But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God.
From his early boyhood, John Paton wanted to be a
missionary. Before studying theology and medicine, Paton served for ten years
as a Glasgow City Missionary. After graduation, he was ordained and set sail
for the New Hebrides as a Presbyterian missionary. Three months after arriving
on the island of Tanna, Paton’s young wife died, followed by their
five-week-old son. For three more years, Paton labored alone among the hostile
islanders, ignoring their threats, seeking to make Christ known to them, before
escaping with his life. Later, he returned and spent fifteen years on another
island.
Paton was working one day in his home on the translation
of John’s Gospel—puzzling over John’s favorite expression pisteuo eis, to
“believe in” or to “trust in” Jesus Christ, a phrase which occurs first in John
1:12. “How can I translate it?” Paton wondered. The islanders were cannibals;
nobody trusted anybody else. There was no word for “trust” in their language.
His native servant came in. “What am I doing?” Paton asked him. “Sitting at
your desk,” the man replied. Paton then raised both feet off the floor and sat
back on his chair. “What am I doing now?” In reply, Paton’s servant used a verb
which means “to lean your whole weight upon.” That’s the phrase Paton used
throughout John’s Gospel to translate to “believe in.”
What a great illustration about “believing in” Let us
each lean our whole weight upon the things that God teaches us today
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