In the first century, the most popular philosophical movement was Stoicism. The Stoics, following Plato, were focused on grasping the truth behind all things, the inherent rationality of the world. They saw this inherent rationality as a kind of ‘divine mind’ in all things, like a great computer operating system, and they referred to this as ‘the logos’. The pinnacle of human dignity was seen to be the grasping of this impersonal ‘divine mind’ and thinking accordingly. I can hardly overstate the genius of John’s first chapter and the way he works with this idea to challenge it. John personalises the ‘logos’ (translated in our Bibles as ‘the Word’). To ‘grasp the truth’, therefore, is not to just think right thoughts but to relate to a person. The further implication of this is that grasping truth is primarily a matter of the will. Unfortunately, the Christian tradition has tended to slip back to a kind of intellectual Stoicism. We tend to see salvation as resulting from believing the right things. We say we know ‘the truth’ when we assent intellectually to certain biblical doctrines. But we cannot really know the truth in this way. Correct thinking is of course very important, but it is a means to an end, not an end-in-itself. Never be content with just knowing things about God. Jesus Christ, the logos, came so that we could reconnect personally with God. You cannot know God intellectually because our finite minds cannot grasp his infinite and eternal being. But we can know him in a deeper sense, through relationship, in which we experience his character. This is where life begins.
Ask God to reveal himself to you more and more.
Read John 1:1-13
