John 1:1,2

"In the beginning..."

This echoes the words of Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". Why is this important for John? Realize this, when the apostles, when John set his eyes on Jesus, he was looking at someone, some Thing, that has existed before time. To say, "In the beginning" is to packet Time within something else. Which is also to say Time is not everything, it is part of something. This is where we will find it hard to grasp. For we live in a temporal world. Things exist and happen according to some temporal order. Something leads to something else. But when presented with the idea that something just is, or is not, we are left hanging with an uncomfortable feeling of HOW? Because this is not about something that existed before Time as we know it, because that would imply some other kinds of Time that this thing existed. No. Rather, this is about something that exists as it is. Timeless, Time is irrelevant. Is.

Yet, John starts with this idea. Prior to eternity, the Word was. The Word precedes it. Let us consider this for a while. Our words are expressions of our thoughts. Our words have power to change other people's thoughts. Our words also have the power, through influencing people, to change the physical world. Our words exist within the physical world in that they are either written on materials, or spoken as sound waves. Our words also exists in allegorical and metaphorical forms, like communicating via pictures, or music. In sum, our words are a result of our being. We exist in a relation to other beings, in relation to the physical world. And as soon as we exist, we have words, even as babies.

The Word then, is a result of God being. God in His infinity relates to the finite which He made. Which He made by the power of His Word. As it is written in Genesis He said "Let there be light, and there was light". Is it hard to see how when God speaks, it is like when we speak, only God speaks perfectly, and we speak but mere reflections and shadows? When He speaks, the Word acts. The Word does His Will. The Word is His Will. Jesus, the very outward expression of God in relation to us, and to all reality. For in Jesus, everything is fulfilled of which God intends. Both in the past and in the future. In Jesus, God is revealed. Just as when we speak, people know us. By our words, we are known, and judged. By God's Word, He is known, and found to be the just judge of all.

We should therefore be mindful of Who it is we speak to, and Who it is we speak of. For this is Someone who is since before time. This is Someone who is the very essence of power, life, existence, as it is revealed here in this statement made by John. This is Someone who's words never return void but accomplish what He says(Isa 55:11).

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And then John shifts. "He was in the beginning with God". We started with an entity, an unnamed thing and finally move to "He". A person. Jesus. So the Word of God, is not like our words that are just lifeless forms. The Word of God has life in himself, and is a person. With His own character, personality, existence, thoughts, perceptions. "He". Jesus. This person who walks in Israel when He was walking there, has been with God right from the beginning. Ponder the existence of such a person. Of such a being.