Fidelity Is Our Aim

Text: 2 John 9-13

Introduction

Reminder from the whole of 2 John so far:

The truth will abide with us, Christians, forever.

From the beginning of the church, by the Lord Jesus himself, we are commanded to continue loving each other and God.

Love manifests itself in obedience to the teachings of Christ.

Next, John warns the church of the deceivers that had gone out in the early years of the Christian church.

It’s sad to say that this is still true today.

Many deceivers are vying for your attention, affection, and allegiance.

And John warns the church to keep a close watch, an active watch over themselves, that they may not be deceived and led astray.

That brings us to the remainder of the letter in Verses 9-13.

If you’re able, would you please stand out of reverence for the reading of God’s word.

The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of the Lord will stand forever

Read 2 John 9-13

2 John 9–13 ESV

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete. The children of your elect sister greet you.

Leader: This is the Word of the Lord.

Congregation: Thanks be to God

Pray

Fidelity for Everyone (V9)

John continues with his urgency and argument to the church in addressing those that do not hold to the teaching of Jesus Christ.

What we find is that the teaching of Jesus is the benchmark for belief. It is the standard.

Remember when Jesus said, “You have heard it said, but I say to you” in the Sermon on the Mount?

The teachings of Christ were to guide and anchor the early church and the same is true for you and me.

We don’t become Christians or walk with the Lord for a period of time and then move on from Jesus and his teachings.

You never graduate from the gospel.

John tells us that if you move on, abandon, add to, or even take away from the teachings of Jesus you don’t have God.

But if you do abide in the teachings of Christ then you have both the Father and the Son.

This all seems so intuitive. Why would anyone ever add to or take away from the gospel of Jesus? From his teachings?

That’s a great question, but the reality is that it is all too common.

It was common in John’s day, in the early centuries of the church.

And it’s common today.

If you go back to the very first phrase of V9, “goes on ahead” that can be rendered as “runs ahead” (NIV), “wander away from” (NLT), or “goes too far” (NASB).

What this works itself out as is “everyone who innovates” in their beliefs and teachings.

In the thought of John that we find in his gospel and his epistles, remaining in the teaching of Christ, abiding there, is synonymous or the equivalent to walking in the truth.

Only by holding to, remaining faithful to, the teachings of Christ can someone claim to be a follower of Jesus.

This is consistent with the understanding of teachers and teaching in this day.

2 John was written somewhere between AD 70 and AD 100.

From the 1st Century BC to the 2nd Century AD, disciples/followers would go to live with their teacher, their Rabbi, within the Jewish tradition.

This was to develop a deep formation and lasting impact. To learn the ways and teachings of the Rabbi.

So that when they left their time with the Rabbi, they would continue in Judaism and the orthodox teachings of the Torah.

This is the same idea for the church that John is writing to and for you and me.

You and I, as Christians, are called to hear the teachings of Jesus and commit our lives to living in light of this.

One very practical thought we can process in our own lives, as those who claim to follow Jesus, is this:

If you listen to a leader, influencer, pastor, or someone that has an influence over you:

Are you more committed to their teachings, their thoughts, and their interpretations than you are to the teachings of Jesus?

The easy answer is “Well of course not! I would never do such a thing.”

Do you consistently listen to or watch certain pastors and preachers?

(This can be a tricky one, especially for committed Christians.)

We are so engrossed in growing in our knowledge of God and the Bible, the teachings of Jesus, etc. but we must always check ourselves, check our persuasions and preferences at the foot of the cross.

This can actually be really funny with young preachers, and I confess this as a young preacher myself, but you can always know when a guy has been listening to a certain preacher too much because they will take on their mannerisms.

Hands, movement in the pulpit, pace, tone, etc.

While this is funny, it can be really serious for all of us as Christians.

Are you, am I, more committed, more influenced by the teaching of another pastor, influenced by the writing of a Christian author or any author, more than we are committed to and influenced by the teachings of Jesus Christ?

This is vitally important to diagnose in your own life.

Why?

Your favorite pastor, author, leader, or speaker can’t save you.

There’s only one who can bear the weight of your soul and he’s done just that.

Here's the important lesson for you and me. You can’t have the Father and the Son, you can’t have a relationship with God, without the teachings of Jesus.

Catch that.

To confess and follow the Lord Jesus is to submit to and cling to his teachings.

You can’t have Jesus without his teachings.

You can’t have the Father without the teachings of Jesus.

You can’t have the Father and the Son if you add to the teachings of Jesus.

To do this is to act as if they are lacking and need us to add to them to soften or contextualize them

That’s what we’re tempted with today.

Let’s state this negatively and positively:

Negatively: To go beyond, to innovate, to add to the teachings of Jesus is to miss out on God the Father and God the Son.

Positively: To hold fast to the teachings of Jesus is to walk in the truth and receive both, God the Father and God the Son.

We must hold to the teachings of Jesus, our very souls depend on it.

John’s call for the early church is for each believer to lay hold to the teachings of Jesus.

See them, hear them, read them, and never get over them.

There is a great necessity for fidelity to the teachings of Jesus.

Fidelity for Everyone.

Next we see...

Fidelity for Teachers (V10-11)

John continues that if a deceiver, one who is unfaithful comes to you don’t allow him into your home or greet him.

Why?

You’ll be deceived and you’ve effectively endorsed their merry band of lies and wickedness.

Extending hospitality in the Greco-Roman culture gave a guest social standing within the community equal to the host’s own standing.

“The elder’s prohibition is not speaking about pagan friends or unbelieving relatives, but of those travelers who professed to be Christian in a teaching role, who may have had some standing in the church at large, but who were undermining apostolic authority and teaching. The point of the elder’s strong exhortation was to deny even the slightest opportunity for false teachers to influence or infiltrate the church, especially when the church of that time was meeting not in church buildings but in private homes.”

John’s exhortation carries into today’s context quite easily, but I believe we may have an even greater chance of failing to heed his counsel.

The pastor, the church, and the individual Christian must be committed to actively watching the teaching that they consume.

Think of:

Programs you watch or listen to:

Pastors/Churches

Politics

Anything that informs your worldview

Authors and books you read:

Are they more committed to the teachings of Christ or are they adding to his teachings?

You may say, “Hey pastor, this sounds like legalism. Are you wading into those waters?”

This is the great question of my generation.

Obedience and conformity to the teachings of Christ is not legalism, it is human flourishing.

Obedience and conformity to the teachings of Christ is not legalism, it’s worship.

Remember what Proverbs 4:20-27 says: “My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.”

Look at Verse 23: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Keep/watch your heart because the wellsprings of life, of joy, flow from it.

The teachings and truth of Christ are for our good.

They are the truths of scripture.

Think of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says over and over, “You have heard it said, but I say to you”

Think of the Road to Emmaus, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

ASIDE

We as a staff have said this in passing before but if you ever hear anything that is contrary to the scriptures, contrary to the teaching of Jesus, then come see us.

We are convictionally committed and bound to God’s Word, to the teaching of Christ.

This is why if you pay attention to the structure and format of the Sunday morning service we are corporately, congregational confessing and reading the Word, singing the Word, praying the Word, and sitting before the teaching of the Word.

If we aren’t committed to the fidelity of the Word then we have not only become corrupt and deceived, but we are complicit in this deceit.

Martin Luther put it this way:

It’s a great thing to know that one has the very sure and infallible Word of God.

It is a great thing, a marvelous thing, that you and I have the very Words of God at our fingertips.

We must stay faithful to the scriptures, never turning to our right or our left.

Never adding to or taking away from it.

Though John’s exhortation is specifically to teachers, it goes for each of us as well.

COME UP FOR AIR

Why should you as a believer hold this high a view of the Word? Aren’t there bigger “fish to fry?”

Listen to the words of Jesus and Peter in John 6:66-69

John 6:66–69 ESV

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Peter looks to Jesus and he says “Where else would we go? You hold the words of eternal life”

The teachings of Jesus are the very words of eternal life.

We should be committed to the fidelity of the teachings of Jesus because we have tasted and seen, looked and beheld the goodness o God in Jesus Christ.

This is a hill worth dying on and that’s what John teaches us here.

Thomas Cranmer described the importance of the teaching of Christ this way:

“How can anyone say that they profess Christ and his religion if they will not apply themselves, as far as they can or may conveniently, to read and hear, and so to know, the books of Christ’s gospel and doctrine?”

We must hold to the teachings of Jesus, those we listen to, those we give influence to, those whose teaching we sit under in various ways, must be unwavering in their commitment to the teachings of Jesus alone.

We’ve seen Fidelity for everyone in V9, Fidelity for Teachers in V10-11, and now...

Fidelity for Complete Joy (V12-13)

John ends this short letter by telling the church that he longs to come to them “face to face”

How does he describe this?

That being together would make their “joy complete.”

In his gospel account, John records Jesus teaching on the True Vine and uses this same description.

Listen to what he says in John 15:9-11

John 15:9–11 ESV

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Jesus tells his disciples to remain and abide in his love.

And how are they to abide in his love?

To keep his commandments.

Sound familiar?

Look up to 2 John 6 “And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.”

This is the consistent message of John:

Abide in love by keeping the commandments of Jesus, holding fast to the teachings of Christ

Just as John has taught in his gospel and this letter, this is how our Joy is made complete.

Ask yourself the question, “What makes my joy complete?”

Is it financial security?

Is it holding a position of prominence/feeling important?

Is it your family?

Is it retirement or the goal of retirement?

Notice that none of these things are inherently bad things, but they are not ultimate things.

When good things become ultimate things, they quickly become bad for you and me.

However you answer that question, if it’s not “My joy is made complete in Christ,” then we must repent and look to the one who is our hope in life and death, who completes our joy, the Lord Jesus.

Conclusion

Now that we’ve concluded our study of 2 John, I would be remiss to not look back over our study together and make one final comment.

It’s easy with epistles or letters, especially short epistles, to miss the forest for the trees.

One good skill for each of us to develop in our own Christian walk is to always get to the author’s intent.

Why did John write this?

Why was this epistle necessary?

What is he trying to convey?

Not only is this a good skill in terms of reading and understanding, but it will also transform how you read and understand the Bible, especially the New Testament.

The author’s intent helps us to apply the text appropriately.

The truth of scripture never changes.

Culture, pressures, struggles, context…that may change, but the truth never changes.

This is why before I read the scripture, I always say “The grass withers and the flower fades”

These things will change over time. BUT

“But the word of the Lord will stand forever”

So why did John write this short epistle?

He warned of these false teachers, he urged the church to continue in love and obedience to the Lord Jesus, but why?

So that they would not be deceived and they would receive their full reward.

Their reward, your reward, the full reward is full transformation and presence with Christ.

The consummation of the relationship with the Father and Son.

The full reward is being with Jesus and being like him.

That’s why fidelity matters.

We hold fast to the teachings of Christ because of his faithfulness to us.

It’s so that at the end of your life, you say, “I'm thankful for my family, that loves me. I’m thankful for the time God has given me, but I’m ready to see Jesus. I can’t wait to see Jesus. Send me home."

And your savior will say to you, “My child, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy and rest of your master.”

That’s the full reward that John is contended for.

It always has been and always will be to finally be with Jesus.

We get Jesus. That is our reward.

Let’s Pray.