by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
As you begin reading I John, note (and memorize) these opening verses. They tell us why <\/b>John was writing and what <\/b>he was writing about. He had lived with Jesus for 3+ years. He had left his career as a fisherman to become a fisher of men. He has left his home by the sea and Galilee for a foreign land. He has been making disciples for many years now (Jesus having been crucified, raised, and ascended to the right hand of the Father over 50 years earlier). He is now one of the last people to have had an extensive real-life association with Jesus. There has arisen many false teachers, even as Jesus, Paul, and Peter had predicted. What are we to believe? Who was this Jesus? What did He do? Here is our answer!<\/p>\n “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- and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us- 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. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete<\/em>” (I John 1:1-4).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n These are not made-up stories or myths. Even as Peter years earlier had written: “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty<\/em>” (II Peter 1:16). So now, John affirms that these things are what he had seen, looked at (studied by watching), and even touched. It was these things that he testified, proclaimed, and wrote.<\/p>\n What am I to make of this Jesus? What am I to understand and believe about Him? How should I respond? Interestingly, the concept of ‘keeping’ (i.e., doing, obeying) will be repeatedly stated (some seven times, plus ‘do’ and a host of other action words). These are instructions on how those who trust Jesus will live. Are you trusting Jesus as instructed? Read and reflect on this book! Make a list of all the instructions that are given herein.<\/p>\n “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation<\/em>,… (Hebrews 5:8-9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Hugh DeLong As you begin reading I John, note (and memorize) these opening verses. They tell us why John was writing and what he was writing about. He had lived with Jesus for 3+ years. He had left his career as a fisherman to become a fisher of men. He has left his home…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1230,1516],"class_list":["post-92279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-testimony","tag-witnesses"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":93601,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-people-thousands-of-years-later-dont-know-more-than-the-eyewitnesses\/","url_meta":{"origin":92279,"position":0},"title":"Why People Thousands of Years Later Don’t Know More Than the Eyewitnesses","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gardner Hall The president of Colombia caused quite a stir in Latin America when he recently said, \"Jesus made love, yes ... because a man like that couldn't exist without love.\" There's more to the quote that I don't care to repeat, but this kind of nonsense is heard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90285,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-word\/","url_meta":{"origin":92279,"position":1},"title":"The Word","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Why does John speak of Jesus as \"the Word\"? See John 1:1-14. Consider that Jesus is the fulfillment and substance of all that God had been promising and prophesying all through the years from the beginning of all communication. Jesus was who God had spoken about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28343,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-matthew-and-john-not-be-eyewitness-accounts\/","url_meta":{"origin":92279,"position":2},"title":"Could Matthew and John not be eyewitness accounts?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My friend sent me this critique on the gospels of Matthew and John not being eyewitness accounts. He said, according to the majority viewpoint, this gospel is unlikely to have been written by an eyewitness. While Papias reported that Matthew had written the\u00a0Logia this can hardly be a reference\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52427,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/confirmation\/","url_meta":{"origin":92279,"position":3},"title":"Confirmation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant \"Confirmation\" is an important factor in life. We want, and need, things to be confirmed, validated, or guaranteed. We want things \"signed, sealed, and delivered,\" as a popular song suggests. Statements in court are to be confirmed with an oath \"to tell the truth\u2026\" Certain documents\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62260,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-signs-of-an-apostle\/","url_meta":{"origin":92279,"position":4},"title":"The Signs of an Apostle","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 21, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The apostles of Jesus were eyewitnesses of the risen Jesus (Acts 1:13f). They had to have personally seen Jesus alive from the dead. Nobody today meets that criterion. But those Jesus chose to be sent out by Him as His personal eyewitnesses were also equipped by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87108,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-miracles\/","url_meta":{"origin":92279,"position":5},"title":"Why Miracles?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson Jesus was constantly demonstrating His divine power over disease, demons, death, and nature. Why did He perform miracles? Miracles were designed to bring glory to God. Many praised God for the wonders they witnessed (Luke 5:24-26; 18:43; 19:37; John 11:4). Miracles were also intended to motivate people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}