quoted from The Message paraphrase:
The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.
Everything was created through him;
nothing–not one thing!-
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out.
There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.
The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life
he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten,
not blood-begotten,
not flesh-begotten,
not sex-begotten.
The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”
We all live off his generous bounty,
gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding–
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.
4 responses to “Incarnate”
Nice one, yo. The Message is so refreshing, eh? An appropriate portion of scripture for this time of year – and definitely not a boys’ philosphy or theology (if you can remember Lewis debunking critics of Christianity who, in order to disprove it, disprove merely a boys’ philsophy in “Mere Christianity”. This is more like meat and some pleasant meat at that.
Blessings and, ahhh, Merry Christmas to you and Jac!!
Merry Christmas, brother!
Blessings to you and the wife this holiday season. I’ll see you soon.
Love ya!
Merry Christmas to you too Joel! Looking forward to seeing you!
Matt…thanx for the post, hey? i appreciated your thoughts on home, and have gone on to read other such on your site. so good. your wisdom and insite are appreciated, as well as your sincere friendship. thanks.
k