1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life—
1 John 1:1 (NASB77)

     John writes as only a first hand, eye-witness can.  Can you imagine being in John’s shoes? Being able to say that you had actually heard the voice that called into existence THE Beginning?  Or seeing and feeling the breath of the One on your neck while you laid your head on His breast? To have reached and felt the scars on His wrists and on His side?

     Now imagine someone calls this into question.  John uses in both phrases “what we have heard, what we have seen…”  the perfect tense, active voice, that gives the connotation of possession of John.  The phrase “with our eyes…” is in the instrumental case that it was no optical illusion, not something that was imagined by John, as Docetists claimed.  John was telling, emphatically that he knew who he was talking about. There was no doubt that Jesus was absolutely, historically and physically, real.

     The Word of Life…so much in one phrase.  He was the Word. He is the Word.  He will be forever the Word.  The Word which time can’t touch, because He touched time to give it its’ very beginning.  John puts the phrase in the genitive case.  What’s that mean?  It’s the possessor of Life.  In the Word, life is found because it originates from the Word.

     To find life we must look to the Word to find it.  We may not be able to give a visible testimony.  But we can point to those, such as John, who did.  In the Scripture we can find the testimony made more sure, and in it we find everything necessary for life and godliness.

     Don’t be afraid to take your testimony to the enemy.  Those who make the accusation that our faith is not real, deserve to be answered.  The church has been to slow to answer.  John addressed them head on.  Why do we shy away?  

     Know what you believe and why.

     What’s your testimony?

Soli Deo Gloria,

Aaron “Tree” Landis
Psalm 1.3