The Pulpit Commentary on John 1:3-5

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Jesus Christ in relation to creation.

The apostle next shows the relation between the finite and the infinite, the Divine and the human.

I. THE WORD MADE FLESH. "All things were made by him." Therefore he must be God. "He that built all things is God" (Hebrews 3:4). This creation has a double aspect.

1. He made the worlds, tie made matter.

2. He made man, who is the crown of creation; for "in him was life."

II. THE WORD IS THE LIFE OF THE WORLD. "In him was life." The Word is Life in its widest signification—the life of the body, the life of the soul, the life of the spirit. The world (including man), which is represented here as made by him, is also represented as in him as the Source of its continued preservation. "After having been the root of the tree, the Logos was also its sap." "For in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). There is a perfect development of existence in virtue of his being our Life.

III. THE RELATION OF THE LIFE TO THE LIGHT. "And the Life was the Light of men."

1. This refers to the period orphan's innocence in Paradise, as the next clause to the fact of his fall.

2. Life developed in the form of light. It is peculiar to no being on earth but man.

(a) intellectual knowledge simply,

(b) nor holiness, but

There was a steady Shining of the light in man's conscience and intellect and heart at his creation.

IV. THE CONFLICT BETWEEN LIGHT AND DARKNESS. "And the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not." This points to the period of the fall of man. Life and light suggest the contrasted ideas of death and darkness.

1. Light and darkness exist side by side in the spiritual world. In the natural world, light expels the darkness, or darkness expels the light. The Light has always been shining, either in nature, providence, or revelation. Christ has never left himself without a witness. The Sun of Righteousness is still shining in darkness. Light is really "come into the world."

2. The darkness neither apprehended nor overcame the light. The light still shines, with an ever-widening border, as the darkness is being chased back. The darkness has not overpowered the light. But it has not any the better understood it or assimilated it. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."

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