Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God
The Bible opens with these words. And the apostle John reiterates them in his gospel:
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
We therefore know that “in the beginning” there was only God, that He made everything that was made.
John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
And He made it not out of anything that already existed because nothing existed but Himself:
Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Since the “word of God” is God (as John tells us) and “everything that was made” was made by God, it follows that all creation (including man) came out of God.
And we know that all of creation was “very good” (Genesis 1:31) and that God “rested” “from all His work which He had made,” not because He was tired, but because His work was “ended”; there was nothing more to be done).
Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
The apostle John begins his first epistle with these words:
1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 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;) 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. 4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
“That which was from the beginning” is referring to the original creation recorded in Genesis 1. It, though consisting of everything that has ever been made (John 1:3), is not visible to the human eye which was “veiled” by man’s descent into a material, sense world of visible “matter” (man’s false concept of the original creation that is not “very good”) (see Putting On Immortality).
This descent occurred when he entertained the thought (carnal-mindedness which is “death”) that he (man; visible Son) was separated from God (Life; invisible Father) and must do something (eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, or take upon himself a belief in two powers —one good and one evil—rather than retaining the knowledge that there is only one power (God Omnipotent) which is only good)—man thought he must know both good and evil and choose the “good” to be loved and accepted by his Father who begat him out of Himself.
John is telling us in his epistle that “that which was from the beginning” (God; invisible Life) descended into this world of man’s creating (the world of “matter” that could be “seen” and “handled”) in the form of Jesus (man; visible Son) so that we could come to know the “true God” that Jesus prayed we would know (not our false concept of a god of wrath and punishment). God descended into this world to show us “that eternal life, which was with the Father”:
John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
John says that he is “declaring” this to us that we may “have fellowship” “with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” and that our “joy may be full” (v 4). Notice that neither Jesus nor John ever separated the Father and Son—for they are one—precisely what Jesus prayed we would come to understand:
John 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
When we know that we are “Son” (God visible; God in expression), then we enter into “fellowship” with the Father and the Son. And that is what makes our joy “full.” We cannot experience “life eternal” until we know God the Father and God the Son as one—until we can “see” and “handle” “that which was from the beginning.”
That’s what John is telling us—that they saw the Life of God “manifested”—made visible in the Son. And that is what the world is waiting for now, to again see manifested “that which was from the beginning”—God expressed visibly as Son:
Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
John again uses the phrase “from the beginning” is this Scripture:
1 John 2:7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. 8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. 9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. 10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. 11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
John tells us that he is reminding us of a commandment that we had “from the beginning,” the same “beginning” referred to above, the time of creation “before the world [the material, “matter” world] began”:
2 Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
—before we thought that we had to “do” something to earn our Father’s love or to receive “eternal life,” both of which we already knew and enjoyed.
This “old commandment” that John is reminding us of is “the word which ye have heard from the beginning.” John has already told us that the disciples “heard” the “word of Life” “which was from the beginning” when they heard invisible God through the visible Son.
Then John says:
1John 2: 8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
“Before the world began,” “from the beginning” we all heard the “Word” which is God. But we descended into the material sense world and forgot that we were one with our Father until the “true light” (God in the form of Jesus that could be seen and handled) came and brought us out of this “darkness” (see Putting On Immortality).
(Matthew 4:16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.)
Now the “new commandment” tells us that since that “light” has come, we can know that what is true “in him” is also true “in you” because He made known to us that we are all one. There is but one Spirit and one body:
(Ephesians 4:4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.)
When this becomes revelation knowledge to me, I will understand that to live in “darkness” is to continue to see myself as a separate being from God and my brother (live from my humanity) while to walk in the “light” is to live from a God consciousness of being one with my Father and my brother.
Then John’s next words become clear:
1 John 2:9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. 10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. 11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
If I say that I am “in the light” (in the God consciousness of being one with God and my brother), I cannot hate my brother because God is love (1John 4:8) and cannot hate. If I hate my brother, I am in “darkness” (in the human consciousness of feeling separated from God and my brother, feeling that I have to protect myself from my brother because I feel threatened by him). I don’t know where I’m going because these feelings have “blinded” my eyes.
Let’s look at what Jesus said about this “blindness”:
John 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. 40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? 41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
Jesus has come “into this world” of “matter” that we have created to bring us out of the “darkness,” to open our eyes to the truth of our being.
To acknowledge that I am blinded by my sense of separation, that what I’m saying and doing is coming from that sense and is designed to protect and preserve my humanity—that is what it means to “confess my sins” and be “cleansed from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9). I am now “walking in the light as He is in the light, having “fellowship” with God and with my brother (vv 5-7).
John’s next reference to “from the beginning” is in chapter 3:
1 John 3:11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. 13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
We heard this “message” “from the beginning” (before there was a world of man’s creating). The message is “that we should love one another”—because we are all one with our Father and with one another, making it very easy and natural to obey what Jesus called the “great commandment.”
Matthew 22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Again, there is no separation between Father and Son (or God and neighbor (God made visible)).
But, alas, when man descended into the world of his own creating (the “matter” world), he began to fear God (Genesis 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself)—he began to fear both God and his brother. We see in the example of Cain the consequence of fearing one’s brother. Cain is said to be “of that wicked one” (the devil, or carnal mind) which is to say he believed himself to be a separate being from God and his brother, one who must protect and preserve himself from those he feared.
John tells us that Cain slew his brother “because his own works were evil and his brother’s righteous.” “Evil” works are those which come from living from one’s humanity and trusting in one’s own ability to do the right thing while “righteous” works are those which come from trusting God to do the works rather than trusting in one’s own ability. If we look back at Genesis where this story is related, we see that Cain was given the opportunity to rule over the “sin” that had kept him from “doing well” (Genesis 4:7). He could have obeyed the voice of the Lord, but he chose rather to nurse the anger against God and his brother, “the wrath of man that worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:20), the anger that resulted in the murdering of his brother.
John then tells us that we should not be surprised that the world hates us. As in the case of Cain, people who trust in themselves cannot bear to see others seemingly rewarded when they have not worked for and earned the reward (the goodness of God). We who “have passed from death [the human, sin consciousness] unto life [the realm of Spirit or God consciousness], like Abel, will be “murdered” by our brothers who are still “abiding in death”—the realm of humanity—”this world.”
1 John 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
Jesus said to the Pharisees what John said of Cain:
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Jesus said this because they, like Cain, had a false concept of god, a god of wrath and judgment who was a separate being from themselves. They had not yet known the “true God,” whom to know is eternal life. They did not yet know their origin in God. They still believed their father to be human, in the realm of humanity (the carnal mind, the devil). They did not know God as Father.
John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Matthew 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
So we can see that what John is attempting to tell us is that we must return to our beginning, “before the world began,” when we knew that we are God in expression, when we knew that we are are one with God and with our brother, when love was all we knew because there were no feelings of alienation from God or one another.
“That which was from the beginning” descended into “this world” for that purpose—to take us back to the original creation from which we came.
We will continue our study of 1John in Assuring our Hearts Before Him.