In bearing witness to Christ, John at the same time bears witness to the Kingdom. It cannot be otherwise: they are inseparable. The very appearing of the Son is connected with the fact that God's life, the life of the heavenly Father, formerly invisible and unreachable...
In bearing witness to Christ, John at the same time bears witness to the Kingdom. It cannot be otherwise: they are inseparable. The very appearing of the Son is connected with the fact that God's life, the life of the heavenly Father, formerly invisible and unreachable, becomes visible (v. 2). Visible through a concrete Man and in a concrete Man, whom one can touch with one's hands and examine just as we can examine and touch everything that exists in our world (v. 1). And through this, one can become part of the Kingdom, share in the life by which the Father lives and which the Son bears in Himself in all its fullness (v. 3). This is Christianity. John does not speak by chance of the fullness of joy (v. 4; the Synodal translation calls it "perfect joy"). The point is that joy which is connected with God's presence in the life of a person or a community. This joy, of course, was known even before the coming of Christ.
But no one in pre-Christian times knew its fullness. And the issue here is not that it was never experienced in fullness by anyone, nor even that every joy, together with life, then ended in Sheol, the world of shadows, the kingdom of the dead, which made everyone equal. The issue is that the breath of God, the breath of the Kingdom, could not be contained in fullness in any human heart - and therefore could not be revealed to the world from within, so as to be accessible to every seeker.
From outside, this breath reached people, and in the world at all times there were people who sensed it. But to transform our world completely, to return it to the state in which it could again become part of the Kingdom, as it was before the fall, can be done only from within. And the Savior, coming into the world, brings the Kingdom into it. In all the fullness now accessible to every seeker who is ready to trust Him.
But to share in the life of the Kingdom means not only to touch it outwardly. It also means to let it in. To make our heart become the door through which the breath of the Kingdom enters the world. This is beyond the strength of fallen man. But one can open one's heart to Christ, let Him into one's life, and then He will make our heart the door through which the breath of the Kingdom will burst into the world just as it once burst into it through the open windows of the upper room in Zion. Then our life will become Christian to the end - we will live by the Kingdom and in the Kingdom.
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1:1 That which was - Here means, He which was the Word himself; afterwards it means, that which they had heard from him.Which was - Namely, with the Father, ver. Jo1 1:2, before he was manifested.From the beginning - This phrase is sometimes used in a limited sense; but here it properly means from eternity, being equivalent with, "in the beginning," Joh 1:1.That which we - The apostles. Have not only heard, but seen with our eyes, which we have beheld - Attentively considered on various occasions. Of the Word of life - He is termed
as he is the living Word of God, who, with the Father and the Spirit, is the fountain of life to all creatures, particularly of spiritual and eternal life.
1:2 For the life - The living Word. Was manifested - In the flesh, to our very senses. And we testify and declare - We testify by declaring, by preaching, and writing, Jo1 1:3-4. Preaching lays the foundation, Jo1 1:5-10: writing builds there on. To you - Who have not seen. The eternal life - Which always was, and afterward appeared to us. This is mentioned in the beginning of the epistle. In the end of it is mentioned the same eternal life, which we shall always enjoy.
1:3 That which we have seen and heard - Of him and from him.Declare we to you - For this end. That ye also may have fellowship with us - May enjoy the same fellowship which we enjoy. And truly our fellowship - Whereby he is in us and we in him. Is with the Father and with the son - Of the Holy Ghost he speaks afterwards.
1:4 That your joy may be full - So our Lord also, Joh 15:11; Joh 16:22. There is a joy of hope, a joy of faith, and a joy of love.Here the joy of faith is directly intended. It is a concise expression.Your joy - That is, your faith and the joy arising from it: but it likewise implies the joy of hope and love.