Passage
No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
John 1:18 (LSB)
Nearby Context
John 1:16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
John 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
John 1:19 And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
John 1:20 And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
Study Lenses
The verse centers on "seen", "time", "only", "begotten", "bosom", "father", and "explained". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "seen" and "time", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 17's "For the Law was given through Moses..." into verse 19's "And this is the witness of John...", so "seen" and "time" belong inside that flow. In John context, the local focus is the identity of Jesus, new birth, eternal life, and belief and unbelief.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "seen" and "time" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.