MelissaR
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« on: January 05, 2009, 06:55:04 am » |
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A bunch of random observations on 1 John 1:1 - 4 and a question I'm pondering...
John begins his letter much like his gospel: with Jesus in the beginning. He points out that Christ was with God in the beginning. He was God and human at the same time.
I counted 29 uses of first-person plural in chapter 1. John wants everyone to know it was an eyewitness account. This is typical of John to want to prove to everyone that he was there, but in this letter it is obvious that he is trying to let everyone know that he saw and experienced Jesus firsthand.
It is popular to believe that John was responding to gnostism, a belief that "knowledge" was the answer. Some gnostics debated that Jesus was just an apparition and didn't actually exist in human form. We can't prove that he was responding to the gnostics, but he was definitely dealing with some kind of schism in the church. Note that he pointed out so many uses of his senses: heard, seen, eyes, looked at, hands have touched, seen, seen, heard... He really wants us to know that he was there! The only senses he didn't mention were irrelevant (tasting and smelling)!
The purpose of the letter is spelled out in vs. 3 and 4: to promote fellowship and to promote joy. And that brings me to my question: Why did John say that writing this would make his joy complete? Why did he use the word complete? It seems to me like sharing the gospel would make joy more full, but I feel like joy can't be complete until we are in Heaven! Thoughts??
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