From the Epistles of John: Is your joy complete?

 Good day

We are busy with a series discussing the Epistles of John. We know that John was the disciple whom Jesus loved. But John was also one of the two brothers who asked Jesus whether they can sit on His right and His left in His kingdom (Mark10:35-45). They didn’t understand at the time that Jesus didn’t come as a physical saviour to literally redeem Israel from the Roman occupation. But I think Jesus actually liked them for asking that, just as God liked Jacob for wanting what He had for him and rejected Esau for despising God’s gift (Hebrews12:16-17, Malachi1:2-3). Even though Jacob seemed dishonest in the way he got hold of the birthright, he did get it through a legitimate business deal. It was Esau, who disregarded his birthright, who displeased the Lord. Although Jacob seemed dishonest when he deceived Isaac, he was doing the right thing, for he had been the rightful firstborn at that moment. The Lord loved his heart which was eager to have what God had for him and as a result blessed him abundantly for it.

In the same way, Jesus loved James and John’s desire to be in His inner circle, even though it seemed obnoxious to the others at the time. John, James, Peter, and sometimes Andrew were in fact Jesus’ inner circle of disciples. He took only them onto the mountain of transfiguration, into the room when he raised Jairus’ daughter to life, with Him when He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, and discussed the end times with them only.

The above were some interesting revelations I received about John, the writer of the epistles, which I thought you might like to know.

Right, let’s see what we can learn from the first epistle of John. We are now at chapter one verse three.

 ^“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.
And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our (or ‘your’ in some manuscripts) joy complete,” (1 John 1:3-4).

We have learned in the previous post that John and the other disciples had the privilege to experience firsthand this magnificent, eternal person, Jesus, who is eternal life. They saw Him, heard Him, touched Him, had fun with Him, and so on. And now John, the one who had been closest to Jesus, said he wanted the reader to have fellowship with them whilst they have fellowship with the Father and with Jesus Christ. It’s almost like electricity flowing through a wire. You pick the anointing up from John who received it from the Father and Jesus.

Shouldn’t this be a dream for each of us? Your fellowship with Jesus and Father God should shine so much from you that people around you would like to have fellowship with you, just to experience God through you. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Jesus said that you are the light. You have no choice in it. Your light shines regardless. You cannot switch it on and off. The closer your fellowship with the Lord is, the brighter your light shines and the more people are drawn to you, and when they realise that you have been in close fellowship with the Lord, they will glorify the Father!

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus,” (Acts 4:13). Would people be able to say this of you? Is your relationship with the Lord of such a nature that people see the love, the peace, the joy, the patience, the kindness, the faithfulness, the gentleness, the self-control, and the good works, and then realise the Father had something to do with it and glorify Him? This will bring you ultimate joy, make your joy complete. This is all we need in life, but Satan knows it and therefore suggests all kinds of distractions all the time, stealing your joy. Why don’t you deepen your fellowship with the Lord so your joy may be complete?

From the Epistles of John: How do you experience Jesus?

Good morning

I haven’t posted on my blog for a while but felt led to start a blog series looking a little deeper into the epistle of John. John is known as the disciple whom Jesus loved and he obviously loved Jesus as well. He was so close to Jesus that the other disciples used him as a mediator between them and Jesus.

We know that there are different kinds of love. One gets friendship love, which is the love you’ll find between friends, erotic love like

the love you’ll find between lovers, and agape love as the kind of love the Lord prescribed for believers to have (1 Corinthians 13:4-6, Galatians 5:22-23). I, however, believe that there is a deeper friendship love, which is like the kind of love between lovers without the erotic aspect to it. It’s kind of a mixture between the three kinds of love without the erotic aspect.

Friendship love would say “I care about you, but I doubt if I would lay my life down for you”, erotic love would say “I would lay down my life for you, but it’s important to have physical intimacy as part of it”, and agape love is more of an action than it’s a feeling – the kind of love you don’t necessarily feel, but do. That is why it’s possible to love your enemies – you don’t need to feel love for them or to like them – you just do good things for them.

The kind of love I’m referring to is a deep intimate feeling and caring between friends without the erotic aspect of it. It’s the “I’d lay my life down for you” kind of love where you really get to know one another intimately and have deep passionate feelings for one another. This love can be between individuals of any sex.

This is the kind of love John had for Jesus. As I read the gospels, I sensed that the other disciples had a more friendship kind of love for Jesus. Because John was so intimately in love with Jesus, he would obviously have spent more intimate time with Jesus, knowing Jesus on a deeper level than anybody else. I can imagine that, when they were together socially, the others would chat about all the kinds of things people talk about when having dinner or a barbeque together, but John would probably have been in Jesus’ company all the time, exchanging deep, heartfelt information. This comes out very clearly in John’s gospel and in his epistles. The gospel of John has a much different and more intimate angle than the other gospels and so do his epistles.

So let’s get started and have a deeper look into the first epistle of John, Jesus’ beloved apostle.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us,” (1 John 1:1-2).

Here John harmonises the spiritual and the physical, the eternal and the carnal. He sees Jesus the way we all should see Him, and it’s important for us to ask the Holy Spirit to teach us to see Him this way. Just keep in mind that John received this special insight into who Jesus is because he had a very intimate relationship with Him (and so can you when you spend time with Him intimately). He was one of the very few people in the Bible with this kind of relationship, among whom Moses and David were. They were seen as friends of God.

John didn’t see Jesus as the military leader whom the other disciples thought He was, right to the end when they eventually grasped the truth (John 16:29-31). John saw Jesus as being from the beginning of time. He has been there forever, the one who created the earth (John 1:1-5). He is the Word, and not just any word, He is the Word of Life. Jesus is eternal life. Yet, John and his fellow disciple were privileged to see and touch this magnificent, eternal person. They were able to have an intimate relationship with Him – eat with Him, have fun with Him, laugh and play and joke.

How do you perceive eternal life? Are you looking forward to having a carefree and peaceful life in the perfect environment? Are you looking forward to living in your mansion, as some translations name the rooms Jesus was talking about, enjoying all the materialistic comfort you have always desired while on earth?

Or are you dreaming to be with the Eternal Life, called Jesus? You, know, the Bible states in many places that, if we are “in Jesus”, we will have this and that. Jesus is Eternal Life, and to have it means to remain in Jesus. Jesus said in John 14:1-4: “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” In heaven, we are not going to live in mansions all on our own as we do here on earth, each in our own house – sorry to shatter your dream. Eternal life is Jesus and we are going to be a family with Him in His Father’s house, each having a room like children do. You may ask like I did: How will Jesus and Father God possibly be able to give attention to all of us in this family home? I think heaven will be like the Kingdom currently is on earth – we will be in God and Him in us. It’s not for us to understand.

Therefore, let’s experience Jesus in the right perspective as John has – eternal, but always with you.