Day 1: The Word Was God (John 1:1–5)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1 (NASB1)
John opens not with a birth narrative but with a cosmological declaration: ‘In the beginning was the Word.’ The choice of the term Logos — used by both Jewish and Greek thinkers, though with different meanings — is deliberate and striking. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines logos as “the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning”2. For John, the Logos is not an abstract principle but a Person who was with God and who was God. The grammar of the Greek is precise: the Word was in continuous existence at the beginning; He was in active fellowship with the Father (‘with God’); and He bore the full nature of deity (‘was God’). John is not saying the Word was a god, or was like God — he is asserting full ontological equality.
This is the cornerstone of John’s entire Gospel. Every miracle, every ‘I am’ statement, every conflict with the religious authorities flows from this opening claim. The Word is the agent of all creation: ‘all things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made’ (1:3). This is no lesser deity or emanation. When the disciples eventually hear Jesus say ‘Before Abraham was, I am’ (8:58), they are meeting again the One announced here.
The movement from verse 4 to verse 5 introduces two of John’s defining metaphors: life and light. In the Word is life — not biological life merely, but the divine life that creates and sustains all things. That life became the light of men. Light shines in darkness, and the darkness has not ‘overcome’ it — or more literally, has not ‘grasped’ it, cannot comprehend or extinguish it. From the very first verses, John is telling us that the stakes of this story are cosmic.
For Reflection
- John says the Word ‘was God’ — not ‘a god’ or ‘like God.’ What difference does the full deity of Christ make for how you read the rest of this Gospel?
- The imagery of light shining in darkness runs throughout John. Where do you see that tension most clearly in your own life right now?
- If Jesus is the agent of all creation (v.3), what does that suggest about how we should relate to Him day to day?
- John 1:1 (New American Standard Bible, 1995). ↩︎
- Jaakko J. Hintikka, “Logic,” in Encyclopædia Britannica, last modified May 31, 2026, https://www.britannica.com/topic/logic. ↩︎