10, here then he says that we are proclaiming to you what God from all eternity planned to exhibit through his son who had been with God as the logos of God, the word. And now is made manifest that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the father and his son, Jesus Christ. The Johanan idea here,
life is the subject matter as well as the aim of divine revelation. It is the subject matter, it's the content as well as the purpose of the divine revelation. So this term logos of life is described as the eternal life. Now in English, King James translation a number of places says everlasting life. John 3:16 in the King James version, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him
might not perish but have everlasting life. Elsewhere as here, God provides us eternal life. It's the same Greek word, ionios, that is rendered sometimes in the King James Bible by the term everlasting and sometimes by eternal. It ought to have been translated always by the word eternal. Ionian life is much more than life without end. Everlasting life means life that has no termination, that lasts forever. But eternal life is far more grand than simply unending life.
Eternal life, that is to say Ionian life, the Greek word ionios is used as an adjective to qualify this life. It is the life which yes is without an end but it's the life of the eternal one. The life that is qualitatively different because it belongs to God who is totally different from any and all creatures. So he's speaking here about something very grand, something very profound. We proclaim to you this word of life which he,
verse 2, defines it as the eternal life. That qualitatively different life from physical, biological life, different even from being merely life without end. It's a life that is like the life of God. Now this life, he says, is a present reality. We have it. Elsewhere he will say it's a life to come. The New Testament writers make use of a variety of ways of speaking about this life and the future consummation where after the resurrection of
the body the individual believer will receive the crown of life, Revelation 2, verse 10. Well finally, in 1st John the term zoe, eternal zoe, is frequently used as a contrast with the Greek word orge, wrath of God. It is used as an antithesis of Greek word chrisis, judgment of God. Both in the Gospel and here such expressions occur as that there is no longer any judgment for those who have eternal life with God. John 4:14,
1st John 2:25, this Ionian life describes not so much a distinct life from our present earthly existence but rather shows in the clearest way the contrast with death in its widest range. So that as sin reigned in death, grace might also reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, as Paul expresses it in Romans 5:21. So this life is the life that belongs to the age to come and this life has
nothing to do primarily with time but the Ionian life depends on our relation to God through Jesus Christ. Finally the practical result of this so that our fellowship, so that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the father and his son Jesus Christ. The practical result of having this life is not just a metaphysical being, brother and sister love is a criterion of having passed from death to this Ionian life. 1st John
3:14 and following. This life is defined then as our knowledge of God and of the one whom he has sent, John 17:3. So that the individual who has this zoe, this life, has all that need be had. Well there is a lot more believe me in these opening verses and I wish now in conclusion to draw to your attention verse 4. We are writing this that our joy may be complete. Some manuscripts say we
are writing this that your joy may be complete. I think that the RSV rightly chooses the Greek word among the manuscripts that differ here that our joy may be complete. Here is the apostle writing to his readers not simply that their joy may be complete, but so that he and the readers alike together may enjoy the knowledge of Christ. So here in a humble way he puts himself within the whole orbit of the church universal and
does not speak down to them. Now you listen to what I am writing so that you can at last come up to our level. He says so that all of us, we alike, with you, may together rejoice in this knowledge. Well that is all for today. You read over for the next lecture the first two, three chapters. We will try to make some comments about that at that time.