The Authority and Relevance of Truth

Introduction

It is pretty easy to discern the them of John’s letters. Here in second John it is quite obvious that John’s focus is on the truth.

Context

John mentions truth five times in the first verse so it is pretty easy to understand what the theme is of this second letter.

To whom is John writing? The elect lady and her children is a euphemism to the early church. Why would he use that terminology to address the church.

John never addresses a church by name. Clandestine operation to protect the church.

Why is he writing? Early heresy

Gnosticism: “Secret knowledge” gnosis.

Physical matter, including the body, is evil.

God did not create the material universe because he is too transcendent, too perfect and pure to have anything to do with the physical universe, instead the universe was created by a demiurge, or lesser god.

Mankind contains a remnant, or spark, of God, but are trapped in physical bodies.

Consider themselves Christians, but rejected that God became man

By and large the gnostics were antinomian.

Gnosticism is based primarily on human religious experience.

Why is it relevant?

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

John was writing, in all of his letters, in response to heresy, to remind believers that the source of truth is not human experience but the Word of God.

Truth Defined

In John 18, Pilate asked Jesus, “So you are a king?” and Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Pilates’ response: “What is truth?”

Well, that is the question isn’t it? It is one our culture is trying to find an answer to on a daily basis, looking to experts, politicians, even social media, to find the truth. In that sense we could employ the philosophical definition of truth: That which corresponds to reality. When something corresponds to reality it is considered true. And that is a valid definition, but John is proposing something more fundamental than that. John is referring to the truth of Jesus as Messiah and the Gospel that He (Jesus) delivered.

That in itself corresponds to reality as testified by verses and verses of prophetic claims in the Old Testament and authenticated by miracles performed by Christ and the Apostles.

But the truth is more fundamental than this. It is not just a property of nature. I struggled trying to find a systematic definition of truth that was not too academic. We could study for weeks on this one attribute alone, suffice it to say, Truth is that essential attribute by which God is understand to be true in Himself; in His words and deeds. He is the author of truth and deceit and falsehood is not in Him.

God cannot lie.

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

This gives us great hope. We serve a God who is fundamentally, at the core of His essence, truth. He is the source of truth. He makes promises and what He says, He will do. What He commands, we should observe.

What is the truth? It is the Gospel, it is the Word, it is the Revelation and Being of God. The truth is Christ, the resurrected Messiah.

Truth Displayed

Now what?

2 John 4–7 ESV

4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. 5 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. 6 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. 7 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.

Notice how John connects obedience to the word of God with love.

Walking in the truth = loving one another = being obedient.

This almost seems like the transitive property of math. if a=b and b=c then a=c.

Let’s look at one aspect of this.

“Love one another” is a powerful statement that we should not take for granted.

The word “Love” gets tossed around a lot in our culture,

We understand the love that we have for a friend

love of romance

love of a sports team

None of those loves are “in truth,” their existence is subject to change. That love is subject to changing emotions or circumstance. That love is a feeling. That is not the love that John is talking here.

The love John is referring to is a love based on unshakeable, immutable truth. It is a supernaturla love. Furthermore, it is not an emotion or a feeling, the word here, agape, is a verb. Here is the truth: a Person, the Holy Spirit, indwells us all, making us one in love. We may not like each other, but if we are being led by the spirit we can still experience a supernatural love for one another. The implications here are huge.

We display truth in our love for one another.

That love for one another, however, is a result of our obedience.

Matthew 22:36–40 ESV

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Another thing to know about the Gnostics is that they were anti-nomian.

They commonly engaged in immoral behavior under the pretense that their superior, secret knowledge of God sanctified them from sin.

This error is alive among many believers in the church today. There are many that say none of the law is applicable today. They make no distinction between ceremonial, civil and moral law. In essence, they throw the baby out with the bath water. Paul adresses this dilemma in Romans 6

Romans 6:1–2 ESV

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

We, as christians, should be able to say with the psalmist

Psalm 119:97 ESV

97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

Calvin put it this way: The law is God’s revelation of what is pleasing to Him from His people.

Our love for one another is the result of our obedience to the Word of God, so:

We display truth in our obedience to God’s Word.

It is our obedience, in fact, that calls us to love one another!

Truth Defended

Which brings us to our third point: The Truth Defended.

2 John 7–11 ESV

7 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. 8 Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. 9 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. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

Gnosticism didn’t just end at the close of the first or second century. Heresy is not limited to the practices of this cult. The need to defend the truth is relevant today.

There is a lot of talk today about conspiracy theories. Breaking news!!! Satan is conspiring to undermine Christianity and lead as many astray as he can.

John refers to satan as “the antichrist.” In first John he distinguishes between the antichrist (singular, Satan) and antichrists (plural, those doing Satan’s bidding)

The specific deception that John is referring to here is the denial of the deity of Christ. This was the fundamental position of the Gnostics.

We may not have gnostics by name today, but this heresy is still alive.

Mormons deny the incarnation as the Bible teaches it.

JWs do not believe God was incarnate.

Many believe Jesus was a good man or teacher but not God in the flesh.

It is important for us, as believers in the truth, to defend the truth. This will be a necessity until the day the Lord returns. As long as we are making claims based on the truth of God’s word, we will need to defend it.

Our Response

What is our response then?

We know the truth and we display the truth and this will distinguish us from those who are false teachers, but how do we defend it?

Litmus Test

2 John 10–11 ESV

10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

Receive (welcome, embrace)

not to receive heretical teachers into the assembly of the church,20 implying that they not be given opportunity to propagate their beliefs.

greet (chairon, with joyful or rejoicing attitude)

Itenerate Preachers

The focus is on fellowship with false teachers, not on sharing the gospel with those that are lost.

Engaging in christian fellowship with false teachers lends them credibility that the Bible does not.