He loves me best?

No fewer than five times in his gospel, John refers to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved".  Though John was among the three whom Jesus called to be with Him on occasion, this statement smacks of a favoritism which some have experienced in their family:  "Momma loved you best". Is this what John claims for himself?

In a word, "no".  John is not stating an opinion about his particular status with Jesus, but rather a fact of his relationship with Jesus, as well as yours and mine.  John was (and still is!) loved by Jesus.  The difference is that he knew it, and, apparently, reveled in it, a "Jesus loves me, this I know" kind of thing.  In his later years, John seemed to talk about nothing else than the Love of God, no doubt because he knew that he was the beloved of God.  

This should be the claim of every follower of Jesus, that we are the ones whom Jesus loves, or, more particularly, "I am the one whom Jesus loves."  Just as Jesus claimed the particular Love of The Father for Himself as The Son, so we are to claim the particular Love of God for ourselves.  Perhaps this is the key goal of our Life in Christ, that we would come to believe that we are, I am, the beloved of God.  End of story, beginning of new Life.