John 1:1-18
Happy New Year, folks! And what a year it’ll be! It’ll be whatever He makes it for us, so long as we walk hand-in-hand with Him. Glory!
So today, a new year, a new goal – reading through the New Testament, chronologically, in short spurts, 20 to 25 verses per day. A few minutes to read and more time to reflect, to pick out that one (or more) verse(s) that struck you, that one truth you hadn’t seen before, what our pastor David has said, “Notice what you notice”.
So what did I notice today? Two things… First, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us… (v. 14a) Having just gone through the Christmas season, the Incarnation, and reflecting on that – that Jesus, the Incarnate Word left His heavenly home and became man and lived fully within our sphere. That very thought just grabs me! What a step-down, all for love of us…! And the second thing that I saw was verse 17, For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Those of us in RTB last year just finished reading through the Epistles, also chronologically, such that Hebrews was one of the last books we read, just finishing it in mid-December. And the author of Hebrews spent a lot of time talking about Moses and the Law and contrasting them with Jesus. So we’re coming full circle here – what we just read last year is being reinforced this year. Again, Glory!
Looking forward to many of you sharing whatever strikes you, blessing all the rest of us…!
Have a blessed year!
See also: January 1 / John 1:1-18 from 2019.
Good Morning all, and Happy New Year. To say that I hope that 2021 is better than 2020 seems like a low bar; so let me say that I wish all of you God’s joy and peace in abundance in 2021.
What got my attention was the word “Word”. In his sermon 2 or 3 weeks ago, David pointed out that in the original Greek, John used the term “logos” which in English translates as “Word”. But the term logos is packed with a couple hundred years of Hellenistic philosophy where logos means much more than a particular word. It means something like the power of reason or rational thought behind the word. For example, if I just said a grouping of random words, there is no power of persuasion or information behind the words – they are powerless without the rationality behind them. John built his amazing revelation of the Christian Logos on top of these Greek building blocks.
So, “In the beginning, was the Word…” to me means something like before the universe was created, our triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) existed as the power of reason or rationality, and that power created the universe and everything in it according to His purpose and plan.
Also, I was struck by the words “In him was life, and that life was the light of men”. So, in Christ was the offer of salvation and eternal life; and Christ brought this revelation into the world as a beacon of light for men to follow.
Well, speaking of certain power behind words, wow, it doesn’t get more powerful than that.
For a little additional discussion of “logos” you might want to check out a couple videos by my son, Dan:
Note that those videos are looking more at the Greek and philosophical background of “logos”, and not specifically at John’s use of “Logos” here in today’s reading. But (proud papa that I am) I think they are worth watching. 🙂
Something that I noted was in v 8 about John the Baptist, his role to reflect the light and point others to Jesus. That is our role too, to reflect what Jesus/God is like, His character, and witness, pointing others to Christ.
All of John’s writings seem to focus on Jesus as fully God, fully man. Yes, Fred, we read a lot about those opposite heresies (Jesus only a man, Jesus only a spirit).