John, Faithful Witness for Christ

This chapter is based on the Letters of John. 

John experienced the Spirit’s outpouring on the Day of Pentecost with the other disciples, and with fresh power he continued to speak the words of life to the people. He was a powerful preacher, on fire for the Lord, and deeply in earnest. In beautiful language and with a musical voice he told about Christ in a way that impressed hearts. The soaring power of the truths he spoke and the zeal that characterized his teachings gave him access to all classes, and his life was in harmony with his teachings. 4TC 281.2

Christ had asked the disciples to love one another as He had loved them. “A new commandment I give to you,” He had said, “that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). After they had witnessed Christ’s sufferings, and after the Holy Spirit had rested on them at Pentecost, they had a clearer concept of what kind of love they must have for one another. Then John could say: “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 4TC 281.3

After Pentecost, when the disciples went out to proclaim a living Savior, they rejoiced in the sweetness of fellowship with other believers. They were tender, thoughtful, self-denying, revealing the love that Christ had urged on them. By unselfish words and deeds they worked to kindle this love in other hearts. 4TC 282.1

The believers were always to cherish love like this. Their lives were to magnify a Savior who could justify them by His righteousness. 4TC 282.2

But gradually a change came. Dwelling on mistakes, speaking and listening to unkind criticism, the believers lost sight of the Savior and His love. They became more particular about the theory of the faith than its practice. They lost brotherly love, and, saddest of all, did not know that they had lost it. They did not realize that happiness and joy were going out of their lives and that they would soon walk in darkness. 4TC 282.3

A Tragic Change Comes Into the Early Church

John realized that Christian love was dying out of the church. “Beloved, let us love one another,” he wrote, “for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 4TC 282.4

“Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 4TC 282.5

The opposition of the world is not the greatest danger to the church. It is the evil cherished in the hearts of believers that brings their worst disaster and most certainly sets back God’s cause. There is no surer way to weaken spirituality than by cherishing envy, fault-finding, and evil thoughts about others’ motives. The strongest evidence that God has sent His Son into the world is the existence of harmony and union among people of different natures who form His church. But in order to bear this witness, their characters must conform to Christ’s character and their wills to His will. 4TC 283.1

In the church today, many who claim to love the Savior do not love one another. Unbelievers are watching to see if the faith of professed Christians is having a sanctifying influence on their lives. Christians must not make it possible for the enemy to say, These people hate one another. The tie that binds together all the children of the same heavenly Father should be very close and tender. 4TC 283.2

Divine love calls us to show the same compassion that Christ showed. True Christians will not willingly permit someone in danger and need to go unwarned, uncared for. They will not be unfriendly or distant, leaving the mistaken one to plunge farther into unhappiness and discouragement. 4TC 283.3

Those who have never experienced the tender love of Christ cannot lead others to the fountain of life. Christ’s love in the heart leads people to reveal Him in conversation, in a spirit of pity, in uplifting lives. Heaven measures the fitness of Christian workers by their ability to love as Christ loved. 4TC 283.4

“Let us not love in word or in tongue,” the apostle wrote, “but in deed and in truth.” We have completeness of character when the impulse to help others springs constantly from within. It is this love that makes the believers “the aroma of life leading to life” and enables God to bless their work. (2 Corinthians 2:16.) 4TC 283.5

True Love, the Best Gift God Can Give Us

Supreme love for God and unselfish love for one another—this is the best gift our heavenly Father can bestow. This love is not an impulse but a divine principle. It is found only in the heart where Jesus reigns. “We love Him because He first loved us.” Love modifies the character, governs the impulses and passions, and ennobles the affections. This love sweetens the life and spreads a refining influence on all around. 4TC 284.1

John worked to lead the believers to understand that this love, filling the heart, would control every other motive and raise those who possessed it above the corrupting influences of the world. As this love became the central power in the life, their trust and confidence in God would be complete. They could know that they would receive from Him everything they needed for their present and eternal good. “Love has been perfected among us in this,” John writes, “that we may have boldness on the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us ..., we know that we have obtained the requests made of Him” (NRSV). 4TC 284.2

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The Lord does not require us to do some hard thing in order to gain forgiveness. We do not need to make long, tiring pilgrimages or perform painful acts of penance to find forgiveness for our sins. “Whoever confesses and forsakes” his sin “will have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). 4TC 284.3

In heaven above, Christ is pleading for His church—those for whom He paid the redemption price of His blood. Neither life nor death can separate us from the love of God, not because we hold Him so firmly, but because He holds us so securely. If our salvation depended on our own efforts, we could not be saved, but it depends on the One who is behind all the promises. Our grasp on Him may seem weak, but as long as we stay united to Him, no one can pluck us out of His hand. 4TC 284.4

As the years went by and the number of believers grew, John worked even more faithfully and earnestly. Satan’s delusions existed everywhere. By misrepresentation and falsehood, Satan’s agents tried to stir up opposition against the doctrines of Christ, and as a result arguments and heresies were threatening the church. Some who professed Christ claimed that His love released them from obedience to the law of God. On the other hand, many taught that merely keeping the law, without faith in the blood of Christ, was enough to save them. Some held that Christ was a good man but denied His divinity. Some, living in their sins, were bringing heresies into the church. Many people were being led into skepticism and false teaching. 4TC 285.1

John Saw the Dangers Threatening the Church

John was sad to see these poisonous errors creeping into the church, and he met the emergency promptly and decisively. His letters breathe the spirit of love, as if he wrote with a pen dipped in love, but when he came in contact with those who were breaking God’s law while claiming to live without sin, he did not hesitate to warn them of their dangerous deception. 4TC 285.2

Writing to an influential woman, he said: “Many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. ... He who abides in the doctrine has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.” 4TC 285.3

In these last days there are evils similar to those that threatened the early church. “You must have love,” is the cry heard everywhere, especially from those who claim to be sanctified. But true love is too pure to cover unconfessed sin. While we are to love people, we are to make no compromise with evil. We are not to unite with the rebellious and call this love. God requires His people to stand for the right as firmly as John did in opposing soul-destroying errors. 4TC 285.4

The apostle teaches that we are to deal with sin and sinners clearly and directly. This is not inconsistent with true love. “Whoever commits sin,” he wrote, “also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.” 4TC 286.1

As a witness for Christ, John did not enter into long, drawn-out arguments. He declared what he knew. He had been closely associated with Christ and had witnessed His miracles. For him the darkness had passed away; the true Light was shining. He spoke from the abundance of a heart overflowing with love for the Savior, and no power could stop his words. 4TC 286.2

“That which was from the beginning,” he declared, “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life ... we declare to you.” 4TC 286.3

Like John, all true believers may bear witness to what they have seen and heard and felt of the power of Christ. 4TC 286.4