The Beloved Disciple

The Beloved Disciple

The feast of John the Apostle is December 27. Ancient tradition holds that John lived to a very old age — the only apostle who was not martyred. When he had become very old and too frail to preach, he was carried into the church at Ephesus to give a word to the congregation. Every week he reportedly gave the same message: 'Little children, love one another.' When asked why he always said the same thing, he replied: 'Because it is the precept of the Lord, and if it alone be kept, it is enough.' The man who had leaned on Jesus' breast had learned only one lesson in six decades: love one another.

1 John 4:7 makes an extraordinary claim: love comes from God. Not 'God commands love' (though He does) or 'God models love' (though He does). Love comes from God — it originates in His being, flows from His nature, and anyone who genuinely loves is demonstrating that they have been born of God. The logic is as radical as it sounds: the presence of love in a life is evidence of divine origin. The absence of love is evidence of not knowing God (verse 8: 'whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love'). John's whole theology reduces to this: God is love; love is from God; to know God is to love; to love is to know God.