In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.
4. In him was life. Hitherto he has taught us, that by the Speech of God all things were created. He now attributes to him, in the same manner, the preservation of those things which had been created, as if he had said, that in the creation of the world there was not merely displayed a sudden exercise of his power, which soon passed away...
These opening verses declare plainly that Jesus Christ is God, one with the Father. Word means the Son who reveals the Father; it is not a philosophical abstraction but the announcement that life, light, and divinity dwell in Christ, worthy of the deepest wonder and devotion.
AI summary
Commenting on John 1:1-5
In him was life,.... The Persic version reads in the plural number, "lives". There was life in the word with respect to himself; a divine life, the same with the life of the Father and of the Spirit; and is in him, not by gift, nor by derivation or communication; but originally, and independently, and from all eternity: indeed he lived before his incarnation as Mediator, and Redeemer.