The Beloved John

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

John was a member of the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples, joining James, his brother, and Peter.  John was the closest to Jesus of the three. He was “the disciple whom Jesus loved” [John 19:26]. Sure, Jesus loved them all, but there seemed to be a special bond between Jesus and John.  

John was enthralled with the undeserved love of God for the whole world. It was he who wrote the passage that Martin Luther called the gospel in a nutshell, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life" [John 3:16]. 

In love, God sent His Son from heaven to ransom those lost in a sin-sick world. In John, Jesus found a heart of love. Listen to these powerful exhortations of love; “We love because He first loved us” [1 John 4:19] … “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” [1 John 3:11].

While the other disciples scattered in fear when Jesus was arrested and sent to the high priest, John followed and stayed with his Lord to the bitter end. He was at the foot of the cross, close to Jesus while He was in agony. John loved Jesus so much, he remained loyal to the Lord, even as Jesus faced death.  

Like the other apostles, we are sometimes just not there when the Redeemer of the world has work for us to do.  Sometimes we're not close enough to the Savior to even know what His will is for us. What we need to do is what John did. We need to come to the foot of the cross and gaze at the One who shed his innocent blood on our behalf - the blood that frees us from sin and death. 

In His blood we find freedom — not to be free from Him, but to freely serve the one who loved us so much. We are like John; we are disciples whom Jesus loves!

Now the names of the twelve apostles are these … John … Matthew 10:2