John 1:3

All things. A common philosophical phrase denoting the entire universe (see 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16; cf. Heb. 1:1,2; see on John 1:9).

Were made. Gr. ginomai, “became,” “came into being,” “came to be” (see on v. 1). John describes creation as a completed act. Material things are not eternal; there was a time when they “were made.”

By him. John was not thinking of the Logos, or “Word,” in the abstract, metaphysical sense of Greek philosophy. The association of Christ with the Father in the work of creation is set forth again and again in the NT (see Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16, 17; Heb. 1:1,2; cf. Rev. 3:14). Here John presents Christ as the Creator of all things, as in John 1:14 he sets Him forth as the agent of divine mercy and grace for the restoration, or re-creation, of all things. In eternity past the Word was not a passive, inactive entity, but was actively and intimately associated with the Father in the development and administration of “all things.”

Without him. The same truth stated negatively. Uniquely and exclusively, the “Word” is Creator.