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
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).
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.
