I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 1-3

I love the way the beginning of the Gospel of John contrasts with the three preceding Gospels: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  In his introduction to Jesus’ teachings John spends a lot of time referencing how we need to be born again and born of the Spirit.  He then revisits that in his account of Jesus’ meeting with Nicodemus.  One part of what John tells us hear is easy to miss because we tend to not associate water baptism with washing.  John links baptism with the Holy Spirit with water baptism in order to convey an idea which the other Gospels touch on when Jesus speaks about ritual hand-washing.  We need internal cleansing of our spirits more than we need external cleansing of our bodies.  Even John’s account about Jesus’ clearing the merchant’s out of the Temple relates to John’s theme about spiritual cleansing.