Monday 09 January 2017

Psalm: Psalm 7:1-11

Background

There are three letters of John in the New Testament. The secondand third are short and personal with a traditional greeting at thebeginning and end. The first letter reads like a sermon, intendedto be read out to several Christian congregations, written by apastor who is anxious about the well-being of his flock. The styleand vocabulary of the letters link them to John's Gospel, and allwere probably written by "the elder" (2 John1, 3 John 1).

The first four verses echo the Prologue to John's Gospel (John1:1-18) as they speak of the word of life, active from thebeginning with God the Father, which has been revealed on earth:"The Word became flesh, and lived among us" (John1:14).

Alongside speaking of the origins of the Christian message,verse 1 emphasises the reality of Jesus, who had been experiencedin every way by the senses, including touch. This introduces animportant theme in the letter, which is to combat the heresy whichsaid that Jesus could not have been truly human. The Early Churchhad to deal with Gnosticism, which separated the material world(which was seen as evil) from the spiritual (which was seen asgood). This cast doubts on the Incarnation, for how could God takeon a human body if matter is evil? Furthermore, the Gnosticsbelieved that knowledge of God (gnosis in Greek) was muchmore important than the way one lived one's life. The letteraddresses a particular form of Gnosticism, which originated in theteachings of Cerinthus, who said that the divine Christ entered theman Jesus at his Baptism, and left before the crucifixion.

It would seem that some of the members of the churches to whichthe letter was addressed had taken on these ideas, causing divisionand then leaving the Christian community. The writer wants torecall the churches to what he believes to be the true and originalteaching. Through his proclamation of Christ, he wants to restorefellowship not only with himself, but more importantly with God(verse 3). Such fellowship would be the source of joy for themall.

To Ponder

• In an age of new ways of 'being Church', what traditions wouldyou want to hold on to as essential to Christianity?

• What do you understand of Jesus as the Word of God?