What would it mean to you to be called “someone’s beloved”? What if it came from the lips of our Lord, Jesus?  What did Jesus mean when he called John “His beloved” disciple? As we begin to read the gospel of John, we will notice that the word, “beloved,” carries a great deal of responsibility for John. 

Recap of the gospels:  Matthew tells us about how the Son of Man fits into the history of the Jewish people with who Jesus is.  He is The Messiah promised who will fulfill everything about God’s Law to them.  Mark excitedly tells us the basic facts of Truth with meaningful concepts of Jesus’ teachings so we can become more like Jesus in following Him.  Luke proclaims how lost and downtrodden people are sought after with compassion and saved for eternity by Jesus’ touch, a word from God, while showing mankind the love of God. John takes us farther down the road of understanding God’s love with what it really means to be His Beloved.

Take notice as John impresses on the hearts of his readers to know love—like God loves them.  His entire, God-inspired writing is so that others may believe Jesus and follow in the way Jesus loves.  His goal is for us to know God, for only then will we know the real, relentless, unconditional, never changing love found only by knowing God.  God is Love.  In fact, it is John who tells us how God demonstrated His Love for us: “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—the most quoted verse in the world!

John is the one who clarifies why Jesus came to earth with the verses that follows: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17

Towards the end of John’s gospel, he declares, once more, his purpose for writing as inspired by God: “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:30-31

Two major themes for John:  So that we would know the love of God and so that we would be believe in Jesus.  Hold that thought as we read about Jesus through the eyewitness of John—about Jesus, who knew us and loved us so much He died and rose again for us— “just as He said He would.” 

At the foot of the cross of Jesus, John is given the greatest responsibility of all—”When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, ‘Woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.”  John 19:26

John is writing of himself.  John’s devoted love was proven to known by Jesus with this act of compassionate love.  John, the beloved of Jesus was trusted to become Mary’s beloved son.  John would care for the earthly mother of Jesus for the rest of Mary’s  days on earth.  Jesus trusted the love of John!  What an amazing snapshot of John’s love for Jesus and Jesus’ love for John and Mary!  Yes, this is a precious moment between Jesus and John.

We who love Jesus with all that is in us love because Jesus first loved us!  We who believe what Jesus did to demonstrate God’s Love for us by dying for our sins and rising a victor over death for eternity so that we would have eternal life only then begin to realize the depth and breadth of God’s Love.  Love is a responsible response to God’s relentless Love of us.  We, too, are His beloved who experience His love, knowing the full extent of His love.  God’s Love is expressed in those precious moments when He intervenes on our behalf to show us His Love. 

This is what John wants us to know and believe.  Let us begin—

John 1, The Message

The Life-Light

^1-2 The Word was first,
    the Word present to God,
    God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
    in readiness for God from day one.

^3-5 Everything was created through him;
    nothing—not one thing!—
    came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
    and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
    the darkness couldn’t put it out.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

As much as our words reveal to others our hearts and minds, so Jesus Christ is God’s “Word” to reveal His heart and mind to us. According to John, and is repeated, Jesus is the Light that the darkness of this world cannot extinguish. The “Life-Light” is still blazing a trail to our darkened hearts to reveal Truth.

Jesus was there with God at the beginning of Creation.  Jesus is “Alpha and Omega,” John writes in Revelation 1:8, the beginning and the end.  According to Hebrews 1:1-3, Jesus Christ is God’s last Word to mankind, for Jesus is the climax of divine revelation.

John explains The Light who is opposed to darkness.

God is light (1 John 1:5), while Satan is “the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). People love either the light or the darkness, and this love controls their actions (1 John 3:16–19). Those who believe on Christ are the “sons of light” (John 12:35, 36). Just as the first creation began with “Let there be light!” so the new creation begins with the entrance of light into the heart of the believer (2 Corinthians 4:3–6).

The coming of Jesus Christ into the world was the dawning of a new day for sinful man (Luke 1:78, 79).  Truth made flesh.  This is the beginning of “all things made new” through our decision to believe, repent, and follow Jesus who made all things new for us by His sacrificial act of love.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Jesus declares The Light: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”—Jesus, John 8:12

May the Love-Light be found in us today. 

Lord,

Thank you for bring the light of Truth into a world of darkness.  You not only shed light but you dispel darkness.  When Light enters, darkness flees for it is no match for you!  Thank you for loving us so much that you created a plan from the beginning to save us.  Cleanse our hearts, remove all the darkness with your Light of Truth.  Renew our minds, refresh our souls with knowledge of You.  Restore the joy of your salvation at work within us.  Thank you for the peace that comes from knowing and following you.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen.  I believe.