John, the servant of Jesus Christ, His bond-servant, had reached a ripe old age. This was the disciple whom Jesus loved.1 That the relationship between Jesus and John was especially close can be deduced from the observation that while hanging on the cross in His dying moments, the Lord entrusted His mother, Mary to John’s care.2 It is wonderful to know that Jesus loves you. But how do we react to that? Jesus loves us all. His love extends to all of us. It is said of the rich young ruler: ‘Jesus looked at him and loved him.’ He invited him to break the bondage of his riches, his lust for money, and to follow Him, but the rich young man went away sad, because he could not part with his great wealth. The things of this world can hold you so strongly in their grip that they possess you rather than you possess them. Then you are actually a slave to your money, career, sexual desires, home, television, the internet, video-games, music, or to whatever you cannot give up.
John left everything behind when Jesus called him. He and his brother James were employed in their father Zebedee’s fishing business, but they went to follow Jesus in order to become fishers of men.3 Because some scholars date the Book of Revelation around AD 95, John must have been at least 80 years old. Therefore, John would have been a slave of Jesus Christ almost his whole life long. Whether you are a child or an adult, or middle aged, or even if you are old: Jesus can and will make use of your life. Do we live only for ourselves? Or are our lives completely at His disposal? Whoever is open to God’s counsel receives ever increasing spiritual insight from Him.
Jesus promises great rewards if we surrender our all to Him. In Mark 10:28-30: ‘Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.”
Bible References:
1.John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 2.Mark 10:21 NIV 3.Mark 1:16–20
