Thoughts from 1 John....


1 John 1:1-4

1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

That which was from the beginning… a reference to God, since He was the only one that existed before creation. Everything else was a vast nothing.

One of the greatest things about the New Testament is that most of it was written by those who directly saw Jesus either by eye, or through a vision. There was no vast global communications network of any sort. So, the best way to hear about an event was to hear it directly from someone who had seen it. The gospels have extreme authority this way: four authors that can testify about Jesus’ life because they saw him face to face. This gives the authors credibility. In this case, it’s John declaring that he has seen, first hand, the messiah(the life) the OT prophesied about. He heard, saw, and touched the Messiah.

This we proclaim… John didn’t just let it rest with seeing Jesus Christ, he had to tell others. He had to let others know about the Good News.

Paul may not have seen Jesus in Person, but he saw Jesus in a vision. After that vision Paul’s life was dramatically changed. He had a life altering encounter with the Lord. This is one way we can know that Paul’s relationship with God was authentic.

Our evidence is in the way Christ has changed our lives. If we don’t live changed lives we aren’t testifying Jesus.


2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

The life appeared… Jesus Christ came and he is the Messiah. John knows this because he has seen him. Eternal life is now available through Jesus Christ, not through the sacrifices of the Old Testament.

This doesn’t mean we can simply ignore the Jesus’ commandments and go about living our lives however we would want to live. Those commandments give us something to endeavor towards. Following them won’t give us salvation. However, once we have believe that Jesus is the messiah, we should want Him to mold us into a more perfect person. John 14:15-31

3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete.

Fellowship with us… those who believe have a fellowship together, and are brothers and sisters. John longs for people to believe so he can call them brothers and sisters also. The fellowship among believers is unique because it involves the Father. He’s longing for “fellowship with us” is an invitation to a relationship with Jesus Christ.

To make our joy complete… to see more believe and come to the kingdom of God through fellowship with God, and also the actual joy we have because we know that God is our eternal life.

Overall these first four verses are oozing with biblical truth. God was in the beginning. He sent Jesus Christ as Savior to the world and the only way to eternal life. We have evidence of the Messiah, Jesus... John has seen him. A relationship with God is now possible, which is the way to true joy.

Psalm 13

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

The Lord has been crazy good to me over the past school year. Sure there were a lot of tough times, but now that I look back on it His hand was definately helping guide my life.