John 1:35-37 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

One distinctive of John’s Gospel is that he was one of Jesus’ very first disciples, so he remembered Jesus’ ministry from the get-go. It is also significant that he labels himself as a disciple of John the Baptist. That’s interesting, since he was no more than a teenager at the time. We tend to take people seriously once they reach “legal drinking age,” but average life expectancy was much shorter back then, and people basically had to “hit the ground running,” so to speak. After all a bar mitzva is actually a coming-of-age ceremony. John and Andrew were young, but they were earnest in their pursuit of God. John the Baptist was the most authentic God-teacher they knew of, so they followed him. However, when he proclaimed Jesus to be the Lamb of God, they immediately followed Jesus, showing that their allegiance wasn’t to a person, but to God. That’s how we need to be. Human teachers will always fail us in some way, but God never will. It’s really not surprising that John became something of Jesus’ pet, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” (John 21:20) when he had this attitude. That attitude was really put to the test, since John is said to be the only one of the original 12 who died a natural death, past 90 according to tradition. He indeed “drank the cup” that Jesus did, along with his brother James, (Matthew 20:22-23) even though James was the first of the 12 to be martyred. (Acts 12:2) We have a lot to learn from John!

John has always been the character in the New Testament that I most wanted to be like (though of course, we are called to be like Jesus). I have long said that James had the easier road, but John impacted far more people through what he wrote, not only his Gospel but also his letters and the book of Revelation. Some scholars have disputed that John wrote all of that, but I think they were just jealous! I will never have that level of influence in the Kingdom, but I can learn from John’s sincere devotion. I want to be as fixated on Jesus as he was, and that can happen only with the help of the Holy Spirit. I can’t be consistent on my own, but the Holy Spirit can do it in and through me. I too want to be an “apostle of love” as John is sometimes called, so that people may experience God’s love through me and be drawn to Him, for their salvation and His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the opportunities You give me daily to express Your love. May I do so more and more consistently, so that I may accomplish all that You desire of me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!