- No Stranger To Suffering
John was well aware of Satan’s attack against God and the church in that first century of Christian history. He humbly affirmed that he was a “companion in the suffering and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus” (Revelation 1:9). And what had John’s faithful Christian testimony earned for him? Exile! Had it happened in North American 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 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 relates it: “I, 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.”
Allow me to be frank about this insidious issue in our Christian circles. If the modern doctrine of “accepting Jesus” is all its current advocates claim it to be, John would not have been suffering in a one-man slave camp on Patmos. He would be at home with his congregation. He would have financial prosperity. He would know what strings to pull and how to be friendly with the right people in high places.