John 1:4 : In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

According to John, there was clearly something different about Jesus. He had life in Him. It is true that when we are born we have life, but why do we automatically search for more? Something inside of us longs for more than what we get when we are born. We don’t feel like we are really living to the extent that we want to be living.

John was a witness to the fact that Jesus was really living, but there is another important aspect to this. This life had the properties of light to mankind. This is just full of meaning, most of it I don’t think I fully appreciate yet. Up to this point we have been talking about Jesus and His work during creation. It is very interesting, that the first thing that God created (other than the earth and the heavens) was light.

Light in the physical realm makes it easy to see where you are and where you are going physically. It makes sense then that light in the spiritual realm makes it easy for you to see where you are and where you are going spiritually.

Since John was clearly talking about life inside, the light he was talking about is logically an inner light or a spiritual one. Now light has a positive quality that is obvious. When the light is on you can clearly see things. This allows you to avoid problems and move quickly to places you want to go. But light also can seem like a bad thing; when you are trying to hide, darkness is preferred. When a person is ready to go into the light for its benefits and is ready to stop hiding, the light is clearly the best choice.

The life of Jesus was a light to men and not all men appreciated that fact. We will learn more about that as we move through this book.