In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1, NIV
Words are messengers. If a thought is in my head and I want to get it into your head, I express the thought in words, written or spoken.
John refers to Jesus as “the Word.” During three years of talking, walking, laughing, joking, living with ‘the Word,’ he became convinced that Jesus was God’s message to us – God expressing to us, in a way we can understand, Who He is and what He’s up to.
Just as this sentence I am writing is composed of ideas dressed in words, Jesus is God’s Idea expressed to us in our language – humanity. He is more than the messenger, He is the message.
Words are a means to an end. What is the ‘end,’ the purpose, of John’s words? He tells us in plain English late in his book (the last verse of the next to last chapter): But these [words] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31, New International Version John’s words have the same purpose as ‘The Word – Jesus.’ The purpose is to give us deep, unending aliveness.
Some have asked of John 1:1: How can ‘the Word’ be “with God” and also be “God?” It’s the Trinity. God is totally ‘true to His word.’ Everything He says truthfully expresses who He is. Jesus in that expression – that message from the very heart and mind of God.
We Christians have this term “Trinity.” The term is not in the Bible, but the idea runs all through scripture. God the Father. God the Son. God the Spirit. Three in one.
If Jesus, God the Son, is “the Word,” what is God the Father? I have this idea. It may be simple, but I can at least wrap my mind around it. God the Father is the Speaker, the source of the idea. Jesus is the Word, the expression of the idea. The Spirit is the breath, the carrier of the idea. If I want to hand-off a message from my mind to yours it takes me, the speaker, it takes words, and it takes breath.
Life-challenge: Think for a few moments about one way you are like God. You can use your mind, your words, your breath to share words of life and encouragement. Do that intentionally several times today.