Unlike his apostolic companions, John died quietly in the city ofEphesus, serving the church he loved. But he didn’t live a quietlife. By the time he died, John had been part of the twelve disciples of Jesus, participated in the early life of the church in Jerusalem,traveled widely, and had written five New Testament books (the Gospelof John, the letters 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation). John certainly had an impressive résumé of accomplishments, but he would probably have been the first to point out that anything he had done in life paled in comparison to what Jesus did for him. John’s character résumé tells us a lot about the ways Jesus changes a person’s life. The fact that John survived the other apostles points to the kind ofunique suffering he endured. All of the other disciples suffered and died;John suffered and lived. Though not technically a martyr, John’s lifedisplayed a martyr’s qualities. He was a living sacrifice worthy of imitation. And as we shall see, he only escaped actual martyrdom by God’sintervention on several occasions. John and his brother James were two of the more fiery members ofJesus’s disciples. Artistic renditions and personal impressions often create a
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