HUMBLE
SERVICE; SUCCESS; SERVANTHOOD

Had it happened in North America in our era, some publisher would have flown in to offer John a five- or six-figure check for book rights to his story. But I do not think John would have been concerned about turning a personal financial profit from his experience. The present-day financial value of a “born again testimony” was mercifully unknown in a.d. 95.

“Give your heart to the Lord, get born again, and your business will grow and grow and grow!” “If you want to become a top athlete and be well known, just accept the Lord and be born again!” “If you want your cows to give more milk.…” “If you want to be sure of getting better grades in college.…”

Possibly no one ever had a clearer, sweeter, stronger testimony of the grace and salvation that is in Jesus Christ than John. Humbly he related it: “I … [am] your brother and companion in … suffering.… [I] was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”

In our day, the media would be asking, “What are you doing there on Patmos, John? You were the bishop at Ephesus. You should be at home among your people, presiding over your congregation. You were born again, were you not, John?”

“Yes,” John would have replied meekly, “I was the Lord’s disciple and companion, and I have been ministering and witnessing as He said. I am now His servant in exile.”

John 13:23; Revelation 1:9

Jesus Is Victor!, 57.