Series Introduction
Join with us for this devotion series written by Bible Society South Pacific staff. In the first seven days, General Secretary Geoffry Miller* reminds us that God’s unchanging, everlasting Word is the sure foundation for mankind living in a changing world. God’s Word is the light and life of mankind. It pushes the darkness away and creates each of us as new beings in Christ. For the following seven days, Rev Apenisa* reminds us that whatever season of life we’re in, God’s Word can speak into it. God’s Word offers truth, hope and strength to face each new day. God’s Word is invaluable to us; it is a treasure and a blessing and offers direction for our lives.
Reflection
This is the living Word. The Word was in the beginning and preceded all creation. Before anything was ever created or made, the Word was. The Word was with God and was actively and directly involved when God created the heavens, the earth, and all living things.
The Word was God, and God was the Word, they are one. A believer can and will always find God when he or she believes, obeys, and lives by the Word.
Interestingly, John was writing this Gospel to both Jews and Greeks who already had shades of meaning and perception attached to the concept of ‘the Word’. The Jewish rabbis often referred to God (especially in his more personal aspects) in terms of ‘his Word’. They spoke of God himself as ‘the Word of God.’ In the mind of the ancient Jews, the phrase ‘the Word of God’ could be used to refer to God himself.
The ancient Greek word for ‘Word’ is Logos. The Greek philosophers saw the Logos as the power that puts sense into the world, making the world orderly instead of chaotic. The Logos was the power that set the world in perfect order and kept it sustainable. They saw the Logos as the ‘Ultimate Reason’ that controlled all things.
John was speaking a common language for both the Jews and Greeks when he used the term Logos, that already contained shades of meaning and perception of God and the world.
The word being thus already in use and aiding thoughtful men in their efforts to conceive God’s connection with the world, John takes it and uses it to denote the ‘Revealer of the incomprehensible and invisible God’ (see Dodd**). God can be known and revealed through the Word (Logos).
Prayer
Dear Lord, I thank you for the Living, Creating, and Sustaining Word. The Word that was before creation, and the Revealer of God to mankind. Help me Lord, to know you and draw closer to you through your Word.
* Geoffry Miller is the General Secretary of the Bible Society of the South Pacific, and an Associate Pastor with the local Assemblies of God Church in Fiji. Geoffry joined the Bible Society in in 2018. Rev Apenisa Lewatoro is Translation Advisor for the Bible Society of the South Pacific. Rev Apenisa is an ordained Church Minister under the Methodist Church in Fiji, and is married to Emi Lewatoro with two daughters (Grace and Gloria) and a son (Benben).
**for further reading, see “The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel” (1953) by C.H. Dodd, as well as works by: Leon Morris (The Gospel According to John”, 1971), William Barclay (“The Gospel of John”, 1956), and F.F. Bruce “The Gospel of John”, 1983).