◄ 1 John 1:2 ►
And this is the life that was revealed; we have seen it and testified to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.
Study Bible
And this is the life that was revealed;

Jesus Christ made visible the divine and eternal life that had been hidden with God. In Him, the life of God entered human history through the incarnation. John’s Gospel declares that “in Him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Christ fulfilled the hope of those dwelling in darkness who would see a great light (Isaiah 9:2).

2Ti 1:10 And now He has revealed this grace through the appearing…
Jhn 1:4 In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.
Col 3:4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then……

we have seen it and testified to it,

John joined the other apostles in bearing personal witness to the incarnate Son. They saw Jesus’ works, heard His teaching, lived with Him, witnessed His death, and encountered Him alive after His resurrection. Their testimony rested upon direct knowledge rather than religious speculation. Christ had commanded His disciples to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), and their witness remains the foundation of the church’s proclamation.

Jhn 19:35 The one who saw it has testified to this, and his testimony……
Act 4:20 For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen…
2Pe 1:16 For we did not follow cleverly devised fables…

and we proclaim to you the eternal life

Eternal life is found in knowing the Father through His Son, not merely in receiving an unending future existence (John 17:3). Those who believe in Christ receive that life now and await its full manifestation in resurrection glory. The apostolic message calls hearers into fellowship with the living God through the One who conquered sin and death.

Tit 1:2-3 in the hope of eternal life, which God,…
1Jn 5:11-12 And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life,…
Jhn 17:3 Now this is eternal life, that they may know You…

that was with the Father

Before creation, the Son existed in perfect fellowship with the Father. John had already declared that the Word was with God and was God in the beginning (John 1:1–2). Jesus is not a created messenger or a later appearance of God; He is the eternal Son, distinct from the Father yet fully sharing the divine nature.

Jhn 17:5 And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence…
Jhn 17:24 Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me…
Jhn 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God…

and was revealed to us.

The apostles received God’s self-disclosure in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). Through their eyewitness testimony, the revealed life of Christ is made known to all who receive their message. God’s purpose in revealing His Son is to bring sinners out of darkness and into fellowship with Himself.

1Jn 3:5 But you know that Christ appeared to take away sins…
Jhn 1:14 The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.…
1Ti 3:16 By common confession, the mystery of godliness is great:…

Persons / Places / Events
1. John the Apostle
The author of 1 John, one of Jesus' closest disciples, who witnessed Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

2. Jesus Christ
Referred to as "the life" and "eternal life," whose incarnation and revelation are central to this verse.

3. The Father
God the Father, with whom Jesus, the eternal life, was from the beginning.

4. The Early Church
The recipients of John's letter, who are being reminded of the foundational truths of the Christian faith.

5. Revelation of Life
The event of Jesus' incarnation, where the divine life was made manifest to humanity.
Teaching Points
The Revelation of Life
Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God's life and truth. As believers, we are called to recognize and testify to this revelation in our lives.

The Testimony of Witnesses
The apostles, like John, were eyewitnesses to Jesus' life. Their testimony is foundational to our faith, and we are called to trust and share this testimony with others.

Eternal Life in Christ
Eternal life is not just a future promise but a present reality in Jesus. We are invited to live in this eternal life now, experiencing a relationship with God through Christ.

Proclaiming the Gospel
Just as John proclaimed the eternal life found in Jesus, we are called to share the gospel with others, making known the life that has been revealed to us.

The Relationship with the Father
Understanding Jesus' relationship with the Father helps us grasp the depth of our own relationship with God, made possible through Christ.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding Jesus as "the life" impact your daily walk with Him?

2. In what ways can you testify to the eternal life that has been revealed to you through Jesus?

3. How does the concept of Jesus being "with the Father" before His incarnation deepen your understanding of His divinity?

4. What are some practical ways you can proclaim the eternal life found in Jesus to those around you?

5. How do the testimonies of the apostles, like John, strengthen your faith and encourage you to share the gospel?
Connections to Other Scriptures
John 1:1-4
This passage speaks of the Word being with God and being God, paralleling the themes of life and revelation found in 1 John 1:2.

John 14:6
Jesus declares Himself as "the way, the truth, and the life," reinforcing His identity as the source of eternal life.

Colossians 1:15-20
Describes Christ as the image of the invisible God, emphasizing His preexistence and role in creation, similar to His being "with the Father."

1 Timothy 1:16
Paul speaks of Jesus as the one who brings eternal life, aligning with John's testimony of proclaiming eternal life.

Hebrews 1:1-3
Discusses how God has spoken through His Son, who is the radiance of God's glory, echoing the revelation theme.
Sermons
Christ the LifeN. Hardy, D. D.1 John 1:2
Christ the Manifestation of the EternalJ. T. Stannard.1 John 1:2
The Eternal Life ManifestedJohn Watson, M. A.1 John 1:2
The Incarnate LifeS. E. Pierce.1 John 1:2
The Life of GodCharles Kingsley1 John 1:2
The Manifested LifeN. Smyth, D. D.1 John 1:2
The Manifested LifeH. Boxcar, D. D.1 John 1:2
The Manifested Life to be ObservedCanon Gore, M. A.1 John 1:2
The Only Life Worth LivingE. A. Stuart, M. A.1 John 1:2
Appropiating FaithAnon.1 John 1:1-4
Christ the Revealer of GodS. E. Pierce.1 John 1:1-4
Contemplative FaithA. R. Fausset, M. A.1 John 1:1-4
Fellowship with the FatherJ. M. Gibbon.1 John 1:1-4
IntroductionR. Finlayson 1 John 1:1-4
John's Testimony to ChristT. M. Herbert, M. A.1 John 1:1-4
Obedient Hearing1 John 1:1-4
The Apostle's Aim and MethodW. Jones 1 John 1:1-4
The Apostles' DoctrineC. Stanford, D. D.1 John 1:1-4
The Divine and Human in Christ1 John 1:1-4
The Incarnation of Christ, Before and AfterNewman Smyth, D. D.1 John 1:1-4
The Mystery of the Holy IncarnationMorgan Dix, D. D.1 John 1:1-4
The Perfect SaviourD. C. Hughes, M. A.1 John 1:1-4
The Preface to the First Epistle of JohnGeorge G. Findlay, B. A.1 John 1:1-4
The Realisation of FaithDean Goulburn.1 John 1:1-4
Witnesses of the Word of LifeN. Hardy, D. D.1 John 1:1-4
People
John
Places
Ephesus
Topics
Age-during, Ages, Appeared, Bear, Clear, Declare, Eternal, Giving, Manifest, Manifested, Proclaim, Report, Revealed, Shew, Testify, Us-, Witness, Witnessing
Dictionary of Bible Themes
1 John 1:2

     8106   assurance, nature of
     8117   discipleship, benefits

1 John 1:1-2

     2421   gospel, historical foundation
     2595   incarnation
     5627   word
     6645   eternal life, nature of

1 John 1:1-3

     1436   reality
     4945   history
     5441   philosophy
     5854   experience, of God
     7032   unity, God's people

1 John 1:1-4

     2427   gospel, transmission

1 John 1:2-3

     7953   mission, of church

Library
Walking in the Light
'If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.'--1 John i. 7. John was the Apostle of love, but he was also a 'son of thunder.' His intense moral earnestness and his very love made him hate evil, and sternly condemn it; and his words flash and roll as no other words in Scripture, except the words of the Lord of love. In the immediate context he has been laying down what is to him the very heart …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The Message and Its Practical Results
'This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. 6. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9. If we confess our sins, He is …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

June the Twenty-Seventh God is Light!
"In Him is no darkness at all." --1 JOHN i. That wonderful mansion of God's Being is gloriously radiant in every room! In the house of my life there are dark chambers, and rooms which are only partially illumined, the other parts being in the possession of night. Some of my faculties and powers are dark ministers, and some of my moods are far from being "homes of light." But "God is light," and everything is glorious as the meridian sun! His holiness, His grace, His love, His mercy: there are …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

On Working Out Our Own Salvation
"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Phil. 2:12-13. 1. Some great truths, as the being and attributes of God, and the difference between moral good and evil, were known, in some measure, to the heathen world. The traces of them are to be found in all nations; So that, in some sense, it may be said to every child of man, "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; even to do justly, to love mercy, and to …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

The Good Man Useful in Life and Happy in Death.
"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: For the end of that man is peace." * * Preached at the funeral of Asa Witter, Esq. Oct. 9th, 1792. The subject of this psalm is the way and end of the righteous and the wicked. It is designed to calm the minds of good people when tried with adversity, and to reconcile them to the divine administration in the unequal distributions of Providence, and the apparent disregard of character, in those distributions. With these views, the writer, after glancing …
Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects

Fellowship with God
And now, my brethren and sisters in the common faith of our Lord Jesus, this morning I trust that many of us can say, "Our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." Did the apostle John need to say, "Truly"--as much as though some doubted or denied it? We, too, have sometimes an occasion to make as solemn an affirmation as he has done. There are certain sectaries who exalt the form of their church government into a sine qua non of piety, and they say of us that it is impossible …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 7: 1861

The Life of God
1 JOHN i. 2. For the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us! What do we mean, when we speak of the Life everlasting? Do we mean that men's souls are immortal, and will live for ever after death, either in happiness or misery? We must mean more than that. At least we ought to mean more than that, if we be Christian men. For the Bible tells us, that Christ brought life and immortality to …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

Acts 17:26 "One Blood. "
[6] THIS is a very short and simple text, and even a child knows the meaning of its words. But simple as it is, it supplies food for much thought, and it forms part of a speech delivered by a great man on a great occasion. The speaker is the Apostle of the Gentiles, St. Paul. The hearers are the cultivated men of Athens, and specially the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. The place is Mars' Hill at Athens, in full view of religious buildings and statues, of which even the shattered remains are a …
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times

"For what the Law could not Do, in that it was Weak through the Flesh, God Sending his Own Son in the Likeness of Sinful Flesh,
Rom. viii. 3.--"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh." The greatest design that ever God had in the world, is certainly the sending of his own Son into the world. And it must needs be some great business, that drew so excellent and glorious a person out of heaven. The plot and contrivance of the world was a profound piece of wisdom and goodness, the making of men after …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Union and Communion with God the End and Design of the Gospel
Psalm lxxiii. 24-28.--"Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, &c. Whom have I in heaven but thee? &c. It is good for me to draw near to God."--1 John i. 3. "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."--John xvii. 21-23. "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, &c." It is a matter of great consolation that God's …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"But Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God, and his Righteousness, and all These Things Shall be Added unto You. "
Matth. vi. 33.--"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." The perfection even of the most upright creature, speaks always some imperfection in comparison of God, who is most perfect. The heavens, the sun and moon, in respect of lower things here, how glorious do they appear, and without spot! But behold, they are not clean in God's sight! How far are the angels above us who dwell in clay! They appear to be a pure mass of light and …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Light.
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.--1 John i. 5. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light; because their deeds were evil.--John iii. 19. We call the story of Jesus, told so differently, yet to my mind so consistently, by four narrators, the gospel. What makes this tale the good news? Is everything in the story of Christ's life on earth …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

Synopsis. --Biblical Miracles the Effluence of Extraordinary Lives.
V SYNOPSIS.--Biblical miracles the effluence of extraordinary lives.--Life the world's magician and miracle worker; its miracles now termed prodigies.--Miracle the natural product of an extraordinary endowment of life.--Life the ultimate reality.--What any man can achieve is conditioned by the psychical quality of his life.--Nothing more natural, more supernatural, than life.--The derived life of the world filial to the self-existent life of God, "begotten, not made."--Miracle, as the product of …
James Morris Whiton—Miracles and Supernatural Religion

The Next Petition Is, Forgive us Our Debts. ...
The next petition is, FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS. In this and the following petition our Saviour has briefly comprehended whatever is conducive to the heavenly life, as these two members contain the spiritual covenant which God made for the salvation of his Church, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts." "I will pardon all their iniquities" (Jer. 31:33; 33:8). Here our Saviour begins with the forgiveness of sins, and then adds the subsequent blessing, viz., that God would …
John Calvin—Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith

Divine Fellowship
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.'. (1 John i. 3.) My mind and heart have been dwelling upon that sweet word 'fellowship'. We all know what it means in ordinary social intercourse--it means acquaintance, friendship, communion of spirit, interchange of thought and feeling. But I want you to see that all this marks the fellowship prevailing between the Lord …
T. H. Howard—Standards of Life and Service

The Way of Fellowship
When man fell and chose to make himself, rather than God, the centre of his life, the effect was not only to put man out of fellowship with God, but also out of fellowship with his fellow man. The story of man's first quarrel with God in the third chapter of Genesis is closely followed, in the fourth chapter, by the story of man's first quarrel with his fellow, Cain's murder of Abel. The Fall is simply, "we have turned every one to his own way."[footnote1: Is. 53: 6] If I want my own way rather than …
Roy Hession and Revel Hession—The Calvary Road

Sanctification.
In the last chapter we showed that the doctrine of justification deals with the sinner's change of relation, or change of state. We also learned that faith is the instrumental or applying cause of justification. In another place we showed that true faith presupposes penitence, and this again presupposes a sense and knowledge of sin. Again we showed that penitence and faith are the two essential elements of conversion; that where these elements are found there is a change of heart, and the beginning …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

The Apostolate.
"That ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."--1 John i. 3. The apostolate bears the character of an extraordinary manifestation, not seen before or after it, in which we discover a proper work of the Holy Spirit. The apostles were ambassadors extraordinary -- different from the prophets, different from the present ministers of the Word. In the history of the Church and the world they occupy a unique position and have a peculiar …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Character of the New Testament Scripture.
"And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full."--1 John i. 4. From the two preceding articles it is evident that the New Testament Scripture was not intended to bear the character of a notarial document. If this had been the Lord's intention we should have received something entirely different. It would have required a twofold legal evidence: In the first place, the proof that the events narrated in the New Testament actually occurred as related. Secondly, that the revelations received …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Communion of Goods.
"If we walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another."-- 1 John i. 7. The communion of saints is in the Light. In heaven alone, in the halls of the eternal Light, it shall shine with undimmed brightness. Even on earth its delights are known only inasmuch as the saints walk in the light. This communion of saints is a holy confederacy; a bond of shareholders in the same holy enterprise; a partnership of all God's children; an essential union for the enjoyment of a common good; a firm not of …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The External History of the Pelagian Controversy.
Pelagius seems to have been already somewhat softened by increasing age when he came to Rome about the opening of the fifth century. He was also constitutionally averse to controversy; and although in his zeal for Christian morals, and in his conviction that no man would attempt to do what he was not persuaded he had natural power to perform, he diligently propagated his doctrines privately, he was careful to rouse no opposition, and was content to make what progress he could quietly and without …
St. Augustine—Anti-Pelagian Writings

By the Same Author.
THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. COLOSSIAN STUDIES. EPHESIAN STUDIES. TO MY YOUNGER BRETHREN ON PASTORAL LIFE AND WORK. OUTLINES OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. (In the Theological Educator Series.) VENI CREATOR: THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT OF PROMISE. Third Edition. LIFE IN CHRIST AND FOR CHRIST. "NEED AND FULNESS." "PATIENCE AND COMFORT." THOUGHTS ON CHRISTIAN SANCTITY. THOUGHTS ON UNION WITH CHRIST. THOUGHTS ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. SECRET PRAYER. "AT THE HOLY COMMUNION." Thoughts for Preparation and Communion. …
Handley C. G. Moule—Philippian Studies

Reception Christ Met With.
JOHN i. 1-18. In describing the Word of God, John mentions two attributes of His by which His relation to men becomes apparent: "All things were made by Him," and "the life was the light of men." By whom were all things made? what is the originating force which has produced the world? how are we to account for the existence, the harmony, and the progress of the universe?--these are questions which must always be put. Everywhere in nature force and intelligence appear; the supply of life and power …
Marcus Dods—The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I

Links
1 John 1:2 NIV
1 John 1:2 NLT
1 John 1:2 ESV
1 John 1:2 NASB
1 John 1:2 KJV

1 John 1:2 Commentaries

Bible Hub
1 John 1:1
Top of Page
Top of Page