2 John 1-2

Love isn’t feeling, is doing

Illustration

[Bring an illustration about love as a service]

Reading

1 The Elder, To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth, 2 because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: (NKJV)

1 De ouderling aan de uitverkoren vrouw en aan haar kinderen, die ik in waarheid liefheb – en niet alleen ik, maar ook allen die de waarheid hebben leren kennen – 2 omwille van de waarheid, die in ons blijft en met ons zal zijn tot in eeuwigheid: (HSV)

Part 1: From who to who

“The Elder, To the elect lady and her children...”

Who is the elder?

One of the best helpers our faith can rely on to become stronger is reason itself. We need to ask ourselves the simple questions so we can have stronger foundations. With this in mind, we see from the title of 2 John that the person who wrote this book is named John. However, how do we know it was John? Did we only believe that because somebody told us, or did we figure out that it was really John who wrote it? The Bible is the book that is at the heart of our lives as Christians, therefore we need to know why the Bible is authentic, and why we believe it with our lives, so that we don’t just trust the Bible because somebody told us to, but because we see reason in it and truthfulness.

When it comes to being accepted as part of the Bible, the books of 2 John and 3 John took a long time to be accepted. For example, Eusebius called this book antilegomena, which basically means a book whose authority is doubted. However, there are some good reasons to believe that 2 John was written by the apostle John. Let's list some of them:

In the writings of early Christians, called patristic literature, there are many mentions of 2 John, and this book is said to be real and written by John. Some of the main mentions are from:

Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna (69 AD - 155 AD), in his book “To the Philippians”

Irenaeus of Lyon, the bishop of Lyon (130 AD - 202 AD), in his book “Adversus Haereses”

Clement of Alexandria (150 AD - 215 AD) and Cyprian of Carthage (210 AD - 258 AD)

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All these Christians, that I just mentioned, belong to a group in the history of the Church called the Patristic Period. In this period, we have the first christians after the apostles taking the leadership of the church, and they receive the name "the fathers of the church”. This is important because they lived around the same time as the apostle John or a little after, which increases the authority of their words when they attribute the book of 2 John as written by John.

Apart from what others said about it, there are also some hints in the book itself. The words used in 2 John are similar to the ones used in 1 John. For example, they both use the exact same terms, like: “know the truth”, “walk in the truth”, “the new commandment” and “Antichrist”.

Reference: Carlos Osvaldo Cardoso Pinto, Foco & Desenvolvimento no Novo Testamento, org. Juan Carlos Martinez, 2a Edição revisada e atualizada (São Paulo: Hagnos, 2014), 571.

Who is the elect lady?

We've addressed the initial question, identifying the elder as John. Now, we must ponder: who is the elect lady? Is it an individual, or does it symbolize something else? ‌ Well, there are three possibilities: ‌

John is addressing a specific local congregation.John is addressing the entire universal church.John is addressing an individual whom he knows, along with her family. ‌ There are numerous debates attempting to determine which of these possibilities is correct, but it's challenging to make a statement that is 100% accurate about the correct answer. However, there are a few arguments that support the understanding that this refers to a local church, and here's why: ‌

It's common for the church to be symbolically depicted as female in the New Testament. For instance, in Revelation, the church is portrayed as the bride of Jesus. Towards the end of the letter, John mentions that the children of her elect sister send greetings to the lady.

The sentence of the book says “the children of your elect sister greet you.” . The way John phrases this, mentioning the children of her elect sister greeting the lady, appears to suggest that he is speaking in allegorical terms to refer to the members of his congregation. Why do I say this? Because, it seems a bit illogical that only the children, and not the sister herself, would send greetings to the lady. If John considered the sister to be an individual, he would likely have mentioned that both the sister and her children were greeting the lady. ‌

With these points in mind, it appears that the most reasonable explanation regarding the recipient of this letter is that the lady represents a local congregation, similar to ours here.

Context

Sim, “porque muitos sedutores saíram para o mundo que não confessam (não querem confessar) Jesus Cristo como aquele que vem na carne.” Deparamo-nos provavelmente com o motivo peculiar desta carta. O movimento intelectual e religioso que classificamos sob o denominador comum do “gnosticismo” parece avançar largamente e não sem eficácia. Ele inclui um “gnosticismo cristão”, cujos representantes vêm das próprias igrejas apostólicas (1 Jo 2:19), pretendendo introduzir nas igrejas um cristianismo “superior”. Era nisso que residia sua atração e seu perigo. Para o “velho” eles são “sedutores”. Não são fenômenos isolados que poderiam ser ignorados; seu número é grande. O apóstolo fala de “muitos sedutores” que têm uma forte consciência missionária. Isso está subjacente à expressão: “saíram para o mundo”. Sua zelosa atividade de divulgação não se limita a uma região pequena. Por que o apóstolo pode e precisa rejeitá-los tão duramente e alertar tão gravemente contra eles? Porventura o “amor” ao qual João conclamava não valeria também para eles? Entretanto, na abertura da carta João combinou o “amor” de forma indissociável à “verdade”. Os “sedutores” não possuem apenas algumas opiniões peculiares que podem ser toleradas como tais. Sua proclamação ataca o cerne da mensagem apostólica, fere mortalmente “a verdade”. “Não confessam Jesus Cristo como aquele que vem na carne”. Seu “Cristo intelectual” não é o Redentor do pecador por intermédio da morte sangrenta na cruz. Acreditam oferecer um Cristo maior e mais perfeito e não vêem que se equivocam em relação ao envio real e indispensável do Filho de Deus “na carne”. Comparamos com o que já explicitamos no comentário a 1 Jo 4:1ss. Deixam de reconhecer e conseqüentemente negam o real amor de Deus, que vale definitivamente pelo fato de que Deus enviou seu Filho para a reconciliação por nossos pecados (1 Jo 4:10). Desse modo também o mandamento do amor dirigido a nós perde profundidade, bem como a força para seu cumprimento. Somente por termos sido “amados primeiro” somos capazes de também amar (1 Jo 4:19).

Werner de Boor, Comentário Esperança, Cartas de João (Curitiba: Editora Evangélica Esperança, 2008), 427–428.

The purpose of 2 John is to caution the church to remain steadfast in the core truth of the Christian faith, which is loving one another and therefore persisting in obedience to the doctrine passed by the apostles and prophets of the New Testament. Because of their love for one another and their devotion to sound doctrine, they are encouraged to reject the false teachings and refrain from supporting their ministry.

For us to understand more precisely the message of John, lets quickly understand this movement in the times of John that we usually call as proto-gnosticism movement.

Some scholars suggest that the proto-gnosticism may have roots in Jewish mysticism, Greek philosophy, and various Eastern religious traditions. It's important to notice this is not a single, unified movement but rather a diverse collection of beliefs and practices that shared some common characteristics.

Some of the characteristics of the proto-gnosticism that we know by the books of the New Testament, and we see that John is fighting here are:

They believed that the flesh was bad and the spirit was good, therefore, they couldn’t believe that God Himself would come to flesh, once that what is pure cannot have any contact with what is evil, that is the flesh.

There is no single or final truth. The gnostics believed in the experience, and that there was some sort of mystical truth (gnosticoi) revealed only to some special people, the so called gnostic masters.

Part 2: It’s all about love

“...whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth, ”

It’s interesting that right in the beginning of the book, the first statement of John is that he loves.

In a crooked society, extremely distorted by the sin, we may wonder if the love that our world preaches is the same the love as John has, and recognizes on those who love Jesus.

The love according to the world is:

“a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure.” Wikipedia contributors. "Love." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, [04/04/2024]. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love

Is it the real meaning of love? An abstract feeling? A mental state?

It’s here where John in his book starts to go in the opposite way of our World. According to the theology of John love is not a mere feeling, emotion or a mental state.

Here in his second letter, if we go a bit further, John is going to elaborate the main subject of his letter, which is the love to one another and the fight against the false doctrine.

According to John, the main characteristics of love are: obedience, resistence and enlightenment. We will dive deep into the text, and understand why that’s the real meaning of love to John.

First, why love demands obedience?

I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received a commandment from the Father. 5 And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. 6 This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 2Jo 4–6.

If we say that we love God and we love one another, then we should walk according to the truth, the Word of God. That’s why John initially write that he loves, because one of the active characteristics of John’s life is the obedience to the commands of Jesus.

What does John write about love in his gospel?

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Jo 14.21.

From the beginning to the end, John holds in his letters the truth that there is no evidence of salvation if there is no love, and there is no love if there is no obedience, because the obedience is the fruit of love itself.

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 1Jo 5.2–3.

Second, why love demands resistence?

Moving to the main admonishing of his letter, John calls his brothers to reject the false doctrine propagated by the false masters. See that first, John calls the brothers to love, and then as a consequence of this calling to love, he says:

For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. 9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; 11 for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 2Jo 7–11.

So, what is John talking about here? In short, he’s talking about the false teachers that were propagating heresies, he says that the church should reject their teaching and that the church shouldn’t support their ministry.

Brothers, notice that John is starting here with the term “For many” , this means something very important for our interpretation, this is basically the explanation WHY he says the brothers should love one another. We could read it something like, “the reason why you should love each other other and therefore obey God’s commands is because many deceivers have gone out into the World...”. The reason WHY John emphazises so clear that the brothers should love one another is because the brothers should not give space and not support the heresy.

The brothers shouldn’t believe in the false doctrine of the gnostics who preached that Jesus didn’t come in the flesh, and as well shouldn’t support their ministry.

According to the second letter of John we can summarize that love is obeying the word of God and preserving the sound doctrine among each other.

Now we should ask ourselves:

[Application]

Do I really love my brother and my sister? When I see they stumbling into a false doctrine? Do I admonish him for his good, or I just want to maintain a false harmony and I avoid going against what he is saying?

When you see your brother or your sister incurring into a mistake or professing a false doctrine, and you don’t talk to your brother in love, you don’t reprehend, then your are doing the opposite of love. When you are doing this you are not loving your brother. This is a false peache. Why? Because love is obeying the Word of God and preserving the Word of God. According to John.

Imagine you have a brother like me that was born only with one kidney, and he insists he doesn’t have to drink much water during the day because he’s not feeling thirsty. Won’t you insisting in teaching and explaining to him that he should drink at least 2 liters of water per day so he doesn’t have stones in his single kidney? Or just to not “confront” him and keep the polite and good environment you stay quiet?

Does the things of God lost their weight for us? Do we just consider them as less important as stones in the kidney?

Heresies can be extremely destructive, and that’s why the apostles spend so much energy talking about them in the New Testament. Therefore, brothers, love each other as John loved the church: stay in the word of God and admonish one another to stay in the sound doctrine. Fight for the sound doctrine. Once again, don’t be ashamed, admonish each other according to the word of God, this is love according to God himself.

Third, love demands enlightenment?

Notice that the love John mentions here is binding to the truth, he says “whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth”. That’s why love demands enlightenment, because it’s a requirement to know the truth for loving, or like we described before, in other words, we need to know the truth and have the truth in order to stay in the word of God and reprehend one another to stay in the sound doctrine.

The heard in the beginning, the gnostics used to emphasise that there is not a final truth. For them, everything that really counted was the experience that each person should have with each other. For them, there were the so called masters that received a divine understanding that was revealed only for them.

However, John is talking the chance here to emphasize that there is only one truth, in other words, THE truth. Everyone of us have access equally to this truth, and this is what binds us. The truth is the word of God that was revealed by God himself in the Bible.

[Biblica References]

John 14:6 (NIV): Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

John 17:17 (NIV): Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

John 8:31-32 (NIV): To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

It’s impossible to have love disconnected to the Bible. We need to know the Bible in order to love, because how can I obey something that I don’t even know? How can I fight for a doctrine that. I don’t even understand.

[Application]

Listen, take that as an encourangement for you. We know that we love each other by obeying the Bible and fighting for the sound doctrine, so understand that comprehending the Bible deeply is a tool that you have to love each other. There is no obedience without comprehention. There is no argument without knowledge.

Don’t let people just come and say to you what you should believe. Know yourself the truth by investigating it, and give your faith solid foundations.