Apostle John
First Love
John is known as the “the disciple Jesus loved”. Obviously, Jesus loved all of His followers, but the of Love is one that John constantly writes about from the Gospel he wrote, to the letters he sent to the church (1, 2, & 3 John and Revelation). John described our relationship with God to be one that is intended to be close and experiential. There is a true sense that John genuinely considered Jesus Christ his first and ultimate love. God wasn’t just a religious figure or an admired political leader. Jesus captured John’s loyalty, love affection, and devotion. His life and writings are a constant encouragement for us to follow our true love, Jesus Christ, and fix our eye on his second coming as he wrote down in Revelation.
THINK and PRAY:
John came to realize how deeply God loved him when Christ intersected His life. The deep love John found in Jesus and saw proven by the actions of his supernatural life, death, resurrection and return to heaven (with a promise to come again for His people) changed John. Jesus emphasized love in all of his writing because He knew its supernatural power to change him and the multitude of other she saw Jesus impact before and after he went to Heaven. Has the deep love ofJesus Christ impacted you? When you hear the famous verse from John 3:16- “That God sent His one and only Son to save humanity...you and me...from eternal death and give us eternal life...does that impact you to love Christ from the deepest part of your heart? Jesus did not just “talk love”. He displayed it! He acted on it. He died as a sacrifice (John saw this first hand) and rose again (John witnesses this too)! Joh assured us to, for those who have accepted Christ as their first love, over sin, over the world, over themselves and have become new creations through faith in Jesus-He will come back again out of love to bring us home to him! John knew that home was with Christ-the lover of his soul. Have you found Jesus to be that for you-the deepest friend, lover, Savior and Lord of your life now and forevermore?