higher power

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.