The eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ministry had pretty much died off when John wrote this letter. 2nd & 3rdgeneration believers had begun to have doubts regarding that which they had been taught about Jesus. Those Christians with a Greek background struggled with the idea that Jesus was both human & divine. This was due to the Platonic thought that the ‘spirit’ was all-important. According to Plato, the human body was simply a prison that man wished to escape from. Heresies sprang forth from the mixing of this kind of Platonic thought with Christianity.
One particular false teaching that was widespread held that Jesus actually was a spirit being who only appeared to have a human body. This teaching was referred to later as Docetism ... which is from the Greek word for “to seem”. Their claim was that Jesus cast no shadow and left no footprints; he was God, but not man. Another false teaching was related to Gnosticism (from the Greek word meaning “knowledge”), which said that all physical matter was evil, the spirit was good, and only the intellectually enlightened could enjoy the benefits of religion. Both groups found it very hard to believe that a Savior could be fully human.
John answers these false teachers as an eyewitness to Jesus’ life on earth. He saw Jesus, talked with him, touched him ... John knew Jesus as more than merely a spirit. In his very first statement of this letter John states emphatically that Jesus had been alive before the world began and also that he lived as a man among men and women. In other words, he was both divine AND human.
Through the centuries that followed many heretics denied that Jesus was both God and man. In John’s day people had trouble believing he was actually human; today more people have problems seeing him as God. But Jesus’ divine-human nature happens to be a crucial issue of Christianity. Before you accept what any religious teacher says about a topic, listen carefully to what they believe about Jesus. To deny either his divinity or his humanity is to consider him less than Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Next up is our first look at John’s 2nd letter, written to certain woman from a non-specific church. Until then, walk with the King and be a blessing.
In His Name & for His Glory,
Richard Keller
Bread of Life Ministries
Source: The Life Application Study Bible.
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