PT-1 "The Life is Revealed" (1 John 1:1)

 

Evening Spiritual Diary For 8/3/2024 8:43 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-1 “The Life is Revealed”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  1 John 1:1

 

            Message of the verse:  “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life.”

 

            It is my desire for tonight to look at some of the things that Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe wrote about this verse.  I first have to say that Dr. Wiersbe usually has shorter comments on his commentaries, but I think that 1 John may have been one of his favorite letters to look at as his comments on this first verse are fairly long.

 

            He begins in his first paragraph to write “As you read John’s letter, you will discover that he enjoys using certain words, and that the word ‘manifest’ is one of them.  ‘And the life was manifested’ (1 John 1:2), he says.  This life was not hidden so that we have to search for it and find it.  No, it was manifested—revealed openly.”  Now keep in mind that Wiersbe usually used the KJV of the Bible.

 

            Wiersbe asks a couple of questions that will be good for all of us to answer and these questions are “If you were God, how would you go about revealing yourself to men?  How could you tell them about, and give them, the kind of life you wanted them to enjoy?”

 

            Some people will probably have different answers to these two questions, and I think that one of the reasons would be what a person thinks about who God really is before they can truly answer these questions.  People for sure have different opinions on who God really is and some wonder if God really exists.  Now let us take for granted that God truly exists and when one searches the Word of God they will find out that God has attributes to help us know Him better.  I am going to give you a website that will take you to a book that explains more about the different attributes of God, and you can actually read it free online.  https://bible.org/series/joy-knowing-god.  The Joy of Knowing God is the name of the book and it is written by the late Richard L. Strauss.  I have read this book a couple of times and have even taught part of it in a summer Sunday school class.  I can certainly say that it is worth the read as he explains the attributes of God in a way that one can understand them.

 

            In Romans 1:20 we read: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” This verse speaks of God’s creation, however creation alone, could never tell us the story of God’s love.  God has also revealed Himself much more fully in His Word, the Bible, from where you can find out about His attributes.  But God’s final and most complete revelation is in His Son, Jesus Christ, for Jesus said “He that has seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9).

 

            Now since Jesus is God’s revelation of Himself, that means He has a very special name:  “The Word of Life” (1 John 1:1).

 

            Now let us look at John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Now I may have mentioned that in the early centuries of the church age there were some who were wondering if the Apostle John really wrote this letter, but here is a convincing proof that he indeed write it.

 

            Dr. Wiersbe goes on to ask “Why does Jesus Christ have this name?  Because Christ is to us what our words are to others.  Our words reveal to others just what we think and feel.  Christ reveals to us the mind and heart of God.  He is the living means of communication between God and men.  To know Jesus Christ is to know God.”  “8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:8-9).

 

            Now as we continue to think about this we cans see in 1 John 1:3 that John makes no mistake in his identification of Jesus Christ, as Jesus is the Son of the Father—the Son of God “what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”  John warns us several times in his letter not to listen to the false teachers who tell lies about Jesus Christ, and these false teachers are telling these same lies today.  “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22).  “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God” (1 John 4:2-3).  If a man is wrong about Jesus Christ, he is wrong about God, because Jesus Christ is the final and complete revelation of God to men.

 

8/3/2024 9:34 PM