1 John 1:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

There was a disciple who saw and yet did not believe. He wished to handle Him, and only so to believe. He said, “Unless I put my fingers into the place of the nails and touch His wounds, I will not believe” (cf. Jn 20:25). At once He who is always present to the eyes of the angels presented Himself to be handled by human hands. That disciple handled Him and cried out, “My Lord and my God” (Jn 20:28). He touched the man and confessed God.

For our consolation, since we can no longer handle Christ with our hands because He now sits in the heavens, but can grasp Him only by faith, the Lord said to that disciple: “Because you have seen, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (Jn 20:29). He said this about us. He marked us out. May that blessedness which the Lord foretold be in us.

Let us firmly hold what we have not seen, because those who saw have declared it to us. “That you also,” says John, “may have communion with us.” What is so great about having communion with men? Yet do not despise this. See what he says next: “And may our communion be with God the Father and with Jesus Christ His Son.”

Another translation: They saw the Lord Himself appearing in the flesh. They heard words from the Lord’s mouth, and they declared them to us. Therefore we too have heard, but have not seen. Are we, then, less blessed than those who both saw and heard? And what does he add? “That you also may have communion with us.” They saw; we did not see. Yet we are fellow sharers, because we have one common faith.

Repeating what he has said, he also shows the purpose for which he and the other apostles preach. “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have communion with us. And our communion is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.” This is why Saint John wrote the Gospel and the epistles. This is also why the other apostles left us the Gospels and their epistles.

It was so that we might have communion with them, the apostles. That is, so that we might believe in Jesus Christ as they believed. Through this faith we become partakers of the great blessings supplied by this faith. Thus, according to the word of another apostle, we become partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption that reigns in the world through lust (2 Pet 1:4).

Explaining this purpose, the Theologian adds: “and our communion is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” What this communion with the Father and the Son consists in was revealed by the Only-begotten Son of God Himself. He said: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father. I will love him and will manifest Myself to him” (Jn 14:23).

The apostles’ communion with God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, consisted in this. Believing in Jesus Christ, they knew His teaching, loved Him, and kept His commandments. Therefore they enjoyed the love of God the Father and of His Son, Jesus Christ. They were in gracious union with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit dwelt in them, and they were the temple of God.

These gifts unite and fasten this society into one living and whole body, having Christ God Himself as its head. In this way they also unite it with God Himself.

The Apostle Paul also foresees the time when all things and everyone will be subjected to the Son of God, and by Him will be subjected to God the Father. Then “God will be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28).

For to give what is holy to dogs and to cast pearls before swine (Mt 7:6) is contrary to sound reason” (Theophylact).

Briefly repeating what has been said, the apostle also indicates the purpose for which he and the other apostles declare, or preach, the teaching about the Word of life, or about the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. It is so that you, the readers of the epistle, and believers generally, may have communion with us, the apostles. That is, so that you may believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as we have believed. Through this faith, you also, like us, may share in the great blessings granted by this faith. Thus, according to the word of another apostle, we all may become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4), partakers of eternal life, in communion both with us and with the Word of life.

Explaining this purpose, the apostle adds: “and our communion is with the Father,” and so forth. What this communion of the apostles and believers with the Father and the Son consists in was revealed, unfolded, and explained by the Only-begotten Son of God Himself. He pointed to the communion of love (cf. Jn 14:21, 23). This communion of the apostles with God the Father and Christ consisted in this. Believing in Jesus Christ, they knew His teaching, loved Him, and kept His commandments. Therefore they enjoyed the love of God the Father and of Jesus Christ. They were in gracious union with the Father and the Son, while the Holy Spirit dwelt in them, and they were the temple of God.

Thus, “through the Word we receive you into communion with what we have seen and heard. We also have you as sharers of the Father and of His Son Jesus Christ. Having received this, we, as those who cleave to God, can be filled with joy” (Theophylact).

It is so that Christians may not turn away from communion with the eyewitnesses of the Lord. It is also so that they may not yield to the deception of false teachers, who preached not what they had seen and certainly knew, but what they imagined or fancied. In communion with the eyewitnesses of the Lord Jesus, the apostle also indicates the pledge of communion with God Himself and with Jesus Christ. In union with God lies the whole purpose and essence of the Christian faith (cf. Jn 17:21; 1 Cor 15:28). Thus, whoever is not with the apostles is rejected from Christianity itself.

Concerning the apostle’s noted repetition, one of our commentators says this: “What lies deep in our heart, and what we strongly desire to impress upon others, we usually repeat often. The apostle’s soul burned with the desire to convey to his disciples and to all believers the power of his undoubting faith in God the Word, and to breathe into them a flaming love for the Lord and Savior. Therefore he continues to speak of that on which living faith in Christ the Savior must be founded, and what must nourish strong love for Him.”

The heretics prided themselves on their imaginary wisdom and on supposedly possessing true knowledge, or faith, concerning God. From the Greek word gnosis, meaning knowledge, they were called Gnostics. At the same time, however, they led a sinful and sensual life, wholly attached to the goods of this sinful world.

In refutation of these heretics, the apostle writes that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. For communion with God, a morally pure life is necessary. “If we say that we have communion with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not act according to the truth.”

Communion with God requires constant care for one’s moral purity. For while living in the world, a man cannot remain sinless. Only by confessing his sins before God is he cleansed from defilement. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (ch. 1). For “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (2:1-2).

“We,” says St. John the Theologian in the name of all the Apostles, “declare to you concerning the Word of life, which was from the beginning, which we heard, which we saw,” and so forth. If it is said of the Word of life that He was from the beginning, that He existed from the first, then the truth of the pre-eternal being of the Word of life, the Son of God, is confessed. This expression is equivalent to the opening words of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word.”

In both places the thought is given that the Son of God had being before the world, and that He is without beginning. “He is before all things” (Col 1:17). As the Son of God, equal in Godhead to God the Father, He had glory with Him before the world existed (Jn 17:5). He did not come forth from the Father in time, as other creatures did. Rather, He “was,” that is, He was always present with the Father as His consubstantial Son.

By the further words, “which we heard, which we saw, which we looked upon, and our hands handled,” the dogma of the Incarnation of the Word of life, the Son of God, is confessed. He Who existed before the ages, and by His spiritual nature was invisible, appeared in time in such a state that He became an object of sensible apprehension. Such was the state of His Incarnation.

At a certain time He took the form of man, concealing under this form the glory of His Godhead. Living among men, in outward appearance and external condition He differed in nothing from other mortals. All could hear His words, see His works and miracles with their own eyes, and touch Him with their hands.

His constant companions, the Apostles, were especially deemed worthy of this closeness to Him. Yet they differed from most of the other eyewitnesses and hearers of Christ in this way: through sensible perception they were brought to faith in Christ as the God-man and Redeemer, and were confirmed in it.

Thus, contemplating His works, in which His divine power was manifested, they saw in them His glory, “the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father” (Jn 1:14). They were brought to this conviction especially by contemplating the Lord’s Transfiguration, His Resurrection, and His Ascension into heaven.

Listening to His teaching, they were convinced that they heard this teaching not from the mouth of a simple teacher like the Jewish rabbis, nor even from a prophet. They heard it from Him Who is not only the Teacher of truth, but is Himself self-existent Truth. He is the Lord of the prophets, the only Teacher, in comparison with Whom other teachers can be called teachers only in an improper sense.

Touching Him with lips and hands, the Apostles felt that they touched the greatest holiness. Therefore they touched Him with the reverence due to it. Thus one of them, touching His wounds with his hands to be assured of the truth of His Resurrection, said, “My Lord and my God” (Jn 20:28).

In calling Christ the Son of God the Word, the Apostle John has in view partly His pre-eternal being and partly the Incarnation. According to His pre-eternal being, the Word, or Son of God, has a relation to God the Father like the relation of a human word to the mind.

As our word is begotten from our mind or thought without passion and spiritually, so the Son of God is begotten from the Father without passion. As our thought is revealed or expressed in our word, so the Son of God, in His essence and perfections, is the most exact image of God the Father. Therefore He is called the radiance of His glory and the image, or imprint, of His essence (Heb 1:1, 3).

With regard to the Incarnation of the Son of God, His name as the Word indicates that God the Father, Who spoke many times to men through the prophets, finally spoke through the Son. For this the Son became incarnate, and so fully revealed the will of His Father that those who saw the Son, according to His own words, saw the Father (Jn 14:9).

The Apostle calls the Son of God not simply the Word, but “the Word of life.” St. John the Theologian says something similar of the Word in his Gospel: “In Him was life.” In both cases we are given to understand that the Son of God is self-existent life. In this sense He Himself calls Himself the Life (Jn 11:25; Jn 14:6). He Himself says of Himself, “As the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself” (Jn 5:26). Being self-existent Life, He is the source of the life of all creatures, physical, spiritual, and eternal.

In the further words, verse 2 forms an introductory sentence that interrupts the connection between verse 1 and verse 3. It explains how it could happen that the Word of life, invisible in Himself, untouchable, and spiritual, could be seen, heard, and handled by the Apostles. This happened because this Life “was manifested.” He Who is invisible according to the divine essence became man, and as man became visible.

“And we,” the Apostle continues, “saw and bear witness, and declare to you the eternal Life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” The eternal Life according to the divine nature. Existing eternally in the bosom of God the Father, the Son of God came down to earth in order to make those condemned to eternal perdition partakers of His eternally blessed life. The Apostles were called to bear witness and proclaim to men this mercy toward us.

Blessed are the Apostles, who directly saw, heard, and handled that to which they bore witness and which they told to others. These others were deprived of this blessedness, since they were not eyewitnesses of the Word of life. Yet they should not consider this deprivation irremediable for themselves.

Communion with the Apostles, as is clear from the third verse, which continues the first, is enough to make up this deprivation. Through the Apostles, those who did not directly see Christ can enter into the close communion with the incarnate Word of life which the Apostles were granted. They enter not only into communion with Him, the Son of God, but also with His Father, just as the Apostles, in the person of Christ, had close communion with the Father.

“Our communion is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” Communion with the Father is possible for everyone, according to the promise of Christ, through keeping His commandments and loving Him. “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him” (Jn 14:21). “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him. We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (Jn 14:23).

The examined reading, verses 1-7, is read only on the day of commemoration of the Apostle Thomas, because the opening words of the reading, concerning the Apostles who handled Christ with their hands, have special relation to this Apostle.