1 John 1

Chap. I. Ver. 1—8. The title and introduction to this Chap. I. Ver. 1. The Revelation (Greek, Apocalupsis) of Jesus Christ c. the order of primacy in the former, and mediatorial subordination in the latter, is expressly maintained in accordance with the whole tenor of revealed truth.” So Dr. Woodhouse observes—* The scheme of the Christian revelation is mediatorial throughout. God [the Father] giveth to the Son, dispensing knowledge and favour through him.” - This knowledge was by the Son, and, through the Spirit, communicated to his servant John: and thus the most perfect harmony, or rather unity, is preserved between the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. This John, to whom the communication was made, could be none other than the Evangelist; for he it was who bare record of the divine Logos in his gospel, ((John 1:1),) and he it is who now records the testimony of Jesus Christ, and the divine visions to him exhibited. The blessing which here follows, and is pronounced upon the reader of this book, was undoubtedly designed to encourage Christians to the study of it, and that practically; for the blessing is not Diagonee! on those who merely peruse it, either in a cursory or studious way; but on those who keep in mind the things that are written, by a practical attention to their design. (See (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).) And the more to stimulate the readers to this attention, it is added, “the time is at hand” when these predictions should be fulfilled. Not all of them, assuredly: for they embrace the whole dispensation of Providence to the end of time; but the meaning is, that their fulfilment was immediately to commence, and to proceed with a rapidity which demanded their utmost vigilance and attention.

“We must keep them (says Mr. Fuller) as one engaged in a voyage through dangerous seas keeps his chart, and consults it on all necessary occasions.” John now commences his address to the seven churches of proconsular Asia, all which we must suppose at this time to have been existing, and which (as may be seen in the map) lay within a narrow circle. The apostolical benediction and doxology here introduced, are in a style peculiar to this book. The periphrasis, “Who is, who was, and who is to come,” is agreed to designate God the Father. The “seven Spirits before the throne,” the best commentators agree, are intended to represent “the various gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit.” So the venerable Bede himself says—“The one Holy Spirit is here described as sevenfold, by which is intimated, in prophetic language, fulness and perfection.”

Who it is that “loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,” no Christian needs to be informed. If it be asked, why it is that the Son of God is here placed—the last of the sacred Three, it is answered, because on his name and character the apostle intended to dilate. The next verse has been remarked as containing the whole burden of these Epistles, and is introduced, not in the cold style of a philosopher, but in the rapturous language of a prophet. “Behold! he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him; and they also which pierced him, and all the earth shall wail because of him.” The expression, “they also which pierced him,” though it must, in the first place, refer to those who were his immediate murderers, must not be confined to them.

Every one who claims an interest in the Saviour’s sacrifice, must confess a share in the guilt for which he suffered. So under the Mosaic law, he who brought a bullock for his atonement, laid his hand upon the head of the animal, as an acknowledgment of his guilt. (See (Leviticus 1:4).) A voice is then heard declaring, “I am Alpha and Omega,” that is, the first and the last; or, as here follows, “the beginning and the ending;” the first cause, and final end, of all created beings. It has been, however, disputed, whether these should be considered as the words of the Father, or of Christ. Mr. Fuller says—“That these were his [Christ’s] words, and not those of the Father, will appear from comparing them with (1 John 1:1); and xxii. 6—16. It was Jesus Christ, and not the Father, who communicated through the angel with his servant John. The Father is sometimes referred to in the prophecy; but, if I mistake not, in the third person only: not as speaking, but as spoken of.” The circumstance, however, of its being left doubtful by the sacred writers, to whom such passages should be referred, whether to the Father or the Son, is, with us, a powerful argument for their essential equality; for surely the Holy Spirit would never have laid us under such temptations to idolatry, as must be the case, if both were not entitled to the same divine honours.

Ver. 9—20. The first vision of the Son of God.—The apostle John informs us, that he was at this time banished to the isle of Patmos, “for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

This Patmos is a small island (as the maps show) in the Mediterranean Sea, not far from the coast of Asia, nor, indeed, from any of the churches which he now addressed. But the apostle, in mentioning this circumstance, gives no note of date, which also is the case with his other Epistles, as well as his Gospel. This date can only be drawn from history: and Drs. Lardner, Woodhouse, and others, have