The earliest mention of love is in Genesis 22, where Abraham is told to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. From this we see that love is demonstrated in obedience. And it is for this that the Father delighted in the Lord Jesus: “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life” (Jn. 10:17).

So then, we see that love and obedience are very closely connected. If we love the Lord, we are obedient. If we are obedient, this delights the Lord, and we have joy in Him and in His love for us. The disciple John was the one who referred to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. He did not claim or boast in his love for the Lord but in the Lord’s love for him. This brought John into a special privilege and relationship with the Lord. The last evening that the Lord spent together with His disciples, John rested on the bosom (13:23), or breast (v. 25) of the Lord, truly a place of intimacy and dependence. It has been said that “bosom” represents affection and “breast” nurture.

It was John who asked the Lord who it was that would betray Him, and it is to John’s inquiry that the Lord responded. So we see that the one who is enjoying the love of the Lord is the one to whom the Lord can and does reveal the deep thoughts of His heart. It was to the same one that the Lord entrusted the care of His mother, Mary (19:26). It is interesting to notice that it was not one of the Lord’s earthly brothers or sisters, such as James, which we would think would be normal, but it was to John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, that the Lord gave this charge. The one who reveled in the love of the Lord Jesus towards him was the same one whom the Lord could reveal the secrets of His heart to and entrust with a very special and precious need.