In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1-5
The book of John is written with one purpose: for everyone to know who Jesus is and to believe in him.
This book begins with a profound poem, which is an epilogue to the rest of the book.
The message that John wants to convey to us is that God, who is perfect, omniscient, omnipotent, eternal, the creator of everything, and the only source of life, decides to become flesh (a human) so that he can sacrifice himself for our salvation.
In the first verses, a connection to Genesis 1 is made. The verses remind us of the moment of creation, when God speaks everything into existence, through his words. As the word is created in our mind and sent outside, it contains intelligence, design, rationality, and information. In the same way, the creation contains all these characteristics. They are proof of God’s existence to the non-believers. So ‘the Word’ is God as the Creator of everything.
If we think about how the words are generated when we speak. We can realize that they are inside our minds, as part of us. And, when we speak, they come out as sounds and become something distinct from us. In this way, John briefly shows us how the concept of the Trinity works. the Father and the Son are at the same time two distinct persons and one God.
As we read further, verse 4 tells us about who is Jesus, and why he became human. Jesus came for mankind., to save us. Jesus is light and life. But what does it mean? Salvation comes from the decision: of believing in him and accepting his gift of forgiveness. A decision is a choice between various options, in this case, you choose between: to believe or not to believe, to accept or not to accept.
In order to make a proper decision, we need to know the facts: the reality, the truth. We need knowledge of the truth. If a decision is made based on something that contradicts reality, we are probably not making the best choice, we choose randomly and blindly. Knowledge, in a certain way, is similar to sight. For this reason, you say “I can see the truth”. To see we need light. If there is no light, we are blinded, all we can see is darkness. Truth is light for our knowledge. Light, in this sense, is what shows us truth or reality. If we have the light we can therefore decide rationally, according to the truth. Jesus is the light, he is the truth, and he shows the path we have to follow, knowing Jesus we can decide to believe in him and be saved, knowing his word, written in the Bible, we can live in a better way, stay away from the deception of the world.
Let’s say, for example, that we are going to the hospital and we ask a passer-by what direction we should follow. The passerby tells us to go north. Further on we find a map of the city, and it shows us that the hospital is to the north. We call the hospital and ask for confirmation. The hospital confirms: go north. At this point, we turn the car and go south. This is nonsense. If we know that the hospital is actually to the north, why would we go south if we want to get to the hospital? Of course, if we know that the hospital is north, and we want to reach it, we go north!
Let’s say that instead, we arrive in the city, the city is deserted, and we can’t find any information: where will we go, north, south, east or west? Without information, our choice is random. The lack of knowledge of the truth leads us to choose blindly.
The truth is like a light in the dark.
The light that is in Jesus is life. Indeed, the truth that Jesus shows us is that there is a kingdom of heaven of eternal joy, and a lake of fire, of eternal suffering. If we choose Jesus, we have eternal life in the kingdom of heaven. If we decide to reject Jesus, we have eternal death in the lake of fire. This is the truth that Jesus came to tell us. For this reason, the light of Jesus is life. The Truth is life. This verse is also connected to chapter 15, where we will see the parable of the vine. In this parable, Jesus teaches us that we, like branches of the vine, have life only if we are connected to the vine. As Genesis shows us, life comes from God, and only God can give life. Evolutionists will never be able to create life from inanimate matter, because only God can give life. If today you breathe and your heart beats, it is because God allows it. God is the only source of life. Mortal life ends, but spiritual life can continue if we are spiritually connected to God, and we are justified in Jesus.
On the other hand, the enemy uses the darkness to confuse and blind us, in order to take the wrong choice.
For example, I happened to enter a store looking for a particular product. The shopkeeper, not having it available, told me that I would not find that product anywhere because it is out of production. Going to another shop, I found that product, and I asked the second shopkeeper how he had that product which according to the first shopkeeper was unobtainable. He started laughing and replied that the first shopkeeper was simply lying in order to prevent me to go shopping in any other shop. If I had believed the first shopkeeper and stopped looking, I would never have found the product I was looking for.
Returning to the example of directions to the hospital, let’s say the first passerby tells me that the hospital is to the south. If I believe him and keep going south, I’ll never find the hospital. But if I look for confirmation of the information received, I will discover that the passer-by lied to me, or he did not know what he was saying
When we hear atheists talk about the existence of God, we will never find sensible arguments, but only attempts to demolish the truth and confuse us into believing that we are wrong. The argument of the atheists is that there is no evidence, but the evidence is in front of their nose, indeed their own nose is proof. The enemy wants to leave you in the dark so that you are confused and never see the truth. The world’s attacks are always on the Bible. Their purpose is to prove that the Bible is a fairy tale. The devil doesn’t want you to believe the Bible. Satan has used many who claim to be intellectuals to attack certain parts of the Bible so that all the rest of it can be doubted. Satan knows that if you read the Bible, you will know the truth, that’s why he does everything to make sure you don’t read it. Evil is darkness, disorder, confusion, falsehood. But light sweeps away darkness, because darkness is a lack of light, and for this reason, darkness cannot envelop something that is illuminated. Light always swaps away the darkness, as truth swaps away the lack of knowledge. The truth debunks lies, as God always wins over the devil. Satan was created by God, as an angel, he is a creation. God is the creator and he is more powerful than anything created. God is almighty, nothing else can be like God. Evil is destined to be defeated and thrown into the lake of fire, with all those who have chosen it.