Read through the book
- Likely written on 1 single piece of papyrus
2 John “1 The elder, To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth - and not I only, but also all who know the truth - 2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love. 4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. 7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work. 12 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete. 13 The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings.”
- John ends his 2nd and 3rd letters similarly by saying that he has more to say, but wants to do so face-to-face. He appears to prefer face-to-face interaction, but still found these words and this message to be important enough to write about.
Truth
- What I immediately notice in this book is that in the first 4 verses, truth is mentioned 5 times! Clearly, this is an important theme that we need to pay attention to.
- “…whom I love in the truth…”, “…all who know the truth…”, “…because of the truth…”, “…will be with us in truth and love…”, and “…walking in the truth…”.
- John starts by mentioning truth, because this is the fundamental thing that we need to be grounded in before we can consider anything else: God’s truth.
- What actually is God’s truth though? Truth is not based on feelings. It is the truth about Jesus and His teachings and walking in truth means allowing those beliefs to shape how we live.
- John’s writings and Jesus’ teachings are full of teachings about truth:
John 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.””
John 17:17 “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
Love
- Love is critically connected to truth. Truth without love becomes harsh and cruel, while love without truth becomes weak and fake. Both love and truth are used to describe the character/person of God and through them both He is revealed to us in the person of Jesus.
John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
- Cultural context that we live in: love at all costs! There is nothing that is more important than to love people well…What is love though? What does our culture say love is vs what does love actually look like? Describe a parent/child relationship.
- Valuing love is not the problem. The problem is defining love as always agreeing, affirming, or avoiding discomfort. A parent who says no, sets boundaries, or gives correction to their child because they want the best for them still loves that child. Loving someone in a biblical manner does not require agreeing with everything they believe or do.
1 Corinthians 13:6 “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”Ephesians 4:15 “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
- Loving Jesus is connected to keeping His commands.
John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands.”2 John 5-6 “5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”
False teachers
- False teachers need warned about because what they say isn’t always clearly false. There are grains of truth woven into the lies so that the enemy gains a foothold to get inside of your beliefs.
- This is a very practical lesson that John was talking about and something that he mentions to address a specific issue that the “lady chosen by God” was facing: how to address and deal with false teachers.
- Interacting with false teachers: What this book is not saying - that we should never interact with people who believe different things than us. It could be easy to interpret verses 10-11 as to never associate with people who do not believe in Jesus.
2 John 10-11 “10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.”
- Remember the cultural context of the time: people were meeting in house churches and it was a big deal to welcome someone into your home. This would essentially, publicly declare your support of that person and their teachings.
- In these verses, John is condemning the support of those who are dedicated to opposing the true teachings of God, not condemning hospitality to unbelievers.
- Recognizing false teachers: Regarding false teachers, we need to be incredibly careful about how we interact with them. But first, we need to recognize them!
2 John 7 “I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.”
- Base your discernment in truth and love to weed out false teachers.
2 John 9 “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”
