Following Jesus 22

Are you like John? 

What was Apostle John like and how may we be like him as we seek to follow Jesus? This is what we seek to explore in the days to come. 

John was a person passionately devoted to biblical love. This is clearly indicated in John’s writings which contain a predominate emphasis on the doctrine of agape love. 

John writes that God is a God of love. (John 5:42; 3:16; 15:10; I John 4:7-11). 

• John 5:41-42 - I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.(John 5:41-42 ESV)

• John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 ESV)

• John 15:10 - If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. (John 15:10 ESV)

• I John 4:7-11 - Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12 ESV)

John also indicates that God the Father loves God the Son (John 10:17; 15:9; 17:23-26).

• John 10:17 - For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. (John 10:17 ESV)

• John 15:9 - As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. (John 15:9 ESV)

• John 17:23-26 - I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:23-26 ESV)

We’ll see next time how much more John has to say about biblical love. Until next time, Soli deo Gloria! 

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