Do you desire fellowship with the Word of Life? Jesus is called this by the apostle John, who makes the offer of fellowship with the One who is eternal life. And as we who follow Jesus reflect on John’s words, we can ask if we exemplify this fellowship ourselves…
1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
1John 1:1-4 NLT
I recall at the end of Luke’s gospel, the risen Christ meets his disciples to pull together the threads of prophecy with the incarnation, Jesus’ public ministry, his death, and his resurrection. Jesus did this so that he could, in Luke 24, issue the Great Commission for the apostles to go out and establish the church.
This letter of John was written 40-50 years on from that day in Jerusalem. Scholars estimate its authorship at 85-95 AD. It starts with John seeming to echo his opening from his gospel account. He proclaims the one who existed from the beginning, echoing John 1 and connecting clearly to Genesis 1:1.
The testimony of the apostles seeing him and touching him refers to the resurrected Christ. Without the resurrection, this movement would die along with Jesus. But 40+ years on, it is not dead. The Romans and those religious leaders who crucified Jesus have not been able to squash it. Why?
Because Jesus is the Word of life. He is life itself. He was with Father God in heaven and then was revealed to those on earth. John repeats, Jesus is eternal life. He wants his readers, including us, to understand that this is a matter of eternal life. This is not simply a teacher who lived in the first century – he is the giver of eternal life.
Which begets the offer. John proclaims this for a purpose. He wants to offer the reader (vs. 3) fellowship with them. The fellowship of John and the church of Jesus is a fellowship with the Father and Son, Jesus Christ. This is a significant offer. I immediately consider my own life and wonder if I offered fellowship with me, which was inclusive of fellowship with the Father and Son, if my reader would believe me. Would my reader have confidence in my offer based on my own life today?
The integrity of the apostle, then and now, has a direct impact on the integrity of the message. When I offer for you to share in my joy in Christ, you better be able to see my joy. My fellowship with God must be evident in my life.
John will venture into these areas, with integrity, to reveal the life of discipleship and the source of the Jesus follower’s joy. We shall look in the mirror along the way to see if we are pressing into our own fellowship with God as disciples…
Amen.
Marc Kinna
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