Quote:
Originally Posted by YP0534
...the thing that instantly interested me most in this context: he referred to himself four times as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." I think instinctively, we may tend to hear this as a boast about the special place that he had in the Lord's heart but consider his epistles and see if that reading really fits for you. Surely, brother John did not truly believe Jesus loved him more than all the others! And he never says "more" anyway.
So, if that's the case, how can we understand the repeated phrase about being loved? What else might he have meant to convey by the phrase? And is it possible that this is a clue?
I don't just want to raise the questions. My speculation, along the line of yours I believe, is that John was on a different line from the rest early on.
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John was "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Was he loved more than the others? Not that we can tell. Then why the appelation? I surmise it may have been that John experienced and apprehended God's great love in the person of Jesus Christ, more than the others did. John wasn't frozen in some conceptual bondage; he was free to experience God's love through Jesus the man, instead of putting Him in some pre-arranged "Christ" slot.
After Jesus departed, John also realized this was the best -- perhaps the only-- way to serve the Master. Love one another. In this you are the true disciples. If we see this great truth we will perhaps be spared from wrangling with each other over "who is in charge", what date to celebrate Easter, etc.
But why didn't His younger brothers love Jesus? I and my brother idolized our older brother. He was by most accounts a ne'er do well, but we couldn't see any faults at all. Just the opposite.... maybe James & the rest were already "religious" and Jesus didn't fit their "Messiah" template. They certainly were rude to Him. John was thoughtful enough to provide us with the juicy details.
Yes, it is an amazing thing to break free from forms and traditions and man-created expectations, and just know, apprehend, appreciate, experience, that God loves us. God has so much love for us! And God loves all these "unlovable" people around us. Unlovely, unlovable, unloving, but very, very loved by God. Don't you to some degree feel this was John's burden in writing? Once you start to see the pattern in his writings it really shines through.