What It’s Not
The Logas of God is the most misunderstood word in the Bible. With utmost respect to the writer of the answer saying “Word” is the written Bible, which writer is solid and knows much about most topics, that is incorrect.
There is no English equivalent to Logas. We have settled on “Word” capitalized. Unfortunately that’s also how we translate “Rhema” which means utterance. Neither is the written word. In my opinion, it would be better if Logas was translated as “Meaning” or “Order”, and if the scriptures were referred to as the words of God, or the Spirit breathed holy scriptures. Austrian theologian Theodor Haeker said every language has a “heart word” that is untranslatable (English: sense, French: raison, Latin: res - ~thing or real, German: Wes - ~essence), and it’s Logos for Greek. It’s rich in significance.
The Logos of God, the Word, is so much more.
The Logos is most certainly not “The Bible”. The bible never once refers to itself as “the Word of God”, and the Logos doesn’t exactly mean “word”. So calling the bible “the Word of God” (depending upon what is meant) may lead us into two errors.
God’s Word as described in the bible, which is rather God’s Logos, God’s methods, God’s order, God’s Way, which is God. It is so unfortunate this is missed, because the Word, the living Word, the very order and Logos of the universe and life, is what is meant.
Greek Philosophy
The Logos is the aspect of God that orders the universe. This includes the laws of physics, the Love and Truth that makes beings possible, order, the moral law, etc. There is no English word that comes close. It had been discussed for centuries by Greek philosophers, including whether to break it into the fundamental rules that govern the spiritual and the laws that govern the physical. In particular, they debated the relationship between God and the logos. They theorized that God first created the Logos (such as the laws of physics if we are talking about the physical creation) and then used the Logos to create everything else. Another Greek proposal was that the Logos is inherent in anything existing, in existence, is part of what it means to exist, and God operated through it. They never considered the possibility that The Logos is God, nor even that It is an aspect of God. This all changed when they heard John say, and then write, “The Logos was with God, and The Logos was God.” They also never considered the possibility that It is actually a Him, a person. To put it mildly, they were impressed. All this is missed by the trite translation “word”. Some who have studied the bible for long begin to know that there’s so much to the word, but just leaving it Logos would have helped them as well.
This then allowed statements such as, “God is Love.” Even now that is hard for many to wrap their heads around, but the concept did not even exist before Jesus, who was The Logos incarnate. He said, “I am the life, the truth, and the way.” It can even be, and has been, argued that when Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except by me.” that He meant, “No one can get to God except by knowing and going through the Logos, which is God.” or depending upon one’s metaphysics, “The only way to God is through His logos aspect, which is speaking now through this incarnation as ‘Me’.” This may mean people who worship the Logos aspect of the triune God by another name can be saved, but even if that’s true: for a Westerner, using another name is not going to be real; he better just worship and get to know Jesus Christ, by name. For a Westerner, any arrogant attempt to deny Christ will necessarily be an attempt to deny the Logos of God. Some would say this distinguishes the Logas, from the Christ, from Jesus, that The Logas took on a body. And some would not; they would identify Jesus with Him.
Clarity
So the problem is not so much people adding value to the Bible (a good thing) by calling it The Word, but missing out on the Logos (a not so good thing). Too many hear “The Logos of God is simply this book, so don’t bother worshipping and understanding the Logos any more than just endlessly studying and debating this particular book.” Christ is Lord, and Jesus was the Logos incarnate. That’s a living reality, not a book, even if that book is about said reality. An encounter with, meditation on, relationship with, or direct spiritual knowing of the Logos is far different than even extensive book knowledge about It. If someone says, “study the word”, we can safely assume they are missing out on what “The Word” is. If they mean the bible, which they do, well that bible never says it is the word. This also has caused many theologians and philosophers (Aquinas is an exemplar) to bring much of Aristotle into Christianity, such as the statement, “logos is, in John, the primary conceptual means of connection between Greek philosophy and Christian doctrine.” And accepting Philo’s comment that the logos is “inscribed and engraved upon the constitution of all things”
To repeat: Nowhere does the Bible refer to the Bible as the Rhema of God (life quickened word, utterance) or Logas of God (Order and meaning). Nowhere does the Bible say it is “The Word”. It is the inerrant words of God.
One can have knowledge of and know everything there is to know about the life of another person without knowing them. Knowing about God is not knowing God. They’re both good, but one is better.
I even heard John MacArthur once say a preacher told him, “I went through Bible college and studying this book and preached here at this church for ten years, and knew all about Christ, and didn’t know Him, until last month when I came to Him and He came to me. I am saved.”
37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word [Logos] dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (John 5 NIV)