“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” *- 1 John 5:13In The Beginning...> *“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.“ **- 1 John 1:1John was in a unique position. While those Gnostics who proclaimed a kind of superknowledge, a hidden truth, John was able to say that he KNEW the truth.
It is interesting that John uses the phrase, “That which was from the beginning…” There are 2 other times that we see this type of phrase and both of them are there for the same reason> *Genesis 1:1 - ”In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” *Foundational. If you don’t accept you need not go any further…> *John 1:1-3; 14 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made… *The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. ”
John wanted to make sure that everyone knows why he speaks with the authority that he does and he completely obliterates the Gnostics argument.> *“The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.“ *- 1 John 1:2The Gnostics believed that their were 2 components to Jesus. There was Jesus the man, lower case “m”, and then their was the Christ, capital “c”. Jesus the man was not divine.
When he was baptized by John then the Christ descended upon him. When Jesus died, the Christ left him.
This even went as far where in one of the “Gnostic” gospels the Jesus’ words on the cross are recorded as being, “My Power, my power, why have you forsaken me”.> *“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. “ *- 1 John 1:3-4John Establishes Here that we can have True Fellowship with God and Each Other.
What is Fellowship? Koino-nia. This is a sharing together of something common.
Fellowship is good but you have to make sure that you are truly fellowshipping. When we meet is it just to hang out? While there is nothing wrong with that we also need to Share that which is common between us. CHRIST.
So How Do We Do This…**