‘Who bore witness of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw.'
John regularly begins his writings with reference to Him Who is the Word of God (John 1:1-14; 1 John 1:1-4) and Who is Himself the fullest expression of the word of God to man. We are therefore justified here in giving it its twofold meaning. He bore testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Word from God, and he bore testimony to the revelation proceeding from Him, especially this particular revelation. In Revelation Jesus is revealed as the Word from God (Revelation 19:13) and reveals and bears testimony to what is to be.
‘The word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.' Jesus spoke of Scripture as ‘the word of God' (Mark 7:13). All other preaching of the word of God was to be on the basis of that word and thus became, in as far as it was true to it, ‘the word of God' (Acts 4:31 and often). This book is saturated with references taken from that ‘word of God' and thus it proclaims it, along with further revelation. The testimony of Jesus Christ includes that testimony of His life and teaching which we now have in the Gospels, as more fully expressed in the glorious figure to Whom we are shortly to be introduced.
‘Of all things that he saw'. The revelation was ‘seen'. These were not just ideas that flowed through his mind. He had ‘visions of God', visions which brought out a new dimension on Jesus Christ and on the future. And that is what he is testifying to. He is testifying to what he ‘saw'. What he had to say was what God had revealed. Yet as the recorder of those visions he had to select and interpret. Thus we have what came from outside him as interpreted by the Spirit of God within him.