… this we proclaim concerning the Word of life … (NIV)
We are writing to you about this Word of life … (Worldwide English)
… of the word of life … (Douay Rheims)
So far John has told us that he heard, saw, looked upon and touched Jesus, whom he now declares to be the “Word of life.”
That word word, in the Greek, is “logos,” and the primary definition is that it’s a part of speech – “a word, uttered by a living voice, embodies a conception or idea.” Jesus was somehow uttered by a living voice, to embody a conception or idea.
And here John tells us, as He does in His Gospel, that this Word was spoken, was present, from the very beginning. (John chapter 1 tells us that this Word was with God – and was God – at creation, and that nothing which was created was created without this Word).
How can a Person be a Word?
What did God “speak” through Jesus – what concept did He embody in this everlasting Word?
I bet you can guess, if you’ve been journeying a while with me …
I believe the Word God speaks that Jesus embodies is the same as the substance of God Himself, and it is revealed to us just a couple chapters later in 1 John 4:8 – “God is love.”
The Word is LOVE! This is the conception or idea embodied in Jesus, this is the word uttered by the “living voice” of God to the world He was creating: love, love, love.
When God speaks, love is His Word, because He is love. And somehow, I have come to believe along this journey with Jesus, that word, LOVE is the answer to every equation (Crystal Blue Persuasion, y’all!).
There is not a more important, better, more needed, more powerful Word in all of creation. Because Jesus is the Word, and the Word is Love.