John, the apostle, was a poet, an artist with words. Once known, along with his brother James, as a Son of Thunder, a man of explosive passions, he later expressed himself, not without those same passions, but controlled, directed. In imagination-capturing words he unpacks “The Word” before us.

John had that gift for expressing truth in that delicate yet powerful form we call poetry. If John were here today he might be heard presenting his poetry as “spoken word”, the currently popular presentation of the truths of God’s word in poetical form in what we call “rapping”. It can be a powerful means of telling the truths of scripture.

Listen, and hear, what John is telling us. I read it slowly and thoughtfully to let the words sink in, representing it by spacing out the phrases.

In the beginning

was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God. Jn 1: 1

The Word…what is a word but the spoken expression of a thought in the mind? This Thought was in the mind of God. The thought takes on form when it is spoken into the atmosphere. The hearer can then experience the thought which was in the mind of the speaker. Not only is this Thought-into-Word spoken from the mind of God, this Thought-now-Word, is God Himself.

He was in the beginning with God. v 2

The Thought is the Word. And this particular Word was spoken by God Himself and, in fact, this Word is God. He always was with God because He always was God.

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. v 3

It was by His Word that God created. “And God said…” (Genesis 1). The Word is God the Creator. Of all things. Of us.

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. v 4

In this Word is life itself. This life was breathed into us in Adam (Genesis 2:7). So we all live by the breath of God. There is no other life from which to draw our life.

And this life-in-the-Word shines out as Light into the darkness of our existence. I feel the darkness. Our existence in the world depicted as “darkness” is right, is true. There is a world of truth wrapped up in this word, Darkness. But I want to look at the Light.

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overpower it. v 5

Light, by its nature, cuts through darkness, changing darkness to light. This is such an amazing truth! I flip on the light switch at night in a dark room and Voila!, I can see! I do not have to stumble over anything in the dark and injure myself. I am much more aware of such injury these days. The light reveals what is in the darkness. So I can then avoid those little tripping monsters.
Tremendous relief in this phrase: “and the darkness did not overpower it (the Light)”. Darkness has no power to extinguish or overpower light—or the Light. On the contrary, Light will always show up darkness. I know walking around in the darkness is dangerous, so I turn on the lights. How much more dangerous is walking, that is, living, in the darkness which the Light came to shine into?

So we have the ever-existing Word of God, the spoken expression of the Thought of God, which Word is God Himself, creating all that is, giving us His life. And in that life the Light which illumines our darkness, our far-away-from-God-ness. This Light gives us the Hope of God-nearness. Restored.

For once, long ago, there was no darkness.

Just a few words, unfolding, unwrapping truth upon truth, so simply, so beautifully, so powerfully.

But how do we know, how can we personally know this Light, this Word, this God?

John has only begun.

(All scriptures NASB)