“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have beheld and our hands handled concerning the Word of Life—…” (1 John 1.1 NASB)

     Right out of the gate, John goes off on the Gnostics that said Jesus was here, but only in the spirit—not in the flesh.  He hits them in four areas.

     First, John tells them that “what was from the beginning…” Don’t misunderstand this point, as some have mistakenly done, that John is saying that Jesus had a beginning.  He isn’t.  He is saying that the beginning belongs to that which is in the temporal, not the eternal.  Rather that which was from, present at the beginning, already there while it was beginning.  This is the one John is going to speak of.  The Greek word for “beginning” in other places and tenses is translated “rule”(1 Cor 15:24), “principality” (Col 1:16), as well as others that seem to imply an idea of beginning with authority and power.  Which follows since “every knee shall bow…”(Phil.2.10).

     Doesn’t it make sense that if He was in the beginning He would have to be?  If He was there when the beginning took place that would mean one thing: He is God not just while He walked on this earth, but also before it was even formed.  John hammered this with this one phrase.

     John’s choice of words is interesting here.  He doesn’t start the line of thought like he did in his gospel.  Notice he doesn’t use the language of logos.  Why?  Because in the growing Greek thought the logos had philosophical and Gnostic overtones, John was showing them that the Logos was beyond something that they could fit into their philosophical heresy’s box.

     Let me ask….how big is your Jesus?  Do you try to keep Him in a box where you can feel comfortable? Our lives would be so much more worthwhile if we would let Jesus out…or I should say we let ourselves out and became what Jesus told us to be. Salt and Light.  But it is so much easier to put our own desires, our own problems, maybe even our own ministry opportunities ahead of what He ultimately desires—for us to proclaim to those around us that “what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen, concerning the Word of Life…”

     God give us the passion to stand and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, who was, and is, and is to come from the beginning, to a world that needs Him so desperately.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Aaron “Tree” Landis
Psalm 1.3