Theological disputes are not something unique to our time, or even the time of our ancient relatives.
Reaching all the way back to the first century we can find disagreements about important theological matters. Jesus had his arguments with the Pharisees and Sadducees, not to mention those with the religious leaders of his day. Paul had to deal with controversies with church members as they were still learning what it meant to live in this new kingdom with its new covenant. And John felt pushback from those who insisted that although Jesus may have been God (there were definitely some who thought he wasn’t), he surely wasn’t a human being.
And so, one of the main motivations for John writing what we call “1 John” was to remind those early believers of what had been true and what they had been taught since the beginning. Namely, that this Jesus—whom they rightly worshipped as their Lord and God—was a real human being.
“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. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.” (1 Jn 1:1-4, NIV)
John hits all the markers here for an accurate eyewitness account. That…which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched. Seeing, hearing, and touching.
In other words, John was reminding those early believers that people had really come into contact with the human being called Jesus—John himself being one of those early eyewitnesses! Their experiences were not dreams, nor were they delusions. They, instead, were real encounters where they saw him heal another person, they saw him walking down the road, they listened to him teach to the masses, and have private conversations with individuals. And not only that, but they placed their hands on him. They even had times where they placed their hands on him.
To be sure, people of John’s day believed in ghosts. Not so different from us, today. Jesus, though, was no ghost, or phantom, or apparition. In fact, on more than one occasion Jesus’s disciples thought he was a ghost. During one of those times they were in a boat in dangerously choppy water, and they saw someone coming at them, walking on the water. Their first inclination was that this someone was a ghost, and they were naturally terrified. It wasn’t until he spoke to them that they realized this someone was no ghost, but Jesus in the flesh. (Mt 14:16-26)
We cannot separate out or compartmentalize Jesus deity from his humanity. Jesus was not and is not some part God and some part human. He was and is one individual. And this one individual was and is God and man.
John wanted his readers then and us today to remember that. The world’s views will no doubt change over time—as they already have. We’re called to hold on to what was witnessed and taught from the beginning. And what was taught was that Jesus was a real human being.