Week 41 John 1
John starts by talking about the mysterious and unidentified The Word.
He says that The Word created everything there is. It’s hard not to think back to Genesis where God created everything. John says here that The Word created everything.
John also says that life itself was in him. When I first read this I think it works like this: Life is in The Word and The Word then transfers the Life to non-living things. So in Genesis there aren’t any living things at first but then all kinds of living things get created and come alive (hummingbirds & giraffes & people). But if that’s what John meant then he likely would have said: “Life itself was in him, and this Life gives Life to everyone”. Which he didn’t. He said: life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. Light is part of the mix.
It’s always possible that Life and Light are two words for the same thing. But it sounds to me more like all Live Things universally got their life from The Word. And then there’s a supplementary thing that The Word had – Light – which could be an add-on to the Life that Live Things already had.
My sense is that all Live Things had Life. But the Live Things didn’t necessarily have Light. They could be Alive. But still be operating in the Dark.
Note: quotes from John 1:3 4 (NLT)