For four hundred years before Jesus came to Earth, God had prepared the then known world to be conquered, ruled and assimilated by the Greeks, under Alexander the Great. The Greek territories absorbed the conquered cultures and developed philosophical principles of government and culture and thought (Socrates, Plato Aristotle). The one overarching thought that encompassed the meaning, wonder and design of an ordered Universe was the concept of the Logos.
It was a belief that Logos was some form of...
For four hundred years before Jesus came to Earth, God had prepared the then known world to be conquered, ruled and assimilated by the Greeks, under Alexander the Great. The Greek territories absorbed the conquered cultures and developed philosophical principles of government and culture and thought (Socrates, Plato Aristotle). The one overarching thought that encompassed the meaning, wonder and design of an ordered Universe was the concept of the Logos.
It was a belief that Logos was some form of intentional idea/principle (abstract?!) that can be seen everywhere; it made up the earth, trees and even us as humans, and logos does not just give everything form; it also gives it order. For humans, this means that logos determines who is who and who is placed where, because logos, the immutable essence of life and underlying master plan for all events, encompasses the entire world and, therefore, constitutes the ideal way to order it. In fact, logos is perpetually working to move the universe forward in the best way possible.
This Stoic philosophical thought meant that even when people went through difficult periods of life, they kept faith that they fitted into the grand plan of logos, since everything that happens is answerable to and ordered by what is right. This word was also the belief system of the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius (contained in those thoughts above).
For the Jewish Nation over that same four hundred year period (called the ‘silent years), after the book of Malachi was written, the last book of the Old Testament, The Jewish people had no Prophets, and no living Word from God. They had the Torah, and other Scriptures, which they endlessly studied and debated.
This was the state of the mindset of that world that Jesus was born into.
So the following Scripture by the Apostle John astonished the then known world, both Jews and Greeks;
John 1:2-5 In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Word (Logos) was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
14. And the Word (Logos) 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.
16. And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law (Torah) was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
To the Greeks the Logos was a powerful concept, as described above; it wasn’t thought of as a person…
To the Jews the Word was the Torah, the Commandments, the Statutes, the Covenant; Words written by God. They immersed themselves in the Word and in this way they were bound to God and his ways. (Psalm 119).
But the Gospel was that LOGOS had arrived, a person, Jesus Christ, born of The Spirit, the living seed of life from above. And Jesus caused us to be bound to God, joined to God through himself, the Logos, the creative fulness of God’s love and wisdom and power for good in the Universe. This was the new seed of life from Heaven which has been planted in us, the fulness of God - born to grow and mature and bear the fruit of God’s ways.
Jesus told them he was Logos as the seed of the word, and he told the Jews he was more than Torah
John 5:38 But you do not have His word (Logos) abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
1Peter 1:23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word (Logos) of God;
We allow, by our conscious faith and thanksgiving, this living Logos to form and shape us, filling our minds and hearts. (John 5:38)
The parable of the sower (Matthew 13) speaks of the growth of that seed, that depends upon the heart response to the logos, and the conscious attention we give to the cultivation of that seed. There are four types of heart responses – disordered mind, distressed heart, materialistic distraction, or hearts of faith in Jesus.
