was with the Father’ (v. 2). John is reminding us at the outset of his epistle both that his gospel is the original gospel, as well as that Jesus Christ is the pre-existent Son of God (v. 3). ‘These names and descriptions of the Son,’ says the nineteenth century Scottish commentator Robert S. Candlish, ‘undoubtedly refer in the first instance to his eternal relation to the Father.’17 Jesus’ personal history did not begin in the manger. He is the eternal Son. He had no beginning, but was ‘from the