1 John 1

The Gospel of John also begins by describing Jesus as “the living Word of God” (John 1:1), the message of God, delivered in the flesh. The original Greek word is Logos. Greek scholars, such as Heraclitus, said logos was the wisdom behind all of creation. This all-present wisdom created everything and guided creation along the way. For many Jewish scholars then and now, God’s Word pulled the trigger on creation, whether or not that involved pulling the trigger on the big bang. “God said, ‘Lights.’ Lights came on. . . . God said, ‘Land, grow a garden.’. . . The land grew a garden” (Genesis 1:3, 11-12). John doesn’t identify Jesus as the Word until a few paragraphs later, gradually working up to it by describing the Word as the one who “came to this world that belonged to him. But most of the people—his people—wouldn’t have anything to do with him” (John 1:11). Jesus came to earth as a living, breathing expression of God’s message to humanity, summed up in what is perhaps the most famous Bible verse: John 3:16.

Some ancient copies of this letter say John wants to make “them” happy.

Compare this to the Gospel of John’s description of God: “God’s life-giving light shines in the darkness. And darkness can’t do a rotten thing about it” (John 1:5). The Gospel of John may be pointing back to the creation story, when God turned on the lights and “put darkness in its place” (Genesis 1:5). But John’s Gospel, like this letter of 1 John, also seems to be pointing toward Jesus, who is often described as a source of spiritual light. “‘Gentiles of Galilee . . . who live in darkness will see the light—a powerful light. For those people who live in this land, under the shadow of death, it’s dawn, for the light has come’” (Matthew 4:15-16).