Hi friends! It’s been a really good night here as I’ve had a good class and I’m ready to come and write the blog. As I start, I realize I could be interrupted in the middle also as it’s Thursday night and good blog readers know that means it’s a Smallville night. Of course, you all won’t see any interruptions. Let’s continue our look for now at the opening prologue of John. Tonight, we look at verse 7
He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.
The text when speaking of “he”, for those who do not remember last night, is talking about John the Baptist. We looked at the concern that John the Baptist could have been a figure that was blown beyond what he was. This is not to deny John the Baptist had an important role. He did. However, we must remember where his role ended and not make it greater than it was. He himself would not want that.
John is described as a witness. The word for witness is where we get our word martyr, someone who dies for the cause they believe in, from. This is because the Christian community was killed so often in the sharing of their faith that the word eventually took on their added meaning. Indeed, John the Baptist was killed because he testified of righteousness.
John came to testify. That was his whole mission. He did not life his life to draw attention to himself. He lived his life to point to the light. In so doing, he did draw attention to himself, but that was not his goal. Those who do live a life for Christ will be noticed in the marketplace and they will receive some honor and glory for that. The question is what will they do with that honor and glory? Will they keep it for themselves or pass it on. As one who frequently receives compliments and praise from others, and I do appreciate it as it is needed, it is something I find I have to constantly remind myself of. I am not the end. He is.
Why does a light need testimony? If you were blind, would you know that a light had been turned on? That is how blind mankind is in the state that they are in. They do not even realize that they do not see. Jesus makes this clear in John 9 at the end when he talks to the man born blind that he healed.
John comes also so that men might believe. Believe what? Believe in the light. Of course, we will see more on this as we go through the gospel as belief is a constant theme that plays out in the gospel of John. For now, we need to focus on the light and see what it is we are to see.
Some of you might be wondering why in this prologue I’m touching on verses that don’t directly affect the deity of Christ. The reason is that I believe that these verses give us the surrounding context and when we put them all together, we will get a beautiful picture.
We shall continue the look through the prologue of John tomorrow.
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