Category: Joy, Peace, and Hope Through the Bible

How the Bible empowers us to become people of joy, peace, and hope through the virtues of faith, hope, and love

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Why “Word” Is Not Enough: Understanding the Logos in John 1

“To understand Logos is, in a very real sense, to understand John’s Gospel itself.” — Charles Ellicott

There are few words more fascinating—or more edifying—than the word Word, or logos, in John 1. It is as though all the ancient streams of thought flow into it, only to find their fulfillment in Christ.

What follows is a modernized version of the great nineteenth-century commentator Charles Ellicott’s explanation of this word in the Gospel of John. It captures the meaning of logos as beautifully as anything I have read. Reading it will repay you richly in encouragement and Christmas wonder, and it will help you understand the Gospel of John more deeply. Here it is:

Why John Chose the Word Logos

One of the greatest difficulties—and one of the greatest keys—to understanding the Gospel of John lies in a single word: λόγος (Logos).

Our English Bibles translate it as “Word.” But that translation, helpful as it is, cannot fully carry the meaning John intended. To understand Logos is, in a very real sense, to understand John’s Gospel itself.

Why “Word” Isn’t Enough

From the earliest centuries, translators struggled with this term. Latin versions rendered it Verbum, but some also used Sermo (discourse) or Ratio (reason). One early Latin translation of Athanasius even rendered Logos as “Verbum et Ratio”—Word and Reason—capturing its double meaning.

That double meaning is essential.

In Greek, logos refers both to thought and to expression—to reason within and speech without. Aristotle distinguished between the logos within (thought) and the logos without (spoken discourse). The Stoics sharpened this distinction, speaking of the logos endiathetos (the word within the mind) and the logos prophorikos (the word expressed outwardly).

Continue reading “Why “Word” Is Not Enough: Understanding the Logos in John 1”

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Anxiety, Pride, & Redemption: The Story of Hagar, Sarah, and Abraham

According to the Christian faith, the fundamental human problem is not lack of money, better government, or more education. It is that our relationship with God is broken. Out of that brokenness—what the Bible calls sin—flow addictions, injustices, and abuses of every sort.

Sin is not just doing bad things. It is living out of sync with what we ought to be and do before God. It deserves condemnation, but it also calls forth sympathy, because sin is tangled up with something all of us know well: anxiety.

American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr suggested that sin is rooted in anxiety. We can see the dangers and pressures of this world, but we can’t control them. That anxiety is not sin in itself, but it becomes the occasion for sin. Under pressure, we either trust the Lord or try to take control. That second response is pride.

Genesis 16 shows this pattern clearly in the story of Sarah, Abraham, and Hagar.

Anxiety: When Waiting Hurts
Sarah’s story begins with a simple but painful statement: “She had borne him no children.” In her world, a woman’s honor and identity were tightly connected to childbearing. On top of that, Abraham carried a promise from God that he would have descendants, but years had passed and nothing had happened. No children. No clarity about Sarah’s role. No visible progress.

That is a perfect breeding ground for anxiety.

When we feel out of control, we want to do something—anything—to relieve the tension. Sarah did what was common in her culture: she offered her servant Hagar to Abraham so that she might “obtain children by her” (Gen. 16:2). It was a logical, socially approved solution.

But it was also a violation of God’s design for marriage: one man, one woman, one flesh. It was a common-sense solution that was completely wrong. Continue reading “Anxiety, Pride, & Redemption: The Story of Hagar, Sarah, and Abraham”

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Born Again to a Living Hope

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

The Living Hope for Peter
When Peter was with Jesus, he had hope. He had hope for his nation. He had hope for himself. He had hope for a better world. The long-awaited Messiah had come.

Then, Jesus was put on a mock trial, suffered, died, and was buried. During this time, Peter experienced the biggest failure of his life. He turned his back on Jesus. When people asked Peter if he was Jesus’ follower, he said that he didn’t even know him. In the midst of his suffering, Jesus looked right at Peter that night, and Peter knew how much he had hurt Jesus. He went out and wept bitterly.

Jesus was then crucified, died, and was buried. The disciples lost hope. So the hopeless disciples got together, and they waited, for what they knew not.

Then, some of the women came to them. They had gone to the tomb. They had not seen Jesus. They said that a messenger from heaven had told them that Jesus had risen from the dead. They had a hard time believing them.

But Peter and John didn’t hesitate. They ran to the tomb, and it was empty just as the women had told them. But they still could not believe that Jesus had risen.

Finally, Jesus appeared to the disciples, and they knew Jesus was alive.

But what would that mean for Peter? Peter had denied he even knew Jesus. He had failed Jesus in his darkest hour and greatest need. Would their relationship be over? Would that be the end of his work with Jesus? Continue reading “Born Again to a Living Hope”

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Every Christian Should Memorize This Chapter for Good Friday

Isaiah 53. I think it is probably a favorite for most Christians. This is the passage where we read: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Vv. 5 & 6).

I have enjoyed reading what some famous Christians have said about this passage. I hope that you will find them edifying as well:

“This in many respects may be regarded as the most important in all the writings of the Old Testament, and which is better adapted than any other to lead us to a right understanding of the whole. The partial obscurity which usually accompanies the representations of the prophets seem here to have entirely vanished.” — E.W. Hengestenberg

“Though some things need explanation, this alone is enough, which is so plain, that even our enemies, in spite of their disinclination, are compelled to understand it.” — Augustine
Continue reading “Every Christian Should Memorize This Chapter for Good Friday”

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Loving God the Most: Making God the Baseline of Our Lives

There is no question that our greatest obligation as human beings is to love God above everything else. Jesus could not have been clearer: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment” (Mt. 22:37–38). This is what life is all about.

The statement is not controversial. If someone asked us, “What is the most important commandment?” Many of us would know the answer. Love the Lord your God. Yet, how many of us have really put effort into loving God more?

The season of Lent is an invitation to consider whether we are pursuing the love of God as our greatest objective. It is an opportunity to consider what our hearts go after in place of God. It is an occasion for reflection on the idols of our hearts that impede the love of God.

There is not question that humans are often unwilling to pursue God. However, sometimes we don’t love God because we are not sure what that even means. Loving a human being means wanting to be with them, get to know them, and help them thrive. But because God is not physically with us, it can be hard to understand what this looks like.

What does loving God really look like? Let me suggest three ways:

  1. Making God our chief source of comfort, love, security, and meaning.
  2. Spending time with God and learning to walk with Him moment by moment.
  3. Taking an interest in the interests of God.

Here I want to focus on # 2: learning to live in God’s presence. It is there that we learn to rely on Him as our chief source of comfort, love, security, and meaning. It is there that we learn about His interests so they can become our interests. It is there we find pleasures at His right hand forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

But what does this really look like? Obviously, we cannot literally think about God all the time, or we would not be able to do anything else because we can only think of one thing at a time. Continue reading “Loving God the Most: Making God the Baseline of Our Lives”

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