Page 742 … honoring the Word
You then state that, “Satan is the emissary of disobedience to God’s commandments of love. Let us accept what is true and reject what is false according to [God’s] Word … Jesus tells us to not judge by appearances but to judge rightly.” And then immediately thereafter you cite John 1:1-5, a passage that many conservative Christians – like you & yours – dramatically misinterpret (at least in the context of the teachings & the commandments of Jesus Christ) … And where most of you get lost in this particular passage relates to both the meaning and the implications of the term “the Word” therein …
Please consider the following two Truths:
*First of all, the Greek word translated in this passage as “the Word” is Logos, a term that did not relate specifically to Jesus Christ at all! Rather, it was a word known by many during Jesus’ day & time to refer to the Divine Wisdom embodied by God Himself (see John 7:16 + John 8:54 + John 12:44 + John 15:8 + John 17:4 – “My teaching is not mine but His who sent me … If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing … Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in Him who sent me … My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples … I glorified [Him] on earth by completing the work that [He] gave me to do.”).
*Secondly, this “Word” – this Logos – was known to reside within all of us, not only within Jesus Christ (though he most certainly was an almost perfect reflection thereof during his three year ministry) … And when we put these two Truths together, we begin to understand what Jesus meant when he said “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and that you are in me, and that I am in you” (John 14:20), and we can also begin to read John 1 in its far deeper & far more divine Light – a Light that, when humbly & courageously applied to our everyday living, bears a far better Fruit.
Yes, it is possible to read this passage narrowly as a call to worship Jesus Christ as one’s one & only Savior (even though Jesus himself repeatedly asked us all not to do so – see Mark 10:18 et al), and yet it is also possible to “read it bigger”, and by reading it “bigger” I mean getting to know the all-Loving Father of Jesus Christ – instead of the relatively cold-hearted god of the Old Testament. And when we do so, when we have the humility to take this passage and translate it in a way that not only is true to the ancient Greek but that also pays the greatest honor to God, we get the following:
“In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. It was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through the Logos, and without it not one thing came into being. What has come into being through the Logos was life, and the life was the light of all people … This true light, which lights up everyone, was coming into the world … From the Logos’ fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” ~ John 1:1-4+9+16
So, my dear Friend, when we read the Word of God in John 1 with the eyes to See and listen to those words with the ears to Hear, it becomes quite clear that it is your interpretation of them – an interpretation you are using to justify a bigoted denigration of millions of otherwise innocent Souls – that is fulfilling Satan’s goal of being “an emissary of disobedience to God’s commandments of Love”, and that it is your interpretation thereof that actually denies Jesus’ call for us to “not judge by appearances but to judge rightly.” … Peace.
;