John 1:(1-9) 10-18 (NRSV)
Read John 1:(1-9) 10-18 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Verse 2He was in the beginning with God. Verse 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being Verse 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
Verse 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. Verse 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. Verse 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. Verse 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. Verse 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. Verse 10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. Verse 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. Verse 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, Verse 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. Verse 14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.
Verse 15(John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") Verse 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. Verse 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Verse 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
Devotion
The autumn of my sophomore year of college I sat in my first Greek class. One of our first assignments was noun declension. As our model we used John’s "word" in his opening verse: "logos" or "word:" "In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God."
Words have a purpose. While we might think them, it is usually with the intent that they will be spoken. We do that both by voicing them and writing them; but either way we use words for a reason. We want something to happen, a task to be accomplished, a message to be understood, an idea to be considered.
John says that God had a purpose from the very beginning of beginnings. He describes that purpose as a Word. That Word accomplished creation. That Word gifted us with life. That Word illuminates and drives away darkness. And that Word became incarnate, with a purpose.
For you, that purpose is that your life might be empowered when you believe or trust that Word which was born for you. John will later in his gospel describe that purpose as our choice to love one another as that “Word” has loved us. How will your life in the coming days testify to that Word, its life and its light?
Prayer
Speak to me, Lord, and enable me to hear you clearly. Illumine my way, Lord, that I might walk with purpose. Live in me, Lord, that I might speak your word and show forth your light to those I meet this day. Amen.