1 "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 was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men."
John 1:1-14
A threefold statement of profoundest importance is made in 1, with three definite ideas expressed. The first part, ‘In the beginning was the Word', stresses its eternity. It is as if John were saying, 'When everything began, it (the Word) did not begin. It was, and it was there anterior to all created things and to time itself'. The emphasis here is on the verb 'was' - it is the state of being. It is significant that when John speaks of the creation in 3 the phrase 'All things were made' literally rendered reads 'All things became by Him'. The contrast John makes is between 'being' and 'becoming', the eternal being of the Word and the coming of creation into existence. 'Word' ('logos' in the Greek) has been the subject of much learned discussion, and scholars attempt to relate it to the philosophical idea of 'logos' as 'Reason'. But it is quite possible to be uncomplicated here, for this reason: The phrase 'In the beginning’ in 1 clearly directs our thoughts back to the opening verses of Genesis and its account of Creation and in that account we repeatedly read the words 'And God said...’. This should surely indicate that John's reference is not to reason, however divine, but to divine speech, God speaks to men in Jesus Christ. He Who spoke at sundry times and in divers manners unto the fathers by the prophets has finally spoken to us by His Son (Hebrews 1:1). In the second part of the verse, 'the Word was with God', the preposition 'with' stresses proximity. It is not merely that the Word was associated with God, but in intimate fellowship with God, the idea is of an active out-going of love in the direction of God. It is this intimacy of union and communion between the Father and the Son that John stresses.