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I listened to a podcast this week in which the topic of discussion was the difference between John’s Gospel and the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Some people say the Gospels are so different that they couldn’t have all been written by people who followed Jesus. People say that John’s Gospel, which was written latest in time, includes theological progression and embellishment.

NT Wright, on the other hand, points out that John’s words echo words found in the other Gospels, though it is very different in its emphasis. He also observes that since John’s Gospel was written latest, he would have had access to the other Gospels. There would have been no need for him to cover the same ground the other Gospels already covered.

Wright’s observation about John not wanting to cover ground already covered by the other Gospels, or not wanting to cover it in the same way, makes sense to me. John also had more time to think over and chew on the words of Jesus because he lived long, and he wrote his Gospel later than the others.

John’s Gospel is more philosophical and theologically developed in an obvious sort of way (not that the other Gospels are lacking in theology). Did he embellish on what Jesus said? We don’t know. Would embellishment make it any less “scripture”? I don’t think so.

John was one of the three apostles who spent the most time with Jesus and was most intimate with him. He was part of the inner circle of disciples who were closest with Jesus. He may have gained more insight into what Jesus said in that intimacy and the luxury of a long life to reflect on what Jesus said than the other Gospel writers.

I probably like John’s Gospel the best because it is so philosophical, beginning with some of the most poignant words found in writing anywhere:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:1-4

Fast forward a few days: A friend texts me and a group of people a Bible verse or two every morning. I always read it as part of my morning Bible reading. Sometimes the things that I am reading tie together with other things I am listening to and thinking about.

That was the case this morning. The verses sent in the text reminded me of NT Wright’s statements about the echoes of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in John’s Gospel. The verses in the text from my friend this morning are as follows:

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

1 John 3:2‭-‬3 NIV

These words are not from the gospel of John, but from the first epistle of John. As I read them, I immediately heard echoes of the words of Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, which was likely written earlier than John. In that letter, Paul said:

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

1 Corinthians 13:10-12 (NIV)

1 Corinthians 13, of course, is the famous “love chapter”, ending with the statement: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) John’s first letter is all about love. Just as Paul focuses on love in 1 Corinthians 13, John focuses on love in 1 John, and both of them speak in that context about the present limitations on our knowledge and knowing more fully when we see Christ face to face.

The statement that caught my attention is that we do not know what we will be until Christ appears; then, we will be like him, and we will see him as he is. These words of John echo Paul’s words when he says for now we know in part, but then we will know as we are fully known. Now we see only as a reflection in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face and we shall know fully even as we are fully known.

The similarities between these passages are striking to me., and all the more that they are both spoken in the context of love. They emphasize transformation that will take place in us in the context of our relationship to God. They emphasize that we see and know only partially in this life, and we cannot see or know exactly who God is or exactly what God has created us to be at this point.

Both passages speak to a future in which we shall know fully even as we are fully known (Paul) and see God as He actually is (John).

Now, though, we do not see clearly. The King James says we see only as “through a glass darkly”. I am struck by the implications of these things: both the fact that John echoes Paul, and Paul echoes John, and by the emphasis on love because we do not know what we do not yet know.

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Paul became intimate with Jesus after Jesus died and rose again. Jesus appeared to Paul in the flesh in dramatic fashion and absolutely changed the trajectory and the character of Paul’s life in that encounter. Paul became intimate with Jesus after the death and resurrection in a way few (if any) other men have, yet he realized his limited perspective: now we only know in part, as “in a mirror dimly” (ESV).

Paul says that Jesus is the embodiment of God in the flesh – the very image of the invisible:

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 

Colossians 1:15-18

These words of Paul remind me of the beginning of the Gospel of John I quoted above: “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”

These similarities between Paul and John suggest a cohesive view of Jesus, as do the many similarities between John and the synoptic Gospels, among the eye witnesses. The New Testament writings hold together as a whole, though they are written by very different people who encountered Jesus differently.

Remarkably, John and Paul had very separate and distinct encounters with Jesus. They didn’t even meet each other until years after Jesus died. Yet, their writings echo each other harmoniously. They knew Jesus separately and through very different experiences, they met only a few times over the years, and they didn’t know each other well. Yet, their words echo each other.

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John’s Gospel observes that Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not reported in his Gospel (John 20:30); and he says, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)

Paul says we know still only in part. John says we do not know Jesus as he really is. Paul says, when we see Jesus face to face we shall know as we are fully known, and John says says we will see Jesus as he really is.

Both of them wrote these words in the context of love. John said,

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

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Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God…. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

(1 John 3:23 and 4:7, 10-12)

Paul said,

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears….

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:8-10, 13

In the comparison and the similarity of Paul’s words and John’s words, which echo each other, we see them discounting knowledge and even prophecy (which is what Scripture is) and emphasizing love. Perhaps, we should do that as well.

Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has any man imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him. (1 Corinthians 2:9) If we could grasp who God really God is, I believe we would be utterly transformed, but we must settle for seeing as in a mirror dimly (or in a glass darkly, depending on translation).

Though we know only in part, and we have yet to know God as he really is, we often rely heavily on our knowledge, as imperfect, cloudy, and partial as it is. We often emphasis knowledge (doctrine, dogma, right thinking) in the way we approach Christianity over love, but John and Paul are harmonious in their emphasis of love over knowledge, and even over prophecy.