The Bible In Your Hand

John 1:1-5 It has been some time since I posted anything. Having recently moved from Wyoming back to Minnesota to Pastor a district in northern Minnesota, I hope to have a little more time to share my thoughts and reflections on the Bible. This morning, my thoughts turned to the Gospel of John, John 1:1-5. Bible scholars have concluded that John’s gospel was the last New Testament book written. While exiled on the Island of Patmos, he wrote the book of Revelation. Upon his release to the city of Ephesus, he concluded that a book describing who the Lamb of God is should be written for the book of Revelation to be better understood. This Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world in John’s gospel is the Lamb of the Book of Revelation. John 1:1 starts as Genesis 1:1 does by saying, “In the beginning.” In Greek, there is no definite article in the above phrase. The author wants readers of his gospel to understand that before there was a beginning to any created being or planet, there was the Word, and the Word was equal to God because He, too, was God. In Genesis 1:1, the Word for God is the plural form of the Word Elohim. In Genesis 1:26, God said, “Let us make man or humanity in our likeness.” Then, in Genesis 3:22, God again said, “Behold man has become one like us, to know good and evil.” But in Hebrew, the text states, “Man (humanity) was like one of us knowing good and evil, but as now lost the ability to distinguish good from evil. So, lest this continue forever, humanity must be removed from the presence of the Tree of Life. But remember my promise to humanity as seen in Genesis 3:15. A Seed shall come. That Seed will ultimately destroy the source of evil. In the first verse of his gospel, John says that the “Word who is God was also with God.” Verse 2: He has always been with God, and through this, God called the Word, all things in heaven, the cosmos, and on earth were created and made by Him. In the Word is life; through that life, there is light to illuminate the world. But because of the condition of humanity, they cannot discern good from evil. Therefore, the Light shining from the Word was not comprehended. Later in the first chapter of John, we are introduced to John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. John bears witness or testimony of the Holy Spirit being poured out or ascending upon Jesus. Three chapters later, when Nicodemus has his midnight visit with Jesus, Jesus talks about being baptized with water and the Holy Spirit, giving those baptized the power to discern between good and evil. Able to know and choose good instead of evil. John finishes his thoughts in verse 5 by saying that many will reject the Word that brings Light among the darkness because they rejected the Holy Spirit. In the first five verses, John is inviting his readers, you and I, to have an experience with the Word, who is one with God, who has been with God before there was a beginning. Who came to reveal to humanity how to discern good from evil. He asks us not to reject the Light given and to come out of the darkness unto the Light.