the second-century theologian Clement of Alexandria may have done, for we have information that he said that the Johannine letters were written to a certain Babylonian lady, Elekta by name, and to her children.
So, it may well be that the title Ad Parthos arose from a series of misunderstandings. The elect one in 1 Peter is quite certainly the Church, as the Authorized Version rightly saw. James Moffatt translates: ‘Your sister church in Babylon, elect like yourselves, salutes you.’ Further, it is almost certain that, in any event, Babylon there stands for Rome, which the early writers identified with Babylon, the great prostitute, drunk with the blood of the saints (cf. Revelation 17:5). The title Ad Parthos has a most interesting history; but clearly it arose from a simple misunderstanding.
There is one further complication. Clement of Alexandria referred to John’s letters as ‘written to virgins’. On the face of it, that is improbable, for it would not be a specially relevant title for them. How could that idea come about? The Greek would be Pros Parthenous, which closely resembles Pros Parthous; and, it so happens, John was regularly called Ho Parthenos, the Virgin, because he never married and because of the purity of his life. This further title must have come from a confusion between Ad Parthos and Ho Parthenos.
This is a case where we may take it that tradition is right and all the ingenious theories mistaken. We may take it that these letters were written in Ephesus and to the surrounding churches in Asia Minor. When John wrote, it would certainly be to the district for which he had oversight – and that was Ephesus and the surrounding territory. He is never mentioned in connection with Babylon.
In Defence of the Faith
John wrote his great letter to meet a threatening situation and in defence of the faith. The heresies which he attacked are by no means altogether echoes of what Wordsworth, in his poem ‘The Solitary Reaper’, called ‘old unhappy far-off things and battles long ago’. They are still beneath the surface, and sometimes they even still raise their heads. To study his letter will confirm us in the true faith and enable us to have a defence against anything that would seduce us from it.
1 JOHN
THE PASTOR’S AIM
1 John 1:1–4
What we are telling you about is that which was from the beginning, that which we heard, that which we saw with our eyes, that which we gazed upon, and which our hands touched. It is about the word of life that we are telling you. (And the life appeared to us, and we saw it, and testify to it; and we are now bringing you the message of this eternal life, which was with the Father and which appeared to us.) It is about what we saw and heard that we are bringing the message to you, that you too may have fellowship with us, for our fellowship is with the Father and with Jesus Christ, the Son. And we are writing these things to you that your joy may be completed.
EVERYONE who sits down to write a letter or gets up to preach a sermon has some object in view. The intention, and the hope, is to produce some effect in the minds and hearts and lives of those to whom that message is addressed. And here, at the very beginning of his letter, John sets down his aim in writing to his people.
(1) It is his wish to produce fellowship with the community and fellowship with God (verse 3). The pastor’s aim must always be to bring people closer to one another and closer to God. Any message which encourages and leads to division is a false message. The Christian message can be summed up as having two great aims – love for one another and love for God.
(2) It is his wish to bring his people joy (verse 4). Joy is the essence of Christianity. A message whose only effect is to depress and to discourage those who hear it has stopped half-way. It is quite true that often the aim of the preacher and the teacher must be to awaken a godly sorrow which will lead to a true repentance. But, after the sense of sin has been produced, men and women must be led to the Saviour in whom sins are all forgiven. The ultimate note of the Christian message is joy.
(3) To that end, John’s aim is to set Jesus Christ before them. One great teacher always used to tell his students that their one aim as preachers must be ‘to speak a good word for Jesus Christ’; and it was said of another great man that, wherever his conversation began, it cut straight across country to Jesus Christ.
The simple fact is that, if we are ever to find fellowship with one another and fellowship with God, and if we are ever to find true joy, we must find them in Jesus Christ.
THE PASTOR’S RIGHT TO SPEAK
1 John 1:1–4 (contd)
HERE at the very beginning of his letter, John sets down his right to speak. It consists in one thing – in personal experience of Christ (verses 2–3).
(1) He says that he has heard Christ. Long ago, Zedekiah had said to Jeremiah: ‘Is there any word from the Lord?’ (Jeremiah 37:17). What people are interested in is not someone’s opinions and views, but a word from the Lord. It was said of one preacher that first he listened to God and then he spoke to men and women; and it was said of John Brown, the eighteenth-century minister of the Scottish town of Haddington, that, when he preached, he often paused as if listening for a voice. True teachers are those who have a message from Jesus Christ because they have heard his voice.
(2) He says that he has seen Christ. It is told of Alexander Whyte, the great Scottish preacher, that someone once said to him: ‘You preached today as if you had come straight from the presence.’ And Whyte answered: ‘Perhaps I did.’ We cannot see Christ in the flesh as John did; but we can still see him with the eye of faith. As J. G. Whittier’s hymn ‘Immortal love’ has it,
And, warm, sweet, tender, even yet
A present help is he;
And faith has still its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.
(3) He says that he has gazed on Christ. What is the difference between seeing Christ and gazing upon him? In the Greek, the verb for to see is horan, and it means simply to see with physical sight. The verb for to gaze is theasthai, and it means to gaze at someone or something until something has been grasped of the significance of that person or thing. So Jesus, speaking to the crowds of John the Baptist, asked: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to look at [theasthai]?’ (Luke 7:24); and in that word he describes how the crowds flocked out to gaze at John and wonder who and what this man might be. Speaking of Jesus in the prologue to his gospel, John says: ‘We have seen his glory’ (John 1:14). The verb is again theasthai, and the idea is not that of a passing glance but of a steadfast searching gaze which seeks to discover something of the mystery of Christ.
(4) He says that his hands actually touched Christ. Luke tells of how Jesus came back to his disciples, when he had risen from the dead, and said: ‘Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have’ (Luke 24:39). Here, John is thinking of those people called the Docetists who were so spiritually minded that they insisted that Jesus never had a flesh-and-blood body but was only a ghost in human form. They refused to believe that God could ever degrade himself by taking human flesh and blood upon himself. John here insists that the Jesus he had known was, in truth, a man who came among them; he felt there was nothing in all the world more dangerous – as we shall see – than to doubt that Jesus was fully human.
THE PASTOR’S MESSAGE
1 John 1:1–4 (contd)
JOHN’s message is about Jesus Christ; and of Jesus he has three great things to say. First, he says that Jesus was from the beginning. That is to say, in him eternity entered time; in him the eternal God personally entered our world. Second, that entry into the world was a real entry; it was real humanity that God took upon himself. Third, through that action there came to men and women the word of life, the word which can change death into life and mere existence