John was entrusted to write the words of holy Scripture. Though inspired by God this was not a matter of straightforward dictation and it would have meant hours of painstaking effort for the apostle, but he seems never to have shrunk from such a demanding task.
John’s Gospel was penned much later than the other three accounts. Matthew, Mark and Luke’s writings were in wide circulation in the church by the time John came to write his account. In contrast, he does not take a narrative-type approach but was much more concerned with revealing the meaning of incidents in the life of Jesus. Well aware that there was a vast amount of material to choose from, he therefore selected particular incidents and teaching from the life of Jesus and through them demonstrated the Lord’s claim to deity, for he writes, ‘These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God’.
John also wrote three epistles that are extremely authoritative and ‘hard hitting’. In the first he defends the truth of Christ’s deity and humanity from attack and insists upon the obligation that Christians should live obediently by showing compassion and resisting the evil temptations of the world. The other two epistles are short and ‘sharp’ and were written to help believers maintain correct belief which needed to be reflected in right behaviour. So he warns against heresy and dictatorial practices within the local church.
John’s final work was the Revelation and this concludes the Bible. John wrote this book having received it directly from the Lord through a series of visions while imprisoned on the island of Patmos. The key verse is 1. 19, ‘Write these things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter’. Thus John is told of the past as described in the first chapter. Chapters two and three reflect the present with a description of seven churches. The rest of the book (4-22) describes events up to the end of the world including judgements and the return of Christ in glory. We as Christians eagerly await the Saviour’s return. John saw it all in advance and through his writings we gain a glimpse of what lies ahead.
