It was the Jesus-passion.  It was kindled that memorable afternoon early in his life down in the Jordan bottoms.[1] John’s namesake, the Herald, applied the kindling match.  From then on the flames never flickered nor burned low.  They increased steadily, and they increased in purity, until his whole life was under their holy heat.

John didn’t always understand his Master.  Sometimes he misunderstood.  But he never failed in his trust of Him, nor in his fidelity to Him.  Of the chosen inner circle John was the one who remained true through the sorest test, that betrayal-night test.  Judas betrayed; Peter denied; the nine fled in terror down the road to save their cowardly lives; John went in “with Jesus.”  That fiery nature of his, that early won for him the stormy name “son of thunder,” came completely under the sway of this holier tenderer stronger flame, and burned itself out in a passion of love for Jesus.

The Jesus-passion swayed John completely.  This explains the man, and his career.  It explains this little book of his ripe old age.  And only this can.  One must read the book through John’s own heart, then he begins to understand it.  This Jesus-passioned man is the key to the book, the human key.

And the distinctive message of the book is simply this:  Jesus was God on a wooing errand to the earth.  That simple sentence covers fully all that is found in John’s twenty-one chapters.  Every line in these fourteen or fifteen pages can be traced back into that brief statement.

Indeed this becomes an outline of the book.  See:  in the opening paragraphs the wooing Lover is coming down to earth.[2] In the first twelve chapters the Lover is pleading winsomely and earnestly for acceptance.[3] Then He is seen in closest touch with the inner group of those who have accepted, opening His heart yet more, wooing still closer.[4] Then comes the last tragic pleading, pleading in intensest action, with those who persist in rejecting.[5] And then the last close heart-touches with the inner circle.[6]

The Water-Mark of John’s Gospel.

The very words John so thoughtfully chooses as his leading words bear the distinct impress of this, like the sharply indented stamp of the mint on the new coin.  Two such words stand out above all others, “believe” and “witness.”  The first actually occurs oftenest, sounding out like the dominant chord of music running throughout a symphony.  The second is like the chief warp-thread into which the fabric is being woven.

The two words are really twins, born at the same time, of the same mother.  They grow up together and work in perfect accord.  The witnessing is that men may understand and believe.  It’s the servant leading up to the belief that shall become the mastering thing.  The belief is servant, too, in turn, leading up to the witnessing that becomes the mastering passion in those who believe.

These words are worth digging into for the fine gold that lies hidden within waiting the miner’s pick.  The word “believe” is a nugget of pure gold, whether you take our English word or John’s word lying underneath.  The underneath word, that John uses in his own mother tongue, runs a sliding scale of meaning.