The Single Eye
Bible Study on the Web
Commentary by Fred Pruitt
Gospel of John, Study 1: Chapter 1:1-5
1:1,2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God.
It is amazing to me how universal it is that so many believers begin their journey in Christ and into the scriptures, with the Gospel of John. Perhaps it is because when it starts, John’s gospel comes with immediacy, as if in that moment the words are coming straight out of the mystery of God. When we consider it, we realize that we, too, come out of mystery, because one day we just are aware that we are here, without having any knowledge of where we came from. Perhaps it is because that sense of mystery is so familiar to us, even if unconsciously, that we are drawn by the immediate mystery in this gospel, out of the crass, loud and dissonant world of men, to seek our own home in the ultimate Mystery of all Mysteries, which is Him Who IS.
How can we even begin to comprehend the words above, much less explain them to others? Still, it seems to me, the words penetrate and take us somehow, because we are of the same stuff that they are. Jesus said His words are Spirit (Jn 6:63); and we also are spirit (Pr 20:27). When we hear His word the reason we inwardly leap with joy is because we are hearing something of our own true selves, because whether we are aware or not, we live in God, and every aspect of our existence, our very “be-ing” is in Him (Acts 17:28).
In His Divine Speech (Word) He is speaking in us into His own true selves, having won us by His blood and body, and chosen to live in us cloaked with each of us individually as His identity. It is the Holy Spirit Who draws us because God is the source of our spirits and here in this gospel the Living God whispers in our spirits, causing our hearts to be drawn inward into Him Who is Mystery and I AM. That is the sense in which John, the “disciple whom Jesus loved,” who leaned on Jesus’ breast, starts out his account of Jesus Christ.
So we start then at the beginning.
However, God has no beginning, does He? “From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Ps 90:2). God is without beginning and without end. Why then does John’s Gospel, exactly as does Genesis, start with “in the beginning?” The beginning of what?
It is that world which concerns us, the world of time and space, which has a beginning – and therefore an end. And John states that in this beginning, there was the Word. Logos.
That was all there was. There was God, Who is outside of and beyond the beginning, and at the point of the beginning, there is the Word, Who is both with God, and IS God. Here we begin to see God’s progression of Himself, the out-flowing of Himself, because when it says both things – that the “Word is with God,” and the “Word IS God” – we are starting to be able to see God as One, in more than one. The phrase, “Word with God,” implies two parties, because something “with” something is not the same as the something itself. It is like two walking side-by-side.
John says the Word is “with God,” but then adds that the Word “IS God,” which means that even though the Word is “with” God, as if apart or side-by-side while performing a different function or office, the Word also IS God, because the Word is God’s speaking. This Word is an eternal speaking of the invisible, unformed God, and in visibility, He is exactly the likeness of the Unseen God. He is more than a likeness, more than a manifestation, but is in Himself the “express image of His Person” (Heb 1:3). Therefore, we can say, He IS God, and more specifically as concerns us, He is God as this Person by Whom God the Father is revealed to us and in us. Therefore, this Word is a Person, expressing somehow in visibility what God is in His invisibility, and in the beginning this Word/Person was all there was.
1:3 All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.
Even though John has given no explanation at this point that this Word is a Person, his language begins to change. In verse 3, John begins to refer to the Word as “Him.” Then he further states that this Person, Who is God and Who is the Word, has made all things.
What did He make all things out of? There was nothing but the Word. That was all there was in the beginning. Then where did everything come from?
The Hebrews writer tells us in 11:3, Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
This Word John is speaking of, is not only the Divine Person Who reveals the Father, He is also the Speaking of God, and all things consist by Him (Col 1:17), that is, out of His substance – the “framed” Word, or Speaking of God – all things first begin to exist, and then are continually held together in His own consistency.
The Speaking of God, the Word, takes form in the speaking. Whatever the Word speaks, it takes its form out of its own substance to bring it into being. The Spirit takes the invisible form spoken into visibility by the Word, gives it a body and a life, and is the life of it. God speaks the Word, “LIGHT!” and Light is! In a way, it does not appear “after” the speaking, because the speaking itself is the reality, so that when God speaks, “LIGHT!” Light IS and it is simultaneous with the speaking. The Word IS the Light.
Everything, then, is composed of, consists of, the Word of God. Everything. That is why Jesus could say to the devil, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Deu 8:3; Matt 4:4).
The Father’s Substance, the Word that brings everything into being and continually upholds all things, is universal, and in Him we live out of His speaking and nothing else, because out of His speaking all things flow. When we live out of His speaking, then we are at the forefront, the point from which things pour out of invisibility into visibility. We do not make them to be, but we only join in the speaking Word and out of His creative Word by us, they are. This is true in the most mundane things of life, such as deciding what to have for dinner or whether or not we’ll go to a movie, as well as the most important things we experience, such as who or what will be or God or who we will marry. All of these things flow out of the Word.
Therefore, this Word, or power of speech, is a very great and mighty power, inherent in us all who are made in His image, either for edification or destruction. The reason the scripture elsewhere exhorts us that our words are not to be idle and meaningless, is because all forms of the word are part of the working Word of God that brings everything into being. That is why Jesus said very seriously that we shall give an account of every idle word we speak, and by our words we are justified or condemned (Matt 12:36, 37). It is no light matter.
Mankind has fallen from the knowledge of the ability to speak the Word of God, but that is the purpose of the gospel and of Jesus’ sojourn among us, that through Him we might again come into the Living Word, through union with Him and spiritually hearing Him Who IS and Who Speaks our lives into existence. Then we do not fear speaking out of ourselves because we know that our lives are the speaking of God, and we do not seek to speak out of ourselves in separation from Him, but only to speak in His speaking. We are words of Him Who IS the Word. We are the speech He makes.
1:4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
In Him is life. John might as well have said, “only” in Him is life, because if He is the origin of all things, then He is the only origin for that most precious commodity of all – Life! What is life? He is obviously not speaking of planets, trees, or rocks. Nor is he speaking of animals, or birds or fish. He must be speaking of the miracle of self-consciousness, whereby a being knows that it is, and is aware of itself as existing.
But even that in itself cannot completely constitute life as it is meant here, because existence alone cannot fully be life. Life is what God is, and He is more than just an “existence.” Life is an outgoing, a flow, a divine energy, a concentration of being into a self-consciousness with purpose and drive – I Am that I am.
That definition is still not enough, because life has an opposite – death! Therefore, this life, which is in God, can have nothing to do with death; it can do nothing to make or produce death. The life that is “in Him” is life unto life, life that produces and makes only life, living that life might proliferate life.
That life, John says, is “in Him,” and therefore anything that comes after may only come out of this life, because it is only in Him. Then John begins to bring humanity specifically into the picture, when he further says, that this life, which is found only in the Word that is God, is the “light” of men.
Said more simply, God’s life is in humanity to be the light of humanity. Let us be certain in our meaning here, which John makes clearer as we go further. This “light” he is referencing, is the Life found in the Word, specifically the Word of God, Jesus Christ. That is the only context of these passages, and have no meaning except taken as a whole in the revelation of Christ. John has taken us on a journey, which started in the heavenlies and in the mystery of God, and has now brought us into our own world, to show how that Word of God, also called Life, also called Light, referred to as Him, and then finally revealed as Jesus Christ, is specifically the Life and Light of all humanity.
What, then, is this “light of men?” We have to first note that John does not say the Word is the Life of only some men (male and female). The meaning is clear – John is saying He is the life of all men, whether they know it or not. All men have life only in Him, and find life only in Him. There is no other life.
This is not because God is being unfair or exclusive, as if He is saying, “You must do it my way, or else.” It is just simply a fact that this is where life is, and if one wants to find life for himself, he must come to the only Source from which it comes.
What plant complains because there is only one sun to give it life? The sun is the blessing of the plant, which gives its fullness without measure and without condition. The sun is the life of the earth, causing all life in it. In the same way Christ is the life of all men, giving His fullness to all without measure and without condition. Just as a plant has only to stand still and be bathed in light, simply opening its leaves and petals and receiving the light, in the same way we stand still and receive the light of God through faith in Christ. That is all faith is – a simple act of receiving what God has freely given.
Light means many things. One aspect of light is that it manifests things – brings things out to be seen and known for what they are. What is interesting about light, is that it is not for itself. It does not exist to simply be light and have everybody look at it and say, “Look, there is light.” It specifically exists to manifest other things by shining on them. We don’t really see the light. Instead, we see the things the light manifests.
If we look around in the room we are in, unless the lights are turned off, we see what is in the room. In the room where I am writing this, there is a desk, some chairs, a television, a bed, and some other furniture. I see them all because the light is on and is shining on them. But what am I really seeing? I am not seeing just a desk when I look at my desk. In reality, I am seeing a union of two things: light, and the dark surface of the desk. The desk has no light of its own, so if the light is off, I cannot see the desk. It will not show up if it is dark. So when I see the desk, it is really the light I am seeing, reflecting off the dark surface of the desk, showing me, or manifesting to me, the desk.
But this is the interesting part about that. I don’t think about the fact that I am seeing a union of light and dark matter. I am just seeing a desk, period! That is one meaning of “He is the light of men.” His light shines in us, and we are the ones who are manifest, who are revealed, or seen. It is God’s light (there is no other) and yet the light remains invisible and instead of drawing attention to itself, it manifests you and me! (And when we shine with His light, we don’t show off ourselves, but bring out the life in others!)
Another aspect of light is the aspect of truth. In John’s first epistle he says, “God is light” (1 Jn 1:5-7). The context of that passage is that light reveals what really is. One cannot say He lives in God and walk in a lie. Light reveals what is true.
That is often why we sometimes hide from God, as Adam and Eve did. We are afraid, because we know we have not walked in truth, and to come to God Who is Light, would reveal all the things we have been so careful to hide. But if that has happened, those whose hearts are knit with His Love come anyway, because they cannot help it. The savor of Life is so strong, and the Light of Truth is so bright, that as we are drawn into Him Who is Love, His Life and His Light sear off all the death and lies that we have accumulated in our journey, so that in His Light we are cleansed and made wholly new again. We are made spotless and as innocent as little children. Then we stand up on our own feet, and boldly and gladly soak in His Light, bask in it, enjoy it, reflect it, and transmit it to everyone around us!
1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
This is a miracle to our minds. In our world, light is actually a physical substance, or at least it sort of is. When there is no light shining, we say it is dark. The absence of light is darkness. It is a fact that when it is dark, there is no light. Light in our world has to have a source to generate it, either the sun’s light or the artificial light we make. But without a source of light to generate the actual substance of light, it is just simply darkness.
But that is not the truth in God. There has been a darkness that has come into the universe, through the introduction of evil by the evil one. In a sense he attempted to stamp out light by denying the light of God, asserting himself as having his own self-source. And in himself by that denial, because the evil one in himself and in his minions has turned the Word of God toward destruction, he has created a kingdom of false darkness, which asserts that it is a light of its own. That is what Jesus was referring to in the single eye passage (Matt 6:22, 23).
In a great rebellion beyond our understanding, Lucifer and his angels brought evil and darkness into creation, and by the serpent brought it into our world through Adam. The whole world fell with Adam, and what was harmonious and a symphony of joy turned into dissonance and violence and many tears.
But that did not affect the light or the life or the truth. They remained the same. In mankind they became hidden, but nevertheless the light has always been shining. In the spiritual darkness that as a lie overshadows our world, LIGHT SHINES! It has never stopped shining for a moment. He IS the Light of men – not should be or we wish He were. HE IS!
No matter the depths of darkness, no matter how hard the toil, no matter how painful the suffering, the Light shines on and on and on. It never has stopped and never will stop. That is the miracle. In our world when it is dark there is no light. But in God, in Whom we all live and move and have the whole of our every moment’s existence, it is always LIGHT! And when we recognize Him, even in the midst of the our darkest personal darkness, His Light irradiates it all. Everything becomes Light in Him.
The lie of darkness does not know this, does not understand this, and cannot see this. But we who are His live in His Light and we know it.
End of Study 1.
E-Mail Fred at fhpjrrom@gmail.com