Both the Gospel of John and the Letters of John are remembered in Church tradition as documents in which love plays a central role. The members of the Johannine community were of the beginning of the Christian era somehow the free birds that were kept together by the memory of Jesus transmitted by witnesses who had heard his word from the beginning and by his Spirit. In imitation of the Beloved Disciple who, according to their tradition, had a more intimate knowledge of Jesus than the other disciples, they strongly protected themselves along the some line as a community of disciples, as a fellowship with the some intimate relationship with Christ and privileged knowledge of him. Strong attachment to the person of the glorified Christ, and the striving towards union with him and with one another in him was one of the hallmarks of this community. In the Letters of John we find the expression of some of the aspirations and struggles of that community.