1 John 4:14

And we have seen, and do testify,....

The apostle's assurance of this--he and his brethren had seen it; they had seen the Son of God in his human nature, in his holy converse and works, in his transfiguration on the mount, and in his death, resurrection from the dead, and royal ascent to heaven; they had so seen him as to be satisfied that he was the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

THERE are two things joined together in the text which must never be parted—"We have seen and testify." In the first place, never let any man testify what he has not seen. If you are not personally aware of it, do not tell it—it is the personality of the testimony that is the power of the testimony. That Truth of God which you have never experienced, you had better leave to somebody else to preach.

The internal evidence of the indwelling Spirit (1Jo 4:13) is corroborated by the external evidence of the eye-witnesses to the fact of the Father having "sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world." seen--Greek, "contemplated," "attentively beheld" (see on 1Jo 1:1). sent--Greek, "hath sent": not an entirely past fact (aorist), but one of which the effects continue (perfect tense).

THERE are two things joined together in the text which must never be parted—"We have seen and testify." In the first place, never let any man testify what he has not seen. If you are not personally aware of it, do not tell it—it is the personality of the testimony that is the power of the testimony. That Truth of God which you have never experienced, you had better leave to somebody else to preach. This is the cause of the failure of a great many ministers—there is no personal conversion at the back of their ministry and, consequently, no Christian life within them. Their preaching is the testimony of a man who says that he heard such and such a thing and you know how a judge will stop a witness when he begins to say what others have told him. "No, no," he says, "what did you see, yourself, my good man? What do you know about this business on your own account? I do not want to know what others said to you about it." So is it with the message delivered from the pulpit—what is needed is that the preacher should bear testimony of what he has seen, tasted, felt and handled. When you try to bring others to Christ, you must do it by bearing witness of what Christ has done for you. If He has never done anything for you—personally for you—you cannot testify for Him and must not pretend to do so. In the next place, what you have seen you should testify. If you have seen those things for yourself, do what Mary did when she had seen the risen Christ—she ran to bring His disciples the news! What right have you to see for yourself, alone? No, no, tell the glad tidings! The Light of God is not put to your candle for the candle's sake, alone—it is that men may be enlightened by its beams.

And we have seen - Notes on 1Jn 1:1. And do testify - Notes, 1Jn 1:3. That is, we who are apostles bear witness to you of this great truth, that God has sent his Son to be a Saviour. Compare the notes at Joh 20:31. The reason why this is referred to here is not quite apparent, but the train of thought in this passage would seem to be this: The writer is discoursing of the love of God, and of its manifestation in the gift of the Saviour, and of the proper influence which it should have on us. Struck with the greatness and importance of the subject, his mind adverts to the “evidence” on which what he was saying rested - the evidence that the Father had really thus manifested his love. That evidence he repeats, that he had actually seen him who had been sent, and had the clearest demonstration that what he deemed so important had really occurred.