A Life of St. John for the Young

by George Ludington Weed

"Can this be He who used to stray,
A pilgrim on the world's highway,
Oppressed by power, and mocked by pride,
The Nazarene, the Crucified!"

We do not wonder that he says,—"When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead." So had Paul done when the Lord appeared to him at Damascus. John adds, "He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not." The words seem almost an echo from the Holy Mount,—"Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid."

The command to John was renewed, to write—of things which he had seen, and what he was yet to behold. The early Christians called him the Eagle, meaning that of all the sacred writers he had the loftiest visions of divine truth.

John's writings are of three kinds, the Book of The Revelation of the secret purposes of God; his Gospel; and his three Epistles or letters.

Although The Revelation is the last of the books of the Bible, it is probably the first of those by John. It contains messages from the Lord in Heaven to the seven churches in Asia, which we have mentioned, concerning their virtues and their failings. To each was given a special promise of reward to those who overcame sin, and were faithful to Christ. From this Revelation of John we get our imagery of Heaven, helping us to understand something of its glory.

His Gospel is supposed to have been written next. Why did he write it? As we have noticed, Matthew, Mark and Luke had already written their Gospels. But there was abundant reason for John's writing the fourth Gospel. We need not doubt the tradition that he was urged to do so by the disciples, elders and bishops of the early Church. They had heard him tell much concerning Christ of which the first three Evangelists had not told. These things were too precious to be forgotten, or to be changed by frequent repetition after his lips were silent. That must be soon, for he was very old, having long passed the limit of human age. They had listened to the story of the early call of the disciples, and of the first miracle at Cana, and of the night visit of Nicodemus to Jesus, and of the talk by the well of Samaria with the Samaritaness, and of the washing of the disciples' feet, and of many other things which Jesus said and did of which no one had written. In John's talks with Christians, and his preaching in their churches, he explained fully and simply the teachings of Jesus, as no one else had done, or could do. They longed for a record of them, that they might read it themselves, and leave it to their children, and those who never could hear the words from his lips.

So St. John wrote his Gospel, giving to his first readers his great reason,—"These are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in His name."

For the writing of his first Epistle he also gives a reason, saying,—"That which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled concerning the word of life, ... that ... declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us."

Through these words John draws us very near to his Lord and ours, Whom we behold through his eyes, and hear through his ears. We almost feel the grasp of a divine yet human hand.

The great theme is the love of God, or as Luther expresses it, "The main substance of this Epistle relates to love." John's Gospel abounds in declarations and illustration of this greatest of truths, but it does not contain the phrase in this Epistle in which he sums up the whole Gospel, "God is Love." Because of John's deep sense of God's love, and because of the depth of his own love, the Beloved Apostle is called, The Apostle of Love.