1 JOHN 1 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 350] 1 JOHN 1 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC Is there any reason why this epistle is not addressed to any particular person or assembly?
Rem It has been pointed out that it was written for the last time and so to be seen in the light of 2 Timothy — what compares with today.
CAC Well, I was wondering whether the last time was in prospect, in making such an address as the epistle contains; but the precious truth was there presented for any person interested to take it up.
Ques God’s family was in view in John, would you say, so that any individual being addressed would narrow the scope of the epistle?
Rem “Children” is used many times in John, e.g. “My children” in chapter 2: 1; there are those he can address as his children.
CAC The apostle ministers to them in an affectionate way, as a father. He could address them as children, so it is just a question of how far we are interested in what he presents. He begins his letter in a way that would arrest the attention of certain persons amongst whom, I hope, we are all found.
Rem J.N.D. mentions that this chapter applies to Christians irrespective of growth.
CAC Yes, the word “children” includes all the family, whom he divides in chapter 2 into three classes. There are “little children”, “young men” and “fathers”, but all are children, the family of God, and, as being so, partakers of the divine nature and born of God. Those born of God will be intensely interested in what John has to say.
Ques The subject of life is very prominent in this epistle, so would you say there is a certain moral continuation of what we have been having in Timothy? “Lay hold of what is really life”, and then we have, “The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” (1 Timothy 6: 19; 2 Timothy 4: 22). Would the teaching of the epistle help to balance us, bringing forward what is eternal if we are to be in the enjoyment of what is really life?
Rem It gives it in a very attractive way.
CAC “That which” — a certain subsisting thing, not exactly the Person of Christ.
Rem It is more connected with what has been made known. “That which we have heard, ... have seen”, etc., not so much the Person.
CAC It is what has come into expression in the Person. It is not what attaches to Him so much, but rather what is expressed in Him and by Him. It was connected with the words that He spoke. “That which we have heard”. “Thou hast words of life eternal” (John 6: 68). Life is a thing that expresses itself in man by what he says. Perhaps we do not always bear in mind that what we say is the expression of our life, but it is!
Rem It is so among men.
CAC The first thing which John refers to is “That which we have heard”. There is a certain substance — it is that, not exactly He, but that.
Ques What would “That which was from the beginning” mean?
CAC That which was from the beginning of the wonderful period that was introduced by the incarnation, the incoming of Christ. So the words of the Lord Jesus are to be considered, particularly as the expression of a new kind of life which had never appeared in this world before. I suppose this would particularly apply to the Lord’s words in the gospel of John.
Rem We have a first-hand witness, just as if we had actually seen and heard the Lord.
CAC It is good to bear in mind that the apostle John is as if he is speaking personally to us, as competent to tell us [p. 352] what was seen and heard and contemplated in a certain Person.
Rem All this is true and substantial.
CAC When there is no assembly that can be addressed.
It has been said that the postman would not know where to deliver a letter addressed to the assembly in T. It is a time when you cannot find the assembly — I am speaking of the public condition — yet this most precious truth abides in all its precious completeness, undiminished. If John were here he would say he had nothing to withdraw and nothing to add. He has put it all in his book and in his letters.
Ques What about “our hands handled”?
CAC It is very wonderful that he should bring in the thought of handling; it is the thought of something very tangible. He connects all he has in mind with the Lord’s real humanity. So even in resurrection He had a body that could be handled. It shows that the appreciation of the Lord’s humanity is vital to this matter.
Ques What is the viewpoint, His path here or in resurrection, or does it take in both?
CAC I have no doubt the apostle had in mind the new condition in which the Lord was risen from the dead. I think he has that in mind, but he does not leave out in his thought what was here in flesh and blood. F.E.R. said years ago that there was hardly anything in John’s gospel which could not be carried on into resurrection, which is an important thing to bear in mind, I think. It speaks of Him here, yet all that could be carried into resurrection. He is spoken of as the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father — well, that can be carried on into resurrection. He is that now. He was seen in it when here, but He is still there. Everything that belongs properly to life can be carried into resurrection. John begins with, “In him was life” (John 1: 4).
Rem That belongs exclusively to Him; you could not say that of anyone else.
CAC Yes, there was a spiritual order of things manifested [p. 353] to the apostles. All His movements relative to the Father belong to that sphere; that is the character of things that John speaks of. “And we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father ...”. There was a wonderful life that was with the Father, it was peculiar to one Person, it had never been known as the portion of any man before.
Ques Is there anything in the order in which it is set out? First hearing and seeing, then follows contemplating — a testing of the living reality of the thing. Sometimes we do not take hold in contemplation of a thing so as to be assured of its tangibility.
CAC Very important. Eternal life is a very substantial reality. It was in the Person of the Son.
Rem Eternal life was demonstrated in a Man.
CAC Yes. John and the other disciples being forty days with the Lord in resurrection would learn to regard His life — what they heard and saw in Him — in the light of His resurrection. I believe that is the intent of the Spirit of God. John did not write a single word of his gospel before His resurrection. The whole gospel is written in the light of resurrection. And the disciples took up all they had heard and seen in a new way after they had companied with Him in His resurrection, and had received the Holy Spirit from heaven. As having the Spirit they took it up in a new light and in a new way.
Ques Why is eternal life connected with the Father and not God? The Jews will have it in connection with God.
CAC Eternal life stands in relation to the particular way in which God is known. It is taken up in connection with revelation, He is revealed as the Father.
Rem It is distinctive of christianity.
CAC Eternal life is with the Father. It is the kind of life in man that is in perfect correspondence with the Father. This is very little understood. People speak of Almighty God, but not much is said about the Father. How religious [p. 354] people carefully avoid the Father! They would not think of praying to the Father, and I do not wonder. They would feel it would be out of keeping with that Name. “Father” speaks of revelation in perfect grace, as we get in John’s gospel. It is not so much spoken of in the three synoptic gospels. There must be a connecting life in man with the Father, so that it could not possibly be touched by death. So all He did and said in His Person — a life that was with the Father — death never could and never did touch that life. He gives His flesh for the life of the world, but He never laid down eternal life, a character of life that death could never touch. He took up a condition of life in which He could die, His life down here in this character of things. In resurrection He was in the proper sphere of eternal life, having a life which death could never touch any more.
Ques What does “Concerning the word of life” mean?
CAC The word of life is the expression of life. It was not characterised by anything that was of the world, but by His continual abiding in the Father. His whole life flowed out of communion with the Father. “The Father is in me”, He could say.
Rem “In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father” (John 14: 20) refers to this — it is the Spirit’s day.
CAC Yes. The life has been manifested, it has been seen objectively, as F.E.R. said. There was a great controversy years ago as to eternal life, and F.E.R. was asked, ‘Would you tell us in one sentence what you were contending for?’ He replied, ‘I was contending for the objective character of eternal life’.
Ques What did he mean by that?
CAC That is what I want you to think about! Well, what we see here. “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”. Manifested to us in the Person of Jesus — there to be looked at, seen, handled objectively in Him! People thought [p. 355] it was in themselves, but it is in His Son. It is to be contemplated as there — seen objectively in Him.
It is given to the saints, but then we have it in the Son of God. It is in Him that we have it, not in ourselves. Eternal life in its glorious living character is substantiated in Christ, as seen in Him. To enjoy it, we must enjoy it as a substantial reality in the Son of God.
Ques Is eternal life only enjoyed in the energy of love?
CAC Surely, if it is to be enjoyed with the Father. So if we move with the Father we are in enjoyment of eternal life.
It is a thing that can be reported. He says, “That which we have seen and heard we report to you”. You see how objective it was, so entirely outside themselves. We have seen and heard — now we report it to you.
Ques With reference to verse 1, would you suggest that what was seen and heard was so attractive that they laid hold of it?
CAC Very good, because in the present economy of love we must begin with what we hear, the mind is arrested and we pay particular attention to it. The great gain of the controversy was that the attention of saints was directed to this subject of eternal life in a way it had never been before. He that believes on the Son has life eternal, was the way they looked at it. There was not the attention given to it. If we knew we were to have the life of an angel, how interested we should be to know all we could about it. It is not the life of an angel we are to have, it is a life in the Son of God, seen in Him, and so it is reported to us to set us longing.
Rem It becomes very attractive.
CAC Yes, it is a blessed reality in the Son of God, and in Him for us, that we might know what it is to live in that region of things that is with the Father. They were privileged to have to do with it first hand, in contact with the One in whom it was seen. We have not, and learn it by [p. 356] report. Are we interested in it? that is the thing! There is not anyone particular mentioned.
Rem “We” is apostolic. Acts 1: 21, 22 speaks of “the men who have assembled with us all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day in which he was taken up from us”, though in a certain sense it might extend to those with Him in the forty days after His resurrection.
CAC It is not apostolic in the sense of being official, but a testimony rendered by persons who had been with the Lord right through His ministry. A hundred and twenty are mentioned in Acts who had been with Him in the days of His flesh and in His resurrection. It would spread out all over them, I think.