John 1: 1-18

I said before that I'd go through John's gospel and focus on the following questions:

• What is Jesus doing?
• What is Jesus saying?
  What are his followers doing/How are they following him?

I'll do that, but, of course, I will feel free to write what I feel led to write.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come intobeing. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The Word has always been with God because the Word is God. God made everything through the Word.
This is one of the most complex and densest pieces of scripture, I think. It says so much and means even more. I don't even know how to unpack it!
I think about it a lot, though. People often use Word to mean Bible or the things therein. "You'd better get into the Word."
But it's so much more. Word here is the very method of God. The mechanism through which he created the world and everything that exists. That Word is the light of men, life itself.

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John the Baptist testified about the Light (the Word), but he was not the Light only a messenger. Just as today, we may spread the gospel of Jesus, but we are not the gospel.
If this book stood alone and it was all we had, we'd know immediately what God was trying to tell us: If we accept the Light, we have been given the right to become children of God.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we sawHis glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace andtruth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'" For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For theLaw was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Here we see that the Word that was with God in the beginning became flesh in Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God. The same method that He uses to create the world, He uses to save and redeem it.