Today I am going to cover the entire book of Second John (there’s only one chapter, so the whole book is just 2 John 1:1-13). I will also reference John 14 (the gospel account)
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.
This letter begins with a simple greeting from “the elder” who is John, to the lady chosen by God and to her children. Some English translations say “the elect lady”, others say “the elder lady”. There are a few differing opinions whether this letter is to an actual lady and her kids, or if it’s a metaphor of the church and the children are local congregations of the church. The Spanish NIV translates it as the church and her members, even though most English translations don’t so far as to assume this interpretation. A third interpretation is that the lady is Mary, the mother of Jesus. That might be supported by the fact that Jesus told John to care for Mary on the cross, and verse 13 says the children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings. The idea being that John’s mother is Salome, who is believed to be Mary’s sister. Each interpretation would make the original audience or recipient different, but the overall context of the letter doesn’t change greatly regardless. John is expressing a love and fellowship to the lady and children. “whom I love in truth.” Verse 1 says “All who know the truth love the lady and the children too.” And in verse 2, he says that he has this love is because of the truth. And this truth lives in us and will be with us forever. So whether this is written to a certain person or not, the greeting is expansive and inclusive. It expands the love he has for the lady and children to include ALL who know the truth. Also, if this were a specific recipient to this letter, the truth he is talking about is still a lot more general because “it lives in us and will be with us forever”
There are some things that exist temporarily and there are other things that are permanent. As Christians, we worship and follow Jesus who claimed to be the way the truth and the life. John 14:6-7
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Throughout John’s writings, we start to see trends in his language and metaphors. This “Love in truth” language that John writes about in 2nd John should point us to Jesus Christ. According to John’s gospel writings when you are in truth, you are in Christ. If you say you are living in the Way, you are talking about Jesus. Just as if you said I love you in truth, it means in Christ. The reason we have love and can love is because of Jesus. In 1 John 3:16
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
According to John’s first letter, we know what love is because Jesus demonstrated it. Jesus laid down his life for us. That’s how John defines Love. And who is it that will be with us forever? Jesus Christ says in Matthew 28:19-20
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus is with us always. And what lives in us and will be with us forever? Back to John 14 again
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
We have the communion with Holy Spirit of God, the Counselor, the spirit of Christ living in us and advocating for us. And Christ tells us in verse 18 I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.
So back to 2nd John verses 1-3
Whether “the lady and her children” are specific people, or a specific church, John is writing to them about something that every true Christian can understand and share in. When you read John’s other letters and Gospel you start to see ideas that keep getting repeated. There’s a love that we have when we’re in Christ. When we are in Truth. And when we are in Christ or in the Truth, it means we have a Spirit that lives in us and will be with us forever. This is only possible through Christ. So verse 3 says directly
“Grace and Mercy and Peace From God the Father and From Jesus Christ, the Father’s son, will be with us in truth and Love.”
We don’t deserve that favor, so it’s Grace. We deserve to be objects of God’s wrath, and we are not, so that’s Mercy. And although we were enemies, God Forgave us. So we have Peace. All three of these things are amazing. All three of these things describe some aspect of or form of our relationship to the creator of the universe. And John expresses these three things, Grace, Mercy, and Peace in the form of a promise. They 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.
What’s the instruction? What’s the command at this point? It’s not a new command. It’s a command that we have had from the beginning. The Beginning: More important language to understand. The Bible talks about God’s majesty from the Beginning. John mentioned this “beginning” in his Gospel. In the beginning there was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Our command is timeless. From the beginning. We are asked to love one another. How do we love one another? Verse 6 explains. This is Love: We walk in obedience. We obey God. To obey we need to understand all God’s commands. We need to study and figure out what that verse or that commandment, or that law has to do with Love. How do each of the 10 commandments encourage us to love each other as we love ourselves? How do the penalties for breaking commandments and restoring to others what we’ve taken from them express love? Where and how does Justice fit into love? God’s character is seen in His laws and his Bible. If we care about that we will want to know it and study it. Deuteronomy 4:2,5-8
2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.
5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?
Look what the Old Testament explains will happen when people follow and respect the laws. As a result of abiding by the law, Israel appears a wise and understanding people to outsiders and to the nations. Israel’s justice and righteousness testify to how good God is. A respect for order and fairness is necessary to create a world where people share a trust in each other. That’s the way a society can function. When you can have a contract or covenant, when you are able to write up an agreement, when strangers can agree and have a shared understanding that breaking a contract is wrong. A society works when there’s a general sense that dishonesty is wrong. “Do not bear false witness” Trust is important to get anything done, if you need more than one person to accomplish your goal. We need to trust our safety and all agree that life is valuable and protected. “Do not murder” A society works best when your property and possessions are secure and not jeopardized. “Do not steal.” You need to have incentives to earn and save, but society works best when we aren’t hating each other for their accomplishments, “Do not covet.” A society works best when marriage bonds and the commitment to families are respected. “Do not commit adultery” A society can function across time when we learn these laws and pass them down from generation to generation “Honor your Mother and Father”. All these laws help us interact with each other, but ultimately these laws are good because they are from God. They are good because they reflect God’s Glory, so we should “Have no other Gods before Him.” Loving God means appreciating Him above all other things that distract us from his Goodness. “Do not commit Idolatry”. We are inclined to focus on this world and our things, so when we “Remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy” we bring our minds to a sense of worship and praise. Respecting God and respecting the idea of what holiness and specialness is means that we “Do not use the Lord’s name in Vain”. All order in society comes from a shared moral understanding and a set of laws, that outlines what’s right and what’s wrong. And that comes from God.
Following laws doesn’t make you a legalist; it makes you a loving and considerate person towards other people. Following laws is a form of worship of God. Not just singing on Sundays, but we worship God in our words and in our deeds. You aren’t a legalist if you follow the laws. What makes you a legalist is when you begin to expect that your success at following the laws justifies you and makes you righteous. What makes you a legalist is when you think you can be justified by your works. Christians don’t follow laws because they are trying to get into heaven. We aren’t bargaining or trading with God. It’s not like if we do something good, God owes us Heaven. There’s not an exchange. God’s not buying our righteousness with eternal rental properties in Heaven. Legalists believe those things, and that motivates their actions. But our actions are motivated by love. And our obedience should and will surpass that of Pharisees and legalists. Jesus didn’t come to abolish the laws, but to complete them. Let’s read more about about the connection between love and obedience in John 14. We read a little section of John 14 earlier when talking about the Holy Spirit.
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Love leads to obedience. How do we know what Love is? It’s obedience. For Jesus, Love meant laying his life down for us. For us, it means laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters, but ultimately laying down our lives for God. If we love, we will keep God’s commands. If we love Jesus, we love what’s important to Jesus. If we love God, we love God’s character and His laws. Verse 16, If we love Jesus, He will ask the Father to give us an advocate. The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will live in us, and Christ will live in us. Verse 20: Jesus Christ (the Son) is in the Father, and we are in Christ, and Christ (the Spirit) is in us. Verse 21: Whoever has his commands and keeps them are ones who love Jesus. So this is a good point to ask yourself, Do you have his commands in your heart? Do you keep them? Do you know what they are? Ask yourself and test yourself. Nobody can answer that for you besides yourself. We should be curious to see if we are of the spirit or of the world. The world will not and cannot accept the spirit because it doesn’t see it or know it.
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
One of the apostles, Judas, asks Jesus a question. And it’s kind of a question that many doubters like to ask. Why doesn’t Jesus reveal himself to the whole world? Why doesn’t the world accept the Holy Spirit. The weird thing is Jesus’s response. He talks again about love and obedience. And at first none of it made much sense to me. Just reading over it a few times, it seems like Jesus was just ignoring the question and didn’t really answer it. He just seemed to talk about love and obedience again. I started thinking and praying about what these verses meant. What was Judas’s question? Was the question about Jesus’s apparent failure to reveal himself? I don’t think so. Didn’t Jesus publicly do that during his ministry on earth, and then on the cross and then the resurrection? I think Jesus showed himself extensively. So was the question about why salvation is only for a select few? I think Christians can tend to be exclusive, and that turns people off. The Calvinist idea of having a predetermined group known as the elect is very hard to swallow for some people. But that’s what the Bible teaches. The road IS narrow. The Workers ARE few. BUT, The Christian Church’s message tends to be one of condemnation. We say we’re going to spend an eternity with God, and everyone else is going to hell. And that’s that. We say, IF you’re not with us, you’re pagan heathen, worldly, demon possessed and God is sending you away to hell forever. The problem is the church seems to like to do the condemnation instead of leaving that to God himself. Jesus’ reply actually answers that question of the apparent exclusivity. He replies and the first word he says is ANYONE. Anybody. Whosoever believes. Whoever Loves. “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” The promises echo the promises of the Old Testament “I will be your God, and you will be my people” “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God”. It is beautiful. It is very inclusive. The only requirement is love. It’s not works, it’s not religious acts. It’s not your race or lineage or your bloodline. It’s not your efforts. The first thing is to love Jesus. First you love, then that leads you to obey. God will come to you. The Holy Spirit will dwell in you and make his home in you.
On the other side of that coin, is verse 24. Anyone who does not love Jesus will also not obey his teaching. Just like Matthew 7:16 says. By their fruit you will recognize them. Who? Those that don’t love Jesus. Those who don’t obey his teaching. Those who not only disobey but also teach disobedience. Those who according to 2nd peter “follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority” Matthew 7:16 calls them False prophets. 2 John calls them deceivers and antichrists. Let’s go back to 2nd John 1:7-11
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.
There are people out there who are against the teachings of the Bible. Some use the name of Jesus, but don’t follow his teaching. They preach works, or they preach prosperity and worldly comfort. Back in John’s day, some preached the IDEA of Jesus, but they didn’t actually acknowledge that he existed and came in the Flesh and was one of us. Without a human Jesus, the law couldn’t have been fulfilled. Without a real person, we couldn’t have had a priest and a king. We couldn’t have had the Old Testament prophecies confirmed. Today we hear all sorts of false doctrines circulating. Plant a seed, make a donation, and watch your favor come in? What? This isn’t supposed to be a pyramid scheme, this is Salvation that we’re talking about!
How do we react to false doctrine? We need to reject it. We need to safeguard our faith and our true doctrine. We need to not allow falsehoods to take away what we have worked for. We study our Bibles, we spend time and effort on getting to know God and His word. Why turn around and waste that effort by studying and allowing ourselves to be captivated by false doctrine? We need to be strong and ignore it. But we also need to pull our support for it. Verse 10 says don’t take people into your house or welcome them. If you have people over for dinner, you don’t have to worry about where everyone is spiritually, or who believes what. This scripture isn’t about houseguests. This is about supporting a fake ministry. Back then, churches met in people’s homes. Don’t welcome false teaching in your home or the place where you taught people about God. It would be like today, make sure you don’t welcome guest preachers who speak lies and bad doctrine to your church. Also, In those days, Pastors and Evangelists would travel and go from town to town and stay at people’s homes. A way to support a ministry back then would be to put up the traveling evangelist or teacher into your home and feed them. Today people just ask for pledges and offerings to support missions trips, but back then, they would ask for a place to stay. John says don’t welcome them into your home in that regard. Again, if you have a guest pastor or preacher who is known to preach false doctrine, do not support them in any way. Don’t give them a pulpit or platform to speak on, and don’t give them a free meal or free lodging. Make sure the ministries you support preach the word and teach the word and study the word. There are plenty of ministries that teach sound doctrine that deserve support, and there are plenty more that don’t. Be careful with how you donate, and be careful in how you spend your study time.
This is kind of where the letter of Second John ends. But what’s really interesting is the similarity between 2 John and 1 John. I read First John and it’s kind of like an expanded version of Second john. It has all the same topics and themes, but he spends chapters talking about what he only discusses in a few verses. If you are looking for things to study to supplement after this sermon, I would recommend reading 1 John. Take your time. Maybe mix it up a bit. Reread the one and only chapter of 2nd John in between each chapter of First John.
Now although this is where 2nd John ends, I don’t like finishing with a verse about false prophets. Mainly because it seems to be focusing on something that is lacking. We reject a falsehood, instead of affirming a truth. We end up finishing our thoughts on what someone else is doing wrong, instead of what God has done. The Bible tells us to take things off, but always tells us to put on Christ. So, because we have such a great blessing from God, and it seems like not saying anything would be a missed opportunity to speak the words of life. I am going to end with the stark contrast to what the deniers and false prophets preach. 1 John 4:9-12
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
For us, Love means following God’s commands. For us Love means obedience. For Jesus Christ, that obedience meant laying down his life for sinners. For GOD, showing his love for us means sending his one and only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him. Not that we loved God first, but that He loved us and sent Jesus Christ in the Flesh – as a sacrifice for our sins. Because of this love, we can love one another with a love that is supernatural. A love that comes from a divine source.