John chapter 1 verse 1 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

We know that John is talking about Jesus Christ, he is the Word of God. But what exactly does that mean? We also know that he is not confined to the pages of a book, or an iPad or iPhone or whatever you use as your Bible. So what does it mean when we say that Jesus is the Word of God?

My second question, actually two questions, before we answer the first one, is “If God has a Word and we are created in the image do God, do we have a word?” and “If God’s word is Jesus, what is ours?”.

Ok, so when we talk about the word of God we’re not talking about a book, we’re talking about a person and what that person represents but to understand what is meant when Jesus is called the Word we have to dig into the Greek meaning. The Greek word for “word”, as it’s used in John 1:1 is logos, logos is a very interesting word and used several different ways because of its meaning, which is – something spoken, a reasoning, a computation or accounting, the sum total of ideas.

Logos has the meaning of the full expression of thought, something that has been carefully considered and expressed to convey everything that needs to be said about the subject. So, when we say that Jesus is the Word of God, we’re saying that he is God’s complete expression. Everything that he wanted to convey to us about himself and his nature he expressed through his son, Jesus Christ!

When Phillip desired to see the Father Jesus answered him “Have I been with you so long , and yet you have not known Me , Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) Jesus himself knew that he was the exact representation of God the Father and that if there’s something we want to know about God we have to look no farther than Jesus.

Now on to my second question, if we are made in the image of God, do we have a word or logos? The answer is yes, we have a logos but I’m afraid that our’s hasn’t been as carefully considered and expressed as God’s has.

To prove this I’ll take you to a portion of scripture that used to scare the crap out of me until the Lord gave me some insight into what it really means.

Matthew 12:36-37
But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Wow! Talk about putting a load on you, for every word that comes out of our mouth, we are going to have to stand in front of God and explain the things we said! I would be better off if I was mute because I’m sure there are things I’ve said that God is not going to be proud of and I’m sure I won’t be proud of either. This verse is even in red, Jesus said it so it has to be true! (There is a little sarcasm in that last sentence because I believe all the Bible is true, not just the words in red.)

So, if Jesus says we’ll be judged by our words, what does that mean and how does it fit with what we’re discussing? It all comes back to the Greek meaning and the English translation. To start with we have two Greek words for our one English word for “word” and we have two English words that are translated differently from the same Greek word. Confused? Hopefully you wont be in a minute.

Remember that I said that the Greek the word translated as “word” is logos. Well, in this passage we are introduced to the other Greek word for “word” and that is rhema. Rhema has a little different meaning than logos and that makes a lot of difference here. Rhema means something spoken but it is more focused than logos, rhema is a specific subject or topic, it is a word for the moment.

Here is a simple little illustration that may help.

The Bible is the word of God, from cover to cover it contains everything he wanted to say to us. That’s logos!

John 3:16 tells us why he sent Jesus to us. That’s rhema!

In Matt.12:36 Jesus says “for every idle word”, ok, this time it’s rhema, not logos, so he is talking about a word of the moment. On top of that he narrows it down even more by saying every “idle” word. This little addition of an adjective changes your understanding of what he is really saying.

When I hear the phrase “idle word” I think of things we say nonchalantly or casually, just joking around or even as a reaction, like if you mash your finger and a little cuss word slips out. That’s why this verse used to bother me so much because I’m not always as careful with my words as I should be. I found it unfair to be judged eternally for words I put little thought into but that is not what Jesus is talking about here. Do we need to guard our tongue and be more intentional in what we say? Absolutely! But Jesus has something totally different in mind when he says that for every idle word we speak we will give account at judgement day.

It comes back to the word “idle”. To me, when I think of idle I think of just sitting around, doing nothing or a car that’s running but not in gear. So, an idle word is one that is produced out of a mind that is not engaged, it’s said without much thought and therefore carries little meaning or weight, there’s not really any purpose behind it.

That’s really not the meaning behind the Greek word, it has more to do with what idleness produces than the state of being idle itself. Think about what comes from idleness……….. that’s right, nothing! Idleness is unproductive, it causes barrenness. If someone is idle they are going nowhere and the potential that lies within them remains untapped, unrecognized and useless. So an idle word is one that causes barrenness, unfruitfulness and a person’s potential to go unrealized.

If the two words are combined, like we have here, an “idle word” becomes a specific word spoken that’s purpose is the bring about barrenness. The word itself isn’t idle, in fact, just the opposite. When the word is spoken it begins to produce unfruitfulness in the person it was said to.

Here are a few of examples of idle words.

“You’ll never amount to anything.”

“You’re so stupid!”

“Can’t you do anything right?”

Get the picture? These are the things that we say that cause others to feel unwanted, unloved and worthless. Some people would call these “word curses”. This type of comment attaches itself to the person’s perception of themselves and causes them to pull back, to retreat into a safe area where they refuse to attempt anything for fear of failure. Failure becomes the enemy to avoid at all costs so productivity and creativity are abandoned and replaced with something that is comfortable and safe, where success is virtually assured or they won’t even try. When repeated often enough, for some it crushes completely and they never recover.

That’s the kind of idle word Jesus is referring to, those are the type of things that we need to guard against at all cost. When we say things that are intentionally hurtful, degrading or embarrassing to others, those are the type of things we will be judged for. Those are the things for which we will have to give an account. Which brings me back to our word logos.

My second question was “Do we have a logos?” and this is where we find that yes, we do have a logos! We just finished finding out that we will have to give an account for idle words and when you dig a little deeper you find that the word “account” here is actually logos. When we go before God at the judgement we will present our ‘word’ or our logos. Jesus then says “for by your ‘logos’ you will be justified and by your ‘logos’ you will be condemned.”

Since logos is the complete expression it is made up of our rhema, our words for the moment or circumstance. I honestly don’t believe that the Father is going to bring up every unkind thing we have ever said, although that is a part of our logos. I believe that God is looking specifically for what we have said about his son Jesus. If we have confessed Jesus as our Lord and Savior, if we have said that we believe in his death, burial and resurrection, then we are under the blood of Jesus and the rest of our logos is covered by the forgiveness that he paid for. If our logos contains the right confession of Christ we will be justified!

On the other hand, if our logos does not contain a confession of Jesus, then all those hurtful words will count against us because there is no forgiveness outside of the blood of Jesus Christ. If that is the condition of our logos on judgement day then we will be condemned.

I hope I have answered my own questions in a way that makes sense and since we do have a ‘word’, as God does, we need to be more intentional about what makes up that word. Especially when it comes to what we have to say about Jesus but we also need to make sure that it doesn’t contain “idle words”, our complete expression shouldn’t be one that causes others to become unfruitful. On the contrary, we should have “zoe rhema”!
Words of life, that make up the bulk of our logos.

Blessings!

Jeff Martin