John is telling the believers in Ephesus, they can be sure that the word they received and believed concerning Jesus Christ is the gospel truth. They can be confident that they have put their faith in the truth and know that they are walking in the light. The false teachers who left the church to promote their own distorted doctrines, were claiming that the message of John and the apostles was wrong. So, John appeals to the Jewish standard that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word is established (Deut. 17:6; Matt. 18:16).
John opened this epistle by affirming that he and the other apostles had seen Jesus, heard Jesus, touched and examined Jesus, and their testimony was true. But as John brings the letter to a close, he emphasizes the truth of the message by again appealing to witnesses, but it’s not the witness of man, it is the historical witness of the life of Christ, the testimony of the Spirit, and the witness of God concerning His Son.
Copyright © Dr. Mark E. Hardgrove 2017
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