"The Elder, To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth," (2 John 1, NKJV)

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1 Introduction This is not your typical love letter. It is a letter about loving and living the truth. Yet it is a love letter. The New Testament speaks of the past, the present, and the future. We Christians have a word that describes the past faith. In faith we look back at what Jesus Christ has done. We have a word in the present the word is love. We love in the present tense. We have a word for the future that word is hope. God used Paul to speak of faith, hope and love. But God also used John to speak to us about faith hope and love. John will look at faith, hope and love from the perspective and practice of truth. John s epistle can be broken down into two main sections; practicing the truth (vv.4-6) and protecting the truth (vv.7-11). Truth cannot be separated from love. When do we need truth most? When there is a crisis of belief. When is truth in jeopardy? When people resist the truth, redefine the truth, or replace the truth with lies. Myron F. Boyd said; A half-truth is a dangerous thing, especially if you have got hold of the wrong half. Fellowship and false doctrine cannot peacefully co-exist. In John s day a group of secessionists influenced by a false teacher named Cerenthus denied that Jesus was both completely human and completely God. Another group known as the Docetists claimed Jesus only appeared human, but was really a pure spirit being. Heretics in the first century were willing to compromise the testimony of Jesus, and the apostles in order to stay in Jewish synagogues or became enemies of the truth to continue in pagan worship or pagan practices (see Craig Keener; IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament; p.748). In John s generation the church faced an onslaught of false doctrine that sought to distort the identity and mission of Jesus Christ. Many in the church had fallen victim to lies and adopted distorted doctrine about Christ. We live in a time where scholars, teachers and culture promote the myth that truth is either relative or irrelevant. Once again our generation is tempted to adopt false views about Christ and the Church. Do You Know The Truth? (vv.1-3) "The Elder, To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth," (2 John 1, NKJV) The Elder is the Greek word presbuteros. The term was common and familiar to Jews in synagogues. Members of the Sanhedrin were called presbuteros. It was a title of great respect for people who by virtue of age, prominence in the church, wisdom in the Word, and service to the saints were called elder. From among the elders episcopos or 1

2 bishops were chosen. There is almost universal agreement that the elder is John the Beloved Apostle. Here the term means elder in the sense of the occupation of pastor of a local congregation. To the elect lady Who s that lady? John uses the Greek noun eclecte- kuria- chosen Lady or chosen spiritual mother. She is chosen or selected by God. Some scholars suggest the elect lady is a reference to a local church or assembly of saints. If that s the case the elect lady is the church and her children are the saints in the church. In verse thirteen (13) the children of your elect sister would be a sister church. John certainly addresses a group (see v.6, 8, 10, 12) but he also addresses the individual (see v.1, 4-5, 13). Others have suggested that it is a first century matron, a godly woman who opened her home to the saints. In verse ten John makes reference to rejecting and refusing false teachers into your house. Wiersbe suggests; Perhaps the solution is that a Christian assembly was meeting in this home, along with the family of the elect lady, so that John had both the family and the congregation in mind (TBEC; Vol.2; p.534). I suspect John is writing to a real Christian Lady and if that s the case this is the only document in the Bible specifically addressed to a woman; to a spiritual mother. John will commend this lady (vv.1-4); challenge this lady (vv.5-6); caution this lady (vv.7-11) and comfort this lady (vv.12-13). If the reference is either to the church or to a parent; both are gatekeepers of the future generation of believers. and her children The word is technon (masculine gender; a reference to sons and daughters more properly offspring born children). The word John uses for love is agape. This is not infatuation or sentimental love. This is God s love. How is she loved? She is loved in truth. Almost certainly it is the truth about Jesus. We love for the sake of the Word of God and the Son of God. "because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love." (2 John 2-3, NKJV) The truth that abides in us and will be with us forever is a reference to the presence of the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who live in us because of Christ s death on the cross for our sins. This is unchanging truth. We believe by faith the gospel of Jesus Christ. The grace and mercy and peace here are more a declaration of fact not simply a prayer. Grace is the undeserved and unmerited favor of God. Grace reveals the love of God and 2

3 the kindness of God in the very nature of God. Grace is the kindness and love of God against those who have acted against Him. Grace also includes all the favors and gifts of God. Mercy means feelings of pity, compassion, affection and kindness. It is the desire to draw towards oneself for the purpose of providing security and comfort. Two things are essential for mercy seeing the need and meeting the need. Mercy is God withholding His judgment. Peace is more than the absence of conflict but rather the binding of two parties previously separated. We experience true peace in the knowledge of Christ s forgiveness. The source is both God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. This is a clear declaration that Jesus is God Jesus possesses the very nature of God and note the grace, mercy and peace also come from the Lord Jesus Christ as well as the Father. Do You Walk In The Truth? (vv.4-6) "I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father." (2 John 4, NKJV) This might be the key verse in the little letter. John rejoices that he found some of her children walking in the truth. Ephesus was a pagan city. The Greek and Roman culture was filled with a great deal of vice and very little virtue. John writes and commends the fact that this lady was able to raise some of her children to know Jesus, to love Jesus and to walk with Jesus. Raising godly children has always been difficult. The implication might be that some of the children are not walking in the truth. John has used the word truth five times in four verses. John also uses the word love four times: John wants the reader to understand the truth about love. A Brief Discussion of Truth In the Bible the words used for truth in both Hebrew and Greek involve the ideas of support and stability and correspondence to reality. According to Dr. Doug Groothuis; from this root flows the twofold notion of truth as faithfulness and conformity to fact (he cites Roger Nicole; The Biblical Concept of Truth). God is true or faithful. David prays; Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth (Ps.31:5). 3

4 In the Hebrew Bible there is no indication that truth is just another word for belief or social custom, since beliefs can be false and social customs can be opposed to the will of God (see Groothuis p.61). In the New Testament Jesus is full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:17). One of the links between the Old Testament concept of truth and the New Testament concept of truth is the use of the word amen (occurs 129 times). Each member of the trinity is associated with truth. Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth (John 17:17). The gospel is called the truth of Christ. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17). What does it mean to walk in the truth? It is a reference to lifestyle, to behavior. Believing the truth and behaving in the truth are somehow disconnected in our culture. My friend Josh McDowell along with Bob Hostetler have written a book entitled; Beyond Belief to Convictions. They write; Therefore, our task is to present the Christian faith to our young people in ways that demonstrate that believing is an intelligent exercise of knowing what is both objectively true and relationally meaningful. Having convictions, then, can be defined as being so thoroughly convinced that Christ and his Word are both objectively true and relationally meaningful that you act on your beliefs regardless of the consequences (see p.31). We may be living in a generation where more young people trust Christ than ever before. This generation is open and vocal about their faith. According to a Barna survey entitled Third Millennium Teens 70% of the teenagers surveyed were active in some church youth group. The study revealed the vast majority of our teens (80%) believe that God created the universe. 84% believe that God is personally involved in people s lives. In spite of those orthodox views; 63% also believe that Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and all other people pray to the same god, even though they use different names for their god. And what did these teens have to say about Jesus? 87% of our kids believe Jesus was a real person who came to earth, and 78% believe he was born to a virgin. Yet nearly half (46%) believe he committed sins, and over half (51%) say he died but did not rise from the dead (see McDowell; p.9). "And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it." (2 John 5-6, NKJV) John brings up the subject of love. Love is the solution. Why does John plead? The verb eroto means to urge, to beg, to entreat. The idea is something urgent and necessary. What is the urgent and necessary thing? Why does John insist on love? What went 4

5 wrong? Did the lady criticize someone? Did she refuse someone? Had she refused to open her home to false teachers? Or had she in fact been rude to the false teachers? The original commandment was in Leviticus 19:18; Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. Jesus claimed love as the distinctive of His disciples in John 13:35; By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. The dear lady was being instructed to love those who were mistreating her. John does not say love your Christian friends but not your enemies, love the righteous but not the sinner, love the acceptable and reject the unacceptable, love the friendly but not the abusive, love those who love you but I am willing to give you a little slack on the critic. Love those who mistreat you. How do you love those who mistreat you? You will not be able to do that unless the love of God is in your heart. Agape love is selfless and sacrificial. Agape love begins in the mind and the will. Jesus loved us when we were ungodly, unworthy, undeserving enemies. Love is a behavior; you should walk in it. Pay attention to the phrase; This is love that we walk according to His commandments. Love is obedience the only way you can demonstrate love is by doing what pleases God. When you love someone you seek to do the things that please that person. Do You Abide In The Truth? (vv.7-11) "For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist." (2 John 7, NKJV) Many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. John relates deceivers and their deception to the incarnation of Christ. Truth corresponds to reality. Dr. Doug Groothuis in his book Truth Decay writes;...a true statement connects with the reality or facts it describes (p.83). Doug Grootuis: The Truth of God Incarnate Consider Jesus identity as God incarnate. One can formulate this truth in various propositions, each with a greater level of conceptual sophistication. 1. Jesus is truly divine and truly human. 2. Jesus is one person with two natures: divine and human 3. Jesus two natures express a hypostatic union of divinity and humanity in one person. 5

6 All three statements are objectively true because they correspond with the reality of Jesus Christ as God incarnate. These propositions themselves express final truth (see Truth Decay p.118). Who are the deceivers? People who claim to tell the truth about Jesus but do not. They are imposters, a person who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ but is not! You might think, People wouldn t lie about something like that would they? When a person rejects what Jesus says about himself, when a person refuses to obey Christ s command, when a person lives and teaches something so utterly foreign to what Jesus says in the New Testament, that person is an imposter. There are many deceivers in the world. There was no shortage of false teachers and false prophets in John s day. The deceivers are in our schools and our universities and our government. Some tragically are so called ministers. The deceiver denies the deity of Jesus Christ. The imposter denies that Jesus Christ is the sinless son of God who lived a perfect and righteous life. The deceiver denies the sacrificial death and the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. The deceiver denies the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The deceiver denies that Jesus Christ will return physically and bodily to the earth. The deceiver denies that Jesus will judge the living and the dead. "Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward." (2 John 8, NKJV) We guard against deceivers. We watch ourselves so as not to loose our reward. Believers receive a reward for good works. What is the danger? We can believe or heed the false teaching. If we are led astray we lose our reward. "Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son." (2 John 9, NKJV) The person who does not abide in the teachings of Christ does not have or possess God. The Greek words are pas ho proagon. They mean to transgress against God by going too far, by trying to move ahead of Christ. The idea is they go to far they stretch and exaggerate what Jesus said. People in order to be liberal, creative and inclusive embrace what the church was told to reject those who do not abide in the doctrine of Christ. We cannot be more generous than the Bible. The word doctrine is didache and means teaching. It comes comes from the Greek verb didasko-instruct-teach. We face dangers on multiple fronts. John writes whoever transgresses (crosses the line into bad behavior, prohibited behavior) and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ (crosses the line into bad beliefs). Dr. Glen Schultz, a Christian educator says, At the 6

7 foundation of a person s life, we find his beliefs. These beliefs shape his values, and his values drive his actions (cited in McDowell who citeskingdom Education p.39). In Barna s survey 48% of teenagers today believe that it doesn t matter what religious faith you associate with because they all believe the same principles and truth. 58% believe that all religious faiths teach equally valid truth. Your child or youth group member may believe that Jesus was born of a virgin and even believe that Jesus rose from the dead but the vast majority (65%) either believe or suspect that there is no way to tell which religion is true. Their view of God is so distorted that they can t even claim what the Bible claims that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life for all the children of the world. When a person makes the statement what this verse means to me makes a subtle shift away from the objective truth or authorial intent too their own subjective feelings about the text. "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him;" (2 John 10, NKJV) Pastors and teachers relied on hospitality in the early church. There were traveling philosophers called sophists who charged a fee for their teaching (organic tape ministry). Jews refused entrance to Samaritans and gentiles. In an early church writing called the Didache rules of hospitality were laid out for itinerant teachers and preachers of the gospel. Greetings were an essential protocol in the first century and the greeting shalom or peace be with you was intended as both a prayer and a blessing to impart peace. John says false teachers are not welcome in our home or in our church. We underestimate the danger of false teaching and false teachers. False teachers doom the souls of people, shut them off from Christ. The person shut off from Christ is unacceptable to God. "for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds." (2 John 11, NKJV) The expression shares in is one word koinonei shares in (NIV) or participates in (NASB). There was no room for apostate sympathizers. You don t house a false teacher, you don t support a false teacher, you do not bless a false teacher. The Bible teaches that the truth corresponds to reality and lies correspond to errors. Both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament contrast truth and error, right and wrong, truth and lies. In John 18:37 Jesus said, For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. For those who took the side of lies they forsake God. John wrote the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Christ s truth completed what was anticipated in the law. 7

8 "Having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full." (2 John 12, NKJV) Here John uses the word chartes (only here in the Greek NT) and melan (black) but translated ink. Paper is papyrus made from reeds and rolled up like a scroll. The ancients used reeds with the ends severed to a point. The ink was a jet black compound made of charcoal, vegetable gum and water. In the ancient world written letters were considered an inferior substitute for a face to face meeting. John wants to seem them face to face. "The children of your elect sister greet you. Amen." (2 John 13, NKJV) John sounds the alarm truth matters love matters false teachers and false doctrine are dangerous. The good news is you can reclaim the truth you can help this generation move beyond belief to conviction, empowering them to stand strong in the face of today s culture. The only way we can correct a generation s distorted beliefs is by sharing the real truth that our beliefs about God our beliefs about Jesus are based on what is objectively true and historically accurate and that relationship with Jesus Christ is the key to unlocking the meaning of life (see again Josh McDowel; p.295). 8