Introduction to the Gospel of John

If you really want to know something about a person, you ask their best friend. The apostle John was Jesus' best earthly friend. The "beloved disciple." Or, as John himself puts it, "the disciple whom Jesus loved." The Gospel of John is my personal favorite. It's the one I turn to the most for comfort, encouragement, and strength. It's the one I tell someone to start with if they tell me they want to read the Bible but don't know where to start. Unlike Matthew, Mark, and Luke (whom experts believe all used the same source material) John's gospel is fresh, different. It pulses with the vibrancy of one who knew Jesus personally, and not just personally, but as an intimate friend as well. It includes stories about Jesus and things that He said that are not included in the other three gospels.

Mostly I read it often because I keep hoping that what John knew and experienced of Jesus will rub off on me. I long to think of myself as "a disciple whom Jesus loved."

(A sidenote: I had thought to post on a chapter per day, but as I dig into this gospel, I am realizing that I must simply go where the Spirit leads - there is just too much in a whole chapter to do it justice. Each day will be more of a topical section than a whole chapter.)

* Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.
** Hebrew and Greek definitions from The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Copyright 1995, 1996 by Thomas Nelson Publishers