Up to now, states author Carson in his Preface, what he has written on the Gospel of John was prepared for the well-trained minister or serious student, and is available only in journals or in books not likely to be read by the general reader. He is more and more convinced, Carson continues, that those people who by the grace of God have been privileged to spend much time studying the Scriptures owe the fruit of their labours not only to the scholarly community but also to the church at large. A need exists for both academic and popular approaches, he says, but this volume belongs to the latter camp. It grew out of a series of addresses given at several conferences in Canada and the United States. These have been worked over and rewritten as essays, a form more congenial to the printed page than is a sermon, but, adds the author, he has purposely refrained from obliterating all traces of the earlier form.