Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
I can’t stand 95% of the titles of the articles I see online.
Most of them make over the top claims of what their articles are about and they rarely deliver on their promises.
They are known as click bait, designed to get people to visit their sites.
Listen to some of these examples.
When you find out what this mom did to lose weight your jaw will drop!
She dieted and exercised.
Baby Ducks see water for the first time.
You won’t believe what they do next.
They get in.
These are the 10 most insane life hacks that will change your life!
It shows you how to use a paperclip to keep a power cord in place.
You won’t believe what he found living in his garbage!
A dog.
A dog was living in some trash.
The most incredible article on finances you will ever read.
It’s an advertisement for an investment firm.
Just because somebody makes a claim does not make it true.
The same can be said of claims people make about certain teachings about Jesus.
In fact there are many teachings which completely misrepresents the truth.
Our passage today comes from an entire book of the Bible, 2 John!
John wrote this quick letter to a church to warn them about such false claims.
So let’s turn there now and see how we can heed John’s warnings today.
John’s relationship with his readers
2 John
John writes as an elder (not in the sense of an official church office but in the sense of an elder in the faith).
He writes to the elect lady and her children, which refers to the church and its members.
Remember, the church is the chosen bride of Christ, so elect lady makes sense.
He loves this church in the truth, meaning his love for them is grounded in their mutual love for the truth, along with all Christians who love the truth.
Turns out, Truth is a person that lives in us and will live in us forever.
John of course is referring to Christ dwelling in us by his Holy Spirit.
It is the Spirit of God in John and in fellow Christians that breeds love for the church.
John is excited about this particular church because its members are walking in the truth just as God commanded.
This means they are living according to the truth of the gospel and John rejoices over that fact.
Now that John has properly greeted his audience he gets right to his main agenda in writing them.
Walk in Love
2 John 5-
John wants to simply remind the church of the original command Jesus gave to the church, namely, to love one another.
John reminds his readers what Jesus told him.
If we truly love Jesus we will obey his commandments.
And the main commandment that we are given is to love one another.
So, John is basically calling on the church to demonstrate its love for Jesus by loving each other.
John reminds his readers what Jesus told him.
If we truly love Jesus we will obey his commandments.
And the main commandment that we are given is to love one another.
So, John is basically calling on the church to demonstrate its love for Jesus by loving each other.
This makes sense.
If you have experienced the love of Christ you cannot help but love others.
You want to love Jesus because he loved you first, and so you want to love the things that he loves.
And what does Jesus love?
His people!
So much so that he laid his life down for them.
However, this love that the church is commanded to exercise toward one another is not a blind or foolish love.
As they love, John expects that the church will continue to walk in truth as well.
They ought to be discerning as they love, because there are those out there that John wants to warn them about who are a threat to the love John shares with this church.
Watch for Deceivers
There are deceivers who are out in the world that John wants the church to watch out for.
As they receive others, they must not let their guards down.
The group of people John has in mind in this particular instance is a group of people who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.
This group of people has denied some element of Christ’s incarnation as a human being in order to atone for man’s sins.
They are denying something that is essential to the Christian faith.
They are embracing a false gospel.
Any person who does this is deceptive and an antichrist.
We typically think of end times world leaders when we hear that word, don’t we?
But the reality is that there isn’t just one antichrist.
There are many.
Anyone who deceives with a false gospel fits that category.
And John really does not want his readers embracing such people.
He is worried that all of the hard work he and others have put in to this church will be lost if they turn and follow such people.
He is jealous that they instead obtain the reward of faith in the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
So John warns them.
Anyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ doesn’t have God.
These deceivers, these antichrists, that have left sound doctrine do not know God.
Whoever holds to the true gospel does know God.
They know the Father and the Son.
This makes perfect sense.
People who know me know true things about me.
My friends know what movies I like and what teams I follow and what food I eat and who I am married to and where I am from and who my kids are.
If someone thinks that my favorite movies are horror flicks, and that my favorite food is apple pie, and that I am from Japan, then they don’t really know me, do they?
Then John says something that doesn’t at first sound quite right to us.
He says you should not receive any such person into your house or even say hello and that if you do you will be treated like them.
What gives here?
Well, it will help for us to understand a bit more about hospitality during this time.
People didn’t exactly stay in hotels when traveling.
You would have to stay with a friend or an acquaintance or family member.
Often people would carry letters of recommendation with them when visiting towns that would help vouch for them to get them a place to stay.
This was incredibly important.
If you were not received into someone’s place for the night you were in effect a stranger in that town.
Many of the laws protecting people in the town would not apply to you.
However if you were someone’s guest, your host by taking you in was basically saying that you belonged there and were not a stranger but someone that could be trusted.
The laws would then protect you.
When John tells his readers to not welcome such people in, he was telling them not to put themselves in a position to communicate that these sort of people were legitimate followers of Jesus.
He was telling them to not vouch for a heretic.
They could not operate in a way that would suggest to others that these people were Christ followers when in fact they were antichrists.
For you to go to bat so to speak for such a person was to throw your lot in with them, not a good idea.
John’s Joy in his Readers
2 John 12
John’s message to the church is brief.
He intends on talking to them in person and was looking forward to seeing them.
John, following Jesus’ commands himself, loved the church as well and found great joy in being with them.
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