"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). As the translation of this passage cannot be improved, and the words are plain, no verbal exegesis is required. The subject is Christ and God, and we are here taught —

I. THAT CHRIST IS THE ETERNAL REVEALER OF GOD. "In the beginning was the Word" — the Logos. He is not a word but the word. As the Revealer, this Word is distinguished —

1. By its faithfulness. Christ is the exact exponent of the Divine intellect and heart.

2. By its fulness. Other words only speak part of God.

3. By its forcefulness. Human words are sometimes powerful, they are not always air; they are sometimes a force. God's words in nature are mighty.

II. THAT CHRIST IS THE ETERNAL SELF OF GOD. "And the Word was with God." The expression implies that He had a conscious existence distinct from the Absolute One. He was with Him. He that is with me is not me.

1. Christ was with Him in the sense of agreement. There was a perfect concurrence.

2. Christ was with him in the sense of contact. Never out of His presence, living in His light, breathing His inspirations.

III. THAT CHRIST IS THE ETERNAL SELF OF GOD. "And the Word was God."

1. "He was God" in form. Deep, it would seem, in the constitution of moral soul, is the craving for some form of God. As He appears in the universe, He transcends the limits of human vision. Christ is the form He has assumed; the form in which, in all probability, He appears to His intelligent universe as well as to man.

2. "He was God" in action. Through Him the eternal volitions are carried out and realized. He is the Actualizer of God's eternal ideas.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

A fourfold contrast.

I. In respect of ESSENCE. Word and flesh. The first suggests pure spirituality, power, eternity; the second materiality, weakness, mortality.

II. In respect of EXISTENCE. In the beginning the Word was. In time the Word was made flesh. The eternal becomes an infant of days. He who was in the beginning, and had.no beginning, has also an existence numbered by every year that passes away.

III. In respect of ASSOCIATION. "With God"; "among us." In perfect holiness and blessedness; acquainted with grief and beset by sin. In the bosom of the Eternal Father, receiving and returning infinite love; and in the arms of a human mother, soon to taste the hatred and cruelty of man.

IV. In respect of NATURE. The supreme contrast. He who was God became man. In man are united spirit and matter, angel and brute, seraph and clay. But what extremes meet in Christ! Creator and creature, eternity and time; and these in unbroken union.

(W. Perkins.)

I. The ETERNITY of the Word.

1. By the phrase "in the beginning" is to be understood eternity. Had St. John said "before" the beginning, he would have presented eternity under the laws of time, a mistake as grave as to describe the Infinite under the conditions of the finite. But mounting up higher than time and space, he leads us to the calm where God dwelleth.

2. Four times he repeats the word "was"; which —(1) Joined with "beginning," makes the idea of eternity dawn upon the mind in all its awful grandeur.(2) Joined to "with God," involves a contrast with verse 3. The sun, moon, and stars in the beginning "were made"; the Word in the beginning "was." His existence and theirs consequently differ radically.(3) Joined to "God" contrasts with verse 14. "In the beginning was the Word"; in the fulness of time "the Word was made flesh."

3. Christ always existed as the Word. It was not in the course of history that He became the Word. In His pre-existence Jesus Christ is God speaking to Himself; in His post-existence God speaking to us. The same word He speaks to Himself and to us; therefore it has the same meaning on the Divine as on the human side.

II. The PERSONALITY of the Word.

1. The Word was "with God" in respect of personality. Omnipotence is eternally in God; Jesus Christ is eternally with God — a mode of speech signifying distinct, but not separate, personal subsistence. God spent eternity in self-communion; but He so far transcends us in the power of thinking that His ideas become realities. His one thought becomes a Word consubstantial with Himself.

2. He was with God in respect of complacency. God took unspeakable delight in His Word, for in Him He beheld His own portraiture, without defect, fault, or flaw. God, as Father, infinitely, eternally, loves the Son. This intense love the Son cherishes towards the Father. He was not simply with, but "towards," God. He had His face, so to speak, turned fully towards Him, returning all the wealth of thought and affection poured upon Him. With the perfect thinker the perfect Word reflects back the perfect thought. A further idea still lurks here. The Word was "at home" with God. Christ in His preexistent state never felt restrained or ill at ease as an inferior with a superior, but as a loving child with an indulgent father (Proverbs 8:22-31); not as a subject in the presence of his monarch, or a creature in the presence of his Creator, but as an equal in the society of his friend.

3. He was with God in respect of counsel or purpose.(1) In respect of creative counsel. All things were gathered together in the pre-existent Christ (Revelation 3:4; Colossians 1:15, 16).(2) In respect of redemptive purpose. In the centre of the earth all the mountains meet. In the centre all terrestrial objects stand together. Similarly Christ is the centre of the plan of our salvation (Ephesians 1:3, 4).

III. The proper DIVINITY of the Word.

1. "Was God" implies co-equality. Two persons may be in amicable fellowship, whilst in nature and standing the one may be inferior to the other.(1) As Mediator, indeed, in His state of humiliation, Christ was the Father's subordinate and servant; wherefore He says, "My Father is greater than I."(2) But as He is the Second Person in the Trinity, St. John teaches His equality with the Father. The idea of perfect sonship excludes that of subordination. The man of forty is as much a son as a child of four; the fact of sonship is undiminished, but subordination is gone. But Jesus Christ is from the first a perfect Son, and therefore on a footing of equality with the perfect Father.(3) The Son being thus equal with the Father, God will have no occasion to repeat His Word. The perfect revelation is summed up in one word — Jesus Christ.

2. "Was God" teaches consubstantiality. "The Word was with God"; there it is God with the article denoting the Father's person; here without the article indicating substance, being. The Son can never be the Father; but is of the same essence as.the Father — of the same, not of like; homo-ousia, not homoiousia.

3. Let us therefore hold fast the doctrine once delivered to the saints. Beware of running away with the notion that all the intellects are opposed to orthodoxy. The acute intellects may be, but the profound intellects, which see far and deep, are not.

(J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.)

1. As the mental work in man is the thought of the mind by which the mind holds converse with itself insensibly — that is, without effort and without passion or emotion — and is the perfect image and similitude of the mind from which it proceeds, so does the Son derive a free and unseen origin from the Father, being His express image and similitude.

2. As the mind holds converse with itself by its own thought and cogitation, and sees and knows itself and all things by means of this thought, so does the Father see Himself as in a mirror in the person of His Son.

3. As the intellectual, immaterial word abides in man's mind, so does the Divine Word abide and remain in the bosom of the Father.

(W. Denton, M. A.)

1. Where the Word was — in the beginning.

2. Where the Word was — with God.

3. What the Word was — God.

(Beaux Amis.)

I. CHRIST IS DIVINE-HUMAN.

1. He assumed into union with His Godhead a human soul, a human body, and an animal nature. He hungered, thirsted, was fatigued, and had as real a need of meat, drink, and sleep as other men.

2. He grew, not only in stature, but in wisdom.

3. As regarded His human mind, He knew not the time of the consummation of all things.

4. He was as much mixed up with the manifold, humbling, petty details of daily life as any of us.

5. But every now and then there flashed rays of that glory which He had with the Father before the world was.

II. THE WRITTEN WORD IS DIVINE-HUMAN.

1. Its Divine element is twofold.(1) Inspiration, which pervades the whole of it.(2) Revelation, which characterizes the most important parts of it — the creation, the whole range of prophecy, the law, the gospel.

2. It is perfectly human — a fact attested by the variety of its style. It is coloured with the human mind, affections, experiences, reasonings.

3. This human element gives the Scriptures that geniality which wakens so many chords in our hearts, and which makes us find them such a sympathetic book. If they spoke only the tongues of angels they might reveal to us mysteries, impress and even scare us, but where would their comfort be?

4. Like the Personal Word, the Written Word, though both human and Divine, is but one book; inasmuch as all its treatises were given by inspiration of one Spirit, who did for them what the living soul does for the animal frame — gave them a regular organization and development which makes the Bible truly and really one body.

III. THE PERFECT HUMANITY OF THE WRITTEN WORD INVOLVES ITS BRING COMPASSED WITH INFIRMITY, AS THE WRITTEN WORD WAS. Hence the weaknesses of its human language and thought.

1. In censuring sin it speaks with a fidelity which our false delicacy does not relish, and which no uninspired preacher would dare to imitate.

2. Frequently the writers descend to matters of comparatively local, temporal, and mundane interest.

3. They were unacquainted with scientific truth.

4. In many points they give a handle to the misconstructions of enemies.

IV. THERE IS A GROWTH OF HOLY SCRIPTURE EXACTLY CORRESPONDING TO THE GROWTH OF THE PERSONAL WORD.

1. Prophecy is built up stone upon stone on the foundation of the original promise (Genesis 3:15). This promise is handed over to Abraham in an enlarged and expanded form (Genesis 12:3). When Abraham's family branches out into twelve tribes, Judah is selected as the tribe in which the promise should run (Genesis 49:8, 10). As soon as an earthly kingdom is established, David is indicated as the king on whose throne Messiah should sit (2 Samuel 7:12-16).

2. The Written Word is ever developing itself from Genesis to Revelation. In Genesis you have the dawn of Divine knowledge and thought; in the New Testament you have its noontide blaze. God, Christ, morality, the Fall, justification, sanctification are not seen as clearly in the Old Testament as in the New, nor in the earlier books of the Old as in the later. Yet from first to last it is the very Word of God, as Jesus is; as much exalted above other books as He is by His Divinity above other men.

V. IT EXHIBITS ALL THE SYMPTOMS OF ITS EXALTED CHARACTER AND ORIGIN, It abounds in passages of supernatural sublimity, foresights, revelations of heaven, oracles which seem to vibrate with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. Like the Personal Word, the Written Word rises up in meek majesty to make those who approach it with hostile intent go backward and fall to the ground; upon it descends the holy dove; over it hangs the bright cloud; it quickens human souls; it says to the stormy sea of the human heart, "Peace, be still"; before it the demons of lust, pride, covetousness, worldliness, quake and flee. As both in His generation and resurrection and ascension Jesus was declared to be Divine, so both at its commencement, when it stoops down to inaugurate the narrative of earth, and at its close ascends to heaven again and exhibits man purged from all stain, so the Written Word is declared to be the Word of God with power.

VI. IF CHRIST WERE NOT HUMAN, WE SHOULD NOT HAVE THE CONSOLATION OF HIS SYMPATHY; IF THE SCRIPTURES WERE NOT HUMAN, THEY COULD NOT COME HOME AS THEY DO TO HUMAN HEARTS AND CONSCIENCES. Let us therefore regard them with but one whir the less affectionate veneration. There could be no trial of faith if they presented no difficulties. To what shall we go if we give them up?

(Dean Goulburn.)

Man's reason was formed in the image of God, and our Lord is called the Word; these are the two Scriptural intimations which guide us into part of the truth respecting the Divine nature.

1. Reason involves a thing distinct from itself, namely, speech, or the power of communicating the processes of reason, so that whosoever has the faculty of reason has in that faculty the faculty of speech or the Word.

2. Though reason wraps up speech in itself, yet we can conceive of reason as energizing latently, and of the faculty of speech as having no exercise.

3. Neither reason nor speech can make any claim to priority of existence; they are twin faculties, born at the same instant. Now listen to what the Catholic Church has gathered from the Scripture respecting the nature of God.

I. There is a TRINITY IN UNITY, that is, more than one Person in the Divine nature. Man's spirit, the Bible says, was made in the image of that nature. In man's spirit there are two faculties, reason and speech. The second Person in the Divine nature goes by the name of the Word, that is, He stands to the first in the same relation as that in which utterance stands to understanding.

II. St. John intimates that THERE WAS A PERIOD WHEN, although both blessed Persons existed, yet THE SON WAS IN THE BOSOM OF THE FATHER; when, though the Word was, yet the Word came not forth. That is like reason, with the faculty of speech latent in it, not put forth.

III. THE MAJESTY OF THESE PERSONS IS CO-ETERNAL. The administration of this in the human spirit is the twin birth of reason and speech. Speech, then, in the nature of man, represents Christ in the nature of God. What a value and a dignity does this impress on human speech! When you reason and communicate to others the result you adumbrate in the limits of a finite nature, the nature of the Infinite One. Shall any child of man, then, degrade this faculty of speech to vain and profane and unclean communications?

(Dean Goulburn.)

Genesis 1 which is an introduction to the story of the first man, as this is an introduction to the story of the second Man, the Lord from heaven. The great words are the same in both cases, though they have evidently deepened in their later use — the beginning, God, the Word ("God said"), all things, light, darkness, life, to be, to become. While the evangelist begins with creation, he goes very far beyond, and consequently uses many words that were not needed in Genesis, but are indispensable to his purpose, such as law, grace, truth, faith, sons of God and sin. As in Genesis, God is taken for granted. There is no attempt to prove that He is, and there is no notice taken of any denial that He is. With a grand daring of disregard, as if there could be no controversy on such a subject, the paragraph proceeds on the assumption that He is, as beyond question, like a postulate or axiom.

(J. Culross, D. D.)

This verse is an unanswerable argument against three classes of heretics. It confutes —

1. The Arians, who regard Christ as a Being inferior to God.

2. The Sabellians, who deny any distinction of Persons in the Trinity, and say that God sometimes manifested Himself as Father, sometimes as Son, and sometimes as the Spirit, and that the Father and the Spirit suffered on the cross.

3. The Socinians and Unitarians, who say that Jesus Christ was not God, but man, a most holy and perfect man, but only a man.

(Bp.Ryle.)

A memorable hour arrived in the history of a youth belonging to an honourable French family in the second half of the sixteenth century. Though scarcely fifteen years of age, he had been led by blind guides to unbelief, and the dragon's teeth, sown on an unguarded field, had already begun to produce their destructive harvest. His godly father, deeply concerned for his salvation, placed a New Testament in his room, and offered the silent prayer that he might take it and read it. The son did so. His eye rested accidentally upon a passage which, according to his own words, so affected him that he "suddenly felt the Divinity of the subject, and, together with the majesty, also the power of the words that so infinitely surpassed the flow of all human eloquence. My whole body was convulsed," he continues, "my soul was confounded, and I have been so affected this whole day that I have scarcely been conscious of my own identity." It was not quite twenty-five years after this remarkable event that he was preaching the Gospel of the Reformation at Antwerp, while the light from the blaze of the funeral pile which was consuming his companions in faith shone against the windows of the hall where he preached. And when the pestilence that raged in Leyden in 1602 numbered him among its victims, it was universally acknowledged and lamented that a shining light had set. This young man was the celebrated Professor Francis Junius, and the passage which was the power of God to his salvation was John 1:1.

(J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.)

1. This subject yields m importance to none. The views we take of it will influence those we take of all other doctrines, and must terminate in results which affect God's glory.

2. Our state of mind should be one of perfect neutrality. The slightest prepossession is incompatible with the love of truth.

3. The language of the Scriptures must be taken in its obvious signification, just as the Jews took John 10:30; John 15:13.

4. Should this doctrine be clearly taught, no difficulty can affect its certainty or ought to affect our faith.

5. The lines of proof are five.

(1)Divine names are given to Christ.

(2)Divine attributes are ascribed to Him.

(3)Divine works are wrought by Him.

(4)Divine relations are sustained by Him.

(5)Divine worship is demanded by and paid to Him. The line suggested by our text is the first.

I. Christ is called JEHOVAH (John 12:37; cf. Isaiah 6:1-10).

II. GOD (Romans 9:5; Hebrews 1:8).

III. GREAT GOD (Titus 2:3).

IV. TRUE GOD (1 John 5:20).

V. MIGHTY GOD (Isaiah 9:6).

VI. GOD OF ISRAEL (Exodus 24:9, 10; Psalm 68:17, 18; Ephesians 4:8). In reference to these instances:

1. Has any other received such appellations.

2. Compare these appellations with the religious state of the Jews at the time of Christ. They were strict monotheists, as were Christ and the apostles. If, therefore, it was intended to convey the idea of Christ's Divinity, no better terms could have been used; but if to convey the idea that He was a mere man, they are totally misleading.

3. Compare these appellations with the state of the Pagan world. They were idolaters, and Christ's design and that of His apostles was to deliver them from idolatry. A strange method was employed if Christ were a mere creature.

4. Examine whether events have justified the notion which the prophets gave if Christ be not God. It was predicted that He should utterly abolish idols, and has He not done so?

5. The supposition that the Deity of Christ was taught by the Saviour and His apostles will alone enable us to account for His rejection.Conclusion:

1. Is the Deity of Christ a doctrine of Scripture? Then how is the accuracy of His precepts ratified? How entire the proof of their conformity to the will of God!

2. Is the Saviour possessed of a Divine nature? How absolutely, therefore, is He able to scrutinize our professions of His gospel!

3. The same truth also invites the utmost confidence in His declarations of mercy and offers of pardon.

(J. F. Denham.)

1. What is it which makes men different from all other living beings we know of? Is it not speech — the power of words? The beasts may make one another understand many things, but they have no speech.

2. But where did this power of uttering thoughts come from? The beasts have been on the earth as long as man, and yet they can no more speak than they could when they were created. But Adam could speak at once, and could understand what God said to him. Who gave him that power but Jesus, the Word who was in the beginning with God, and lighteth every man that cometh into the world?

3. By Christ the Word God has spoken to man in all ages. It was He whom Moses and the seventy elders saw, for "no man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared Him. He put rote David's mouth those glorious Psalms. "The Lord... hath put a new song into my mouth." He, as the Word of God, came unto the prophets. When He became incarnate, He spake as never man spake. And since then He has given to all wise and holy poets, philosophers, and preachers the power to speak and write the wonderful truths they have thought out.

4. Ought not the knowledge of all this

(1)make us better and wiser;

(2)make us reverence the Bible;

(3)reverence all good books?Except a living man, there is nothing more wonderful than a book, a message from a human soul thousands of miles away which can amuse, terrify, comfort, teach us. Why is it that neither angels, nor saints, nor evil spirits appear now to speak to men as they once did? Because we have books by which Christ's messengers and the devil's can communicate with us. If they are good and true, they are the message of Christ, the Teacher of all truth. If they are false and wicked, we ought to fear them as evil spirits loosed among us. This is an age of books, a flood of writings of all sorts is spreading over the world. We ought not to stop that. It is God's ordinance. It is of His grace and mercy that we have a free press. It was dearly bought. The men who died to buy us this liberty knew that it was better to let in a thousand bad books than to shut out one good one, for a grain of God's truth will outweigh a ton of the devil's lies. We cannot silence evil books, but we can take care what we read, and that what we let others read shall be good and wholesome.

(Charles Kingsley, M. A.)

I. THE OLD TESTAMENT WORD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT LIGHT.

II. THE NEW TESTAMENT WORD ON THE OLD TESTAMENT BASIS.

(Lange.)I. AS THE GREAT DISTINCTION BETWEEN ETERNITY AND TIME.

II. AS THE GREAT UNION BETWEEN ETERNITY AND TIME.

(Lange.)

Much every way. The Revealer of God being eternal, He is competent to give the world an eternal revelation — a re, elation of eternal truth, a revelation of the eternal God. Moses and others might serve as organs of the Old Testament revelation, for the religion they established was temporal, designed to last only "till the time of reformation." In the nature of things a temporal revealer can only found a temporal religion; you must have an everlasting Revealer to make known the everlasting gospel.

(J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.)

The claims of Philo to be regarded as the source of St. John's doctrine have been largely advocated. But —

I. IT IS NOT CERTAIN THAT JOHN WAS ACQUAINTED WITH PHILO OR THE ALEXANDRINE GNOSIS.

1. The relations which existed between Ephesus and Alexandria.

2. The assumption that carried over the Philonian doctrines.

3. The statement that drew the germs of his doctrine from an Alexandrian source. And

4. The circumstance that had spread widely amongst the Hellenistic Jews only make it probable that John was acquainted with Philo, but cannot be regarded as establishing it.

II. WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE TERM LOGOS, THE GOSPEL CONTAINS NOT A TRACE OF PHILONISM, which is remarkable if John began its composition under the influence of that celebrated master. The number of parallels between the philosopher and the evangelist are at the most four, and these are confined exclusively to the prologue.

III. THE LOGOS OF PHILO IS ESSENTIALLY DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF JOHN.

1. It is impossible to determine whether the former is a person or an attribute, or a personification, whereas the latter is distinctly personal.

2. The former is not Divine in the sense that the latter is. Philo gives the name of δεύτερος θεὸς to the Loges only metaphorically, whereas John calls Him θεὸς in the strictest didactic sense.

3. The former is a metaphysical conception; the latter an object of religious contemplation.

4. The former has no real connection with human history and salvation such as the latter has.

IV. IT WAS UNNECESSARY FOR JOHN TO HAVE RECOURSE TO PHILO FOR THIS PECULIAR EXPRESSION.

1. In the Hebrew Scriptures we have the germs of the doctrine.(1) In Genesis 1. creation is attributed to so many separate voices or spoken words of Elohim. What if John purposed to represent the uncreated Loges as the personal Being by whom these creative words were altered?(2) The Maleach Jehovah who appeared as God's messenger, who announced His will (Genesis 15:1), and who, if distinguished from Him (Genesis 16:11), was identified with Him (Genesis 16:13; Genesis 19:16; Genesis 32:30), would unquestionably prepare the way for such a conception as John's.(3) The creative activity assigned to the Word of Jehovah (Psalm 33:6-9) would tend to foster the notion.(4) The personification of wisdom (Proverbs 8:22-.31) would further serve to develop the idea.

2. In the Chochmah writings of the Post-Exilian Period, which carried on and perfected the tendency already begun, John would find another contributory source to the doctrine. In these the transition from an impersonal to a personal Sophia is an accomplished fact (Wisdom of Sirach, Sirach 1:1, 4; 24:3, 9; Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom 7:25, 26, 22); and the Chaldee Targumists substitute for Elohim and Jehovah Memra da Yeya, a personal being who served as the permanent agent or representative of God, and who was identified with the Shekinah and the Messiah.

3. While Christ never employed the term, an examination of His utterances concerning His person might easily suggest the propriety of using it. Without alluding to John 5:38; John 14:24; John 17:14, the aspect m which Christ's person, character, and work are here contemplated is that of one who has come with the Divine words of truth and life, and the transition must have seemed natural and easy from Christ as the speaker of God's words to Him as God's spoken Word Himself.

(T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

What is a word? It is a thought in the depths of the heart made audible to a second person. If Christ be the Word of God, He is God's love sounding in the language of mankind, God's truth reverberating among the centuries as amid the corridors of a grand temple, God's justice revealed to our comprehension. Once this orb was a bright mirror which reflected God's image, but sin darkened it, and it is dim. Once the rolling of its waves, the murmurings of its streams, the noise of its winds, was the word of God; but sin has laid its hand upon all its heart-strings and deadened and disordered its vibrations. Christ is now what the world once was, and more than the world was — God's love, God's truth, audible to men. So that in hearing Christ speak I hear God; in seeing Christ's portrait I see God's; in seeing the picture of Christ delivered in the gospel I see all that is comprehensible of the High and Holy One that inhabiteth eternity and the praises thereof.

(J. Cumming, D. D.)

Ask the sun if ever it were without its beams. Ask the fountain if ever it were without its streams. So God was never without His Son.

(Arrowsmith.)

God did not spend the everlasting ages in sublime, solitary, masterly inactivity. He had a Word with Him, equal to Himself, the reflex image of His own person. That God from everlasting loved is an idea with which we are all familiar enough; it is the prominent idea in the correlates Father and Son. But in the text Jesus Christ is presented, not as the Son, but as the Word; accordingly the main idea is not God as love, but God as mind. Not only God loved from eternity, but He thought from eternity; He thought as intensely as He loved.

(J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.)

Imagine yourselves in the position of St. John.. "Think of any one whom you have loved and revered in past years. He has gone; but you cling to him more earnestly in thought and affection than while he was here. His words, haunts, phrases, handwriting, likeness, are for you precious and sacred. Others may be forgotten, but one such memory cannot fade. But can we conceive it possible that after any lapse of time we should express our reverence and love by saying that our friend was superhuman? Can we imagine ourselves incorporating our recollection with some current theosophic doctrine elevating him to the rank of a Divine hypostasis? And if Jesus was merely human, St. John's statements about Him are among the most preposterous fictions which have imposed on the world. They were advanced with a full knowledge of what they involved. St. John was convinced as profoundly as we are of the truth of the unity of God, and of the interval which separates the highest of creatures from the Creator. And if we are not naturally lured to deify our friends, neither was St. John. If Jesus had been merely human, He would have felt as we feel about a beloved lost friend. In proportion to our belief in our friend's goodness, and to our reverence for his character, is the strength of our conviction that we could not do him a more cruel injury by entwining a blasphemous fable around the simple story of his life. This deification of Jesus by St. John would have been consistent neither with his reverence for God nor his loyalty to his merely human teacher. St. John worshipped the jealous God of Israel; and he has recorded the warning he received against worshipping the angel of the Apocalypse. If Christ had not really been Divine, the real beauty of His human character would have been disfigured by any such exaggeration, and Christianity would assuredly have perished within the limits of the first century.

(Canon Liddon.)

I remember once talking with a lady who said she did not believe Jesus was the Son of God, although she believed He was a good man, and admired very much the teaching He had left. Strangely enough, I found her (with all the beautiful inconsistency of a woman's mind, and that inconsistency is frequently very beautiful and much better than the logical consistency of man's mind) particularly fond of the sayings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of St. John; such, for instance, as "In My Father's house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you." "Now," I said, "will you go home and read again the Gospel of St. John, and cross out every word that intimates He is Divine, and say you don't believe that and that?" She thought it would be a good idea, and I gave her little Testament and told her to mark and cut it as much as she liked. She came back in a week, as she had promised. "Well, how did you get along?" "I didn't get along at all. The truth is, I found I had to cross out the whole of the first chapter, and I began to think, 'If it's like this, what'll become of the beautiful promises and sayings?' so I stopped and cried, 'Lord, I see it is so. I accept Thee as Son of God, my Lord and my God.'"

(Dr. Pentecost.)

A person officiating as a medium of correspondence between the throne and its functionaries or subjects might be styled the word; or the person who should carry the command of a general to those who should see them executed. Such an one might also be styled the word, as standing in a mid-position between the person holding supreme command and those set under authority. No transference of words from a general to a special signification could be more easy and even. striking than this. If, then, we assume that the person invested with mediatorial attributes and relations is called in several passages of Scripture "the Word," or "the Word of the Lord," because His official position is analogous to the examples just given or to others which human experience suggests, is there not a manifest propriety in its being used in this instance? and could the whole compass of language supply us with a second term in all respects so suitable as this — the Word?

(G. Steward.)

Two gentlemen were once disputing on the Divinity of Christ. One of them, who argued against it, said, "If it were true, it certainly would have been expressed in more clear, unequivocal terms." "Well," said the other, "admitting that you believe it, were authorized to teach it, and allowed to use your own language, how would you express the doctrine to make it clear and indubitable?" "I would say," replied the first, "that Jesus Christ is the true God." "You are happy," rejoined the other, "in the choice of your words, for you have happened to hit upon the very words of inspiration. John, speaking of Jesus, says, 'This is the true God and eternal life.'"

The commencement of Christian work in Japan happened thus: An American lady, of the name of Prince, interested herself in the country, and four or five missionaries were sent out, but only occupied themselves in the translation of the Scriptures. After some time this lady offered to teach English to a young Japanese, and gave him the Gospel of St. John to translate. Shortly after, it was observed that he became very agitated and restless, walking up and down the room constantly. At last he could contain himself no longer, and burst out with the question, "Who is this Man about whom I am reading — this Jesus? You call Him a Man, but He must be a God." Thus the simple word itself had forced on him the conviction that Jesus Christ was indeed God.

Andrew, Cephas, Elias, Elijah, Esaias, Isaiah, Jesus, John, Jona, Jonah, Jonas, Joseph, Levites, Nathanael, Peter, Philip, SimonBethany Beyond Jordan, Bethsaida, Galilee, Jordan River, NazarethBeginning, Relation1. The divinity, humanity, office, and incarnation of Jesus Christ.
15. The testimony of John.
39. The calling of Simon and Andrew, Philip and Nathanael

John 1:1

     1170   God, unity of
     1690   word of God
     2081   Christ, wisdom
     2203   Christ, titles of
     7031   unity, God's goal

John 1:1-2

     2030   Christ, holiness
     2069   Christ, pre-eminence
     4903   time
     4909   beginning
     5030   knowledge, of Christ
     5467   promises, divine
     9121   eternity, nature of
     9122   eternity, and God

John 1:1-3

     2018   Christ, divinity
     4026   world, God's creation
     5627   word

John 1:1-9

     1436   reality

John 1:1-18

     8474   seeing God

Grace
Eversley. 1856. St. John i. 16, 17. "Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." I wish you to mind particularly this word GRACE. You meet it very often in the Bible. You hear often said, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Now, what does this word grace mean? It is really worth your while to know; for if a man or a woman has not grace, they will be very unhappy people, and very disagreeable …
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other Sermons

June 25 Morning
When he shall appear, we shall be like him; we shall see him as he is.--I JOHN 3:2. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.--Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

January 20 Morning
His name shall be called Wonderful.--ISA. 9:6. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.--Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. They shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.--JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. All men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.--God . . . hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

September 24 Evening
Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.--II COR. 8:9. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.--Thou are fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips.--All bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. Ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.--He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.--We speak that we do know, …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

October 21 Morning
Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.--JOHN 1:16. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.--Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things.--If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. I and my Father are one. The Father is in me, and I in him.--My Father, and your …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

March 12 Morning
The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.--NUM. 6:25,26. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.--The brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.--The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

November 21 Evening
His dear Son.--COL. 1:13. Lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.--Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth.--The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 23 Morning
The blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.--HEB. 12:24. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.--The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.--It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

April 28 Morning
Behold the Lamb of God.--JOHN 1:29. It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God.--He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

May 29 Morning
The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.--LEV. 17:11. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.--The blood of the Lamb.--The precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.--Without shedding of blood is no remission.--The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. By his own blood he entered in once into …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

January 16 Evening
Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.--REV. 1:19. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.--That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

May 19 Evening
Fellowship in the gospel.--PHI. 1:5. As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.--That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

November 15 Morning
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.--I COR. 1:9. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised.--God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.--Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.--Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

March 8 Morning
Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.--ISA. 38:17. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

March 20 Morning
The entrance of thy words giveth light.--PSA. 119:130. This . . . is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.--God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.--The Word was God. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.--If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

October 11 Evening
Hallowed be thy name.--MATT. 6:9. Thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?--Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.--I saw . . . the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 26 Morning
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.--LAM. 3:40. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.--Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.--I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments.--Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

May 24 Evening
I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face.--HOS. 5:15. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, your sins have hid his face from you.--My beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: . . . I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.--I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on forwardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him.--Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

November 12 Morning
Godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of.--II COR. 7:10. Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.--If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.--The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

December 23 Morning
Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me.--ISA. 27:5. I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil.--There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked. In Christ Jesus ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace. It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell: and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.--Christ Jesus: …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

June 24 Evening
Master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see.--JOHN 1:38,39. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.--To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne. Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 15 Morning
Who can say, I have made my heart clean?--PROV. 20:9. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.--They that are in the flesh cannot please God. To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.--We are all as an …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

The Son of Thunder
ST. JOHN i. 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We read this morning the first chapter of the Gospel according to St. John. Some of you, I am sure, must have felt, as you heard it, how grand was the very sound of the words. Some one once compared the sound of St. John's Gospel to a great church bell: simple, slow, and awful; and awful just because it is so simple and slow. The words are very short,--most of them of one syllable,--so that even a child …
Charles Kingsley—Discipline and Other Sermons

'Three Tabernacles'
'The Word ... dwelt among us.'--JOHN i. 14. '... He that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them.'--REV. vii. 15. '... Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them.'--REV. xxi. 3. The word rendered 'dwelt' in these three passages, is a peculiar one. It is only found in the New Testament--in this Gospel and in the Book of Revelation. That fact constitutes one of the many subtle threads of connection between these two books, which at first sight seem so extremely unlike …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

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