Sermon Tone Analysis

Walking in Truth/Walking in Love

1 The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth,

2 for the sake of the truth which abides 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 truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father.

5 Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments.

This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.

This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.

9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he 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 house, and do not give him a greeting;

11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

12 Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full.

13 The children of your chosen sister greet you.

Introduction:

Good morning.

We are continuing our study of John’s Epistles.

2 John, 3 John, Jude, & Philemon are considered NT postcards in comparison to the lengthy letters penned by Luke, John and Paul.

Why do we tend to write letters or notes?

Sometimes we write just to let someone know that we are thinking of them.

We write to acknowledge thanks or appreciation of kindness shown.

We write a note to quickly bring someone up to speed on what’s happening with us; or to invite them to a party.

We might write to let them know we care.

2nd John (written by the Apostle John), was not delivered by the postal service.

(Benjamin Franklin didn’t invent the post office until thousands of years later.)

No, this letter was likely carried by hand from visitors.

The Apostle John would have penned this personal note and sent it by trusted carrier.

The church was not protected from abuse or persecution, so the carrier would have been taking a great risk in delivering this personal note.

No, this letter was likely carried by hand from visitors.

The Apostle John would have penned this personal note and sent it by trusted carrier.

The church was not protected from abuse or persecution, so the carrier would have been taking a great risk in delivering this personal note.

For this reason, the contents of this note should be of great interest to the church today.

John could have just told his visitors, “Tell everyone hello for me...” or he might have said, “Make sure to tell everyone thus and such...” But instead, John wrote his own words so nothing would be misconstrued.

He took the time to pen carefully articulated thoughts, choice words.

Possibly the encouraging words were sent to the same recipient as his first epistle, but we can’t be certain.

Let’s take a close look at this postcard:

Main Body:

Greeting

1 The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth,

2 for the sake of the truth which abides 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.

1 The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth,

2 for the sake of the truth which abides 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 truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father.

5 Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments.

This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.

This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.

9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he 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 house, and do not give him a greeting;

11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

12 Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full.

13 The children of your chosen sister greet you.

John uses the term ‘elder’ instead of his personal name.

Now what we know about John, he doesn’t like to use his name.

Revelation is the only book that identifies John as the author.

But scholars agree that the Gospel of John and these three epistles were written by the Apostle John.

An elder is both a position and a descriptor.

John is “The Elder” as he at this time is the only living Disciple.

It refers to his position in the church as a spiritual leader full of wisdom.

It also describes him because at this time he is advanced in age (probably in his 80’s or 90’s).

John wants to encourage the recipient of this postcard regarding their walk in faith.

Greeting

The recipient is “the chosen lady and her children”.

Much speculation has been discussed as to whom “the lady” and “children” are.

Whether they are literal or figurative leaves little bearing on the remainder of this note.

They could be actual individuals meeting in the home of a prominent female leader of the early church and the children could represent her own family; or figuratively speaking the lady could represent the Church and her children the members of that congregation.

The question is not “who is the lady and her children” the question is what does John say to her? John tells her of his love for her “in truth”.

Truth and Love are reoccurring themes in each of John’s epistles.

In the first three verses John uses the term (aletheia) truth 4x but with differing meanings.

He says we know both of us the message of ‘truth’ that is the Gospel, but we also know who is “The Truth” Jesus Christ.

Knowing the Truth and what that truth does within the life of the Believer makes all the difference.

John’s love for Jesus is expressed in his love for those who know his Savior.

As we walk through life our life is to be an expression of the truth that lives within us.

So as we walk we will have grace, mercy and peace that flows from the Father, in truth and love.

GRACE = the love and favor shown by God toward believers.

Gods Riches At Christs Expense.

/ MERCY = God’s tolerance in his relationship to humans.

Not Receiving That Which We Deserve / PEACE = the sum total of blessing give by God in his grace and mercy.

Peace That Passes All Understanding./

There is no counterfeit, no substitution for that which comes from the Father.

This all adds up to the concept of well being through salvation.

Ultimately what John is encouraging (and the recipients would easily understand this) is that the salvation we have received will ultimately bring wholeness into our lives.

These will be ours John says.

See, right in the beginning of the note, John encourages the people, and us, that whatever is going on in your life, whatever has been, what will be, ultimately is grace, mercy and peace - You will be whole, because of your salvation.

Understand that our salvation isn’t a one time event that we look back upon at a given date and time.

Our salvation is the beginning of our continued salvation.

See, we are saved and in the Father’s dominion the moment we give our life over to Jesus Christ, but our salvation will be complete when we stand before the Father in heaven.

Here John is telling us: You are saved yes, but this is not all there is, this right now, is only a very small portion of what will be.

You will be made whole.

We see that John addresses those who know the truth and love in the truth.

The kind of love John speaks about here is agape love.

Agape love is a love that is a selfless sacrificial love that we as humans cannot generate; We have seen that agape love is given to us from God.

Here, we see that agape love does not operate in a vacuum.

Agape love exists, John says along with the truth.