The theme of love in John's Gospel : John 13-21

Abstract

The writer of the Fourth Gospel is known in Christian tradition as the profound theologian of Jesus' love, and this holds good for the content of both Fourth Gospel and Johannine epistles. The verb to 'love' occurs in various section of John's Gospel and it brings about that intimacy that always calls for Jesus self-revelation. We may say straight away that to His own Jesus reveals the mystery of His own being. We know that Jesus reveals the mystery of his own being through the use of the 'I am' formula. He moreover reveals himself through the use of various Old Testament imagery that, in the Old Testament times, was exclusively the prerogative of Yahweh. Jesus is said to be the life, the door, the good shepherd, the light, the vine and other terms. On the other hand, he is so related to his disciples that he knows them individually by name (ch10). He knows their spiritual condition and he provides what is necessary to the those that are so close to him, indeed his beloved. Indeed, in the first chapter, Jesus presents himself through his signs and the disciples learn gradually to be his witnesses. They learn to follow Jesus' action as he performs his signs. His effort in favour of his disciples show that they have ceased to be his servants and they have now become their Master's intimate friends. It is to such friends that he addresses his profound message in the second half of John's , Ch. 13 onwards. This type of language shows that He not only speaks of faith as an intimate relationship but is meant to shows that there is room for further growth and development. As it becomes clear in John 1, Jesus' friends are called at that stage to discover his true identity, accept him in faith and then, when they discover their apostolic mission, they bring others unto him by proclaiming their personal experience. This goes a long way to explain the importance of such verbs as 'to believe in' and 'to love' as interrelated verbs and moreover, as verbs intimately associated with one's own call to discipleship and eventually to apostleship [...]