LEARNING DAILY

John 13:23, The disciple Jesus loved was sitting next to Jesus at the table. (New Living Translation).

“John was volatile, brash, aggressive, passionate, zealous, and personally ambitious – he and James were certainly brothers” (John MacArthur). Yet, John liked to call himself “the disciple Jesus loved”. He was a fisherman, like most of the disciples. As he matured, the area of weakness in his life became his strengths – spending the time he did with Jesus will do that. Every Believer can learn to allow the Lord’s strength to be made perfect in their weaknesses.

John wrote one Gospel, three Epistles, and The Revelation, writing more than any other author of the New Testament, with the exception of Paul. Throughout his writing the emphasis of love is easily seen. From his background the idea of love did not come easily; it was learned from being with the Lord Jesus Christ. Themes found in his writings are a Believer’s love for his/her Lord, Christ’s love for His Church, and love for one another as central to true Believers (MacArthur).

I think a quality I relate to in John is his passion for truth. MacArthur points out in his writing that John used the Greek word for truth forty-five times and for love eighty-five times. The point, according to MacArthur, was balance between the truth and love. MacArthur wrote, “truth without love has no decency; it’s just brutality…love without truth has no character, just hypocrisy…a truly godly person must cultivate both virtues in equal proportions. Paul even wrote about this in Ephesians 4:13-15, where he wrote about speaking the truth in love.

Another aspect of John’s writing is his straightforward, black and white thinking. He deals with certainties such as light versus darkness, life versus death, the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of the devil, children of God versus children of Satan, judgment of the righteous versus the judgment of the wicked, the resurrection of life versus the resurrection of damnation, receiving Christ versus the rejection of Christ, fruit versus unfruitfulness, obedience versus disobedience, love versus hatred (MacArthur).  In 1 John he writes a person is either walking in the light or walking in darkness. He writes that Believers sin; confess it and believe God if faithful (1 John 1:9), making the point that the righteousness and not sin is the dominant principal of the Believer’s life.

 Along with his brother, John learned about how to balance ambition with humility. John and James argued about who would be the greatest in heaven, asking to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus in His kingdom. Jesus rebuked them. MacArthur wrote, “Ambition with the wrong motives is wrong; ambition without humility becomes egotism!” I wonder how many of us today need to understand that! I wonder if we really understand that the kingdom of God is advanced by serving the Lord in humility, not through politics, one’s status, or position of power. It does not seem many in the political realm understand this.

There is one other aspect of John’s life every believer can learn from; I doubt many are going to enjoy reading about it. John learned to suffer. He watched Jesus being beaten. He was the only disciple to witness the crucifixion; he was close enough to the cross for Jesus to see him and give him instructions. He no doubt experienced the pain of each of the other disciples being martyred. He was alone, banished to the island of Patmos where he lived in a cave. I do not remember reading any complaints about what he suffered in any of his writings.

John died around 98 A.D. and had to be carried to the church because of his frail condition.

What would life be like if Believers would “love one another” as John learned from the Lord Jesus Christ! Would doing so be enough to bring revival into a world filled with ambition, self-centeredness, greed and the desire for more and more?