Love and Truth
Notes
Transcript
I have to admit, I didn’t know what I was going to preach after our time in Genesis. There were a few thoughts rattling around in my head and some considerations.
I contemplated jumping right into the Psalms like we do most summers, but decided we needed to spend some time in the NT—we’ve been in the OT for a while now.
There are a couple of very short letters toward the end of the NT that we haven’t gone through before. I’d wager you’ve heard little-to-nothing on either of these letters. 2 John and 3 John are so small, so seemingly inconsequential, they don’t get a lot of notice.
Like every other page in the Bible, these short letters are breathed-out by God (theopneustos). They are profitable for the people of God, useful for teaching and correction and training in righteousness.
So, this Sunday, we’re going to tackle 2 John. Next Sunday, 3 John will be our text. I’m excited to preach these short letters and I trust the LORD will work in our gathering through His Word.
This is how He speaks to us; let us be thankful.
It’s rare that we get to read an entire book of the Bible together, but since 2 John is the second shortest book in the Bible it will only take us about 2 minutes to read the whole thing.
SO,
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 2 John (toward the very end of your Bible). If you are able and willing, please stand for the reading of God’s Holy Word:
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.
May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!
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What you do in church today? Well, we read an entire book of the Bible together! That’s pretty cool.
There’s some debate here, though none too compelling, about who wrote this letter. It’s anonymous. The author is simply referred to as the elder.
From the earliest times, the letter has been attributed to John the apostle. He was the elder apostle, the last remaining member of the apostolic band left on earth (all the rest had been martyred for their faith). He was an old man, but also a leader of the Church.
We can and should agree with the teaching of the church for the last 2,000 years that the man who wrote this letter is John, the apostle and elder.
It also seems to make the most sense to regard the lady chosen by God and her children as the church and its members.
This was written to the people of God—followers of Jesus—in the late 1st Century. Inspired and preserved for us by God, it’s for the church today—the people of God who belong to Him by faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
A simple scan of this short book will give a pretty clear impression as to the theme of John’s second letter: love and truth.
Those two words—love and truth, agape and aletheia—come up again and again in 2 John.
Love and Truth are the twin rails of following Christ. You must have both, together. Love and truth, not divorced from the other, but holding hands along the way.
Love and truth.
Timothy Keller writes this:
“Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it.
Love needs truth; truth needs love. Otherwise, neither is what it should be.
This letter, 2 John, is a powerful treatise of love and truth, their power and their importance in the life of the church and in the lives of her individual members.
Walk in Love (and Truth)
Walk in Love (and Truth)
John, the elder, is not communicating anything new to the church here (then or now). John is simply, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, reminding the church about what is important. John is repeating the words of his Savior.
In the upper room the night He was betrayed, Jesus washed His disciples’ feet and gave them a command, a mandate.
With freshly washed feet, John heard these words come out of Jesus’ mouth and recorded them for us in his gospel:
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Here, many years later, the same John repeats the same command Jesus gave to them all those years earlier, at the genesis of the church.
2 John 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.”
This is the task, these are the marching orders given to the church (then and now): love one another.
But, remember! This isn’t a mushy love that gushes with pure sentimentality. This isn’t your wife’s soapy Hallmark movie, replete with sappy love songs and the same basic plot as the movie right before it.
I’m sorry, but they’re all the exact same plot. They even use the same movie poster template.
Love is not the nice, smiley, affirming, and uncritically accepting emotion of Hallmark or progressive mainline congregations or of the world’s ethic.
Love is defined as God’s Word defines it. Just look at what John writes in verse 6. He begins with the helpful words: “And this is love…”
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.
Love has a strong ethical dimension. The commandments the readers have heard from the beginning must constantly steer their lives.
It’s not “love” if it’s out-of-line or out-of-step with what the LORD has said.
To love the Lord is to obey Him in every detail of His will, expressed in His commands.
This is what love truly is.
The church must love one another—this is sometimes easier said than done.
The church, like any other gathering of people, is full of people AND all their baggage. There are personality conflicts, clashes of preference, differences in upbringing, variations of race/ethnicity.
The church as the gathering of people can be a bit of a mess. There are hard-to-love people in every local body of believers (and they may not even be aware that they are hard to love).
I maintain we can’t love one another in the way we should in our own strength. We simply can’t do it.
But we don’t have to. And this is some good news for us all. Look at how John begins his greeting with the Christian blessings of grace and peace (a play on the common greeting of the day) and then he adds-in mercy:
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.
The source of this blessed grace, mercy, and peace is none other than God Himself who is truth and love.
The church must love one another. This is commanded of us. But, we probably can’t muster the love we need. And we don’t have to!
God, who is Himself, love (1 John 4.8 “…God is love.”) gives grace and mercy and peace to His people.
The love we need to show one another comes from outside of us; its source is God.
It’s His love working through us. It’s His grace and mercy and peace that works in us and through us a love that is not our own.
We don’t have to come up with love for one another; we have to lean on the source of love. Depend on Him, on His love and grace and mercy and peace.
Love must be the way we walk in this world. The Bangels’ Walk Like an Egyptian always pops into my head. “Walk like a Christian” ought to be the thought guiding us.
Love must be the way we walk in this world. That is, love must be our behavior, the manner in which we are recognized. To walk in love, empowered by God, is our calling.
Walk in love (and truth).
Walk in Truth (and Love)
Walk in Truth (and Love)
For John, truth is a big deal. In John’s gospel, Jesus describes Himself as “the truth,” so when John speaks about truth, it’s intimately tied to Jesus.
At the outset of this letter, John begins with truth, writing to those who know the truth and recognizing that truth actually lives in and will be with [them] forever.
“It’s because Jesus really is who He claimed to be that those who trust in him are transformed by that relationship…John is stressing that truth is primary for the Christian. The truth lives in us (literally, it ‘remains’ or ‘abides’) when we realize what it is, believe it, and practice it.”
In contrast to the truth living in God’s people—those who believe the truth and practice the truth, those who walk in the truth—there are those in this world who deceive.
There is truth. And there is deception.
The deceivers are those who lead astray and cause others to wander. John warned of this in his first letter: 1 John 2:26 “I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.”
False teachers had been troubling some of the Christian communities by attacking the central truth of the gospel—that Jesus is the Messiah, the eternal Son of God who took on human nature in order to accomplish salvation.
To reject this truth is to reject all hope of being made right with God. There is no hope if not for Jesus Christ coming in the flesh.
The false teachers/deceivers are actively denying truth about who Jesus is.
Be aware of deception and the presence of deceivers. They are all around. There is no trouble applying this to us today.
Here in Rich Hill, there are Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons and other congregations who deny the truth about Jesus and are actively seeking to deceive.
They don’t come to our house any more (upon realizing we know a bit about the Bible, they don’t care to start a conversation with us), but they continue to mail literature to us.
It’s as John says, these deceivers…have gone out into the world. They are out there in all their missionary zeal, trying to deceive others into abandoning the truth.
We must realize their ploy and watch out for ourselves.
Verse 8 says, literally, “Look to yourselves.” To update it a little, we might say, “Check yourself before you wreck yourself.”
Don’t embrace false teaching! Don’t fall for it. Don’t give it any room to fester and grow.
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.
The imperative for us is to continue in the teaching of Christ!
There’s always something new coming around, some new teaching, some new heresy (which is always a centuries-old heresy repackaged).
Novelty is always deceptively attractive. “Did God really say?” is the oldest trick in the book, as old as the Garden of Eden.
False teaching thrives when it’s promoted as progressive, or as advanced thinking.
Think about things we hear today:
“Well, in that day, in that culture, that meant something different than it means for us today...”
“As far as we know, that reflected the best thinking of their day, but by any modern standard, it’s just plain wrong.”
“Did God really say…?”
The Christian’s responsibility is to continue in the teaching of Christ. This—the teaching of Christ—includes what Jesus taught and also includes who Jesus is and everything the Bible has to say about Him.
Jesus is real, historical figure and our faith is rooted in real events, carried out by the all-powerful God.
The only way to have God is through faith in Jesus Christ. Those who deny His coming in the flesh have no access to God.
Continue in the teaching of Christ. Part of this necessarily involves dealing with false teachers properly, especially where the church is concerned.
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.
The church must guard against allowing false teaching and false teachers to have a voice in the church.
Traveling teachers in the time when John was writing would go from church gathering to church gathering, looking for an audience.
John cautions these Christians about those who might come to them but who don’t bring this teaching (the teaching of Christ).
He gives two instructions: 1) Do not take them into your house, and 2) Do not welcome them.
Where the church today is concerned, we have to be careful how we apply these instructions.
We don’t divide over secondary matters where opinions can vary among the faithful (views about the end times being one example).
But when the clear teaching of the Bible (God’s only Word, inspired, infallible, sufficient) is contradicted or ignored, we cannot give anyone the opportunity to be heard in our midst—in worship, Bible Study, Sunday School, etc.
There are pastors/elders of other churches we would gladly let preach here (we have done so). And there are pastors/leaders of other congregations we would NEVER let preach or teach here.
It is not loving in any measure for a church to welcome into its pulpit anyone who denies the teaching of Jesus or of God’s Word.
Without the truth, remember, it’s not really love.
Stated pretty strongly is verse 11’s warning: Anyone who welcomes them [those to do not bring the teaching of Jesus] share in their wicked work.
Truth matters. It really does. We, Christians, must be willing to stand for the truth.
We have to stand for truth lovingly (don’t slam your front door in the face of JWs or Mormons, but neither do you have to give them the opportunity to spread their falsehood).
Truth matters. Love matters. The two go together, naturally. We need both, John clearly writes.
Listen again to Timothy Keller:
“Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it.
God's saving love in Christ, however, is marked by both radical truthfulness about who we are and yet also radical, unconditional commitment to us. The merciful commitment strengthens us to see the truth about ourselves and repent. The conviction and repentance moves us to cling to and rest in God's mercy and grace.”
We cling to truth and love—both, and at the same time—because we follow Christ.
Jesus loved deeply, even ate with tax collectors and sinners. But He always, always called for their repentance. He always spoke the truth. Jesus lovingly forgave them AND ALSO told them to go and sin no more.
We must walk in love and truth, truth and love. Follow Jesus who is truth and love. Walk with Him and you’ll find yourself walking in love, walking in truth.