Getting To Know You

GETTING TO KNOW YOU (1 JOHN 1)

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My coworker Percy invited a few of us to his home for a Chinese New Year dinner (January 29, 2019). I was surprised that he kept hedgehogs as pets – not one but two separate cages. The hedgehog's dilemma, or sometimes the porcupine dilemma, describes a situation in which a group of hedgehogs seek to move close to one another to share heat during cold weather. They must remain apart, however, as they cannot avoid hurting one another with their sharp spines.

German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer first articulated the conundrum:

“A number of porcupines huddled together for warmth on a cold day in winter; but, as they began to prick one another with their quills, they were obliged to disperse. However the cold drove them together again, when just the same thing happened. At last, after many turns of huddling and dispersing, they discovered that they would be best off by remaining at a little distance from one another.” (Wikipedia: Hedgehog’s Dilemma)

John is one of Jesus’ twelve apostles who belonged to Jesus’ inner circle of three, including Peter and John’s brother James. He was renowned for writing the gospel John, three letters of John and the Book of the Revelation. He is otherwise known as

“the beloved disciple” or three times as the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (John 19:26, 21:7, 21:20), whom Jesus entrusted his mother to his care (John 19:26), thereby the introduction – “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” (v 1).

What is life of fellowship with Jesus like? How does it benefit others? How can we develop the blessed life with Christ and what can derail it?

Extend the Fellowship – Fellowship Doubled

1 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. 2 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. 3 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.

The early Christians had a radical, extreme and separatist understanding of fellowship with God, from which out of it is the making of monks and nuns. Christian monasticism is the devotional practice of individuals who live ascetic and typically cloistered lives that are dedicated to Christian worship. The word monk originated from the Greek monachos "monk," itself from monos meaning "alone.” Eremitic monasticism, or solitary monasticism, is characterized by a complete withdrawal from society, which was popularized by St. Anthony of the Desert, or St. Anthony of Egypt, who left civilization behind to live on a solitary Egyptian mountain in the third century. Men wandered into the desert, holed up in caves and took to the mountains to look for that exclusive fellowship with God. Women had the option of becoming an anchoress, who would live alone in a room that typically had a window that opened into a church so they could receive communion and participate in church services. There were two other windows that allowed food to be passed in and people to come seek advice. (Wikipedia: Christian monasticism)

The chapter has no imperatives but three purpose clauses. The first “hina” or purpose clause or the first distinctive of true fellowship, however, is not to get ahead or get away – which is just the transit - but to get others and get along, not to leave others behind – not the vertical but the horizontal plane, not the heavenly but the human factor, not relation with God but reciprocal with others.

The verb “proclaim” (apaggello) in verse 3 can be translated as “bring word again” ( Matt 2:8), tell (Matt 8:33), shew (Matt 11:4) and reported (Acts 4:23). John was a witness to Jesus’ transfiguration, but the highest experience of the Christian life is not to experience the Word but to evangelize the world, and to savor and save the experience for yourself but to share and spread the experience too others, not to own but co-own the experience or capture and not to master or monopolize the experience but extend and . Heard, seen and touched could not have been closer, richer and better relationship, but Christianity is more than a private matter or a personal experience.