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.

John Identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God

²⁹ John saw Jesus coming toward him the next day and said, “Look! This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. ³⁰ He is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘A man who comes after me was before me because he existed before I did.’ ³¹ I didn’t know who he was. However, I came to baptize with water to show him to the people of Israel.”

³² John said, “I saw the Spirit come down as a dove from heaven and stay on him. ³³ I didn’t know who he was. But God, who sent me to baptize with water, had told me, ‘When you see the Spirit come down and stay on someone, you’ll know that person is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ I have seen this and have declared that this is the Son of God.”

Calling of the First Disciples

³⁵ The next day John was standing with two of his disciples. ³⁶ John saw Jesus walk by. John said, “Look! This is the Lamb of God.” ³⁷ When the two disciples heard John say this, they followed Jesus.

³⁸ Jesus turned around and saw them following him. He asked them, “What are you looking for?”

They said to him, “Rabbi” (which means “teacher”), “where are you staying?”

³⁹ Jesus told them, “Come, and you will see.” So they went to see where he was staying and spent the rest of that day with him. It was about ten o’clock in the morning.

⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two disciples who heard John and followed Jesus. ⁴¹ Andrew at once found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means “Christ”). ⁴² Andrew brought Simon to Jesus.

Jesus looked at Simon and said, “You are Simon, son of John. Your name will be Cephas” (which means “Peter”).

⁴³ The next day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee. He found Philip and told him, “Follow me!” ⁴⁴ (Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter.)

⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the man whom Moses wrote about in his teachings and whom the prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, son of Joseph, from the city of Nazareth.”

⁴⁶ Nathanael said to Philip, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Philip told him, “Come and see!”

⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and remarked, “Here is a true Israelite who is sincere.”

⁴⁸ Nathanael asked Jesus, “How do you know anything about me?”

Jesus answered him, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

⁴⁹ Nathanael said to Jesus, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the king of Israel!”

⁵⁰ Jesus replied, “You believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” ⁵¹ Jesus said to Nathanael, “I can guarantee this truth: You will see the sky open and God’s angels going up and coming down to the Son of Man.”

A Conversation with Nicodemus

3 Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish council. ² He came to Jesus one night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that God has sent you as a teacher. No one can perform the miracles you perform unless God is with him.”

³ Jesus replied to Nicodemus, “I can guarantee this truth: No one can see God’s kingdom without being born from above.” ^[a]

⁴ Nicodemus asked him, “How can anyone be born when he’s an old man? He can’t go back inside his mother a second time to be born, can he?”

⁵ Jesus answered Nicodemus, “I can guarantee this truth: No one can enter God’s kingdom without being born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh and blood give birth to flesh and blood, but the Spirit gives birth to things that are spiritual. ⁷ Don’t be surprised when I tell you that all of you must be born from above. ⁸ The wind ^[b] blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it’s going. That’s the way it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus replied, “How can that be?”

¹⁰ Jesus told Nicodemus, “You’re a well-known teacher of Israel. Can’t you understand this? ¹¹ I can guarantee this truth: We know what we’re talking about, and we confirm what we’ve seen. Yet, you don’t accept our message. ¹² If you don’t believe me when I tell you about things on earth, how will you believe me when I tell you about things in heaven? ¹³ No one has gone to heaven except the Son of Man, who came from heaven.

¹⁴ “As Moses lifted up the snake ⌞on a pole⌟ in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. ¹⁵ Then everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”

¹⁶ God loved the world this way: He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life. ¹⁷ God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world. ¹⁸ Those who believe in him won’t be condemned. But those who don’t believe are already condemned because they don’t believe in God’s only Son.

¹⁹ This is why people are condemned: The light came into the world. Yet, people loved the dark rather than the light because their actions were evil. ²⁰ People who do what is wrong hate the light and don’t come to the light. They don’t want their actions to be exposed. ²¹ But people who do what is true come to the light so that the things they do for God may be clearly seen.

John the Baptizer Talks about Christ

²² Later, Jesus and his disciples went to the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them and baptized people. ²³ John was baptizing in Aenon, near Salim. Water was plentiful there. (People came to John to be baptized, ²⁴ since John had not yet been put in prison.)

²⁵ Some of John’s disciples had an argument with a Jew about purification ceremonies. ²⁶ So they went to John and asked him, “Rabbi, do you remember the man you spoke so favorably about when he was with you on the other side of the Jordan River? Well, he’s baptizing, and everyone is going to him!”

²⁷ John answered, “People can’t receive anything unless it has been given to them from heaven. ²⁸ You are witnesses that I said, ‘I’m not the Messiah, but I’ve been sent ahead of him.’

²⁹ “The groom is the person to whom the bride belongs. The best man, who stands and listens to him, is overjoyed when the groom speaks. This is the joy that I feel. ³⁰ He must increase in importance, while I must decrease in importance.

³¹ “The person who comes from above is superior to everyone. I, a person from the earth, know nothing but what is on earth, and that’s all I can talk about. The person who comes from heaven is superior to everyone ³² and tells what he has seen and heard. Yet, no one accepts what he says. ³³ I have accepted what that person said, and I have affirmed that God is truthful. ³⁴ The man whom God has sent speaks God’s message. After all, God gives him the Spirit without limit. ³⁵ The Father loves his Son and has put everything in his power. ³⁶ Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, he will see God’s constant anger.”

A Samaritan Woman Meets Jesus at a Well

4 Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was making and baptizing more disciples than John. ² (Actually, Jesus was not baptizing people. His disciples were.) ³ So he left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.

⁴ Jesus had to go through Samaria. ⁵ He arrived at a city in Samaria called Sychar. Sychar was near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s Well was there. Jesus sat down by the well because he was tired from traveling. The time was about noon.

⁷ A Samaritan woman went to get some water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the city to buy some food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman asked him, “How can a Jewish man like you ask a Samaritan woman like me for a drink of water?” (Jews, of course, don’t associate with Samaritans.)

¹⁰ Jesus replied to her, “If you only knew what God’s gift is and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink. He would have given you living water.”

¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have anything to use to get water, and the well is deep. So where are you going to get this living water? ¹² You’re not more important than our ancestor Jacob, are you? He gave us this well. He and his sons and his animals drank water from it.”

¹³ Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again. ¹⁴ But those who drink the water that I will give them will never become thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give them will become in them a spring that gushes up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman told Jesus, “Sir, give me this water! Then I won’t get thirsty or have to come here to get water.”

¹⁶ Jesus told her, “Go to your husband, and bring him here.”

¹⁷ The woman replied, “I don’t have a husband.”

Jesus told her, “You’re right when you say that you don’t have a husband. ¹⁸ You’ve had five husbands, and the man you have now isn’t your husband. You’ve told the truth.”

¹⁹ The woman said to Jesus, “I see that you’re a prophet! ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews say that people must worship in Jerusalem.”

²¹ Jesus told her, “Believe me. A time is coming when you Samaritans won’t be worshiping the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. ²² You don’t know what you’re worshiping. We ⌞Jews⌟ know what we’re worshiping, because salvation comes from the Jews. ²³ Indeed, the time is coming, and it is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is looking for people like that to worship him. ²⁴ God is a spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will tell us everything.” (Messiah is the one called Christ.)

²⁶ Jesus told her, “I am he, and I am speaking to you now.”

²⁷ At that time his disciples returned. They were surprised that he was talking to a woman. But none of them asked him, “What do you want from her?” or “Why are you talking to her?”

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar and went back into the city. She told the people, ²⁹ “Come with me, and meet a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could he be the Messiah?” ³⁰ The people left the city and went to meet Jesus.

³¹ Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, have something to eat.”

³² Jesus told them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

³³ The disciples asked each other, “Did someone bring him something to eat?”

³⁴ Jesus told them, “My food is to do what the one who sent me wants me to do and to finish the work he has given me.

³⁵ “Don’t you say, ‘In four more months the harvest will be here’? I’m telling you to look and see that the fields are ready to be harvested. ³⁶ The person who harvests the crop is already getting paid. He is gathering grain for eternal life. So the person who plants the grain and the person who harvests it are happy together. ³⁷ In this respect the saying is true: ‘One person plants, and another person harvests.’ ³⁸ I have sent you to harvest a crop you have not worked for. Other people have done the hard work, and you have followed them in their work.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans in that city believed in Jesus because of the woman who said, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans went to Jesus, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed in Samaria for two days. ⁴¹ Many more Samaritans believed because of what Jesus said. ⁴² They told the woman, “Our faith is no longer based on what you’ve said. We have heard him ourselves, and we know that he really is the savior of the world.”

A Believing Official^(A)

⁴³ After spending two days in Samaria, Jesus left for Galilee. ⁴⁴ Jesus had said that a prophet is not honored in his own country. ⁴⁵ But when Jesus arrived in Galilee, the people of Galilee welcomed him. They had seen everything he had done at the festival in Jerusalem, since they, too, had attended the festival.

⁴⁶ Jesus returned to the city of Cana in Galilee, where he had changed water into wine. A government official was in Cana. His son was sick in Capernaum. ⁴⁷ The official heard that Jesus had returned from Judea to Galilee. So he went to Jesus and asked him to go to Capernaum with him to heal his son who was about to die.

⁴⁸ Jesus told the official, “If people don’t see miracles and amazing things, they won’t believe.”

⁴⁹ The official said to him, “Sir, come with me before my little boy dies.”

⁵⁰ Jesus told him, “Go home. Your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus told him and left.

⁵¹ While the official was on his way to Capernaum, his servants met him and told him that his boy was alive. ⁵² The official asked them at what time his son got better. His servants told him, “The fever left him yesterday evening at seven o’clock.” ⁵³ Then the boy’s father realized that it was the same time that Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So the official and his entire family became believers.

⁵⁴ This was the second miracle that Jesus performed after he had come back from Judea to Galilee.