I read through the Gospel of John over the weekend and part of today. It took me forever because I was making note of when John wrote of something (a miracle, a person, the Old Testament, the Father, Jesus Himself) witnessing to Jesus. Also, I’m making note of Jesus’ use of light and darkness and His uses of the works of God (more on this later).
I haven’t read through the book of John in a long time. I studied it one year for an entire year with Bible Study Fellowship (BSF)when I was a little baby Christian. The big lesson I got from the study back then was that “he must increase and I must decrease.” I still think of that today. But looking at the book fresh and through the lens of the overarching theme of John, has helped me to see many things that I have missed. In that year I really learned what each chapter was about and knew where to find a particular story. But I missed a lot of the themes that tied all the stories together. John used each story to make his point, he could have used other stories, why did he choose these? Each story fits in his theme of proof and belief that Jesus is the Messiah.
I want to urge you to take this opportunity to read through the Gospel of John with me. To look at it fresh with this theme in mind and let me know what you discovered.
And yeah it’s OK to bounce back and forth between Samson and Jesus, doing so will give us more insight into both :-).
Tags: blogs4God, Christianity,Gospel of John, Theology, Reformed, Bible Study, Calvinism, Bible, Spirituality