John 1
The structure of John 1 seems a bit strange. As well as the complicated language, it seems to jump around all over the place. A bit about the word, a bit about John the baptist, a bit about light, more about John the baptist, back to the word again. If I had been John's editor I would have wanted all the bits about John put together, all the bits about the word in the beginning together etc.
The structure of this section actually uses symmetry of ideas to bring the focus onto the central section (v12-13). structure.... In v12-13 we see the gospel, the point of all of this stuff. That if I receive Jesus - recognise my own sin and the fact that I desperately need Him - and believe in His name - take Him as He said He is, how He has revealed Himself, not just how I want Him to be. Then I can become a child of God. That doesn't happen by blood - I am not born into Christianity - or by the flesh or human will - I don't make myself a Christian by moral behaviour - but it is all of God - it is all by His grace
John 1
the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus came from the Father, became flesh and literally tabernacled/pitched his tent among us. He came on a mission to save us. He was/is a missionary and gives us the mission of making disciples. As a Christian, the question is not "am i a missionary?" but "am I doing my job as a missionary properly?". Our pattern should be the same as Jesus, it starts with being with God and then, as we live our lives among people, it overflows out of our life. My mission field is my workplace, family, friends, wherever I've got my tent pitched.
John 1
The concept of "the word" would have been familiar to most of John's readers, it was in common usage at the time but meant different things to different people. The Jews would have thought of something different to the Stoics, the followers of Philo would have something different in their mind to the Gnostics. It's a lot like the word "God" today. Lots of people say they believe in God. 80% of people in Hartlepool do. But what those 70000+ people think of when they say God will be vastly different to each other. For some, God may be the God revealed in the Bible, for some, god might be like a fairy godmother who watches out for us, or like moody policeman who might zap us if our good deeds don't outwiegh our bad deeds.John sets out to make it clear what we need to know about "the Word": - He was with God in the beginnning
- he was/is God
- all things were made through Him
- He is life
- He is the true light
- He became flesh
- He is the only God
Then he reveals that "the word" is Jesus. Jesus is our God. Jesus is God, was with the Father in the beginning, made all things, is the light and the life, became flesh, is the only God. As Christians, we do not worship some vague higher power who we can't really describe. We worship Jesus, serve Jesus, love Jesus. It's all about Jesus.
