Week 40 John
John begins his gospel talking about The Word: in the beginning was the Word.
It sounds at first like The Word is something non-personal. But right away John adds that: the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So The Word isn’t a thing. John says: he (The Word) was with God in the beginning.
If The Word was in the beginning with God it sounds like he was different than God.
But The Word was God – which sounds like he was the same as God.
So The Word and God were the same and also different.
Hmmmm… John adds a couple more things about The Word:
Through him all things were made
In him was life, and that life was the light of men
He was in the world…(but) the world did not recognize him
The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us.
It’s only when John gets to verse 17 that the to-this-point-unidentified Word is given a name: Jesus Christ. So that helps.
John adds one more detail: no one has ever seen God, but God the only Son…has made him known. The Word was different than God – there was God the Son & God the Father – and that elemental difference meant that the Son (who visibly & materially became flesh-and-blood) could disclose the Father (who was immaterial and invisible).
Note: quotes from John 1:1, 3, 4, 10, 14, 18 (NIV)