1-2. 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.

First, he shows that life has been exhibited to us in Christ, which, as it is an incomparable good, ought to rouse and inflame all our power with a wonderful desire for it, and with love of it. It is said, in a few plain words, that life appeared; but if we consider what a miserable and horrible condition death is, and also what the kingdom and the glory of immortality is, we shall perceive that there is something here more magnificent than can be expressed in any words.

The apostle's object in setting before us the vast good, indeed the chief and only true happiness that God has conferred on us in his own Son, is to raise our thoughts above; but as the greatness of the subject requires the truth to be certain and fully proved, it is much dwelt on here. For these words — That which ... we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at — serve to strengthen our faith in the Gospel. Indeed, it is not without reason that the apostle makes so many strong assertions, for since our salvation depends on the Gospel, its certainty is in the highest degree necessary; and how difficult it is for us to believe, each one of us knows too well by his own experience. To believe is not lightly to form an opinion, or to assent only to what is said; rather, it is a firm, undoubting conviction, so that we may dare to subscribe to the truth as fully proved. It is for this reason that the apostle heaps together so many things in confirmation of the Gospel.

1. That which was from the beginning. As the passage is abrupt and involved, the words may be rearranged in order to make the sense clearer: "We announce to you the Word of life, which was from the beginning and was truly testified to us in all manner of ways — namely, that life has appeared in him." Or if you prefer, the meaning may be given thus: "What we announce to you respecting the Word of life has been from the beginning and has been openly shown to us: life appeared in him." But the words That which was from the beginning doubtless refer to the divinity of Christ, for God did not appear in the flesh from the beginning; but he who always was life and the eternal Word of God appeared in the fullness of time as man. Again, what follows about looking at and touching with the hands refers to his human nature. But as the two natures constitute only one person, and Christ is one — he came from the Father that he might put on our flesh — the apostle rightly declares that he is the same; he had been invisible and afterwards became visible.

This disproves Servetus' senseless argument that the nature and essence of deity became one with the flesh, and that thus the Word was transformed into flesh because the life-giving Word was seen in the flesh.

Let us then bear in mind that this doctrine of the Gospel is declared here: he who in the flesh really proved himself to be the Son of God, and was acknowledged to be the Son of God, was always God's invisible Word, for John is not here referring to the beginning of the world, but ascends much higher.

Which we have heard, which we have seen. This was not merely hearing a report (to which little credit is usually given), but John means that he had faithfully learned from his Master those things that he taught, so that he alleged nothing thoughtlessly and rashly. And, doubtless, no one is a fit teacher in the church who has not been a disciple of the Son of God and rightly instructed in his school, since his authority alone ought to prevail.

With our eyes. This is no redundancy, but a fuller expression for the sake of amplifying. John was not satisfied with merely seeing, but added, which we have looked at and our hands have touched. By these words he shows that he taught nothing but what had been really made known to him.

It may seem, however, that the evidence of the senses availed little on the present subject, for the power of Christ could not be perceived by the eyes or felt by the hands. To this I answer that the same thing is said here as in John 1:14: "We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son," for he was not known as the Son of God by the external form of his body, but because he gave clear proofs of his divine power, so that the majesty of the Father shone in him as in a living and distinct image. As the words in 1 John are in the plural, and the subject applies equally to all the apostles, I am disposed to include them, especially as the authority of testimony is what is under discussion.

But Servetus' wickedness (as I have said before) is as frivolous as it is impudent when he argues that these words prove that the Word of God became visible and capable of being handled; he either impiously destroys or mingles together the twofold nature of Christ. This is, therefore, a pure figment. When he denies Christ's humanity, he wholly takes away the reality of his human nature and at the same time denies that Christ is called the Son of God for any other reason than that he was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Servetus takes away Christ's own subsistence in God. Hence it follows that he was neither God nor man, though he seems to form a confused mass from both. But as the apostle's meaning is evident to us, let us pass by that unprincipled Servetus.

Concerning the Word of life. The genitive here is used adjectivally — "vivifying" or "life-giving," for in him, as it says in the first chapter of John's Gospel, was life. At the same time, this distinction belongs to the Son of God on two accounts: because he has infused life into all creatures, and because he now restores life to us when we had perished, having been extinguished by Adam's sin. Moreover, the term Word may be explained in two ways — either of Christ, or of the gospel teaching, which is how salvation is brought to us. But as its substance is Christ, and as it contains nothing other than the fact that he, who had always been with the Father, at length appeared to us, the first view seems to me the simpler and more gen-uine. Moreover, it appears more fully from the Gospel that the wisdom that lives in God is called the Word.

2. The life appeared. It is as though he had said, "We testify of the life-giving Word, for life has appeared." The sense may at the same time be a double one: that Christ, who is life and the fountain of life, has appeared, or that life has been openly offered to us in Christ. The latter, indeed, necessarily follows from the former. Yet as for the meaning, the two things differ, like cause and effect. When he repeats, we proclaim or announce to you the eternal life, he is speaking, I have no doubt, about the effect — he announces that life is obtained for us in Christ.

From this we learn that when Christ is...