John 1:10

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.”

John brings together a concept from previous statements along with a new concept. The previous concept is that the WORD is God who has created everything. This is a summarization of verse 3: “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” In this statement, John is showing that Jesus fully made the world. This phrase is then married with the first phrase to bring a new understanding of God and how He operates.

John introduces a new concept on top of reaffirming the previously introduced concept, which gives us a new look at who Jesus is. John says, the WORD was in the world. This is a concept that completely changes the idea of who God is—which is not the first time this has happened in this first chapter. John is showing that Jesus came into the world and was not just God on high but also God right next to those who have heard about Him all their lives. This is the initial step to understanding the incarnation of Jesus, or God coming into the world in the form of a human in the person of Jesus Christ.

The last phrase in the verse is a sad one. John reveals the response to this, “yet the world did not know Him.” John is making a contrast between the miracle of what happened in the person of Jesus and the response of the world. The Creator of the universe came down into the world and was in the world, yet the world did not know Him. John shows that He was not recognized. He will show later that He was not just unrecognized by those who are far away from Him but also by those who should be the closest to Him.

We as Christians know that Jesus came into the world. We know that the creator God came down and still comes down to meet us where we are, but sometimes we cannot recognize Him. We can be so wrapped up with what we are doing—the plans we have for our lives and the fear of failure—that we do not recognize our plans are not our own. We need to recognize the God who came down to the world and also created the world is the one who is also in charge of our plans. There is a phrase that some people say if: “If Jesus was to come down today, would we recognize Him??” I think this is a phrase that for the most part forgets what Jesus has said about His own second coming, but there is a principle to be understood today. It could be rephrased like this: “If Jesus was calling you to do something today, would you recognize His voice?” How do we even recognize His voice? We know Him the same way we always have, through His words and through prayer. We do not want to be part of the last phrase of this verse; we want to be able to recognize the call of the master, and we do that through the reading of the word and through prayer.

For those who are not saved, John shows here it is completely natural to not recognize Him and His coming. This understanding does not give a pass, though, as the truth is there. He is calling you to come and know Him. Call out to Him because He can hear you. He is not just the God of the air, inhabiting a higher plane we cannot access, He is the God who came down to be with us. You can always accept Him into your life and go against your own knowledge to find His knowledge that will transform your whole life.