New Testament in a Year
The Word Becomes Human
1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was already with God in the beginning.
3 Everything came into existence through him. Not one thing that exists was made without him.
4 He was the source of life, and that life was the light for humanity.
5 The light shines in the dark, and the dark has never extinguished it.
6 God sent a man named John to be his messenger. 7 John came to declare the truth about the light so that everyone would become believers through his message. 8 John was not the light, but he came to declare the truth about the light.
9 The real light, which shines on everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into existence through him. Yet, the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He went to his own people, and his own people didn’t accept him. 12 However, he gave the right to become God’s children to everyone who believed in him. 13 These 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.
14 The 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 [a] and 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.’ ”)
16 Each of us has received one gift after another because of all that the Word is. 17 Laws were given through Moses, but kindness and truth came into existence through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. God’s only Son, the one who is closest to the Father’s heart, has made him known.
John Prepares the Way(A)
19 This was John’s answer when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 John didn’t refuse to answer. He told them clearly, “I’m not the Messiah.”
21 They asked him, “Well, are you Elijah?”
John answered, “No, I’m not.”
Then they asked, “Are you the prophet?”
John replied, “No.”
22 So they asked him, “Who are you? Tell us so that we can take an answer back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 John said, “I’m a voice crying out in the desert, ‘Make the way for the Lord straight,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24 Some of those who had been sent were Pharisees. 25 They asked John, “Why do you baptize if you’re not the Messiah or Elijah or the prophet?”
26 John answered them, “I baptize with water. Someone you don’t know is standing among you. 27 He’s the one who comes after me. I am not worthy to untie his sandal strap.”
28 This happened in Bethany on the east side of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing.
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