The Living Expression of God

Scripture: 1 John 1:1-14 TPT (Click link for scripture in Bible Gateway) 1 We saw him with our very own eyes. We gazed upon him and heard him speak. Our hands actually touched him, the one who was from the beginning, the Living Expression of God. 2 This Life-Giver was made visible and we have seen him. We testify to this truth: the eternal Life-Giver lived face-to-face with the Father and has now dawned upon us. 3 So we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard about this Life-Giver so that we may share and enjoy this life together. For truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus, the Anointed One. 4 We are writing these things to you because we want to release to you our fullness of joy. (1 John 1:1-4 TPT) Yesterday we finished working our way through Paul’s letter to the church in Rome! It’s been challenging but good for me this year, beginning with several series of topical devotionals and then working through several Psalms and five books of the New Testament so far. It’s my intention to work through 1 John, Hebrews, and James in the time we have left in 2020. Today we begin John’s first letter to the churches and we’ll stay in it through November and into early December, I think. We’ll see how it goes! John wrote his Gospel in about 85 AD. He wrote his three letters (1, 2, and 3 John) at nearly the same time, writing from Ephesus, where he was an elder/leader/pastor in the church. I’m switching to The Passion Translation for 1 John. I’ll print the verses we’re discussing on the page each day, and a link at the top to take you to the full text of the chapter or section we’re looking at.

So let’s get started! For today, please read the verses printed above, then click this link for John 1:1-14 and read it to see how John begins his Gospel and how he begins this first of his letters to the churches. As we move through John’s short book together, remember this is the same voice we hear when we read John’s Gospel and the Book of Revelation. As in his Gospel, John emphasizes that this is an eyewitness account of the person and life and ministry of Jesus Christ. He says, “I saw him with my eyes. I heard him with my ears. I touched him with my hands. I testify that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and to know him is to know God himself.” Prayer: Father, Thank you for Jesus, the Living Expression of God, and for John’s eyewitness testimony about him. May our experience of God and our testimony of Jesus be just as real as John’s! And may we never settle for merely reading about Jesus, but rather may we keep pressing in to know him and to know you for ourselves. Amen!