2 John
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[ILLUS] A few weeks ago we had a visitor come into our service late. In fact, because I was only about five minutes from finishing the sermon, I thought I might need to drag it out a bit so he didn’t feel like he had missed everything.
After the service the man said that he was from Haiti and that he was a pastor. To make a long story short, he had come to the States to raise funds for his five churches. For some reason (perhaps directed by God?) he ended up in Mobile and then at Emmanuel Baptist Church.
The pastor from Haiti (if that’s what he really was) said that he thought he might be able to preach that morning. When that didn’t happen he said that he thought he might share his testimony and about his ministry in Haiti that night.
Larry did a great job that morning telling the man that he was welcome here.
Stan and I took him back to his hotel afterward.
Bryant and I picked him up for the evening service and took him to eat afterward.
But should we have done more?
Should we have taken up a love offering?
Should we have given money to support him and his ministry in Haiti although we just met him that day?
Should we have at least offered to pay for his hotel room?
Should I have let him preach or at least tell of the work he was doing in Haiti?
Should I have let him stand here and solicit funds from you?
How should we have shown hospitality to that man when we knew next to nothing about that man although he claimed to be not only a brother in Christ but a minister of the Gospel?
Those are not easy questions to answer, but that’s the question that 2 John addresses—when is it right to show hospitality and when is it wrong to show hospitality?
This morning we begin a short little series on 2-3 John.
Let’s read the introduction to 2 John in vv. 1-3…
[READING - 2 John 1-3]
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.
[PRAYER]
[CONTEXT] Second John was likely written shortly after 1 John.
In 1 John, the Apostle John wrote about genuine evidence of salvation for Christians. He said there were three evidences…
One evidence is truth—does one hold to the truth about Jesus?
If he doesn’t, then he isn’t a true Christian.
Another evidence is love—does one love his fellow believers?
If he doesn’t, then he isn’t a true Christian.
And another evidence is obedience—does one obey the commands of Christ or does he keep on living in sin?
If he doesn’t strive to obey the commands of Christ, then he isn’t a true Christian.
Now, John gave his initial readers these evidences because a false teaching was attacking the church.
This false teaching attacked truth.
It said that Jesus didn’t live, die, or rise in the body.
This false teaching attacked love.
It said that how one treated others wasn’t important.
This false teaching attacked obedience.
It said that how one lived—with Christlike morality or not—didn’t matter.
This false teaching said that if you weren’t enlightened enough to understand these things then you were not saved.
John wrote 1 John to confront that false teaching; to say that truth, love, and obedience are evidences of being saved by God’s grace in Christ Jesus; to reassure his readers that “(their) sins (had) been forgiven (them) for (Christ’s) name’s sake,” (1 Jn. 2:12).
Apparently a group of false teachers had been confronted in that church and decided to leave. John writes in 1 John 2:19…
19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
But perhaps the reason 2 John was written was that some of these false teachers had started to drift back to this church looking to once again be received and even supported as traveling evangelists, preachers, or missionaries.
Should these people who were once called brothers and sisters in Christ be supported? Should they be any sort of hospitality?
Or perhaps disciples of that initial group of false teachers were traveling through looking to be supported on their way.
If so, how could they be identified as false teachers? And if they were identified as false teachers, what kind of hospitality should they be shown?
Or perhaps the readers of 2 John were just dealing with an influx of lazy men making a living by bumming off the generosity of the church.
If so, how could they be identified and what kind of support, if any, should they be given?
Obviously John is not there in person to answer these questions, to address this situation, so he writes to them this letter although by the end of it we will see that John has more to say.
[TS] But to get started in our study of this short letter (it and 3 John are the two shortest in the NT), let’s look at…
…The Author
…and The Recipients in vv. 1-2.
We’ll save The Greeting in v. 3 for next week.
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
#1: The Author - the elder (v. 1a)
#1: The Author - the elder (v. 1a)
[EXP] In letter writing at the time, it was customary to include the author’s name at the beginning. So at the beginning of Ephesians, we read, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…” (Eph. 1:1). Or at the beginning of Jude, we read, “Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James...” (Jude 1).
But we immediately notice a difference here in 2 John because it doesn’t begin, “John, the beloved apostle of Jesus Christ, a son of thunder, a son of Zebedee.”
Instead all we get is this, “The elder...” (2 John 1).
This has led to two questions:
(1) Do we know for sure that the Apostle John was the elder who wrote 2 John?
And (2) if it is John, what does he mean when he refers to himself as the elder?
Let’s try to answer each.
So, first, do we know for sure that the Apostle John was the elder who wrote 2 John?
There’s a modern idea of certainty or being “for sure” about something that is communicated like this: “Pics or it didn’t happen.”
In other words, the modern idea of being certain about something requires photographic or video evidence.
Let me be clear: We do not have photos or video of the Apostle John writing 2 John.
But even so, we are still relatively certain that the Apostle John is the author of 2 John. Here’s how we know that…
No one in the early church that I know of doubted that the Apostle John was the author of 1 John, and when we compare 1 John and 2 John we find so many similarities that it makes it relatively certain that the author of 1 John is the author of 2 John.
They use the same vocabulary.
They have the same writing style.
They cover the same topics.
Likely because they weren’t by the same individual—the Apostle John.
Now, our second question: What does John mean when he refers to himself as the elder?
First, the term elder was a title used for one with spiritual authority in the church.
Paul told Titus to “appoint elders in every city,” (Titus 1:5).
Peter exhorted the elders among his reader as their fellow elder (1 Pet. 5:1).
John referred to himself as elder because he wrote with spiritual authority to these followers of Jesus.
Second, the term elder referred to John’s age and, therefore, John’s experience.
It’s hard to exactly tell when 2 John was written, but it seems most think it was written close to the end of the first century not very long before the Apostle John is exiled to Patmos where he will receive the revelation.
By this point John is an aged Apostle. He’s been witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the birth of the church and its spread all around the known world.
He’s seen the church flourish, and he’s seen the church wither. He’s seen it celebrated and persecuted.
John has been on the field.
John has been in the trenches.
He writes with the wisdom of age and experience.
He writes as an elder—the elder to these believers.
That’s a third thing about this term elder here in 2 John: when these believers received this letter from the elder, they knew exactly who it was from. John was known to them as the elder.
He wasn’t physically with him, but he was still with them in their hearts. He had been their spiritual shepherd at one point, and he still was even at a distance.
When they got this letter from the elder, they knew it was a letter to pay attention to.
[ILLUS] Let’s say you go to the mailbox tomorrow and there are two pieces of mail inside. One piece says, “From Dad,” and the other says, “From Your Neighbor.”
When you read the mail from your supposed neighbor, you might wonder just who it is that has written you?
Is it really a neighbor?
Is it a business trying to be clever in the advertising?
You wonder the whole time you read it.
But when you get to the end of the letter from your Dad, you don’t ask, “Who is this ‘Dad’ person?”
You know who your Dad is.
You know if this letter is from him or not.
And you know if it is, it’s a letter you ought to pay attention to.
[APP] Second John is a letter that we ought to pay attention to because it comes to us from one greater than our Dads. It comes to us from one greater than the elder Apostle John.
We ought to pay attention to this letter because it comes to us by way of inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
It comes from with Apostolic authority.
It agrees with the truth as we find it in the rest of Scripture.
It has been accepted by the church as apart of God’s Word.
It’s initial readers gave attention to this letter because it came from the elder, we ought to pay attention because it comes from God.
[TS] …
#2: The Recipients - (v. 1b-2)
#2: The Recipients - (v. 1b-2)
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:
[EXP] Who is this chosen or elect lady and her children?
Some say this lady was an individual woman, and from the Greek words have even suggested her name as Electa (i.e., Chosen) or Kyria (i.e., Lady, which in Aramaic is more familiar to us as Martha) or Electa Kyria.
If we take this interpretation, I like to think of her as The Chosen Martha.
Some, however, say that this chosen lady refers to the individual church to which John wrote, and her children would then be the individual members of that church.
Still others think that this chosen lady was an individual woman but one who hosted a small church in her home.
This would explain the individual familiarity that we find in the letter and the congregational appeal.
In the end, though, we aren’t forced to make a decision because we know that this letter was written to Christians in the church.
In other words, it’s sent to all Christians and all churches in all times in all places…
…because all Christians and all churches will have to deal with this matter of supporting true ministers of the Gospel and not supporting false teachers.
But here’s another thing we know about these recipients: John loved them, “…to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth” (2 John 1a).
Just as they did in 1 John, these two words—love and truth—will show up repeatedly in this short letter.
How does John think about love?
Well, he was the one who wrote the most famous verse in all of the Bible, John 3:16…
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
It was he who wrote John 13:1…
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
John saw true love in Jesus loving us to the end.
He saw true love in Jesus paying the price for our sins on the cross.
It was John who recorded the words of Jesus in John 13:34-35…
34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
And…
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
And…
21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”
And…
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.
And…
9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
And…
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
And…
13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
And…
17 “This I command you, that you love one another.
In all those verses, you see that true love—the love that Jesus showed for us—is filled with two things, sacrifice and obedience.
Jesus loved us with a sacrificial love in obedience to God.
John loved this people with a sacrificial love in obedience to Jesus.
In 1 John 3:16-18, the Apostle writes…
16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
And then he writes in 1 John 3:23…
23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.
There are many other verses in John and 1 John that we could look at, but here’s the idea:
If we know the truth about Jesus—
i.e., if we believe that He was God in the flesh who lived a perfect life of obedience to God the Father so that He could die as the perfect sacrifice for our sins and be raised from the dead on the third day
—then we will love with a sacrificial love all who believe that truth as it is in Jesus.
John essentially said to these people, “I love you in Christ and so does everyone else who is in Christ.”
But then notice in v. 2 why John says that he and all others in Christ love these believers…
2 for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever:
John loves these believers. It’s why he writes to encourage and warn them. But he loves them not because they are so lovely.
He loves them because the truth about Jesus is so lovely.
That’s the truth in him and in them—the lovely truth about Jesus that they share together and with all other believers—the lovely truth about Jesus that animates John’s love for them.
[ILLUS] Israel wasn’t always lovely. In fact, most of the time it wasn’t lovely at all. The people of God were unbelieving and rebellious. One time God warned them about asking for a king like the other nations had but they asked for a king like the other nations anyway. Samuel was their leader at the time and he rebuked them for their request, they said they were sorry and asked Samuel to pray for them.
Samuel could have responded by saying, “No. I’m not praying for you. You rebelled against God.”
But what Samuel said was this, “…far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you…” (1 Sam. 1:23).
If Samuel’s praying was based on the loveliness of the people, then Samuel would have given up praying for this people.
But Samuel’s praying wasn’t based on the loveliness of the people.
It was based on the LORD and His loveliness.
So, Samuel said, “…far be it from me...”
[APP] Far be it from us that we should sin against the LORD by ceasing to love one another.
We do not love one another because we are lovely.
We love one another “for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever,” (2 John 2).
We love one another because God first loved us (1 John 4:19).
We love one another because Jesus loved us to the end (John 13:1).
We love one another because greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).
And that’s what Jesus did for us.
That’s the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.
That’s why we love one another in truth.
Not because we are lovely.
But because He is lovely.
All of our love for one another springs from the truth as it is in Jesus as it is in us—and our love for one another must always be in agreement with this truth.
Our love for one another must never do anything to discredit the truth as it is in Jesus.
Understanding theses things is how we begin to walk in truth and love.
[TS] …
Conclusion
Conclusion
[PRAYER]