Monday August 11, 2025 - Word

 Chapter 11: Word Day 2

His Name Revealed:

John 1:1-3 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

John 1:10-14 - He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became 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.

    Jesus You are the one and only Word made flesh, speaking Your love and Your light into the world's thick darkness, reshape my life through Your message of mercy, give me ears to hear and a heart to do Your will. Make me eager and able to proclaim Your Word in season and out, confident in your life-giving power and Your enduring love. 

Understanding the Name:

John's gospel begins by calling Jesus the Logos the Word. Though Logos was a term used in Greek philosophy. John echoes a Hebrew mind set by using it not to refer not to a rational principle, or an impersonable force, but to the one that created the universe by speaking it into existence. 

Unlike the prophets who merely spoke God's Word, Jesus is God's dynamic, creative, life-giving Word. Furthermore, John says, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. 

John 1:14 - And the Word became 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.

The Greek, for made his dwelling is linked to word to for tent or tabernacle, Jewish readers would have immediately recognized this as a reference to the tent of meeting, in which God's glory dwelt priorly to the building of the temple in Jerusalem. 

Jesus the Word made flesh became a man, so that through His miracles, teaching and way of life we could perceive God's glory. He is the Word calling out to us healing our deafness and bringing us back to God. No wonder Jesus responded to Philip by saying "Do you not know me Philip? Even after I have been among you such a long time, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say show us the Father do you not believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me. 

John 14:9-10 - Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.

We are to respond to Jesus "the Word" with both faith and faithfulness, reproducing Christ's life so that the Word may become flesh in us. 

 Studying the Name 

1. Compare Genesis 1:1 – 5 with John 1:1 – 5. Why do you think John begins his Gospel this way? 

2. John says that though “the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him” (John 1:10). Do you think this is still true today? Why or why not? 

3. What does it mean to “believe in his name” (John 1:12)? 

4. Read John 1:14. What do you think it means to see God’s glory?