The Living Word of Life

1 John 1:1-4 

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

The word of life.  He was heard by the disciples and apostles whom He called out to follow Him while walking on earth.  He was from the beginning of time (John 1:1) and was the word they heard in the beginning of their calling, of which John was one of the twelve first fruits (Matthew 4:21-22).  These were eyewitnesses of the Word who spoke creation into existence (Genesis 1:3, Colossians 1:16-17), and who walked among them as Emmanuel.  They could touch and see Him as we can now only do by faith in our spirit, yet struggled to believe until He opened their eyes (Luke 24:25-27, 31-32) to see and understand how all the scriptures pointed to Him as a testimony of God’s grace to salvation.  This Word of life then was revealed and these, including John, bear testimony of who He is; their encounters with Him revealed the unending life given in Jesus Christ, which message is the gospel.  The life in God the Father was demonstrated in the Christ, the foretold Messiah, to be seen by these men and told to us.  Why?  That we too might have fellowship together in the Lord Jesus with these who first saw Him, that we might know God as Father through the Son by the Spirit sent to live in us for understanding (Ephesians 1:13, John 16:7, 13-15).  Our relationship of sharing in God comes through His Word (Romans 10:17) by God-given faith as Ephesians 2:8-9 states, and we as His body have this as corporate fellowship, not just as an individual relationship.  John wrote these deep foundational truths here to all readers throughout time who are called by faith in Christ as revealed by the Father’s living Word, whose Spirit in us testifies to our spirits of the verity of these things that we might have eternal joy from now until forever in Him.