¹⁴ “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

“Word,” that was the operative term in Jesus’ ministry, the “Logos.” The gospel of John begins with it, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God …. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). In the largest, most expansive sense, our Lord Jesus Christ is the Word, the true Logos!

Much has been written on what the term “logos” means. The Roman world, in which the gospel writer John was living when he wrote this account of the life of Christ, enjoyed the cultural carry-over from the previous Greek civilization. This was especially true in the arts and literature. Though it is usually translated “word,” the term “logos” was not used in the grammatical sense (e.g. referring to a specific part of a sentence) nor even to the spoken word (for which Greek has a better word, “rhema”). Rather “logos” conveyed a philosophical concept, involving ideas like knowledge, wisdom or reason. Its actual use and meaning have quite a storied history, being used by various philosophers in different ways. This may provide some background to John’s use of the term in referring to Jesus as the “Word.”

At the least, learned Greek readers would readily identify what he was conveying, that Jesus, the human being, is the ultimate statement of God. He was with God in the beginning of all time, He was God. And therefore, Jesus Christ eclipses all philosophical endeavors for they find their end in Him, for He embodies the truth, the reason, the knowledge and the wisdom. In fact, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.” (John 14:6). He is not just “a” way to truth, He is the “only” way to truth, for God Himself is the summation of all that humans seek in life.

So when Jesus said, “I have given them Your word,” He was speaking of more than just the teachings He gave to His disciples. He gave them Himself. Earlier in the Upper Room, as He was preparing to wash their feet, John records, “… having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. (John 13:1). By His own standards He could give of Himself no more than to die for them. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Lord Jesus, You are the living Word, the absolute Truth, the Wisdom of God. You are greater than any philosophy. To know You is to know life.