The Good Word

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  John 1:1

Some television personalities were talking one day about how some words and phrases are overused.  They are called “buzz” words or phrases which practically take on a life of their own because they are repeated over and over by one news commentator after another.  It’s almost like they are all reading from the same script.  One of the phrases that is overused is “breaking news”.  Sometimes, though, what they describe as “breaking news”, I read on the internet a couple of days prior so it is really old news.

Society also overuses phrases such as “awesome”, “just saying”, “totally”, “my bad”, and many others.  When folks start a conversation with “honestly”, it’s as if they want to assure their listeners that they are telling the truth and not lying!  However, don’t we naturally expect folks to tell us the truth?  And then there are the manufacturers that label their products with “new and improved”.  Are they telling us that their product was not all that great to start with?  By the way, “great” is also overused according to the folks who are in charge of determining what words are overused.  So is “by the way”.

I remember in high school, we had our favorite phrases.  The one that I actually (another overused word) can recall is “count on it”.  It eventually was shortened to “C.O.”  Nowadays, kids have their own text language using initials for phrases, but we were already doing that in the dark ages before we had cell phones.  When I worked at the nearby Air Force Base, a co-worker came up with a phrase that we all began to use.  Every time someone would make a comment about anything, someone would say, “Who cares?” and then we would all laugh.  You had to be there to appreciate the humor in that one.

The Bible has many words and phrases that are so familiar to us, but these words and phrases can never be overused because they are the words of life.  Some of the greatest phrases in scripture are “In the beginning God…”(Genesis 1:1), “The LORD is my shepherd”(Psalm 23:1), “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart”(Proverbs 3:5), “Fear not”(numerous verses), “For unto you is born this day a Savior”(Luke 2:11), and probably the most quoted phrase “For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”(John 3:16).

Today’s verse tells us that Jesus is the Word of God.  Everything written in scripture points to Christ.  Webster’s Dictionary tells us that the term “word” is an “affirmation, an assurance, and a promise”.  Jesus as the Word affirms His deity, assures us of His love for us, and promises eternal life to all who repent and believe on Him.  And that’s the good news, the good Word of the gospel which never gets old or out-of-date.