For Reading and Meditation:      John 1:1-18We continue meditating on the fact that the Christian faith is unique in that it is the Word not of a prophet but of the Son of God Himself. And when I refer to the Son of God I mean also God the Son. The Son is as much God as God Himself. One commentator says of the verse before us today: "If I were to put my finger on the most important verse in Scripture I would unhesitatingly put my finger on this one: 'And the Word became flesh.' " This verse has been described as "The Great Divide," because no other religion can claim that the word they received from God became flesh. In all other religions the essential element is a word become word - a philosophy, a moralistic system, and so on. Only in Christianity does God appear in human form; the Word become flesh. Early in my career as a minister I found that whenever I tried to present the Christian gospel to people of other faiths, everything I said brought the bland reply: "Yes, what you say is good, but we have the same teaching in our sacred books also." The Sermon on the Mount? Muslims have something similar in the Qur'an. Turning the other cheek? Hindus would reply: "Our sacred books tell us the same." Caring and sensitivity to the needs of others? Buddhists would respond: "We believe in that too, perhaps even more than you." Every issue I raised had its parallel. I was puzzled. Where was Christianity's uniqueness? Then it dawned upon me - the Incarnation. No other religion has anything like the Incarnation. O God our Father, just to reflect on the Incarnation is to be filled with amazement and joy. We are not knocking at the door of heaven. You are knocking at the lowly doors of our hearts. How can such a thing be true? Yet it is. I am so thankful. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>Isaiah 9:1-6</li><li>Isaiah 7:14</li><li>Galatians 4:4</li><li>Luke 1:30-33</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>How did Isaiah depict the Incarnation?</li><li>What was the message of the angel?</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." (v. 14)

John 1:1-18The first three Gospels begin on the earth ; the fourth Gospel begins back in eternity. There are no sublimer words in all language than the first words in John's prologue. They give us a glimpse of the eternal past and show us the Word existing then. In the beginning, before anything else was - He was. Genesis is the book of earthly beginnings, but this first verse of John's gospel carries us back far beyond Genesis. We find precious comfort in human friends when we can rest in their love and know that they are indeed ours, true to us and faithful. Yet all the while, as we lean upon them, we know, too, that they are only creatures of a day. They have not lived long, and their wisdom is only inexperience, their strength only weakness. Their love is liable to change and decay; their very life is only a breath, a mere comma in the great sentence of eternity. But in the friendship of Christ we know that we are in the clasp of One who is eternal - the same yesterday and today, yes, and forever.We are told also plainly who this divine Friend is. "The Word was God ." A word reveals thoughts. We cannot know what is in our friend's heart - until he speaks. We never could have known what God's thoughts about us are - if He had not spoken to us. Jesus Christ is the Word, that is, the revealer to us of the mind and heart of God. The Incarnation of Christ brings Him very close to us. In His human life He is one of ourselves, our brother, with feelings, affections and sympathies like ours. But when we can add to our thought and experience of Christ's humanity the wonderful truth that He is divine, it puts a marvelous element of strength and security into our trust. The Incarnation is God coming to us with a great heart of love, offering Himself to us. A great preacher says, "In the last analysis Christianity is nothing more or less than a great dear Figure, standing with outstretched arms." God is love, and He is love yearning, that comes to us in the Word.All divine revelation has been made to the world through the Word. "All things were made by him." One was showing an old watercolor picture which hung in his room. It was beautiful, but the good man said that nothing among his possessions was so precious to him as this faded bit of painting, because his mother had made it. Just so, everything in nature is made sacred and beautiful to one who loves Christ, when he remembers that his Savior made it. The sweet flowers by the wayside would be sweeter to us - if we remembered, as we looked upon them, that the hand of Christ painted them. This is Christ's world. His touch is on everything in it. Everything speaks of Him and of His love.Christ is also the source of all life. "In Him was life." He is the one fountain of life. No one in the world, except God, can produce life. With all his skill, man cannot make the smallest living seed, or create the most infinitesimal particle of matter. Science, with all its wondrous achievements, has never been able to produce life in even the lowest form. No man can make a blade of grass, or the tiniest flower, or the lowest insect. All life comes from Christ.Our lesson turns now to the revealing of the divine Word. First, preparation. "There was a man sent from God." He came as God's messenger, to prepare the way for the divine revealing. Each one of us is likewise "sent from God." We know what John's mission was. We may not know yet what our own mission is - but God will show it to us as we go on, if we are faithful. We may be sure, however, that we are here on no haphazard errand; we are really sent on some errand, some definite mission. There is some word that we were born to speak - and if we do not speak it, the world will be poorer, some life will not know God's message and will not know what God wants it to do.John came to tell men of the Messiah. "He came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light that all men through him might believe."Our highest duty in this world is to give honor to Christ, to show some phase of His glory. Some men in their self-conceit, think only of making a show of themselves, getting people to see them and praise them. The mission of every Christian is to bear witness of the Light, to point others to Christ, that men may believe. It was said of a great preacher, that wherever he went, people, when they saw his life, fell in love with Jesus Christ. They forgot the preacher - and thought only of the Master whom the preacher proclaimed, both in his words and in his life. John hid himself out of sight - and wanted people to see only Christ. We cannot save any soul - but we can point lost ones to Him who can save. We may bear witness of Christ in many ways. We may do it by our words, telling what He was and what He did for us; and by our life and character, showing what Christ can do for all who come to Him.It is strange that when the Son of God came to his world, He was not received. We would say that such a glorious being would have been hailed with highest honor. But there was not welcome for Him. "He came unto his own - and his own received him not." This was one of the saddest things about Christ's mission to the world. For ages He had been waited for and watched for - but when He came He was not recognized; He was even rejected and crucified. We say, "If He came now - He would find a warm welcome." But would He? He does come now as really as He came then. He comes to save us, to be our Friend, to help us in our need, and many of us turn our backs upon Him. He stands yet knocking before many a door which does not open to Him.There were some, however, who received Christ when He came, and to these He brought wondrous blessings. "As many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." Here we have the way of salvation made plain. We have only to accept Christ as He comes to us - and we are led into the household, among God's own children. We need not understand all about Christ, about His person or His work - there may be a great deal of unexplained mystery about Him. There cannot but be, for the Incarnation is the most profound mystery of all ages. But we do not need to understand everything - all we need to do is to accept Christ as our Savior, our Master, our Friend - and we are led by Him into the full light. Then some day we shall understand. In the experience of divine love - our joy will be so full that there shall be no question unanswered, no desire unsatisfied.The beginning of our passage tells us of the Word existing in the eternity past, the Word with God, the Word as God Himself; now we come to the revealing of the Word: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." It is not said that the Word was changed into flesh - He continued to be divine. He became flesh. It does not mean, either, that He took up His abode in a human body merely - He took upon Him the whole of human nature, body, soul and spirit. We cannot divide the activity of Christ into two sections and say, "This the divine nature did, and this His human nature did"; the human and the divine were inextricably blended into one. When we see Christ's compassion, His thoughtfulness, His mercy, His kindness, His gentleness, these are divine qualities, revealed in human ways, through human life. It was all divine, all glory.Christ is the only revelation of God. "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father - he has revealed him." We never can know God, except through His Son. There is no other possible revelation of Him. Christ came in lowly form, and appeared to His friends as a man; but when they learned to know Him, when their hearts had fixed their tendrils about Him, they found that He was divine, the Son of God. If we ever see God and know Him, and enter His family as His own - we must accept Christ. There is no other way. To reject Him is to shut ourselves away from God - in darkness unillumined by a beam of love from His face.

A unique type of devotional from the writings of James Russell Miller, published between 1908 and 1913.

Devotional Hours Within the Bible

John 1:1-18

Christ the Life and Light of Men

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. § [Jesus is] the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. § The god of this age has blinded [their minds], who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. Make Your face shine upon Your servant; save me for Your mercies’ sake. Do not let me be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon You. § Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was troubled. § Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance. The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace. Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.

Daily Light on the Daily Path or Daily Light is a Christian daily devotional scripture reading published by Bagster & Sons about 1875. It has been reprinted continually since then. It consists of brief groupings of scripture passages which speak to prominent Biblical themes—two themes (morning and evening) for each day of the year. It appends no commentary, but simply allows scripture to speak for itself.

Morning Daily Light

 The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. 

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. § No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. § He who has seen Me has seen the Father. § The brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. § God was manifested in the flesh. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. § Whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

 Christ, who is the image of God. 

I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim … And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” § These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him. § On the likeness of the throne was a likeness … of a man high above it … Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. “Please, show me Your glory.” But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” § No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. § God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

 The glory which You gave Me I have given them. 

It is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. § The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth … No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? § When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. § Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

Evening Daily Light

 Please, show me Your glory. 

Moses] said, “Please, show me Your glory.” But [God] said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” § No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. § Every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. § I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near. I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God. § I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness. § We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. § The Lord Himself will descend from heaven. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

 They shall see His face. 

Suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” § Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! § The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins … And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love. The glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. § Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

 The Son of His love. 

<blockquote>For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (<a id="verse_1632877386943494" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/2-Corinthians/4/11">2 Cor. 4:11</a>).</blockquote>The growing Christian is often accused of passivity by the doing Christian. The Lord Jesus was not passive; the Apostle Paul was not passive; nor is the believer passive who seeks to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ" (<a id="verse_1632877386405812" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/2-Peter/3/18">2 Peter 3:18</a>). Compulsive activity is not necessarily fruitful, as the "works of the flesh" attest."The Lord keep you in the freshness of faith in Himself, going forth in His work, not undertaking more than He gives you grace for. I have pressed upon my brethren not to give up their secular employment until the work of the Lord so increased upon them that they must give up one or the other.""The one who knows best the Father's love will be the best exponent of that love - the best qualified servant for the Father to send on a mission of interest to those who are ignorant of it. Abide in Him. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him' (<a id="verse_1632877386574293" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/John/1/18">John 1:18</a>).""Under the Mosaic law-system, love for others was to be in the degree in which one loved himself; under grace it is to be in the degree in which the Lord Jesus has loved the believer and given His life for him (<a id="verse_1632877386303631" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/1-John/3/16">1 John 3:16</a>)." -L.S.C."Perversion of truth takes its rise from having the eye turned to man, and seeking to make the truth suit him, and not to conform man to the truth; so that the way to resolve this difference is by the simple question, Is it God-ward I am looking, or man-ward?""If you only know the work of the Lord Jesus you are prepared to make sacrifices, but if you know Him as your life then you are ready to suffer for Him.""So then death worketh in us, but life in you" (<a id="verse_1632877386620338" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/2-Corinthians/4/12">2 Cor 4:12</a>).

A 365 day devotional that will help you in your Christian growth and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.  This devotional is a collection of quotes from some of the best authors in the realm of Christian growth that has been organized by Miles J Stanford.  This devotional study is divided into 12 sections each containing 31 daily portions.

None but the Hungry Heart

 Sacrificial Service 

18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

No one has ever seen God,<cr>1</cr> but the one and only Son, who is himself God and<ft>1</ft><cr>2</cr> is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

John 1:18

 18 No one has ever seen God,   but the one and only Son, who is himself God and    is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

From Wikipedia: 

The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English.

The NIV is published by Zondervan in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011 and has become one of the most popular and best-selling modern translations.

OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; additional sources;
NT: UBS Greek New Testament; Novum Testamentum Graece; additional sources;

New International Version

 No one has ever seen God,   but the one and only Son, who is himself God and    is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Bible Verse of the Day

December 24, 2025

John 1:18 NIV

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