TUESDAY
Yesterday we began our Advent campaign by simply reading slowly the four verses we will be focusing on this year. If you didn’t do yesterday’s devotional, I’d encourage you to do that first before beginning today’s.
Personally, I love the way the Apostle John writes. It’s not going to be everyone’s favorite and perhaps it isn’t yours. The rhetoric and flow isn’t as logical as Paul. Instead, as the Bible Project video below illustrates, John takes a few important ideas and circles around them in different ways that highlight those ideas repeatedly. He uses simple words and rather simple images to explain some of the most profound theological truths. John sticks to the main things in the Christian faith. He emphasizes them over and over again as if to say—”If we don’t get these things we’ve totally missed the boat.” John’s main themes in this book are life, love and light (truth and holiness). These are simple ideas that children can grasp, but the meaning infused into these ideas in the gospel is dense and so rich that the most brilliant minds can ponder them for a lifetime.
Verses 1-4 form the prologue and set the table for the rest of John’s letter. Let’s read it and focus on the big idea of these verses today.
1 John 1:1–4 (HCSB) 1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life— 2 that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us — 3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may have fellowship along with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
The main idea of this passage is found in verse 2. This is the primary verb—“…that life was revealed…” The second idea is found in the other verbs of verses 1-2 (John has heard, seen, perceived touched this revealed life and therefore he testifies to it and proclaims it). This we will take up next week. The application then follows in verses 3 and 4: Fellowship with one another, the Father and the Son and complete joy. These we will explore the last few weeks of this campaign.
For today I wanted to simply help you see the overall flow of these verses and get the structure in view. One of the most helpful things I learned in seminary for trying to understand the overall meaning of an epistle is a phrasing diagram. For some of you this will bring back some nightmares from grammar class, but I promise it will help you see the meaning of a passage. It’s too hard to replicate in Notion so I’ve included a pdf below. I’ll add to this as we move through the text, but for now hopefully this will help you see the structure.