When someone asks us who we are, the normal response would be to say our name,
or what we do for a living, or whose wife we are, whose mother we are….this is our identity. With the technology at our finger tips today, we are always displaying our nicknames or onscreen ids, sometimes as a projection of who we believe we are, for example, a few friends on my list go by the names Canadian girl, heart smilz, the heart break kid….all these names show us what their personal view of their identity is.
But the one person that I would love to be like is the disciple John. When you read the gospel of John, it is so clear how in love with Jesus he is. He was so in love with Jesus, so obsessed with Jesus, that he gave up his own identity completely. He identified himself simply as ‘the disciple who Jesus loved’. He was so certain, so confident of who he was in Jesus’ life….he was the one Jesus loved!
When we read the other gospels and compare it with the gospel according to John, we are able to see the difference that this relationship created. While the other three gospels do a good job of accounting for Jesus whereabouts, actions and teachings. John is the one who reveals some of the profound teachings of Jesus. In fact one of the most significant verses in the entire bible, the verse on which much of what we believe is based on, can be found in John’s gospel,
John 14: 6: Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
None of the other gospels mention this. You see, John knew Jesus so deeply, he knew what was important to Jesus. John was able to identify the portions of Jesus teachings that were spiritually significant, simply because he had a better understanding of Jesus. And this understanding came from his love for Jesus.
Do we love Jesus like this? Are we able to understand when God speaks to us? Do we recognize in our spirit, the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit and what He tries to tell us? If we do not, then we need to work on our relationship with God. You cannot understand someone or sense their needs, unless you deeply love them! This is an easy concept for mothers to understand! Most of the time, when your child barely says a few words, sometimes even a look is enough to let you know how they feel or what they want. If you love God with all your heart, you will be able to have a relationship with Him that allows you to do the same!
Matthew 22: 37: And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.
This is the kind of love that the word of God commands, if we do not have it yet, then let us ask the Lord to enable us to develop the kind of love and devotion that he so richly deserves.
I am putting up a very simple recipe today. But it is one of my very favourite drinks.
Cardamom Tea
Ingredients:
Tea bag – 1
Milk – ½ cup
Water – ¾ cup
Cardamom pods – 5
Sugar – as required
Instructions:
- Pour in the milk and water into a saucepan and place on the lowest flame till it begins to boil.
- As the flame is low, the milk will not boil and spill over. To the boiling milk add the teabag and crushed cardamom pods.
- Allow this to simmer for five to ten minutes, depending on the strength you require for your tea.
- Add sugar as required and serve hot. This measurement is for one cup of tea, if you are making more, then increase the ingredients proportionally.
TheGospelofJohn.com has a free Bible study that pulls together the biblical evidence on the "other disciple, whom Jesus loved" and by comparing scripture with scripture it highlights facts in scripture that can help to correct a few of the misconceptions that showed through in your post
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting on my post. The evidence of what I have written was taken from the Gospel of John.
ReplyDeleteJohn 21:24: This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
If the verse says that this is the disciple who wrote these things....and we read it in the Gospel according to John, that leaves little to interpretation.
If the reason for dismissing John as the author of the Gospel of John is that there is no specific evidence naming him (according to the site you provided), then that would be deeming that the Bible is not compiled by divine will.
If the Bible that we call the word of God, was divinely inspired to be key in providing promise and support to God's children according to God's will, then you would think God would not allow such an error as an entire gospel being attributed to the wrong person. Naming John as the author of a gospel he did not write would mean that the Bible contains a lie, which if we believe, would have to mean we do not believe the Bible was compiled by divine inspiration, containing exactly what it should have according to God’s will.
You can always argue that man compiled the Bible from the different writings that were found, and so it was open to error, but that would be saying that the Bible is compiled by human will and allows everything written in it to be open to scrutiny.
Unless we can agree that everything in the Bible is perfectly placed according to God’s will, we cannot say with any conviction that it is God’s absolute word. However, I am of the opinion that the Bible is God’s absolute word which is why I can stand firm in my stance here. If you don’t hold this belief, then I can see how there would be an issue accepting John as the author of the fourth gospel.
Learning from the word is sometimes about learning with the Holy Spirit, not necessarily from man's interpretation, at least, this is what I try my best to rely on. Based on my personal study of the word, I do not believe that what I hold in this particular case, are misconceptions. The Bible is sadly open to interpretation, based on every individual's understanding which is what instigates different views on the same scripture.
Thank you however for sharing your views on the matter. God Bless you abundantly.