Main Point: John is declaring with certainty that Jesus is both fully human and fully God.
New Light: In this reference to ‘the Word’, John may be saying many different things with respect to his audience. In Hebrew, the Word was an agent of creation, the source of God's message to his people through the prophets, and God’s law. In Greek philosophy, the Word was the principle of reason that governed the world, or thought still in the mind. So if both are true, John is saying that Jesus was both a human being that he knew well, an agent of God’s creation, and also the ultimate revelation of God, of Holiness, a creator in the same sense that God is a creator.
Truth: “ In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”
Of all the passages I am familiar with, this one speaks to me so clearly. For me, this acknowledges that life of spirit within, within all people. Using the word Light for this life is so perfect, because the spirit does radiate within us, even in darkness, though when we experience darkness we do not always comprehend this light at the time.
4 comments:
Yes. It is almost like until now only the Quakers and a few others have read this passage. The truth in it is being much more widely accepted now.
The craetive word of God who is light and life to us enlightens each and everyone of us. It is notChristian witness but the spirit's witness in us that leads us into the spiritual life.
I wonder why this is so hard to accept?
What is hard to accept? The light within us?
From Meredith's last paragraph and David's last paragraph I get the idea you wonder why everybody doesn't accept the universality of the spirit within us.
Good question. I wonder why so many people have been slaughtered in the name of God, and I don't wonder why many people have abandoned God on that account.
The spirit speaks to everyone (there is that of God in everyone), and those of us with some understanding of this feel like it's crystal clear, but as Isaiah indicated in a former post, we're still at the stage of tribalism, and have to learn its lessons before we can move on to become "fully human".
I think a lot of people do accept the idea of the light within, though they may call it the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through acceptance of Christ. These are the some of same people who oppress and slaughter -- I don't think its that they don't accept the light, I think its a perversion. I don't know much about the Crusades, but one of the basic premises (at least ostensibly) was the spread of Christianity, while I suspect it was really about politics and power, I'll bet some of the foot soldiers actually thought they were doing God's work trying to convert the Muslims. Twisted, yes, but they may have sincerely thought that this was what God required.
I could be very wrong on this account. My point is simply that many people do think they are following the spirit of God within them. Its a bit of a conundrum to me, we ask that they respect others but can we not respect them? Certainly not for the atrocities....
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