THE INCARNATE LOGOS St. John addresses these topics: 1. Incarnation of God the Word, the Life-giver. 10 2. Purpose of the incarnation: A. To have fellowship, joy and enjoyment with life. 2-4 B. To follow God and abide in the light. 5-7 C. To confess our sins. 8-10 D. To accept the Lord as propitiation for our sins. 1. INCARNATION OF GOD THE WORD, THE LIFE-GIVER “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life.” (v. 1) St. John started his Epistle with this strong testimony, for he was the closest to our Lord. He was the only one to lean on the Lord’s bosom (John 13:23) to drink from His deep mysteries. He, with James and John, saw the glories of the Son on the Mount of Tabor. (Matt. 17:1) He accompanied the Lord Jesus to the cross and the Lord delivered to him the care of His mother St. Mary. (John 19:25-27) He saw and touched with the disciples the scars of the wounds of the Risen Lord. (Lk. 24:39) Probably, St. John, at that time, was the only apostle who saw a witness to the Lord and was still living. He said, “That which was from the beginning,” that is, the eternal and invisible took flesh and became Man. “Which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled,” that is, the Son who became Man and we have heard Him, seen Him, and touched Him, then our hearts have realized Him as “the Word of life.” He came so that we may see Him and our spirits may touch Him and live by Him for He is the Living God, the source of life. (1 John 1:1, 3) St. Augustine says: [Who can touch God the Word? Only if the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word incarnate took the beginning of His humanity from St. Mary, but this is not the beginning of the Word, for St. John says, “That which was from the beginning,” that is He is a partaker of the Father in eternity1. The Word became incarnate to declare to the human race His great love for them. He does not want to be far from them but to be close to each one of them. They can hear His voice inside them and see Him with their hearts and touch Him in their inner lives, thus they enjoy the word of life. St. Paul said, “Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven? (That is to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is the word of faith which we preach.)” (Rom. 10:6-8)] Tertullian commented on this statement by saying, “that no one can see God and live” (Exod. 33:20; John 1:18). God the Father is invisible and the Son is invisible too, but He took flesh and became visible. The Son, “who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16) took flesh and died for us (1 Cor. 15:3) and became visible (1 Cor. 15:8). When the apostle saw Him, he was unable to see for the glory of that light (Acts 22:11), also 1 Ten Homilies on 1st Epistle of St. John. Peter, James and John were unable to look at His shining face during the transfiguration. (Matt. 17:6; Mark 9:6) 2. The Son, the Word Incarnate, came so that we may hear Him with John and the rest of the apostles calling the sinners and publicans by their names, having compassion on them without rebuking them. You hear Him with pure ears forgiving your sins, reconciling you with His Father, paying the price of reconciliation, with His precious blood. You see Him searching for you as a good Shepherd and true Father. He goes by His own will to the cross and opens His side as a refuge for you, where you see His heart inflamed with love for you. You see Him rise from the dead, ascending to the heavens, so your heart may rise with Him and settle with Him where He is sitting. You touch Him with His mother, the Virgin St. Mary, so you may long for Him, presenting yourself as a chaste virgin for Him, touching Him with Thomas confessing His divinity. You touch His feet and wash them with your tears like the adulterous woman, so He may bless you. He does not reject the touches of your hands nor belittles your tears but is very cautious to keep them as precious jewels for Him. For my sake and your sake, the Lord came Incarnate so we may enjoy the life, which He has manifested for us. “The life was manifested" (v. 2) ? Christ appeared as the Word of life dawned in the flesh which appeared to mankind. In the beginning, He appeared to angels and not to men, so they saw and were fed by Him as bread for them. Now He became as bread for us, for the Bible says, “Man ate the bread of the angels.” (Ps. 78:25)3. St. Augustine ? Christ came to manifest Himself as life for the soul, saving man from his spiritual death, not with the intention of revealing the mysteries of the soul4. Tertullian This is the purpose of the incarnation, and this is what the disciples saw and witnessed. ? When he says, “That which was from the beginning,” he touches upon the generation without the beginning of the Son, who is co-existent with the Father. There was; then, a Word signifying an non-existing eternity; as also the Word itself, that is, the Son of God, who being, by equality of substance, one with the Father, is eternal and uncreated. That He was always the Word, is signified by saying, “In the beginning was the Word.” But by the expression, “we have seen with our eyes,” he signifies the Lord’s presence in the flesh, “and our hands have handled,” he says, “of the Word of life.” He means not only His flesh, but the virtues of the Son. like the sunbeam which penetrates to the lowest places, this sunbeam coming in the flesh became material to the disciples. It is accordingly related in traditions, that John, touching the outward body itself, sent his hand deep down into it, and that the strength of the flesh offered no obstacle, but gave way to the hand of the disciple. “And our hands have handled the Word of life;” that is, He who came in the flesh became capable of being touched. 2 Against Praxeas 15. 3 Ten Homilies on 1st Epistle of St. John. 4 On the Flesh of Christ. St. Clement of Alexandria ? Many think that these words apply to the post resurrection appearances of Jesus and say that John is speaking of himself and the other disciples who first of all heard that the Lord had risen and afterwards saw Him with their own eyes, to the point where they touched His feet, His hands and His side and felt the imprint of the nails. For even if Thomas was the only one who actually made physical contact with Him, he was an example of the others, for the Savior told them all to touch Him and see for themselves( Lk24: 39).. But others take these words in a deeper sense, noticing that they do not only speak about touching but also about handling the “word of life which was from the beginning.” Who can this refer to, other than to the one who said: “I am that I am”? Another interpretation is that we have now seen openly with our own eyes the One who was in the beginning, of whom the Law and the prophets spoke, saying that He would come. St. Didymus The Blind “And we have seen and bear ed witness.” (v. 2) ? The word “witness” means that we became martyrs, as if saying, “We saw and became martyrs,” for the martyrs endured many sufferings because of their true witness for what they have seen and heard. This witness enraged those who were against them, so the witnesses became martyrs. This is the good will of God that people may be a witness to Him, so He also may be a witness to them5. St. Augustine Let us see the Lord in our lives and witness to Him by responding to His work, carrying His traits in our lives, being slain for His sake everyday. ? Note that there is an important difference between seeing and contemplating. For what is seen can be told to others, which is not always possible with things which are contemplated. For there are many things which may be perfectly well contemplated but which cannot be expressed in words because they are known by some unutterable understanding. In this verse it should be noticed that those who do bear witness are not validating the life of Jesus (for He is not in need of it) but improving themselves by their confession. St. Didymus The Blind 2. THE PURPOSE OF THE INCARNATION A. That we have fellowship, joy and enjoyment of the eternal life: “And declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you.” (v. 2) The message of the Lord Jesus is to offer Himself to humanity to accept Him as the Head not separated from them, but to become part of His flesh and bones (Eph. 5:30), and living members in His mysterious body. Sin has mortified the human soul for it hid her from God the source of her life. The Son, the Word Incarnate, came to grant us life. He descended to us and died and rose and ascended by the power of His authority, carrying us on His shoulders as living sacrifices, which the Conqueror has won. He entered with great glory, not by himself but with the recovery to be with Him and enjoy Him in the heavens. God, the incomprehensible, descended to us because of His goodness and has put on the members of the flesh and emptied all the glory. He became flesh and was united with it to take with Him all the holy, faithful, and accepted souls with Him and become with them one spirit as 5 Ten Homilies on 1st Epistle of St. John. St. Paul the apostle said (1 Cor. 6:17), so that the soul may live in complete harmony and may taste the eternal life and become a partaker of the undefiled glory. St. Makarios the Great Now, we who were considered not worthy to stay on earth (Gen. 6:7), were raised up to heaven. We, who were previously not worthy of the earthly glory, ascend to the kingdom of heaven and enter the heavens and take our place before the divine throne. St. John Chrysostom This is what the disciples have heard and they tell it to us, so why don’t we enjoy all these matters like them? That is why St. John added: The life itself has been manifested in flesh, so that what can be seen by the heart alone might be seen also by the eyes, in order that our hearts might be healed. St. Augustine “The life was manifested,” for in the Gospel so he speaks: “And what was made, in Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” St. Clement of Alexandria “That you also may have fellowship with us” (v. 3) Hence, we are partakers of the faith and in the eternal life. When Thomas touched Him, he said, “My Lord and my God,” then the entire human race touched Him too. If we have not touched Him by human hands, yet we have heard the blessing from the divine mouth saying, “Because you have seen Me, you believe. Blessed are those who believe and yet have not seen.” The Lord Jesus has risen and we are sure of His resurrection and we have the resurrection in Him, thus we have participated with the disciples in their faith and enjoyed with them the resurrection with Him and life with Him. “And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” (v. 3, 4) The disciples, as eyewitnesses, have touched with their outer senses and have realized by their inner senses, and have delivered this testimony to the next generations. So every generation delivers, with joy, to the next generation the faith delivered once to the saints. Since we have this apostolic faith, the one faith across all generations for the one church, we can, through the church, enjoy the fellowship with the Father and the Son, the Bridegroom of the church, thus we achieve the perfect joy, for the sake of the fellowship, the love and the true unity enjoying the deposit of the eternal life. It is amazing that St. John has mentioned our fellowship with the Father and the Son after mentioning “that you also may have fellowship with us.” We have no fellowship except with them, that is, with all the apostles in the church, as living members in the mysterious body of Christ and being attached by the one faith of the Orthodox Church. B. To follow God the Light: The purpose of the incarnation is to know our Lord and Savior and to accept fellowship with Him, performing all the wealth, which is the light. Our part is in the darkness and weakness, and by our unity with the light, our darkness is abolished so we may abide in the light. “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you.” (v. 5) The fullness of joy comes when we are in fellowship with the apostles, as well as of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Hilary of Arles “That God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” (v. 5) This is what we should declare. Who dares and says that God has darkness? What is light? What is darkness? St. John probably meant their general meaning. “God is light.” Some say that the sun is light and that the moon is light and that the candle is light. The light, which is meant here, should be greater and more superior than all these lights. How far is God from His creation?We can come close to that light if we know Him and submit our souls to be enlightened by Him. We are full of darkness, by ourselves, and cannot be light unless He alone enlightens us! Since we stumble by ourselves, we should not stumble by Him. Who is the one who stumbles by Him except the one who does not realize that he is a sinner? What does enlightenment by Him mean except that one realizes that his soul is darkened by sin and one desires to be enlightened by the light so he comes closer to Him. David the Psalmist said, “They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed.” (Ps. 34:5) You will not be ashamed from the light when He reveals to you yourself that you are evil, so you will be sorry for your sins and then you will realize the beauty of the light. St. Augustine Truly, God is the light, which enlightens the minds of those who accept the truth, as written in Psalm 36: “In your light we see light.” God who enlightens man and makes him see the truth in everything and brings him to the knowledge of God Himself who is called “the truth.” By saying, “In your light we see light,” he means that by your word and wisdom that is through Your Son we see the Father in Him. Origen “For God,” he says, “He is Light.” He does not express the divine essence, but wishing to declare the majesty of God, he has applied to the Divinity what is best and elite in the view of man. Thus also Patti, when he speaks of “light inaccessible.” But John himself also in this same Epistle says, “God is love:” pointing out the excellences of God, that He is kind and merciful; and because He is light, which makes men righteous, according to the advance of the soul, through charity. God, then, who is indefinablen respect of His substance, is light. “And in Him is no darkness at all,” which is, not a passion, [He] destroys no one but gives salvation to all. Light moreover signifies, either the precepts of the Law, faith, or doctrine. Darkness is the opposite of these things. Not as if there were another way; since there is only one way according to the divine precepts. For the work of God is unity. Duality and all else that exists, except unity which arises from perversity of life. St. Clement of Alexandria When John says that there is no darkness in the light of God, he proves that all the light of the others are stained by some blemish. St. Jerome God is the light of purified minds, not of these bodily eyes. For then (in heaven) the mind will be able to see this light, which right now it is not yet able to do. St. Augustine The truth is light, so if we do not walk according to it, we are in the darkness. The blood of animal sacrifices was enough to cleanse people from whatever detailed sin they had committed, but the blood of Christ is sufficient to cleanse those who walk in love from all sin. Hilary of Arles. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” (v. 6) The true light came to enlighten every man. “This is the condemnation that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19) Whoever refuses to abide in the light has no fellowship with God but becomes a deceiver, not abiding in the truth. Anyone who walks in the darkness of sin but claims that his mind is not darkened and that he has a relationship with God is lying. St. Didymus The Blind “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (v. 7) This is the sign of having fellowship with the light: to abide in the light. And this is the sign of abiding in the light that we have fellowship with one another, that is, the love and unity based on our attachment by the one orthodox faith as members in the one body, and to continuously enjoy being cleansed from every sin through repentance and confession, and that is through the blood of Christ. St. John put our fellowship with each other, which is, our one faith full of love as one church, before saying, “And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin,” for one cannot enjoy being purified by the blood of Christ outside this one church. “And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son,” he says, “cleanses us.” For the doctrine of the Lord, which is very powerful, is called His blood. St. Clement of Alexandria C. To confess our sins “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and His word is not in us.” (v. 8, 9, 10) The one who thinks that he has no sin does not receive forgiveness. St. Augustine One may say: what do I do, how can I be light while I live in sin and evil? One may live in despair for there is no salvation without having fellowship with God, and He is the light with no darkness at all, but sin is darkness, so how can I be cleansed from it? St. John continues, “And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” How great is that pledge! Being in this world among temptations, we stumble and commit sin, even after our sins are forgiven in baptism; however, we have to confess our sins, so Christ may heal us with His blood. One may ask: Do we need to confess before a father of confession? We ask with St. Augustine: why do you escape from confession? Is it because of shyness or pride? Can the Lord just utter some linguistic words when He gave the disciples the authority to forgive and retain sins? (John 20:23 ; Matt. 18:18) The book of Acts tells us that, “And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds.” (Acts 19:18) St. Augustine said, “that the Lord is the One who raised Lazarus from the dead, but the disciples loosed his grave’d-clothes.” Couldn’t the One who granted life loose the grave’s-clothes? The Lord met directly with Saul, but He told him to go to Ananius. Since the first century, the church lived according to the confession to a priest. The fathers say:Pope Athanasius the Apostolic says, “As the baptized person is enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, likewise, through the priest, the penitent receives forgiveness of sins by the grace of Christ.” St. Cyprian says, “The authority of forgiving sins was granted to the apostles and to the churches which they established for they were sent by God, and to the bishops their successors.” St. Gregory of Nyssa says, “Pour before me a fountain of many tears and I will do with you the same act. Consider the minister of the church, a spiritual father, and reveal to him all the secrets of your souls as the sick peplus reveal his hidden wounds before the doctor, so you may be healed.” He who thinks that he does not need repentance nor confession, that is, he considers himself righteous, Deceives himself (v. 8) : For he ignores the truth of his weakness and that he is susceptible to fall in sin any time. The truth is not in him (v. 8) : For the truth is light to reveal to man his reality. We make Him a liar (v. 10): That is he who accuses God Himself who emphasizes that there is no goodness in man, and no matter how high he attains in the life of holiness, he may fall if he is proud or becomes careless in struggle. His word is not in us: (v. 10): For this is the word of God and his commandment to ask every day, “Forgive us our sins.”
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