The Second Epistle of
John
A sermon delivered by Robert Sholl
(All Scripture Quotations Are From The American Standard
Version Unless Otherwise Noted)
The
apostle John is a very interesting character in the New Testament. He was one of the more prominent
apostles. Both John and Peter are often
mentioned as being together both in the gospels and the book of Acts. In God’s Word we find that he was the son of
Zebedee, a well to do fisherman (Mark 1:20, Luke 5:10). He is often referred to as the “disciple
whom Jesus loved”. We also note that
John, through inspiration, wrote a substantial part of the New Testament. In fact, John penned five out the 27
books. These books are: The Gospel
According to John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John and Revelation. All of these writings are extremely similar
in composition, style and subject, although the subject matter and composition
is slightly different in Revelation.
Throughout John’s books, the Holy Spirit places emphasis on two
different aspects of our relationship to God and Christ. These two aspects are: Love - love that God
and Christ has for us, and the love that we must have for him and Duty -
obeying God is how we express our love for Him, if there is no obedience then
there is no biblical love.
I want to
examine just one of these very short, but very important epistles that God in
His grace has seen fit to give us. Our
topic is the book of 2 John. Though
this epistle only contains 13 verses it packed with power to strengthen us and
exhort us. Though most scholars tend
to date 2 John as have been written around 90 AD, it is my personal belief that
all of the books of New Testament were written before the fall of Jerusalem in
70 AD. But either way it was one of the
later books of the New Testament. The
purpose of the writing is to encourage us to keep on walking in the truth, to
remain faithful to Jesus Christ. John
points out the necessity of keep on keeping on.
The epistle
begins in a very simple manner in Vs. 1-3.
There it is said “The elder unto the elect lady and her children,
whom I love in truth; and not I only, but also they that know the truth; for
the truth’s sake which abideth in us and it shall be with us for ever: Grace, mercy, peace, shall be with us, from
God the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and
love.” The writer introduces
himself simply as the elder. The word
elder comes from the Greek word that is sometimes used in reference to men who
are overseers (also known as pastors).
But it can also simply refer to an older man. In this context John is probably referring to himself as the
older one, as the one who has served so long in service of the Lord. We also find that the one to whom John was
writing was the “elect lady” or “elect Cyria”.
Whether this was addressed to a specific individual or whether to a
congregation (which could be the case since the church is referred to as the bride
of Christ), we don’t know. Good
arguments have been made of both sides, but it does not affect the message that
is given to us through the epistle. It
is my belief that a person is being referred to here.
John says that he loves her and her children “In
Truth”. In other words the love
that the apostle has for them is not superficial or merely outward. His love for them is sincere. Not only does John love her, but also all
those who love the truth are said to love her.
How is that possible? Did she
know everyone who had obeyed the gospel?
That would be most unlikely. How
then could all other Christians love her then? The answer lies with our relationship to Christ. One of the great blessings of being in
Christ is that all share a bond of love.
That love arises out of our fellowship with one another and the
fellowship is possible out of our obedience to the truth (1 John 1:7). As faithful children of God we share the
same love of God and Christ, we have obeyed the same gospel, we have the same
relationship to God, we have the same goals, and the same mind-that being the
mind of Christ. These things that
Christians have in common, drive us to love one another. We can see this in other areas of our lives.
When our children begin looking for a potential spouse or friends, we tell them
to look for those who have the same interests.
That is because it is easier to love and like people with the same
beliefs, goals and the same likes or dislikes.
If there is no common ground between two people, there is seldom
anything but strife and division. It
should be easy for Christians to love one another. This love was emphasized by our Lord in John 13:35 where he said, “ By this shall
all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. “ Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ is
an essential aspect of being a faithful child of God. In fact one cannot be saved if he does not love his fellow
Christians. In 1 John 3:9-10 “He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in the
darkness, even until now. He that
loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling
in him. “ More than that we cannot even claim to love
God while hating our brothers “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother,
he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hat seen, cannot love
God whom he hath not seen.” (1 John
4:20). The fact of the matter is that
God commands us to love one another.
The love of God is keeping his commandments (1 John 5:3); therefore if
we don’t love the brethren, we cannot claim to love God. Wealth or what we can get out of the
situation does not motivate our love for others. The motivation for the Christian is our love is because of the
truth, for truth’s sake (verse 1). Oh
how we ought to love the truth! We
ought to love to hear it preached, love to hear it believed and love to see it
obeyed. Indeed our very salvation
depends upon us loving it (2 Thessalonians 2:10). If we walk in the truth, then the truth will abide in us. If we really love the truth then we cannot
but love the one that abides in it.
Continuing
on in vs. 4-6 the inspired writer says, “I rejoice greatly that I have found
certain of thy children walking in truth, even as we received commandment from the
Father. And now I beseech thee, lady,
not as though I wrote to thee a new commandment, but that which we have had
from the beginning, that we love one another.
And this is love that we should walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, even as ye heard
from the beginning, that ye should walk in it.” Verse 4 states that he “greatly rejoices” in that some of her
children were walking in the truth. We
should do this as well. As this
congregation looks towards the future, I hope that we grow in number. I want everyone we come in contact with to
be saved. If we should however reach
great numbers and get a fine building, but do not walk in the truth, then
surely there will not be rejoicing. The
apostle then reiterates the necessity of loving one author and terms this
command as one that they had had from the beginning. In gospel according to John, the Lord describes it as an old
command and a new command. There he
says “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I
have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (John 13:34). The command to love your neighbor as
yourself was not new to Christ. So what
made it new? The fact that it was to be
a love that was “even as I have loved you”.
We must love one another as Christ loved us. It is a love that manifests itself in action. A sacrificing love, a love that goes the
second mile, a love dedicated to ensuring that we all get to heaven. We really need to examine ourselves. Are we keeping this command? We will only know the answer by comparing to
God definition of love. In Vs. 6 we get
insight into that Biblical love.
Something different from what many religionists tell us it is. I remember a somewhat prominent false
teacher saying that his ‘relationship with God used to be a list of do’s and
don’ts, now it is more of a love affair”.
It is also said that the New Testament is a love letter, not a
pattern. In other words we really don’t
have to conform to it, especially in regard to worship. At the bottom of it they distinguish between
love and duty by arraying God’s love against his commands. But what does Verse 6 say? “And this
is love, that we should walk after his commandments.” Friends we cannot claim to love God and not keep his
commandments (see also John 14:15, 21).
The important point is that obedience issues forth from love. One who claims to love God but does not
walk in his commandments is merely uttering empty words. It is a faith that cannot save (Matthew
7:21). Having concluded his admonitions
in Verse 6, John switches to the reasons for his warnings, the false teachers
of the day. This should tell us that
the best possible defense against false teachers is love of the brethren and
God and abiding in God’s commandments.
In Verses
7-8 we find “For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they
that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the
anti-christ. Look to yourselves, that
ye lose not the things, which we have wrought, but that ye receive a full
reward.” In John’s time many false
teachers were already going to and fro among God’s people, seeking to deceive
them. One the things that they were
denying was that Jesus had come in the flesh.
The false teachers of which are referenced here where the Gnostics. The Gnostics were a heretical group that was
active in the later part of the 1st Century. The term comes from the Greek word “nosis”,
which means knowledge. They claimed to
have special knowledge with regards to the nature of evil. Although there were different stands of
Gnostics, they basically believed matter was inherently evil and therefore
Christ as sinless deity could not occupy a sinful body. Therefore the body of Christ was an
illusion, he really did not come in the flesh.
Because they believed matter was inherently evil and the spirit was
independent of that body, they believed that they could commit any sin and yet
the spirit would be undefiled (one would do well to compare the similarities
between this belief and the beliefs of Calvinists). For a good discussion of these individuals and their various
false doctrines, one should consult Guy N. Woods’ Commentary on John’s
Epistles. These individuals were termed
by the apostle as deceivers, liars.
They were termed anti-Christ; in other words they were opposed and
completely arrayed against him. You
know often people think of the anti-Christ as a particular person, synonymous
with the one whom Paul termed the man of sin.
The man of sin is certainly anti-Christ, but so are all people who are
opposed to Christ. They are against
him. In order to avoid falling for
these false doctrines John commands to “Look to yourselves”. This is the same warning given to the
Ephesians elders in Acts 20:38. They
were told to “Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock”. We need to always be looking out for our
souls. We should never think, “it cant
happen to me” because most people who have fallen away never thought they
would. If we have the attitude that it
can’t happen to us, then Satan is going to take action. He is going hit us where we are not
prepared. The impact can be
devastating. So we must heed God’s warning,
we must look to ourselves or else we may lose our full reward, the crown of
righteousness (1 Timothy 4:12).
John gives
even more warning against the false teachers in Vs. 9-13.“Whoever goeth
onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth
in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son. If anyone cometh unto you, and bringeth not
this teaching, receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting: for
he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works.” First we are warned, “Whoever goeth onward and abideth not in
the teaching of Christ, hath not God.”
The word “goeth onward” comes from a word that we derive our English
word “progress”. The one that has not
God is the one who progresses beyond the limits of the teaching of Christ. This is what we might call a progressive
person. Often we hear people boast how
progressive they are in religion, about how they are trying to progress beyond
the tired old ruts. But these
progressives are not progressing towards Christ, but away from him and his
inspired word!
Often the
question arises by what is meant by the doctrine of Christ. Most digressive teachers hold that it is
the teaching about Christ, specifically the teaching about Christ coming in the
flesh. They assert that this means that
it is only when one rejects the teaching about Christ that one does not have
God (out of fellowship with Him). The
implication of that idea is that one can be in fellowship with God and other
Christians, just so long as they accept Jesus came in the flesh. This is has sometimes been referred to as
the core gospel (although advocates of this idea would hold that one must
believe more than just Jesus came in the flesh). This idea declares certain truths are essential and certain
truths are non-essential. The goal of
this idea is simple: open fellowship with those who do not practice the
truth. If such were the case then one
could deny the atoning death, the resurrection or the sinless nature of Christ
since none of these concepts are inherent to Christ coming in the flesh. The other position is that the doctrine of
Christ is not the teaching about Christ but the sum and totality of the
teaching (either in person or by the apostles) of which Christ is the
author. Which is correct? Did John command us to just walk in the core
gospel, and don’t sweat everything else?
Well let’s take a look at that.
In 2 John we have the command to walk in the truth (Verse
4). Now was that just one part of the
truth? Is it possible to walk in one
truth and deny the other? In Verse 6 we
are told to walk after his commandments. That is not just one aspect of the
gospel. It is not just one truth, or
one command, but all the truth and all the commands. I would submit that there is not one particle of difference
between Verse 9 and the following verses:
1 John
1:7: if
we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another
1 John 2:5: Hereby we know
that we are in him: he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk
even as he walked
1 John 4:24: And he that keepth
his commandments abideth in him, and he in him.
Is it not
the case that those passages have exactly the same meaning as Verse 9? If we are to have fellowship with God, if we
are to know him in a saving way, if we are to abide in him we must obey him
(Hebrews 5:9). Anything else is not
obedience at all – it is disobedience.
If we do not keep his commands, we do not have fellowship with God, nor
do we know Him, nor do we abide in Him or He in us. It really a simple thing, we must abide in, not progress beyond
the commandments. The commandments are
nothing more that God’s doctrine (teaching), which He has given us through
Christ or by the Lord’s apostles. To
confirm this as the correct view we can also turn to other passages where
similar phrases are used in similar contexts.
In these cases it is clear that the phrase is used in a subjective way
(i.e. the teaching belonging to or being taught by one). Acts 13:12, Acts 2:42, John 7:16 and John
18:19 all demonstrate this. It
therefore no surprise that a vast majority of Biblical and Greek scholars hold
to the view that 2 John 9 refers to the teaching of which Christ is the
author. A brief list of such scholars
would be: Guy N. Woods, James MacKnight, A.T. Robertson, M. Vincent, Arndt
& Gingrich, J. Thayer and Albert Barnes to name a few. This is what the immediate and remote
context demand. We must abide in
Christ’s doctrine.
Finally we
are warned not to have fellowship with the false teachers. In the 1st Century it was vital
to support the teachers by opening their houses and goods to them. John, who spoke so much of the love and
compassion of God, prohibits us from supporting false teachers by extending
them material or moral support to their efforts. To do so is to partake of their evil deeds. How could it be any different? The basic definition of fellowship is joint
participation. If we have fellowship
with those whom God does not then we are joint participants in their rebellion
against God.
John then
ends this marvelous epistle on a positive note in Verse 12 “Having many
things to write unto you, I would not write them with paper and ink: but I hope
to come unto you, and to speak face to face, that your joy may be made
full. The children of thin elect sister
salute you”. We see again the great rejoicing and great love that this great
apostle had for this great lady. How he
long to make her joy full. Important
thoughts that God has given us in this very short but very great epistle. We should always:
If you are
not a Christian won’t you consider becoming one today? God tells us there is no salvation outside of Christ; for there
is no other name given among men wherein man must be saved (Acts 4:12). Salvation is in Christ (Ephesians 1:7), in
order to access the salvation that God has freely provided through his undeserved
grace we must obey the gospel of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 5:9). One must believe the gospel (Mark 16:16), repent
of sins (Luke 13:3), confess the name of Christ (Romans 10:10) and then be
buried with Christ in baptism, for the remission of sins (Romans 6:1-4, Acts
2:38). When one comes out of that
watery grave of baptism he is ready to walk in newness of life. Then having been faithful unto death, heaven
will be your home (Revelation 2:10). The
decision is up to you, why tarriest thou?