John 1:7

John 1:7. The same came for witness, that he might bear witness concerning the Light, that all might believe through him. The impression produced by the Baptist had been great, but he had come to bear witness to One higher than himself. Here we meet for the first time with this word ‘witness,' one of the characteristic words of the writings of John, occurring in various forms nearly fifty times in his Gospel, and thirty or forty times in his Epistles and the Apocalypse. The importance of the thought lies in its simplicity. The true witness declares what he has seen and heard (1 John 1:2-3); his testimony reflects ‘the truth' so far as he has received it, just as the faithful mirror reflects the light that has come upon it. John came to bear such witness concerning the Light, that through him all might be led to ‘believe' trustfully to accept that Light, and yield themselves up to its influence. The introduction of the word ‘all' is very remarkable. More clearly than any other passage this verse teaches us how great were the results which the Baptist's mission was intended to produce, immeasurably greater than those which were actually realised. Had Israel been faithfully and obediently waiting for the fulfilment of the divine promise, John's witness respecting Jesus would have turned ‘all' Israel (and, through Israel, ‘all' men) to the Saviour. In immediate effects the work of John, like that of One higher than John, would be pronounced by men a failure. In the light of this verse we can better understand such passages as Malachi 4; Matthew 11:9-14; Luke 7:29-30.