Heroes of the Faith Series

The Apostle John – The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved

I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.

 (Revelation 1:18)

John was one of four fisherman who wholeheartedly responded to our Lord's call to become an apostle and willingly walked away from a successful fishing busijness to become a fisher of men. He was among the Lord's inner circle of three (along with Peter and James), and was eventually esteemed with the honorable tribute of "the disciple Jesus loved."

Learn It! John was blessed with the opportunity to sit under the flawless teaching and training of Jesus for about three and a half years. He absorbed rich instruction directly from the Son of God and witnessed His many amazing miracles. John later became the author of five books of the New Testament: the Gospel of John, three letters, and the book of Revelation.

Speak It! One author from the early church appropriately described John as "a living and abiding voice for God." John spoke and wrote more about the love of Christ than any other author in Scripture. He was the one who wrote the most quoted verse in Scripture: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). And it was John who introduced a new commandment and a new kind of love, explaining that we are to love one another as Christ loved us (John 13:34), an agape love only possible by the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling in us.

Live It! John was not only known as the "disciple Jesus loved." Our Lord referred to John and his brother James as "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17), most likely because of their zeal and boldness as we see illustrated in Luke 9:54, when the brothers wanted to "command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did." John was obviously a man of action and desired to live out his faith in obedience, willing to fight and preserve the truth of God. He demonstrated his love by obedience to Jesus as he faithfully wrote the book of Revelation in spite of persecution and dire circumstances in his exile on the island of Patmos. John's doctrinal clarity and profound teaching about love is as relevant today as it was in the days of the early church. It was John one who made it crystal clear that Jesus is the only way to salvation (John 14:6). And it was John who clarified that the test of knowing Jesus was whether we keep His commandments, love the brethren, and reject the world. He was also the one who explained that our faith is the key to victory over the world (1 John 2). It shouldn't surprise us that the disciple that Jesus loved was the one who was allowed to see and record all of the future events of Revelation. May John's writing on God's love prepare us all the more for the day of our Lord's second coming!

Discussion Question: How should our Lord's sacrifice on Calvary's cross, the greatest act of love in history, affect our relationship to God and others?

Memory Verse: In this is love, not that we 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. (1 John 4:10–11)

Prayer: Father, fill my heart with the love of Christ and may your Spirit work through me so that I may love others with your love.

All quotations from Scripture are taken from the New King James Version.
Devotional written by Mark Rasche
Illustration by Jonathan Chong


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