How much is your character a subject of honor by others? If you give someone your word, will they believe you, or will it mean nothing to them?
I want to share with you this week a few ideas on one of my favorite passages in the Bible. I quoted this passage to my daughters more then any other as they grew up, for I feel it is a key passage in my Christian faith. My two oldest daughters memorized the whole chapter of this passage while in grade school.
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
A key word to look at in this passage is “Word”. The Greek word here, as you may well know, is “logos”. John uses the word logos which simply means “word” but in the context in which we find this word, it carries many meanings.
First, it shows that Christ was the focal point of God’s revelation to men. Verse fourteen is the link that ties this back to Christ.
14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth
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Verse fourteen is speaking of Christ coming to earth. Word was made flesh, is indeed Christ.
Second, what would the Jewish reader see, if they read this book by John?
The first verse of his book would cause a Jewish person to think back to the first words of the Bible which is, “In the beginning God”. In other words, Jesus would immediately be associated with the power of God in creation. It would be the same for us, if we were to read a book that started with the words, Four score and seven years ago.... This would cause us to think of Lincoln’s words in his famous address.
But this is not all that the Jewish mind would think of. The use of “word” would mean more than it does to us today. We say words are cheap. We say, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me. But words do hurt. The Jewish people of that day, regarded a word spoken as if it was a deed done.
This is closely linked to the idea of God in creation. What God speaks, does indeed come about. God said, “let there be light” and instantly there was light. By John using the word “logos” here would cause the Jewish mind to take note of what is about to be said, for if God says it, it will happen.
Last, what would the word “logos” mean to the Greek mind? For the Greek the answer is found not in religion, but in Greek philosophy.
Lets travel back to the sixth century B.C. There was a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus that lived in Ephesus. Heraclitus was the first person in the Western world to create a robust philosophical system. His writings greatly influenced the thought of Socrates and Plato.
One of Heraclitus best known statements was...
" I believe, says that all things go and nothing stays, you could not step twice into the same river" (Cratylus 402a = DK22A6).
Look at this phrase, “ you could not step twice into the same river.” What he meant by this, all of life is in a state of change at all times. He meant that though you can step in a river and remove your foot, by the time you step in it again the river has changed.
To early Greek philosophers all of life seemed just like this. But this posed a problem as well. If life is always changing why is not all nature in a state of chaos? Heraclitus answered, “life is not in full chaos because the change we see is not random change, but rather ordered change.”
This means that there must be a divine order or reason for this change. There must be a “word” that controls all change. That is “logos”, the word that John uses in the opening verse of his gospel.
In time to the Greek, the logos became known as “the mind of God”. By the time John wrote his Gospel, Heraclitus was seven hundred years gone. But Heraclitus and his ideas still were in great debate. Plato, Socrates and others had built on the ideas Heraclitus had started. This was not limited to just the high philosophers, for in Johns day ordinary people had taken up the debate as well.
The Greek mind of John’s day knew all about “the logos”. For him the logos was the creative and controlling mind of God that kept the universe going. It was therefore with a stroke of divine genius that John seized upon this word, one that was as meaningful to Greeks as to the Jewish people.
John was saying ”listen, you Greeks, the very thing that has most occupied your philosophical thought and that which you have all been writing about for centuries now…The Logos of God, this word, this controlling power of the universe and mans’ mind, this logos has now come to earth as a man, and we have beheld Him, full of grace and truth.
Plato, we are told, once turned to that little group of philosophers and students that had gathered around him during the golden age of Athens and said, “it may be that some day there will come forth from God a word, a Logos, who will reveal all mysteries and make everything plain.”
John is saying in this verse, “Yes Plato, the Logos has come, now God has revealed Himself to us in His Son. John is saying, "You want to hear from God. This is what God has to say. Will you now listen?"
Will you listen?