Tags
Christ, God, Gospel of John, Jesu, Jesus Christ, John, John the Evangelist, New Testament, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, word of life
The three New Testament letters attributed to John the Evangelist reflect the perspective of John’s gospel, giving us a picture of Christ as the Eternal Word of God, spoken for our benefit. These later writings have nothing in them of the poor conditions of the birth of Jesus about which we have been talking and singing these past days. Actually, there is no birth narrative at all. John is inspired by Greek philosophy and speaks more of the divine nature than the humanity of Jesus. And yet, this morning in the beginning of John’s first letter we read a profound testimony to the kindness of our God who came to us in human form. I suggest it as a text for today as we allow our senses of hearing, sight and touch to speak to us of God.
Beloved, what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life – for the life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing this so that our joy may be complete.