Intro to the Gospel of John
I’m not going to get into a ton of Bible history in this devotional, however, I do think that a short introduction to the Gospel According to John - commonly simply called John - is important to help us understand the text.
If you take the time to read all of the Gospels one thing will become clear fairly quickly - one of them is not like the rest. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell basically the same story and are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because of this. John, on the other hand varies widely from this as his content is, in large part, distinct. The reason for this is not that they are remembering different events, simply that they are focused on a different part of who Jesus Christ was and, therefore, are highlighting the events of his life that point most directly to that. They all come together to give us a full picture of the life of Christ and his teachings.
John was focused, primarily, on the divinity of Christ and his status as the Messiah promised to the Jewish people. John puts heavy emphasis on showing that Jesus was the son of God and that salvation is possible through him. He wrote the book to both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) with a fairly clear intent of providing a path to salvation through Christ and then a way to deepen the relationship with our savior.
John himself was an apostle of Christ. Most scholars agree that the author was John the son of Zebedec based on other scriptures. He refers to himself as “the most beloved disciple” and it is agreed that he was likely one of the closest confidants of Jesus.