THE RELATION OF THE EPISTLES TO THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
The
relation of the First Epistle to the Fourth Gospel is that of an
application to a sermon, Or that of a comment to a history. The Epistle
presupposes that the persons addressed possessed knowledge of the Gospel
communicated either by John's voice or his pen. The Gospel is a summary
of his sermons to audiences ignorant of the facts and truths of
Christianity. The First Epistle is a summary of his exhortations to
believers to practice the precepts of Christ stated in such a way as to
guard them against the evils of religious error.
There are numerous and manifest resemblances, both in the thought and the form, between this Epistle and the Gospel of John. There are also striking differences. The theme of the Gospel, clearly and concisely stated in the first verse is the supreme divinity (doxa) of the Logos, who "was with God," hence distinct in personality, and who "was God," being identical with Him in nature. The burden of the Epistle is the real and perfect humanity (sarx) of Jesus Christ announced in its opening sentence, which appeals to three of the five senses, in proof that he was not a phantom, but a man composed of flesh, blood and bones, — a veritable man, the God-man. It has been well said that the proposition demonstrated in the evangel is "Jesus is the Christ," and that proved in the Letter is "the Christ is Jesus." In the latter case the apostle presents his argument from the divine to the human, from the spiritual and ideal to the historical, the natural position of an evangelist and historian; in the former the writer argues from the human to the divine, from the historical to the ideal and spiritual, which is the natural position of the preacher.
