The Bible writers often pictured the tension between good and evil as “light” and “darkness.” The apostle John was able to define what he meant by “light” more specifically. Jesus, he said—the Jesus he had seen, heard and known—was the light who broke into the world’s darkness. As darkness couldn’t put out light, so Jesus could deliver us from the darkness we find within ourselves
- Greek thinkers like Plato said “the logos” was too pure to enter the corrupt material world. Hebrews usually saw God as so awesome and distant that they feared to even say the divine name. John drew on both those thought worlds, but he boldly wrote, “The Word became flesh.” How can it help you realize how much God values you to believe that he “became flesh,” like us, rather than just wishing you well from afar?
- Being born is the way each one of us begins our life in the world. John, taking his cue from Jesus (cf. John 3:3-8), said that the life Jesus brought is so qualitatively new that it’s like being born, this time as a child of God. When did your spiritual journey start? In what ways has trusting and following Jesus given you a whole new life?