But John's witness went beyond hearing and seeing, and looking long and closely. He had also "handled" Jesus. The word John uses is pselaphao, meaning "to feel" or "to touch." The classic New Testament use of the word is in connection with the Lord's appearing in the Upper Room in His resurrection body. The disciples were alarmed, thinking He was a ghost. He put their minds at ease and laid the imagined "ghost" to rest by inviting them to "handle" Him (Luke 24:39), to assure themselves that He was real, that His body was solid and substantial. He also ate food before them to further convince them that His resurrection body was real. The word John used for "handle" (Luke 24:39) conveys the idea of moving one's hands over a surface, so as to feel its texture. Doubtless, too, John recalled the Lord's resurrection invitation to doubting Thomas to handle Him (John 20:27).

John, perhaps, had in mind the ever closer intimacy he and the other disciples had enjoyed with the Lord during His earthly sojourn. John could remember the first time he had heard Jesus speak, after John's interest in the coming Christ had been kindled by the preaching of John the Baptist. The first words that John ever heard Jesus say, according to the New Testament record, were "Come and see" (John 1:35-39). So John came and heard and saw. Over time, he "looked" upon Jesus thousands of times and was an eyewitness to all that He said and did. John tells us that he could, in fact, have filled libraries with the things he had heard, seen, and observed in regard to Christ during those amazing years of long ago (John 21:25).

John had drawn very close to the Lord and had often touched Him. Earthly monarchs like to keep their distance from their subjects and rarely allow them to come close. Not so Jesus. John, who was the closest to the Lord of all the disciples, actually leaned upon Jesus' breast during the Last Supper (John 13:23).

Little wonder that John had no patience with the heretics who denied the actuality of the Lord's body.

John describes Jesus as "the Word of life," as "the Logos of life." In his gospel he says that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The Word had adopted a new mode of being and "dwelt" ("tabernacled," "pitched His tent") among men. Moreover, as the tabernacle in the wilderness had been crowned with the Shechinah glory, so the Lord Jesus carried with Him everywhere the aurora of another world, the glory of His Father in heaven.

The Word! Thoughts remain invisible and inaudible until they are clothed in words. With words, what we think and feel and are can be known. And just as our words reveal us, so, too, the Lord Jesus, as "the Word of life," clothes and reveals the great thoughts and feelings of God regarding our sin and our salvation.

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Adapted from Exploring the Epistles of John: An Expository Commentary by John Phillips. Used by permission of Kregel Publications. The John Phillips Commentary Series from Kregel is available at your local or online Christian bookseller, or contact Kregel at (800) 733-2607.

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John Phillips is a popular preacher and Bible study leader who now resides in Bowling Green, KY.