John 1:1–18

The Word Becomes Human

¹In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was already with God in the beginning. 

³Everything came into existence through him. Not one thing that exists was made without him. 

⁴He was the source of life, and that life was the light for humanity. 

⁵The light shines in the dark, and the dark has never extinguished it. 

⁶God sent a man named John to be his messenger. ⁷John came to declare the truth about the light so that everyone would become believers through his message. ⁸John was not the light, but he came to declare the truth about the light. 

⁹The real light, which shines on everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into existence through him. Yet, the world didn’t recognize him. ¹¹He went to his own people, and his own people didn’t accept him. ¹²However, he gave the right to become God’s children to everyone who believed in him. ¹³These people didn’t become God’s children in a physical way—from a human impulse or from a husband’s desire ⸤to have a child⸥. They were born from God. 

¹⁴The Word became human and lived among us. We saw his glory. It was the glory that the Father shares with his only Son, a glory full of kindness^band truth. 

¹⁵(John declared the truth about him when he said loudly, “This is the person about whom I said, ‘The one who comes after me was before me because he existed before I did.’ ”) 

¹⁶Each of us has received one gift after another because of all that the Word is. ¹⁷Laws were given through Moses, but kindness and truth came into existence through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. God’s only Son, the one who is closest to the Father’s heart, has made him known.