What is the Logos?

Apart from our texts, φωνη is the more general of the three, meaning not only any articulate sound of man, but sound in general; while ῥημα and λογος way be distinguished as meaning a word and speech respectively; the latter also often meaning the reason which guides the speech, or the subject matter which speech is concerned about. Of course, ὁ λογος in John is peculiar, not only an impersonation, but a person — that blessed One who in the beginning was with God and was God, the only true and adequate expression of God, whether in grace (John 1) or in judgment (Rev. 19).

In the beginning was the Word, in Greek, Logos. Logos is the intelligence, and the intelligible-reason, the thing thought. Logos is the mind of God expressed, the expression of what God is. This Christ was on earth, the Logos.

In the Gospel by John the Spirit of God opens out to us the glories of the Word. As the Word, He is the universal Representative of all the mind and thoughts and ways of God, both in His own Person and by means of what He says and does. If at any time any revelation required, or requires, to be given of God's thoughts and plans and will, the revealing thereof took place, or will take place, through Him. We are to think of Him as the One adequate, and He alone, to fully disclose all that is in the mind of God, and to bring into being all that the mind of God has planned.

As to the meaning of the term, "the WORD," it brings before us the fact that "He is, and He is the expression of the whole mind that subsists in God." All that God is, is therefore revealed in Him; and hence it was said, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." (v. 18.) Only here, He who was the Word is spoken of as the only begotten Son. As the Word He is, and He is the expression of the whole mind of God; but as the Son, the eternal Son, He is, in incarnation, the revealer of the Father.

Logos was the word that was used by the philosopher, Heraclitis (500 B.C.) in his search after God. He saw everything in nature in a state of flux, change, disintegration in everything. Spring always followed by autumn, the budding leaf by the falling leaf, maturity followed by decay, whether in trees, or with men, or even, as we know, with the vast sun itself in the heavens. It may shine for millions of years, but it is burning itself out. Heraclitis observing this flux in nature decided in his mind there must be some permanent force, some fixed source from whence all flowed. This principle he frequently called Logos, twice at least he used the word, GOD.

The Stoics, a school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium about B.C. 280, coined a word in their search after this universal principle from which everything in nature flows. They used the two word. “logos spematikos,” to express their meaning, that there was some principle with the power of life and universal begetting. But it remained for the fisherman John, the beloved Apostle of the Lord, by the INSPIRATION of the Holy Spirit, not by his own searching, to take up the designation of the word, Logos, and apply it to our Lord. The word may have been, and was, in common and ordinary usage among the Greeks, but the Spirit of God used it in an authoritative way as applied to our Lord. What was the meaning of this choice? The Spirit of God did not employ the word, rhema, the word for speech without connecting thought, but the word Logos, setting forth the idea of thought expressed in speech.

The Greek word used is “Logos.” There is another word, “Rhema,” and this is confined to the actual word. Take the case of a parrot. It can pronounce words, but has no idea of what the words convey. There is no thought behind the words. “Logos” means the expression of thought in words. You cannot dissociate the thought from the word here since “Logos” is the word which is given to us in this chapter.

The words have been thus distinguished; logos is the deeper, fuller word; it is the revelation of what is in God, in His nature and character — His love, His ways — in short, all that He communicates; rhema is the actual communication. logos (from lego, "to speak") is that which is known in the mind, and known by expressing it. I cannot think without having a thought, and logos is used for that, and the expression of it: it is the matter and form of thought and expression, as well as the expression of it. It is a word so large in sense as to be very hard to express; rhema is the actual utterance.

If this distinction be borne in mind, the following passages will be the better apprehended. For logos, Matt. 13:19; Mark 14:39, "word" not words (compared with Matt. 26:44); Mark 7:13; Mark 16:20 Luke 1:2; Acts 4:31; 6:4. Rom. 9:6 Heb. 4:12; Heb. 6:1; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23. And it will be understood how characteristic logos is of John's writings: John 1:1, 14; John 5:24, 38; John 8:31, 37, 43; and in verses 51, 52, and 55 (where it is the same "word" instead of "saying," as in the A.V.); John 10:35; John 14:23-24 ("word" and "words," not "words" and "sayings," as the A.V.); John 15:3, 20; John 17:6, 14, 17; 1 John 1:1.

C.C. — Yes; I believe so. The best definition that I have seen is that given by G.V.Wigram: “A word is an idea and the expression of it.” Now apply that definition to the term the “Logos” in John 1:1-2. It is the title of the second Person of the Trinity. In the beginning was the Word. He existed eternally as the idea and expression of Deity. Being that, He was the Expressor of the mind and will of God.

In order to communicate our thoughts accurately we need to use words. While the Lord Jesus spoke the words of God (Greek ῥῆμα: John 3:34) He is revealed to us as the Word (Greek λόγος). As such He makes known not just some of God’s thoughts but the whole mind of God. Did He not do so, God’s mind and thoughts would forever remain beyond the reach of our knowledge (Isa. 55:9).

The word “Logos” is the Greek word for “Word”—the Word is a title of the Lord Jesus as the One, who fully expresses and reveals God to men. Note in this extract Judge Rutherford spells “god” as applying to the Lord Jesus with a small letter, meaning that He was “a mighty one,” but only human.