Who was John, and what does that have to do with reading his letters? Isn’t our understanding of Scripture all about the words of the text, and not the guy who wrote them?
Why it Matters - All scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit did not merely dictate the words as if to a channeling robot. If that were so, God could simply have skipped the man and written the words down by Himself, such as He did in the case of Moses and the Ten Commandments. God could have handed the completed documents to the Church, without any middlemen. Instead He used real people and real circumstances to reveal Himself and His truth to us, and the Apostle John was one of those people.
Those in the 1st century Church in Asia Minor (especially Ephesus and surrounding cities), who heard John’s writing (Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd and 3rd John, and Revelation) as it was read aloud in their assemblies, knew John up close and personally. They had seen him, eaten with him, prayed with him, and talked with him. They had heard him teach. They knew his facial expressions, and they had heard his stories about Jesus and the other eleven apostles.
They knew John’s heart – the way he thought about things, and the things he talked about. In fact, most all of the New Testament letters were read and heard by believers who were personally acquainted with the authors or with men and women who were closely acquainted with the authors. Thus, the believers were in a position to not only receive the bare text (words on scrolls) but also the underlying personality, heart and mindset of the writers.
We can say that the person and personality of John himself formed a “subtext” to his letters.
As John’s letters were read aloud, many listeners undoubtedly superimposed John’s voice and inflections. This is a large reason why the early, original recipients would never have thought to break down the letters into verses and phrases, and then study each individual verse or passage to “discover” its meaning. We do that sort of thing only because of the great historical and personal distance between us and the times and circumstances in which the Scriptures were written.
We can greatly improve our own study, understanding and “connection” to the word of God by prayerfully seeking knowledge of the authors, cultures, history and times in which the scriptures were written. “Meaning” is closely attached and related to these important factors, so the quality of our understanding and application of the word of God is also closely attached.
So Who Was John? - John was born around 10-15 AD in Galilee (the northern “country” part of Israel), and he lived and worked in the fishing trade with his brother James and their father Zebedee, in and near the town of Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. That is where John encountered Jesus and became His disciple (Mark 5:37).
We have no reason to believe that John was educated in any formal way before meeting Jesus, who named John and his brother James “Boanerges” meaning "sons of thunder" in the Aramaic language (Mark 3:17.) This nickname was a reference to their aggressive, youthful attitudes. John was probably around 18 years old at the time, and thus was very likely the youngest disciple of Christ. These were “men’s men,” rugged and tough, used to dealing with the elements and with people in the fishing trades and in the up-country hillsides and villages of Galilee. These were no soft, effeminate intellectuals weaklings.
The two brothers (James and John), along with Peter, are portrayed in scripture as the closest to Jesus of all the disciples. They were with Jesus to witness the Transfiguration and saw Moses and Elijah talk with the Lord. John was especially close to Jesus, referring to himself in the Gospel of John as “the one Jesus loved” (John 20:2), and being the disciple who sat next to Jesus, leaning back against Him to ask a question at the last supper (John 13:25.) In case this image seems a little soft and strange to us, we need only give place to the differences between our cultural norms and expressions, and theirs.
John was also the disciple who remained with Jesus during His crucifixion, and to whom Jesus entrusted care of His mother, Mary (John 19:26.) If we stop a moment and meditate upon just these observations about John, we gain valuable insight into John’s writing and where he was coming from.
Sometime after the resurrection of Christ, and probably before AD 70, John relocated to the large city of Ephesus in western Asia Minor, and it is held by tradition and by early Church history that he took the aging Mary with him to live out her days there. Today, in the ruins of Ephesus, one can visit the place where Mary is believed to have lived. One also can visit the traditional site of John’s burial. John led the Church as an elder (2nd John 1:1, 3rd John 1:1), and he was considered its beloved pastor for many years. He was also regarded as “elder at large” in the other six churches in western Asia Minor, which - along with the church in Ephesus – were the seven to whom Jesus addressed Himself (and John wrote) in the early portion of the Revelation.
Imagine how it would be if today we had a pastor or elder in your church who had personally spent over three years with Jesus, who was an original Apostle of Christ, and who had been essentially Jesus’ best friend, along with the other points mentioned above. How do you think we would feel about such a man, and is it likely we would pay attention to him and want to be with him? Now imagine he is away and sends us a letter. How would that letter be received?
John is the author of the Gospel of John, and of 1st, 2nd and 3rd John, as well as the Revelation. During his life and ministry, John discipled many others including several of the early Church fathers, who would themselves become elders, leaders and martyrs in the late 1st and 2nd century Church. The original Church was established by Christ through the Lord’s direct disciples, including John, and those who stood on their shoulders to subsequently spread the Gospel and the Church around the globe.
In the late 1st century, during the reign of the anti-Christian tyrant and self-proclaimed god, Emperor Domitian, John was convicted and sentenced (essentially for being a Christian) and banished to the convict Island of Patmos, off the coast of Asia Minor not far from Ephesus. There John received the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the messages of Christ to the seven churches. We can easily surmise that the Revelation, with Jesus’ messages to the seven churches, was given in part as an answer to the prayers of John for His beloved in the seven churches. We must not fail to read John’s NT writings with these personal relationships in mind.
Throughout his writings, John emphasized the theme of love, especially focusing upon Christ-centered love among believers. He also strongly and repeatedly emphasized adherence to true and correct doctrines of the faith, teaching and warning over and over against the false teachings of heretics and apostates.
Imagine once again that we had such an elder among us – that he had walked, ate, slept, talked, and learned with and from Jesus Himself, and he knew first-hand the truths that would soon be preserved in the scriptures. Now imagine some false teacher came along and started spreading some counterfeit message that subverts the Gospel of Christ. What would our elder do? He would do the same thing John did – he would come hard against such a thing, and he would do it from a very strong position of knowledge and confidence. To put it another way, he would speak (and write) with Apostolic authority.
Since we have apostolic truth preserved in the Holy Scriptures, we also can defend it against false doctrine and teaching.
It is believed and held by tradition and early Church history that John was the only one of the twelve disciples not martyred for his faith, and it is also believed John lived to the end of the 1st century ( to possibly AD 105 or so)and to a very advanced age. There is a story in early Church history and tradition that when John was very old, the brothers in Ephesus would carry their aged, frail teacher and pastor into the assembly, asking him if he had a word for the believers there. John reportedly answered repeatedly, simply and softly: “Children, love one another.”
Wrapping it Up - If we were to summarize John as best we can, we might say he was extremely committed to truth, totally committed and unwaveringly loyal to His Lord and close friend Jesus Christ, completely sold out to loving, serving and leading believers entrusted to his care, passionate about protecting them from false teachers and from false doctrines, dedicated without reservation to advancing and preserving the apostolic (now biblical) teaching entrusted to him by Christ, and fully and totally convinced of the deity, sovereignty, omnipotence, incarnation, resurrection and ultimate victory and reign of His Lord.
Hey, that’s not a bad list of aspirations for any Church pastor, elder or believer!
In reading the NT writings of John, we may well ask ourselves: What was John passionately concerned about, and what did he consider important for the Church to believe, to do, and to think about? How do these things compare to what we believe and passionately affirm as the Church today? Can we imagine that John, if he visited our churches today, would be pleased? Would he be impressed? What things about churches today might trouble John? Are we addressing ourselves to the same passions and concerns as he did? If not, why not?