May You Walk in Love

The Postcard Epistle

Introduction

Last week, I kicked off this new four week series into the short, postcard of a letter, 2 John. If you’ll remember, I mentioned that the title of each sermon in this series is meant to give you a summary of what that section of the letter is talking about. Last week, the sermon was title “The Elder to the Lady.”

That sermon was definitely more on the head knowledge side of things. But I felt it was important to spend an ample amount of time on some important details of the letter. I wanted to make sure give us the context of the letter and I wanted us to have a good understanding of who wrote the letter and who they wrote it to so that we might know how to better apply the truths of the letter to our lives. We went pretty deep into the first three verses and I talked about the author of the letter being The Apostle John, the son of Zebedee. He was an eyewitness to Jesus and was part of Jesus’ inner circle of friends. He had intimate knowledge of who Jesus was while He walked this earth. John was writing as the elder, that is the overseer, of a local church body that he referred to as the elect lady and her children. It is not uncommon to use feminine language in the personification of different groups, cities, institutions, and boats even, which, I’ve never quiet understood if its actually a compliment to name your boat after a women? I mean if you’re a guy, do you name it after your wife? I mean you can’t really pick another woman’s name can you? Anyway, we have biblical examples of not only the church, but also Old Testament Israel, as being depicted as a virgin, the ‘daughter of Zion,’ a bride, a mother. And so most scholars surmise that the elect lady is in fact a local church congregation.

John is writing to this local church with an encouragement for them to continue to walk in the truth, obey the commandments, love one another, and to guard the teachings of Christ so that they would not be deceived. I tried to show through last weeks sermon that the elect are those who remain in truth and love. For those of us who have a relationship with Jesus, we too are the elect who ought to remain in truth and love. Truth and love are the things that drive this short letter. Today, I want to discuss how truth and love impact our every day lives.

I went to a pretty small, actually a really small, bible college in Portland. And during orientation my freshman year we were all on campus participating in the normal orientation things when I started to hear about a guy who wasn’t there. Honestly, most people didn’t really pay too much attention, we were all too busy getting to know each other, having fun, exploring the new city that we would call home for the next four years. I didn’t pay much attention to the fact that this random guy wasn’t there. Probably the main reason I even noticed was because he was in my dorm section, so his I got to know his roommate and his roommate was wondering if maybe that meant he was going to get his own room that year?

Monday classes start and this guy is still no where around. I’m pretty sure I was in the class Foundations of Pastoral Leadership and this student was supposed to be in there as well, and at a small bible college, your absence is often noticed.

Late that night, I came back to the dorms and I see my RA talking to this guy. He showed up having missed out on orientation and some classes but was now here and ready to go. At our dorm section meeting, we find out that right before orientation, that student went on a hike at the famous Multnomah Falls. But I guess, being 18 year old, soon to be college students, he and his group of friends decided to go off the trail down to a flat spot so that they could get a better view of the falls. Turns out the path they took wasn’t really a path at all, more like a steep slide. Once down there they realized they couldn’t get up. I think they were out of cell service, because they ended up spending a whole lot of hours out there until finally, by God’s grace, someone found them! But the rescue wasn’t going to be that easy. After a few different attempts. The authorities decided to fly a helicopter over to them and lower down someone to bring them up into the helicopter!

Going off trail, walking their own way, set in motion a chaotic set of affairs that led him to miss out on so much, cause panic I’m sure on their parents, and cost a considerable chunk of change. Not only that, but our new friend was now marked for the rest of that year as the guy who got lost at Multnomah Falls!

It is definitely true that hikes can be a dangerous. Many seem potentially deadly with very little signs or cautions before you enter. I guess for the most part, the National Parks Service, or whoever is in charge, is expecting that the average person can pick up on the fact that there is a specific path to follow, a specific way to walk. What happens when you deviate from the path? Well, depending on the hike, you could end up like my friend from college and getting stuck out on the trail, or worse! Following the right path, following the right way to walk often has the potential to quiet literally keep you alive.

The same is true for our faith, only the stakes are much higher, whether we believe so or not. And so today, I’ve titled this sermon with, “May You Walk In Love.” Much like a hiking path, scripture actually sets out a way for us to walk, that way being Jesus. Walking on a different path is ultimately deadly for us. John here, is giving an exhortation to this congregation to follow that way, to be obedient to walk in truth and love. In fact, John says that Obedience is walking in truth and love. This begins the real meat of the letter, and I’d like to spend the rest of our time together digging through the passage, so please open up your bibles and let’s read 2 John 4-6.

2 John 4–6 CSB

I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, in keeping with a command we have received from the Father. So now I ask 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. This is love: that we walk according to his commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: that you walk in love.

With that being read, I have two important questions to ask you that will drive my sermon today. I’d love for you to carefully consider them as we walk through each question in relation to the passage. First...

Body

What do you Believe? (v. 4)

2 John 4

2 John 4 CSB

I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, in keeping with a command we have received from the Father.

The Joy that Belief Brings

There is a specific and unique joy that comes when you hear of someone that has stayed steadfast to the faith. Even when you hardly had anything to do with their faith, there is a sense of encouragement and joy and thanksgiving that we experience when we hear the news that someone we know is holding on.

The Elder John, through some means, has heard how some of the children of this congregation were doing in their faith and was glad by the news. I love how the NASB puts it, John was, “overjoyed to find some of the children walking in truth.” I love that word in part because ‘Joy’ is what is going to be complete, as we’ll see in a couple of weeks, when John sees them face to face. Here, there is some aspect that John was able to experience the joy of fellowship and the joy of hearing how people dear to him where holding on to the faith. We don’t know if John saw these people face to face or if we heard of their faith in a letter, but either way he was brought joy by their faith.

If we can experience joy from the news that someone is holding onto the faith, then sadly that means that we can experience a level of sorrow upon hearing the news that people have strayed away from the faith. During this pandemic, I have been heartbroken at seeing so many friends walk away from the faith. Some would not say that they have decided to walk their own way, they have simply not cared enough to make an effort to be in fellowship with God through prayer and reading or with other believers at church or in a group. Many people make excuses as to why they can’t come to the service in person and why they also can’t listen or watch or participate online… Others will openly and adamantly say that they no longer believe and are now walking their own way. They’ve been swayed by society and culture and have given into the temptation to be the arbiters of their own truth. Many have been living with unspoken hurts and doubts and questions and have brought up their hurts and doubts and questions and sadly they have not been met with grace and love, rather they’ve been met with shame and guilt and sometimes name calling from the church! Therefore, they have deconstructed their faith to the point that they wouldn’t consider themselves as even having one, now all they have is a disbelief of the truth.

It is sad to see someone who was once on fire for the Lord or who once had such potential to be used by God now swing so counter so as to have a disdain towards Him.

I think we underestimate laziness in ones faith, but often our lack of drive to deepen our faith leads to a slow death of that faith. And while we underestimate laziness, we overestimate questions and doubts, thinking that any questions mean that we no longer believe. Questions and Doubts are not a bad thing. Often it is our questions and doubts that lead us to a deeper trust in who God is. The issue is not questions that we have, the issue is when we allow are questions to isolate us. That isolation is what leads to unbelief in the Gospel when in reality, we are encouraged to bring our questions and doubts to the truth of who Jesus is. Bring your questions and doubts to other believers and be encouraged in them. And if you are lucky enough for someone to share their doubts or questions with you, don’t shame them, thank them for trusting you and walk with them into the truth. Study with them, point them to community, bring them closer in. Recently, Preston Perry tweeted out a great quote in regards to deconstruction. He said,

Don’t deconstruct your faith on an Island. God has given us each other to help process and analyze the hard questions. Stay connected to somebody who is still rooted in the faith. - Preston Perry

Our questions and doubts often lead us to a deeper trust and belief in who Jesus is. Please don’t be ashamed of your questions and doubts. Bring them to Jesus and allow the Truth of who He is lead you to freedom. We need to be reminded of this often because, What we believe has the power to bring joy to those around us. What we believe should lead us to...

Obey His Commands

John is overjoyed that some of the children of this congregation are obeying the commands, they are walking in the truth that they have from the Father. To ‘Walk in Truth’ means that they not only believe the truth, they are actually obeying the truth. They are changing their lives, conforming their lives to be in step with the way that God has commanded.

We don’t often like to think that the Father has commanded us to obey the truth. That language sounds too harsh in a culture where many want people to live out their own truth in whatever way pleases them. Yet here we see that God has revealed the Truth in the person of Jesus and that revelation of truth gives us a responsibility to obey.

Growing up, I remember often my giving me some command to go clean my room or pick up the backyard or do the dishes. At the times that I was right in the middle of whatever task I happened to have been doing, I would say, “Yeah I’ll do it in a minute.” I can hear my dad’s voice saying, “That wasn’t a suggestions…”

Neither were the commands of the Father through the Son.

And so John had joy that they were being obedient to the commands of the Father.

This truth that they were walking in is the truth of the Gospel message. It is the truth that Jesus is who He says He is. That He lived a perfect and sinless life, died on the cross in our place, and rose from the dead three days later. In doing so, He fixed our broken relationship with God and we are now made new to live for Him. Have you believed that message?

The second question we must ask based on the remaining two verses is...

How do you Behave? (v. 5-6)

2 John 5–6 CSB

So now I ask 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. This is love: that we walk according to his commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: that you walk in love.

Even though John was overjoyed to find that they were obeying the command, it was necessary for him to remind and encourage them to continue to do so. It takes effort to walk, to make movement forward in our faith, and so John asks them to continue on. But notice, that he asks them to continue on in love. It is a love that is directly proportioned to the truth that they have and it is a love that must be nurtured and protected because it is the primary way that the world will recognize us as followers of Jesus. It is recognized in how we...

Love one another

This command to love is nothing new, it is a truth that they have had sense the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The God who calls us to believe in Him also calls us to love! Love is not a feeling or an emotion, it is an action that we are commanded to live out. The theologian Marianna Thompson writes of this sort of love as,

“A way of life that manifests itself concretely in its concern for others in obedience to the commandments of God. Love circumscribes the whole of life and ought to permeate the actions and attitudes of the Christian person.”

Our love as followers of Jesus would better be in the same category as action over emotion. It is a command, that came from Jesus to the apostles and is a command that has come to us. Because it is an action, we don’t have to feel like we love others, we have to decide to love others. In fact, it is that choice to love others that actually strengthens the unity of the local congregation that John is writing to, and can strengthen the unity of our congregation as well.

Now, I will be completely honest. There have been more times then I’d like to admit that I have not done this. Especially over this last year! It is so easy to allow personal differences and personalities come between brothers and sisters in Christ. Sadly, this has led to a lot of hurt and I’ve had to repent regularly of the times that I’ve played into disunity by my lack of love. What am I supposed to do when I really just don’t love that other person? How do we increase our capacity to love?

I imagine love almost like being a cold wet cloth that you can put on during a hot summer day. But inevitably, the heat and the sun will dry out the cloth and if you are not careful, it will become brittle and hard. You have to be intentional to bring that cloth back to the source of the water to reinvigorate life into it. If you feel your love growing faint and weak and brittle then your only answer is to go back to the source in Christ. 1 John 4:19 reminds us that we are able to love because He first loved us. We have to go back to the truth. We have to soak in who God is and His love for us so that we may have love to offer to others. We must constantly remind our heart, soul, and mind of the love that We have from God and then allow that to overflow into our love for our neighbor.

When you start to feel your love drying out for others then remind yourself the the truth that God loves you. He could not possible love you any more than He does. Jeremiah 31:3 says, “the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you.”

It turns out that Rick Astley was just copying God when he said, “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you.”

I share that because I don’t think that I’m alone. Is your life marked by a dry brittle lack of love that leads those around hurt? Or are you able to fiercely and boldly love others because of the love that you have from God? Are you able to love in a way that points glory to the Father?

This love for one another is one that is marked by how we Obey His Commands.

Obey His Commands

Jesus clearly and plainly says in John 14:15

John 14:15 CSB

“If you love me, you will keep my commands.

This command to love leads John to write of the relationship with love and obedience. He explains them both in light of each other. Obedience is walking in truth and love.

If you truly are a follower of Jesus, then your life should be marked by an obedience to the command to have a conscious and deep love for others based on the truth of the Gospel. This is nothing that can be done in and of ourselves, but only once we have experienced and believed the truth are we then able to daily remind ourselves and encourage others to live that truth out in our love. John has already clarified in 1 John 5:3 that this love is not a burden to keep, rather it is a joy that we get to love others because we are in God and know God.

Conclusion

I love how David Jackman in his commentary writes,

We obey the Lord because we love him, as the Lord. We love him because we feed our souls on the truth of his word, which reveals his character and his great plan for the salvation of men and women. And as we believe and appropriate all that his Word promises - that eternal life which is ours by our union with Christ - so we grow in truth and love, receiving more and more of his grace, mercy, and peace. These are the divine priorities we are called to develop.

How much do we all need more of His grace, mercy, and peace? How should we find it? You will find it through your Obedience, that is, walking in truth and love.

At one point in Jesus’ ministry, some pharisees came to try and trap him. They were trying to get him to fumble over himself when the asked him out of all 613 Jewish laws, which was the most important? In Matthew 22:37-40

Matthew 22:37–40 CSB

He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

Life is like a hike. You have ups and downs, beautiful mountain top moments, and dark valleys where the trail feels empty. It is sometimes hard to see the path forward. But take heart, God has revealed to us His Way in Jesus. He has already saved us and made the Way for us in Himself. At this point, for you who have been saved by Him, you have only to be obedient to walk in truth and love. The Elect are those who remain in obedience to walk in truth and love.

Let’s pray.