John, the disciple of Christ who penned Scripture, experienced the glory of knowing God. Like King David, he drank deeply of the love of God. In Psalm 73:23-24 and verse 28 David wrote of his relationship with the Lord, “You love me! You are holding my right hand! You will keep on guiding me all my life with Your wisdom and counsel . . . . But as for me, I get as close to Him as I can!”^[1] John, too, came close and drank deeply. 

There is a song with a line in it that says, “God of glory, Lord of love, Hearts unfold like flowers before You, opening to the sun above.”^[2] And an unfolded heart wide open to God and His higher ways—a heart no longer crippled because it is severed from its Divine Source of perfect love—is a heart on a journey to glory and greatness because it is being restored by its Maker to His intended design. John had such a heart. In fact, so much did he draw close to Christ that he became the picture of what happens when a man enters into the closest possible places of the Lord’s heart and mind. Jesus was the lover of John’s soul as he transformed the darkness of the state of selfish ambition into the light of the state of surrendered sonship in the image of the Pattern Son. And John wrote of the mystical union we are called to find in and with the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. John dared to lean upon Jesus to experience His heart and know His secrets. The Father through Jesus shared with John the very secrets of agape love—the love that God is in His being and ever exudes. Finally, God called John to write of the union of God with redeemed men and women in eternal marriage in the heavenly Jerusalem in time to come. There the curse from the fall in Eden will be no more and men will so know the intense love of God for them that they will fulfill the command to “Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is in you.”^[3] And the second, “Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.”^[4] They will willingly serve Him as bondslaves—love slaves.

Unlike Peter at first, John readily let the Master Jesus wash his feet. The disciple had already let the Lord name in all frankness what He beheld in John’s carnal nature. In Luke’s Gospel John is termed a son of thunder as he had desired Heaven to destroy by fire Samarians who failed to offer lodging to the Lord when Jesus was en route to Jerusalem, a destination they were very prejudiced against.  Jesus, Himself, in Mark 3:17 speaks the title “Boanerges” or “sons of thunder” over John and James, the sons of Zebedee. 

John watched and listened and took in things about the nature of the Savior. In another scene, that of Matthew 20:20-28, the selfish ambition of the mother of John comes forth as she bows before the Lord but only to ask for the places of closest honor in Jesus’ kingdom for her sons, James and John. Jesus again spoke frankly and proved he could read people like a book. The Lord saw that John was thinking of greatness and told him how to get it. Jesus said, “Kings and those with great authority rule oppressively. . . . But the greatest one among you will live as the one who is called to serve others, because the greatest honor and authority is reserved for the one with the heart of a servant. For even the Son of Man did not come expecting to be served by everyone, but to serve everyone, and to give His life in exchange for the salvation of many.”^[5] John knew he needed the ministry or foot washing by the Lord in the scene right before the Supper where John found intimacy up against the breast of Christ. He did, indeed, find the closest place in proximity to Jesus’ heart. But it was to again feel the words that can play in the heart of any of us who will face the light of God and let God eradicate our traits of selfishness. “I am that disciple whom Jesus dearly loves,” can be any one of us. John knew he needed Jesus’ service. And John kept inside a “yes” to Jesus’ words that His followers should do as their Lord had done and wash one another’s feet so as to experience “the path of blessing”^[6] as he in turn became a minister, writer of Scripture, and spiritual father. 

John realized he could come to the Lord for fulfillment of the yearnings of the heart and he would not be turned away. So at the Supper, John placed his head close to Jesus’ person, and Jesus let John into his personal space. Jesus dwelt in the bosom of the Father as he walked the earth so He understood that John (and all human hearts) are designed for spiritual touch. Their spirits touched. And Jesus knew men needed to encounter the Father through Him. As John wrote in John 1:18, “No man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, or  the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate presence] of the Father, He has declared Him [He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known].”^[7] A second version reads, “No one has ever gazed upon the fullness of God’s splendor except the uniquely beloved Son, who is cherished by the Father and held close to his heart. Now he has unfolded to us the full explanation of who God truly is!”^[8]John moved into the presence of God; he dared to ask of the Lord what He knew about who would betray Him, and the Lord shared His secrets with John. Peter, by contrast, turned to John to inquire of Jesus. 

John had heard the Lord say, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”^[9] John had also taken in Jesus’ words of a mission of love recorded in John 3:16-17, “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. ¹⁷ For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.”^[10] So John drew close.

The disciple John was the one who received lessons on the mystical union with the Godhead that Jesus walked in while on earth. Jesus knew men’s heart cry to see and know God. And John knew he needed to know himself in relation to God. It was John who recorded Jesus’ revelation of the organic branch to Vine connection necessary to experience a continual flow of the life of God from within. John, in leaning upon Jesus at the Supper, was not only drawing close to Jesus as brother and eternal father but also drawing close to the Vine, the Christ, the One who flowed in agape love for him. For us, if we’ll stay in vital union or connection with the Vine, we can remain in a flow of His life. To stay close, we must do the work of continual abiding. “I am the sprouting Vine and you’re My branches. As you live in union with Me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you, but when you live separated from Me you are powerless,”^[11] John recorded Jesus as saying clearly. “So step into life-union with Me, for I have stepped into life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the Vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to Mine,” Jesus states. 

Because John joined his life intimately to the Lord—because he knew his deep need of the Savior’s love—the Lord revealed the secrets of love to him for others. The Lord saw John’s heart to yield to Him and express Him. It was John who wrote Jesus’ love message to us, “I love each of you with the same love that the Father loves Me. Let My love nourish your hearts. If you keep My commands, you will live in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands, for I am nourished and empowered by His love. . . . So this is My command: Love each other deeply, as much as I have loved you.”^[12]

John functioned in the realm of God’s love. He knew it, and he lived for it. No longer was John a son of thunder. He knew even more of who he was by the time he wrote 1, 2, and 3 John. His words in 1 John 3 give us identity as loved ones: “Look with wonder at the depth of the Father’s marvelous love that He has lavished on us! He has called us His very own beloved children.”^[13] The Lord chose John to teach others that love comes from God and that love manifest among us is the true evidence of life in God. John likely very much took to heart Paul’s admonitions that if I’ve “never learned to love, then I am nothing” and “without the pure motive of love, I would gain nothing of value.”^[14] As another translation puts it, “If I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion such as is inspired by God’s love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).  Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God’s love in me), I gain nothing.”^[15]

The Lord of love went on to instruct John further for our sake. 1 John 4:7 reveals that intimacy with God equates to a flowing in love: “Those who are loved by God, let His love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of Him.”^[16] And John, by the Spirit, diagnoses the condition of those who live distant from God in 1 John 4:8: “The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love.”^[17] “A loveless life remains spiritually dead,” 1 John 3:14 states. John goes on to chronicle the experience of those who have drawn close to Christ: “We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love He has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them.”^[18]

And in 1 John, John as spiritual father adds to the words of Jesus given in his Gospel in 15:10, “If you obey My commandments, you will remain in My love.”^[19] “But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word. We can be sure that we’ve truly come to live in intimacy with God, not just by saying, ‘I am intimate with God,’ but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”^[20] John grew up in his understanding of the God who is love. He obeyed God; he took to heart Jesus’ words. Thus, the way into the revelation of the Word opened to him. And heeding God in full obedience as the way to remain in God’s love and have the way of love open up into deeper and richer fellowship with the Godhead and thereby also share this fellowship with others is on the table for all. 

The greatness of coming close separated John from the world. Again in 1 John, he writes of touching the Lord: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.”^[21] John went deep with the Word made flesh.^[22] He experienced such rich fellowship with Light, Life, and Love in the Godhead that the world had no attraction for him. He was a free man who could live for spiritual and relational riches. John clearly distinguished between love for the world and having the love of God. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world,” he wrote.^[23] “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”^[24]

The reward for surrendering to God’s love came when John got to see and record the coming bridal reality between God and man in the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem. John as seer unveiled Jesus Christ for us in Revelation 1:12-19. John saw Jesus glorified: “When I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, I saw seven golden lampstands.And walking among the lampstands, I saw someone like a son of man, wearing a full-length robe with a golden sash over his chest. His head and his hair were white like wool—white as glistening snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire!His feet were gleaming like bright metal, as though they were glowing in a fire, and his voice was like the roar of many rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. And his face was shining like the brightness of the blinding sun! When I saw him, I fell down at his feet as good as dead, but he laid his right hand on me and I heard his reassuring voice saying: Don’t yield to fear. I am the Beginning and I am the End, the Living One! I was dead, but now look—I am alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys that unlock death and the unseen world. Now I want you to write what you have seen, what is, and what will be after the things that I reveal to you.”^[25]

 And in Revelation 21 and 22 John saw the city where man and God will dwell in union. A few verses give a foretaste: “I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, descending out of the heavenly realm from the presence of God, like a pleasing bride that had been prepared for her husband, adorned for her wedding. And I heard a thunderous voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s tabernacle is with human beings. And from now on he will tabernacle with them as their God. Now God himself will have his home with them—‘God-with-them’ will be their God! He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and eliminate death entirely. No one will mourn or weep any longer. The pain of wounds will no longer exist, for the old order has ceased.”^[26] The glory of knowing God is revealed in the full picture of the city in the final chapters of the Bible written by John. “And there will no longer be a curse.”^[27]

Created we are to need love so much that the prayer of the bridal soul in the Song of Songs is “Let him smother me with kisses—his Spirit-kiss divine. So kind are your caresses, I drink them in like the sweetest wine!”^[28] These are the kisses of the revelation of the Word coming alive in our spirits and the intimate touches of close proximity to Christ. John understood that God was calling forth intimates of Jesus who would keep His commandments in order to live in His love. To John, who moved into closer places than the others, God gave the secrets of love. Just like then, someone or some company of believers must move into extremely close intimacy with the God who is love in order to teach others how to walk in what the Word says about love—in order to bring us to the banqueting house so we can say with John, a bridal soul, “His banner over me is love.”^[29]

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Blessings in return—

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^[1] The Living Bible Psalm 73:23-24; 28.

^[2] Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee Henry van Dyke 1907

^[3] The Passion Translation Matthew 22:37

^[4]The Living Bible Matthew 22:39 

^[5] The Passion Translation Matthew 20:20-28

^[6] The Living Bible John 13:17

^[7] The Amplified Classic John 1:18

^[8] The Passion Translation John 1:18

^[9] King James Version John 6:37

^[10] The Amplified Classic John 3:16-17

^[11] The Passion Translation John 15:5

^[12] The Passion Translation John 15:9-10, 12.

^[13] The Passion Translation 1 John 3:1

^[14] The Passion Translation 1 Corinthians 13:2; 13:3

^[15] The Amplified Classic Bible 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

^[16] The Passion Translation 1 John 4:7

^[17] The Passion Translation 1 John 4:8

^[18] The Passion Translation 1 John 4:16

^[19] NET Bible (New English Translation) John 15:10

^[20] The Passion Translation 1 John 2:5-6

^[21] King James Version 1 John 1:1

^[22] See John 1:14.

^[23] King James Version 1 John 2:15

^[24] King James Version 1 John 2:15

^[25] The Passion Translation Revelation 1:12-19

^[26] The Passion Translation Revelation 21:2-4

^[27] The Recovery Version Revelation 22:3

^[28] The Passion Translation Song of Songs 1:2

^[29] King James Version Song of Songs 2:4