For the Sake of the Truth
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For the Sake of the Truth
For the Sake of the Truth
1 The Elder: To the elect lady and her children: I love all of you in the truth—and not only I, but also all who have come to know the truth —
2 because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us forever.
3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking in the truth, in keeping with a command we have received from the Father.
5 So now I urge you, dear lady—not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.
6 And this is love: that we walk according to His commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: you must walk in love.
7 Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
8 Watch yourselves so you don’t lose what we have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward.
9 Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it, does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.
10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and don’t say, “Welcome,” to him;
11 for the one who says, “Welcome,” to him shares in his evil works.
12 Though I have many things to write to you, I don’t want to do so with paper and ink. Instead, I hope to be with you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete.
13 The children of your elect sister send you greetings.
2 John
The most important reality is divine truth — Divine Truth. It is the greatest essential.
Listen what the Bible says about Divine Truth.
In — God is the God of truth. Christ is the Truth in and full of truth in . Also in , the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth. In , the Scripture is called the Scripture of Truth. We are save by the Truth, sanctified by the truth. We love the truth, are judged by the truth, set free by the truth, worship in truth, rejoice in the truth, speak the truth, think the truth, desire the truth, manifest the truth, hear the truth, obey the truth, walk in the truth — we serve God in the truth. Divine Truth is the most important reality, the greatest essential.
This is absolutely relevant for today. When Pilate cynically asked, “What is truth?” he reflected what many think of truth today. Our postmodern view of truth is that truth is relative and not absolute. Especially when it comes to religion — religion is merely a personal preference so no one can have an absolute view of truth in their religious beliefs.
But Truth — absolute, divine truth — does exist, and it’s the most important reality in the universe.
Five times in the first 4 verses, the word truth is used by John. John writes in the realm of Truth. He’s living it. He’s controlled by it. He’s motivated by the Truth. And in this brief letter, John calls us to that same truth in a world of lies and liars. So, this a letter written with clear exaltations to live in the truth. In contrast to that is the world we exist in. It’s a realm of lies presided over by the arch-liar, Satan, who is the father of lies. He dominates his subjects so that they fail to understand and believe the truth of God. He domineers men to not speak the truth. The Bible tells us this.
5 Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to speak lies; they wear themselves out doing wrong.
1 Hear the word of the Lord, people of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land: There is no truth, no faithful love, and no knowledge of God in the land!
5 and constant disagreement among people whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way to material gain.
4 They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
And so, in this world, everybody lives in one of two realms. You either live in the realm of truth — the realm of God’s Truth. Or you live in the realm of lie — believing the lie of the devil. It’s really quite that simple.
The role of the church is clearly designed in the Bible. says the church “is the pillar and foundation of the truth.” They would immediately understand the picture Paul painted because in Ephesus was a massive structure built to Diana, the goddess of the Ephesians. The temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the World, with 127 pillars, solid marble, carved and overlaid with gold and studded with jewels. Each pillar was donated by a king and bore the king’s name giving by each paying homage to the goddess, Diana.
15 But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to act in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
The Pillars held up the massive roof made of stone. Underneath the pillars was a massive stone foundation strong enough to support the 127 marble pillars that held the massive stone roof. But think about this, the whole massive structure was built as a testimony of lies to a deception — to a false god — a Big Lie!
The church on the other hand is a monument to the truth. We exist to represent the Truth, to live out the truth, to uphold the truth. If anything the church should — it should be the centrality of the truth. People treat the church so flippantly. We are to negotiate divine revelation. Nothing could ever substitute for it because there’s no power in the lie.
Think about this for a moment. God has exalted His Word to the level of His name.
Psalm 138
2 I will bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your constant love and truth. You have exalted Your name and Your promise above everything else.
Nothing is as important than the Truth — Divine Truth.
Do you see the weightiness of God’s Word? Do you sense it?
We are the pillar and foundation of the truth.
It’s in this spirit that John writes to this “Elect Lady and her children.”
He’s already written his general epistle to everybody — that was 1 John. Now he writes to this elect lady and then 3 John he writes to one man.
Why does he write to her?
He writes because at that time, preachers traveled and stayed in homes. Those that preached the gospel along with other teachers were itinerant, moving all over in an area from place to place and they would depend upon hospitality of fellow believers. If you remember when Jesus sent out His 12 Disciples, two by two in Galilee — you will remember He sent them with some criteria by which to determine what homes they were going to stay in and how to deal with that. He did the same thing when He sent out the 72. If they were received then remain there. So they would travel around and preach and somebody showed them hospitality.
Well, this thing worked out well for the false teachers as well. They would claim to be true preacher, true teachers of the true Gospel, true representatives of God. They would come into town and look for lodging with people of the church. They would stay there and once embedded there they would teach false doctrine and subvert the Gospel. No doubt this is what happened in Corinth. This is what was going here. And so in verse 10 you have:
10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and don’t say, “Welcome,” to him;
No doubt this is not an easy thing to deal with because Christians are called to hospitality. The Greek word translated hospitality means “loving strangers” — Loving Strangers.
Listen. This is something that has not changed since the beginning of the church. You not only have to concern who preaches to you. You also have to concern yourself with who comes into your homes. The church has to be protected from deception. The church has to continually concern herself with the Truth.
This “Elect Lady” had unwittingly opened her home to strangers who brought false teaching. No doubt, she was living out :
13 Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality.
We’re to open our lives in our homes to strangers.
2 Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.
We are to do this, right.
She was possibly thinking down this line. “I’m going to open my home to them. Who knows, I might be entertaining angels — Like Abraham and Sarah did!”
And then you have instruction from Peter.
9 Be hospitable to one another without complaining.
In fact, in , a woman could not be put on the list of widows in the church when her husband died if she hadn’t shown hospitality to strangers.
So, Hospitality was raised to a significantly high level. It was a matter of spiritual virtue. And she may have though, “I’m absolutely doing the right thing.”
But there’s always something more important than hospitality — Always more important than Hospitality.
What is it?
The Truth. The Truth is always most important.
So, this woman, perhaps well intentioned, even obedient to the Word in being hospitable — had actually been the door through which the false teaching was coming into the church. And so, inspired by the Holy Spirit, John wrote her to instruct her how to be hospitable and maintain the Truth. And So John is concerned about the Truth first and foremost and he writes a personal letter to make a public impact.
John’s point to her is “You have to be careful to maintain the truth. We live in the truth.”
Now — I want you to notice verses 5 and 6.
5 So now I urge you, dear lady—not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.
6 And this is love: that we walk according to His commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: you must walk in love.
You say, “Well, there’s the greater thing. We have to show love! He says so as a commandment.”
Love for one another is the basis of true fellowship, right?
Yes, Love is the basis for true fellowship, but the truth, is the test of fellowship — Always!
Listen, the Truth is never honored, never respected, never aided by those who deny the truth of attack it.
Nothing is ever gained by being exposed to error. Don’t let it in the church. Don’t let it in your house. You cannot hold up truth and welcome in those who seek to destroy it. This includes false teaching on TV and in books. Allowing that into your home, no matter how much they claim to be Christians, no matter how much they smile, no matter how great it sounds — it is false teaching, false doctrine and it will destroy you.
The Truth matters more than anything else!
16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send you greetings.
Romans 16:16-
Romans 16:
17 Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause dissensions and obstacles contrary to the doctrine you have learned. Avoid them,
That’s a statement of love, right? That’s a statement of fellowship. But look at the very next verse, verse 17.
17 Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause dissensions and obstacles contrary to the doctrine you have learned. Avoid them,
18 for such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites. They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words.
17 Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause dissensions and obstacles contrary to the doctrine you have learned. Avoid them,
The Truth and lies are not compatible.
Paul addressed false teaching in Galatians, calling it another gospel, which is not a gospel at all. It’s a lie, parading as the Truth.
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!
9 As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!
The Truth of the Gospel is so important that Paul says, “If anyone else comes preaching another Gospel, let him be cursed!” That’s pretty clear, isn’t it?
6 Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from every brother who walks irresponsibly and not according to the tradition received from us.
2 Thessalonians
Keep away from them!
14 And if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take note of that person; don’t associate with him, so that he may be ashamed.
Nothing is ever gained by mixing error and the Truth. It’s always destructive.
Listen to .
10 Reject a divisive person after a first and second warning,
If you find someone who takes a position opposite the Truth, confront him, he must go under discipline. But if he rejects the discipline and doesn’t repent. Reject him!
2 Timothy 2:15
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth.
16 But avoid irreverent, empty speech, for this will produce an even greater measure of godlessness.
This is what John is saying, “The Truth is everything!”
“I love in the Truth with all who know the Truth, for the sake of the Truth. Grace and mercy and peace comes in the truth and love. And I’m glad some of your children are “walking in the Truth.”
This is a small letter, more like a postcard — but it’s a huge message! It’s dynamite in a small package! Right?
This is an exhortation not merely to recognize the Truth, but to learn it, love it, to live it, to be loyal to it. This is at the heart of all issues in the church. If we do not know the Truth and live by the Truth, we are not being the pillar and foundation of the Truth.
If we lack discernment, according to the Truth, we die a thousand deaths. If you lose the Truth, you lose the Truth about God, you lose the Truth about Christ, you lose the Truth about the Holy Spirit, you lose the Truth about salvation — You lose the Truth about God’s Word. You lose it all!
Guarding the Truth is critical. We don’t just preach the Truth. We contend for the Truth.
Let’s Pray.
Father,
Thank you for the glorious reality of Your Truth. We are not interested in anyone’s opinions — we have the Truth. You have created Your church to be the pillar and foundation of the Truth and we desire to live that out. We live in this world of lies and deception where even the truth is depreciated and diminished. Keep us faithful to the truth as a church and as individuals. Give us all discernment. Help us to never open our minds, our homes, or our lives to deception. Help us to worship You in Spirit and in truth. We say with our Lord, “Your Word is Truth!” Thank you in the name of Your Son, our King. Amen.