Insights from John

These insights are best read alongside the scriptures quoted

John 2

Jesus Christ is the water of life – the power is in Him to reconcile us with the Father; to heal us and make us free. The miracle He performed for the wedding family and guests was, therefore, similar to what He taught the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob: the wine was nice to their taste (as was the water she drew), but the ‘water’ He gives through His grace and gospel truth quenches spiritual thirst and wells up in us unto life everlasting. It’s a drink we want to keep on drinking, because it is deeply delicious, like the fruit of the Tree of Life.

This is how it feels for me – a delicious drink that quenches thirst and wells up in me like the fruit of the Tree of Life that Lehi and Nephi described – and I love that the scriptures describe it exactly like that. It’s confirmation that what I feel is what really is, and is how it’s meant to feel.

John 8

verse 42

“… neither came I of myself, but it is he (the Father) who sent me”.
Christ didn’t come to earth for His own sake or His own reasons; He came because the Father desired it, and it was part of His plan. Jesus came under the auspices of that plan. He was sent, for specific purpose, by the Father.

verse 44
This is contrasted with Satan, who has always worked for himself, and has “no truth in him” – again, unlike the Saviour, in whose words and example there is the truth that makes men free (verse 32). Satan speaks of himself – of his own will and for his own, selfish, purposes; not as the Saviour, who speaks for His Father – who seeks the happiness and perfection of us all.

verses 45 & 46
So Satan speaks lies, and the Jews believe it, and Jesus speaks the truth, but they don’t believe Him.

verse 54
If I honour myself, my honour is nothing.

John 15

I have said these things to you, so that my joy might be in you, [so] that your joy might be full.

The joy that Christ has, He wanted the apostles to have. His joy came from:
⦁ knowing who He was, and
⦁ keeping the commandments of the Father with exactness – including
⦁ loving all the Father’s children

So He taught them how to be like Him, through doing those things. Then they would also have the joy He had, and their joy would be full. Then they would be happy forever, regardless of the persecutions in their lives (especially in the future). Christ knew what was coming, for them, and He gave them what they needed beforehand, so they would be alright.

Perhaps – surely – He has done that for me, and you. The Father gave me the Gospel beforehand – from infancy – knowing what was coming in my life, so I would be alright. So I would retain joy, and one day it would be full. Through this, He did not leave me an orphan (John 14:18), but provided for me to be attached to the Saviour, as a branch connected to His nourishment, the vine (15:1-11).