That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands
have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared;
we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life,
which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we
have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our
fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to
make our joy complete. (1 John 1:1-4)
I
am a trivial person. I’m a treasure hunter, and my treasure is information. I
look at it, sometimes clean it up a little and put it together with other
pieces that seem to fit together with it, and evaluate it… and when the opportunity
comes, I share it. Of course, if you’re starting from a different premise, you’re
not likely to value the tidbits I share. One of those bits of trivia is that it
takes two thousand hours to become an expert. If you work at or with something
eight hours per day, it takes two hundred fifty days to become an expert.
John spent three years walking with Jesus. That would qualify him as an expert on Jesus. He also spent forty to fifty years as an apostle of the Church. That qualifies him as an expert on the Church. John certainly would have had the right to say, “I say…” and people should have responded like the folks in the E. F. Hutton ad, leaning in to listen. Instead, he says, “I saw, I heard, I touched….” He wasn’t voicing his opinion. He was talking about what he had experienced, and what he had been told.
As we go through I John, I want to bring in some of what Pastor Mark Harris describes as “How to Avoid Scripture Twisting: The Twelve Rules.” The first rule is that Scripture is authoritative. Some folks think that the Bible is just stuff men made up, just stories, just meant for the time in which it was written (we’ll get to some of those.) They hold that what we decide to day has more authority for today than what John said two thousand years ago. But John was an expert, even by today’s standards. We would be wise to listen to what he has to say, because he’s not just spouting off his opinion. He has solid reasons for what he says.
John spent three years walking with Jesus. That would qualify him as an expert on Jesus. He also spent forty to fifty years as an apostle of the Church. That qualifies him as an expert on the Church. John certainly would have had the right to say, “I say…” and people should have responded like the folks in the E. F. Hutton ad, leaning in to listen. Instead, he says, “I saw, I heard, I touched….” He wasn’t voicing his opinion. He was talking about what he had experienced, and what he had been told.
As we go through I John, I want to bring in some of what Pastor Mark Harris describes as “How to Avoid Scripture Twisting: The Twelve Rules.” The first rule is that Scripture is authoritative. Some folks think that the Bible is just stuff men made up, just stories, just meant for the time in which it was written (we’ll get to some of those.) They hold that what we decide to day has more authority for today than what John said two thousand years ago. But John was an expert, even by today’s standards. We would be wise to listen to what he has to say, because he’s not just spouting off his opinion. He has solid reasons for what he says.
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