By Chelsea Pollard
When I was at the Bear Valley Bible Institute, I took a class on the Gospel of John. I was always interested in this book, but I quickly fell in love with it! This class was the first one I chose and it was a blessing because I needed it. I needed to develop my own faith. I needed to build my personal relationship with God. I desperately wanted to know Him. John does a wonderful job at helping us know Him!
The gospel of John isn’t like the other gospels. It was written a little later and is more interested in the spiritual side of Jesus’ time on earth. When you’re reading through the gospel of John, it seems like John focuses more on the humanity of Jesus.
The purpose of John is in 20:30-31, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Both the Gospel of John and I John show us that we can know God. I John 2 says, “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar…” If we want to know God, we have to make what he wants us to do a part of our lives.
Dr. Dan Owen said about John 3:16, “[This verse] is the ‘why’ for verses 14 and 15. It explains previous verses. John 3:16 is how we know love. He laid down His life for us. It was a willing, giving action toward us because he loved the world so much. God loved, so God gave.”
John 17:3 is Jesus’ definition of eternal life: to know God and to know Christ.
Let’s put all of this together: John was written so that we can believe. I John was written so that we can know God. God is love, so God gave us Jesus. We want to know God and have eternal life, so we do what He wants us to do and we love like Jesus did.
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Life and Favor (Job 10:12) 