Today, I am reading and commenting on John 1-3.

What first struck me with this passage was verses chapter 3, verses 19 through 21.  It is not clear to me whether or not these verses are part of what Jesus said to Nicodemus, or if they are the Gospel writer’s commentary.  I do not really think that it matters either way.  The key portion is actually in verse twenty where it says, “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”  This explains so much of the hostility that many have for Christianity and Christ.  I think these verses build on the verses from the beginning of chapter one, in particular verse five.  There it says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.” The translators’ note there says that could also be translated as “understood”.  Today, I think the best way to understand that verse is to realize that evil can neither understand nor overcome good.  Every time I read what John writes here about Jesus being light, I think of what Jesus said in Matthew 16:18. “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”  This passage speaks to what Jesus said there.  Light does not fear darkness.  Light does not fight against darkness.  When light is present, darkness goes away.  In the same way, as we walk closer with Christ, as we allow the Holy Spirit to transform us into His image, evil and sin disappear from our lives.  In the same way that light overcomes darkness, Christ’s Church overcomes the strongholds of wickedness and death in this world.  As the prophet Zechariah says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”  We do not overcome evil by using the tools of this world, we do not overcome evil with force, or violence.  Rather we overcome evil by God’s Spirit, and God’s Spirit overcame through the death of Jesus on the cross.  In the same way, we overcome by welcoming the suffering which comes from refusing to give into evil.  The world, the darkness, does not understand that, but it is also overcome by it.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 1-3.

John does an interesting thing in his Gospel that I have noticed before, but never really thought about before.  He switches from quoting someone to making commentary without leaving a clear indicator of where the quote ends and the commentary begins.  Primarily he does that when he quotes Jesus, but he also does it a few times in today’s passage when he quotes John the Baptist.  Until today, I always thought it was just something which John did without thinking about it (side note: while there is some debate about whether this Gospel was written by John, or by someone else, and, if it was written by John, whether that was the Apostle John or another John, I generally write my blogs assuming that it was written from the perspective of the Apostle John).  As I read it today, it struck me that John did it on purpose; partly to communicate that his “quotes” were only paraphrases of what was said, and partly to communicate a deeper understanding of what the speaker said than conveyed directly by what they said.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 1-3.

Ever since I reached adulthood I have loved the story of Jesus at the wedding in Cana.  Typically when I talk about it I talk about how it can inform our attitude towards alcoholic beverages.  However today I want to look at what the banquet master said to the bridegroom about the wine which Jesus made.  It struck me today that John included it as a message about more than the wine which Jesus made.  The banquet master said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”  On the surface this tells us something about the quality of the wine which Jesus made.  While I definitely believe we are supposed to reach that conclusion, I think John included that statement to communicate more than just that Jesus made really good wine.  In the same way that the banquet master told the bride groom that he had saved the best wine for now, John is telling us that God had saved His best for us in Jesus.  God had spoken to mankind through Noah, Abraham, Moses, and other prophets of old, but He had saved His best for last.  Now He was speaking to us directly through Jesus.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 1-3.

When Jesus was talking with Nicodemus He said that God had sent His Son into the world to save the world, not to condemn the world.  That whoever believes in the Son is not condemned, but those who do not believe in Him are condemned.  Which brings us to what I want to write about today.  Jesus tells us that the verdict by which they were condemned was that Light had come into the world, but people preferred darkness to light.  Those who do evil hate the light , want to stay out of the light, because they know that the light will expose their deeds.  On the other hand, those who seek the truth and to live by the truth, come into the light so that they do can be seen.  They want everyone to see that they are not afraid for their actions to be seen by God.  This fits in with Luke’s reports of Jesus saying that everything which is hidden will be revealed.  All of this leads me to the understanding that if we wish to not be condemned we need to be willing to have our actions exposed to the light.  Not because we have lived perfect lives, but because we are willing to be held accountable for our sins and our mistakes.  We need to be willing to stand before God and man and acknowledge that we are broken sinful people who need forgiveness from God and our fellow man.  We need God to transform us so that we do not continue to sin, and we need the help of those around us to live as God’s Spirit directs.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  John 1-3.

I always have trouble writing my blog on this passage because there is so much here.  John manages to convey a lot of thoughts with few words in today’s passage.  I am going to start by commenting on John the Baptist’s self identification.  He denied being the Messiah, or Elijah, or “the Prophet”.  The only title he would claim for himself was “the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.'”   I think that John was doing this in the spirit of the teaching when Jesus told His disciples to call no one “Father”.  John was making clear that he was not better than others and that he was not an intermediary between them and God.  John was trying to tell them that it was the message which was important, not the messenger.  When I started this I intended to write on more than this, but I want to emphasize that point.  All too many have made the mistake which John the Baptist was avoiding: they thought that they, the messenger, were important.  John the Baptist was not important, his message was.  Billy Graham was not important, his message was.  There are preachers today, just as in the past, who have forgotten this.  They think that they are important, and as a result their message does not get through.  When preaching the Gospel, it is the message which is important, not the messenger.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 1-3

I love the way the beginning of the Gospel of John contrasts with the three preceding Gospels: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  In his introduction to Jesus’ teachings John spends a lot of time referencing how we need to be born again and born of the Spirit.  He then revisits that in his account of Jesus’ meeting with Nicodemus.  One part of what John tells us hear is easy to miss because we tend to not associate water baptism with washing.  John links baptism with the Holy Spirit with water baptism in order to convey an idea which the other Gospels touch on when Jesus speaks about ritual hand-washing.  We need internal cleansing of our spirits more than we need external cleansing of our bodies.  Even John’s account about Jesus’ clearing the merchant’s out of the Temple relates to John’s theme about spiritual cleansing.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 1-3

I prefer the NIV and KJV translation of John 1:1.  It is much more poetic. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word was made flesh and made His dwelling among us.”  I added that latter bit from verse 14 because it makes clear the next point.  The Word was Jesus and Jesus was the Word.  By this means, John also tells us that Jesus was God.  The Greek word which translates as “The Word” is Logos.  Logos is the root from which we get the word logic.  So, John tells us that Jesus is God’s logic.  Further, John tells us that the Word is light shining in the darkness.  God’s logic illuminates the world, revealing things which many would prefer remain hidden.  Verse 5 reads:

“The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness can never extinguish it.^[b]”

Note that footnote reference to the translators’ notes.  The footnote tells us that the Greek literally means “the darkness has not understood it.”  In other words, the darkness cannot understand the logic of God.