2nd John
Notes
Transcript
The shortest epistle
The shortest epistle
This by some has been called with 3rd John a postcard epistle because the whole book can fit on a single sheet of papyrus.
The letter is technically anonymous. It is only through tradition that we believe this was written by the Apostle John. There were no other early views about who the author of the book was so there isn’t much of an argument that it was anyone other than John. That doesn’t mean there weren’t speculations hundreds of years later.
Like many other epistles aka letters there is a standard format of the greeting body and closing. We start in the way the ancient world wrote letters, unsurprisingly. Unlike the modern American format that has an advantage. You start with knowing who the letter is from. Unlike our letters that are signed at the bottom here we lead with the author. Of course we don’t get a name but just start the letter with “The elder” then indicates who this letter is being written to.
The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth,
The letter seems very anonymous in our first glance. Who is it from who is it to? We are pretty confident it’s from John but who is it to? We’ve talked a lot about meanings of names. That’s so easy to do in scriptures because often these names are just Hebrew and Greek words. That’s not something we’re used to in modern day for first names at least, and it’s often disconnected but plain words for last names to indicate profession, patronage, or location. The last name smith was the blacksmith, or Johnson meaning son of John, or West someone who lived out west. Here we have some interesting possibilities about who John is writing to.
First what’s the guess you have, or what have you been taught before?
Well, we have a lot of possibilities believe it or not. The first is that the name is Electe’ which is the Greek word for elect. This is the earliest written speculation we have about who this is and it’s from around a hundred years after John wrote the letter. Found in the commentary, for lack of a better word, of Clement of Alexandria. He said “It was written to a certain Babylonian woman called Electa, whose name stands for the election of the holy church.” In other words it was written to this woman and it applies to the whole church. Maybe it was a house church that met at her place? Others think it was a woman name Kuria which is the Greek word for Lady. Kurios is the word for Lord used of God in the new testament many times. This is the female version. It should be thought of in the sense of Lords and Ladies. Someone of high esteem if it’s a title. (Gen 16:4) Interestingly enough the Aramaic/Hebrew word that you would translate into Kuria would be Martha. So some think it was the Martha we hear about in the gospel who is sister to Mary and Lazarus. Some have gone with Electakuria and others have said it would have been to Mary the mother of Jesus. Most of these are interesting some are a little preposterous. By the 6th to 7th century most settled on the idea that this was a euphemism for a church. Some say it was intended the the church as a whole. I think the most common take now is that it was directed to a local church of which John was an elder. I don’t know where I fall here. The most recent view that it was a local church makes sense and so does it being an individual. Maybe Clement was the closest and it was to a woman possibly that had a house church. The name being ‘electa’ seems very unlikely unless she had a sister of the same name.
Since the scripture teaches even us today we’ll look at is as if it were speaking to a church, our church. The children of the church would be the members. Not only does John love you but all of the faith does. Why?
because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:
What truth abides in us and will be with us forever? The gospel that Christ died for our sins, was buried 3 days rose again according to scriptures and ascended to heaven. If He did that for me, and I know he did that for you, how could I not in truth, love you as he loved me?
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.
Similar to Paul we get this greeting that seems to just be a close to standard greeting among Christians in their letters. John does not wish that they would have grace, mercy, and peace but that he has the expectation of something that is certain. NAC puts it this way “Grace is God doing for us what we do not deserve, mercy is his not doing to us what we do deserve, and peace is God giving us what we need based upon his grace and mercy.”
The main body of the letter starts now in vs 4
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.
Similarly to Philemon the beginning here is very positive and when something negative or even possibly perceived as negative is going to come from you it might be a good idea to start with acknowledging the good things first. Now when I first read that I somehow look immediately to the negative. “Some of? that must mean some WEREN’T walking in truth!” The reality is that the word some is not in Greek and there just isn’t a good way to translate this without placing some extra English words in. It could also be translated I found of your children that they were walking in the truth. But adding a verb instead of a determiner is adding more so opting with minimal addition ‘some’ makes the most since. It’s not an exclusive some, as in only some, but inclusive as in at least the ones I ran into. Like saying “Hey, I saw some of your kids today at Walmart they are so well behaved.” My first, second and third thought is never oh they saw other kids of mine that weren’t. That’s just not what is implied in the sentence. John is joyed to see that people are indeed faithfully following Jesus!. Walking in truth implies two things. Truth and Walking. Okay, so it’s not just what we know or what we believe the truth part but how we live, the walk part. We should all be walking in truth. Living what we believe.
It’s possible the specific commandment John is referencing goes back to 1 John 3:23 “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.” which is much of the theme here with truth and love.
And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. 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.
In this same vain of the commandment we can also look back to John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
Self referentially what is love? following the commands of God, including loving one another. This is reinforced by that chiasm structure in the two verses here commandment - love : love - commandments.
Why must we stick to this?
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.
Here we see a fairly unique word. Antichrist. John is the only one to use the word in the NT and he only uses it in 1 and 2nd John. Revelation never uses the word antichrist. Though it certainly talks about the one who is the embodiment of antichrist. The title describes the meaning. Anti- against or in place of Christ - the messiah.
This isn’t John saying that the one and only antichrist was the threat to the church here, but that all who deny the humanity or deity of Jesus are decievers and are antichrists.
Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.
Stay on guard. Run the race to win, do not give up on the rewards until you’re giving them up to the king by laying the rewards He grants you at His feet.
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.
This is an easy judgment call. Do you stay within the teachings of Jesus? If you run out ahead of God and do your own thing, pave your own way you don’t have God. We see that the church did this in history. They got out ahead and thought they should be in charge of government, that led to disasters all over. Stick to following Jesus and the word, not a tradition or progressivist teaching. Make sure you have the Father and the Son. What does that mean? John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” They are connected in salvation.
Getting back to the setup with the love one another… Love does not equal accepting everyone for who they are and it never has meant that. Love is sticking rigidly with God’s commandments.
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.
Now, some have taken this a little too far and won’t let a JW door knocker into the house to confront them with the truth because you shouldn’t “receive him into your house” but John isn’t saying become a monk and cut off the entire world that isn’t a christian!
What John is saying is don’t support those people! Don’t give them a place to stay aka receiving them into your house so they have a place to sleep and eat while they’re in your town spreading lies about Jesus! Don’t give them money because they were on tv and at least they said the name of Jesus. Don’t fund the ministry of antichrist!
This continues in verse 11 and greet is not meant to indicate don’t say hi but to not bless them - not to say “rejoice!” about the deceiver. The other
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.
