Truth & Love Together
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
Pilate famously asked Jesus during his trial, “What is truth?” Not long before asking that, Jesus had told His disciples that He was the way, the truth, and the life.
One of the central themes of all John’s writings is truth. Truth and love.
It’s said that truth and time will always win. I believe that.
But truth and love are core themes to the Gospel message.
Today we are going to go through an entire epistle (don’t worry, it’s a short one) and observe how and why John emphasizes truth and love.
Let’s read together.
Text: 2 John 1-13
The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth,
for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever:
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.
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we received commandment from the Father.
Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.
And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
See to yourselves, that you do not lose what we accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.
Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting,
for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.
Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made complete.
The children of your elect sister greet you.
For the Christian, truth and love must go hand - in - hand.
It was Warren Wiersbe who said, “Truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy.
As Christians, truth and love are central.
So if you’re taking notes, you may want to write this down.
We must live, love, and learn in truth.
We must live, love, and learn in truth.
It’s that simple. That is the message of 2nd John in a nutshell.
The Christian must live, love, and learn in truth.
Point 1. Live in Truth
Point 1. Live in Truth
The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth,
for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever:
The letter begins in verses 1 and 2 with John stating that he is “the” elder - not just “an” elder, but the elder.
Now, this is interesting because most of the time we think of John as an apostle, or maybe even as an overseer - which is synonymous with the title of “Bishop”, meaning he would oversee many churches, not just one.
Paul tells Titus that the reason he left him in Crete was to “appoint elders in every city” (Titus 1:5). Paul tells Timothy the qualifications of an overseer in 1 Timothy 3, but Timothy himself was to be the bishop of Ephesus.
So what we are really seeing is the structure of the early church, there were overseers of the individual churches, but elders were to preside over them, instruct them, and help them out.
We might say today, in the structure of the Assemblies of God, that rather than cities, we have sections of the state, so Kevin Zaun would be the elected “bishop” or elder of the Southeast section, while I am the overseer of the local church in Lisbon.
However, we don’t really use those terms, Kevin is my “presbyter”. Well, that’s interesting, because the Greek word for “elder” is in fact, “presbyteros”. So you see why we use that word - Elder/Bishop sounds a little too Roman Catholic for churches today, and we don’t really use their terms that way, at least not anymore.
So how do we know this is John’s writing as he doesn’t identify himself by name? I’m glad you asked.
1, 2, and 3 John were all written around the year 90, and were probably packaged and sent together to their intended audiences. 1 John likely being for specific instruction to the churches city wide, 2 John written to a specific church (hence the way John speaks using the term, “elect lady” and “her children” - he is referring to a church and her members).
3 John is even more specific, as it is written to a leader (Gaius) within a local church, and concerns a man who had caused some problems, some division, and was going to be dealt with when John came on the scene.
But you read 1 John and the Gospel of John, and Revelation, and the writing style is all very similar.
These 3 books are attributed to John, and as 2 and 3rd John were packaged with 1 John, and always counted together, the church has always accepted John wrote them all.
These are called the “Johanine” texts. Ionnes was John’s actual name, sometimes simply pronounced like “Yohan”, and so there you have some historical background whether you care about that sort of thing or not, some people find that interesting.
SO, we should then ask why is he writing? John tells us - he is writing “for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever.”
Specifically, 2 John was written to warn against the type of false teaching that John’s first letter (1 John) opposes. Specifically, this gnostic doctrine called “Docetism”.
Docetism was an early heresy that claimed Jesus did not come in the flesh, He was only a Spirit that appeared as a human or was made to look human.
So, when He died on the cross, Jesus really didn’t suffer because - according to Docetism, he had no body to feel the pain.
You may wonder how they came to this conclusion - this was from the gnostics, a group of people who believed they had “secret knowledge”, special revelation, some special inside information as to the truth.
John says that’s balderdash. Silliness. Tomfoolery. Lies.
He was there, if anyone would know the truth or have an inside tract to the truth, it would be John, himself!
So John absolutely denies this, and says right at the beginning of 1 John that he and the other apostles, “have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life” which is Christ Jesus (1 John 1:1).
So John is writing to tell the church to specifically deal with this nonsense, as well as to emphasize that which is more important to them as believers, and that is the truth.
That they may live in the truth. Not “their truth” but THE Truth.
John goes on to say
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.
Grace, mercy and peace will be with us - they come from the Father and from the Son, and they come in truth and love.
Grace and mercy and peace - as they come from God - are found in truth and love.
Because God does not deceive, He does not lie.
Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?”
There is peace in that rhetorical question - He has spoken, He will establish it, He will make it happen. The truth of God brings us peace.
And because He is true, and has declared Himself holy, and good, and loving, He provides grace and mercy.
He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth. (Exodus 34:6)
This ultimately comes through the Son, who was an atonement for our sin - the grace of God, the mercy of God, meet within the cross, where the Father’s righteousness, and His judgment collide upon Christ, who gave Himself up for us!
This is the most beautiful truth of all truths, the most beautiful act of love out of all loves.
That John 3:16 “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
But we also see another reason John is writing, in verse 4.
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we received commandment from the Father.
What John is saying here, basically, is “Hey, I ran into some members of your church! and guess what! They’re doing okay!”
They’re walking in truth. In other words, they’re living in truth.
Just as John had been told and commanded “from the Father”, but we know John received it from the Son, so that seems like a strange statement.
Until we remember it’s John’s Gospel in which Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)
And especially John 5:19, where Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing from Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same manner.”
John sees these people living in truth, living out what they’ve been taught, carrying on in good teaching, good doctrine, sound faith, walking in truth and love, living in truth and love, and he writes to tell the church.
He’s basically saying here, “Hey, good job!”
In fact, the Greek he uses here indicates he was extremely happy to see them living this truth - He said when he found them, the word he uses is a familiar one: EUREKA!
It means he discovered it by accident! and was so overcome with joy he had to write to the church and praise her, and tell her how happy he was to see believers from this church living in truth.
Because this is what believers in a healthy church do - they live in truth - and it is something to get excited about when we see it acted out, outside the church.
But… but… don’t just live in truth, love in truth.
Point 2. Love in Truth
Point 2. Love in Truth
Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.
Here in verse 5, John is shifting gears - “Okay, the praise is over with, now I’ve got to talk to you about something.”
He says, “Now I ask you, lady” - and we would understand this to read, “Now, I’m going to ask you church….”
He says, I’m not writing something new to you here, but just like we’ve said from the start of this whole thing, I ask that we love one another.
We saw this last week, this is Jesus’ command for those who follow him.
John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
John 13:35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”
John 15:17 “This I command you, that you love one another.”
When John goes to write his first epistle, 1 John he stresses it again and again, 1 John 3:11 “For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;”
Something in John’s interactions with those church members causes him to write this. What it was, we don’t know.
Did they say something, specifically, that caused John to be concerned? Was there something slightly off with them? Were they unloving to others?
Ultimately, we know the Holy Spirit prompted John to write this, so God knew something was up even if John had no clue.
In 1 John, he did refer to a new commandment - he had said, 1 John 2:8, On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.
What was the “new commandment”? It was that we were not to hate. Not at all. “But the one who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:11)
If we hate, we don’t love. So John isn’t really giving them a new commandment, he is giving them an old commandment in a slightly different way - it’s only really new in that it is the core command for the follower of Christ.
It is central to the message of Christ that we are to love one another, and to love one another in truth.
To love as Christ loved. Even to the point we are willing to risk our lives, or even lay down our lives, on behalf of another. There’s no love greater - Jesus said this Himself (John 15:13).
If we are to love in truth than we ought to know the truth of that kind of love.
The life of a Christian is a life of sacrificial love. A love that says, “I want truth in your life more than I want to see you suffer in deceit.”
As your pastor, I love you more than I love being right.
But we all must love truth even more. And truth is not a subjective thing, especially not when it comes to the Gospel, to the word, to the Son, to the Spirit, and so on.
Now, Christians may disagree on tertiary or even secondary issues, but the truth will come out eventually.
Someone once asked John Calvin, when he gets to heaven how much of his theology God would say was accurate. He said, “Oh, probably about 80%.”
They said well if it’s 80%, why not change and make it 100%? He said, “If I knew what 20% I was getting wrong, I’d have already changed it, but I won’t know until I get there.
That’s not to say the truth is subjective, we either get it right or get it wrong. But the core message of the Gospel, the truth of our doctrines, so on we must be in agreement with otherwise we become a church divided.
And we saw last week, a divided church will not stand.
No. We love in truth as we love truth. This is John’s next point!
And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
Love of Christ is always tied to obedience to Christ.
1 John 5:2-3 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.”
According to John, love is not just an emotional affection, but an expectation.
Love is not just a personal attraction or a preference, it is rooted in truth and carried out in obedience to that truth.
In fact, when John writes “just as you have heard from the beginning”, the words “have heard” is only one word in Greek, ekousate, which means they listened and obeyed.
Those who are obedient to God’s commands are obedient to His truth, and prove they walk in love.
If we find ourselves deviating from His commands, find ourselves in disobedience, it is because in that moment we are choosing to love something else, something less than the one we say we love.
And we struggle with this throughout our Christian lives, the Apostle Paul makes this clear.
Romans 7:18-20 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me.”
When sin wins within us, it’s only because our love of truth has failed within us.
John stresses we have to be vigilant in this love for truth, because there are those who want to derail us.
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
Notice John says there are “many” deceivers. It’s the Greek word “polloi”, and it means that while there is a set number, they are almost too many to count.
There will always be more deceivers, more false teachers, more of those who try to twist the truth than those who try to preach the truth.
They often will come in unnoticed as Jude warns, or they rise up from within the church itself.
Peter makes this clear, as well. 2 Peter 2:1 “…there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.”
Paul also warns the church about this, when he tells the Ephesians in Acts 20:29 ““I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;”
This is why we must live in truth, love the truth, and all the more learn the truth - so we recognize deception when it rises up.
John is here giving limits to the love the Christian - we are not to love deception.
Paul seems even harsher than John if you can believe it. He says, “Do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (Ephesians 5:11).
That’s not to say John is going easy on them, he does call them deceivers and the antichrist. Both John and Paul agree we should separate ourselves from those who deceive.
So if we are living in truth and loving truth, the line must be drawn with those who do not do those things.
This is not to say we can not be kind or loving to these deceivers does it?
Well, let’s look at how John finishes his letter, instructing us how learn in truth.
Point 3. Learn in Truth
Point 3. Learn in Truth
See to yourselves, that you do not lose what we accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.
See to yourselves, when John says this he is actually echoing something Jesus had told him and the other disciples.
Jesus told them, “But see to yourselves; for they will deliver you to the courts, and you will be beaten in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a witness to them.” (Mark 13:9)
The idea is that we must be self-aware, we must watch out for ourselves, and by “ourselves” that means one another.
It isn’t just looking out for ones own self, but watching out for the church in general.
When Jesus said it, he was speaking of persecution, physical suffering and even death.
When John is echoes that here, he is referring to spiritual deception, spiritual suffering, and even spiritual death, backsliding or even rejection of the truth of the Gospel.
The apostles labored and worked to teach and instill in others a faith in Christ that was genuine, that was solid.
The fact that Christ came in the flesh, suffered and died for the sins of those who would believe in Him. Through Him all believers receive a full reward, eternal life, by God’s true grace.
Philippians 2:16 Paul tells us to hold fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ he and the other apostles would have reason to boast because they had not labored (nor suffered) in vain.
This was Paul’s concern over the Galatian churches. They had become so deceived, at one point he said, “I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you for nothing.” (Galatians 4:11)
We must see to ourselves and make sure we are not being deceived.
Imagine a body builder who works hard at the gym every day, chooses to eat the healthiest foods, and is just obsessed with being the best he can be.
One day he comes into the gym, and they’re selling Big Macs and French Fries, and someone offers it to him - no thanks, he’d say, I only eat healthy foods.
“Hey buddy, this is a gym. You think if this Big Mac and these french fries weren’t healthy we could sell it here?”
Well, that logic tracks, so he begins to eat the food… day in and day out. Soon he’s not got the same energy he had before, soon he’s not as slim, and before long he’s not even getting the Big Mac at the gym, he’s just going straight to McDonald’s.
Metaphorically, that happens all the time in the church.
Sure, it’s packaged as harmless, it’s packaged as fine, we’re even told it’s Christian. A few Biblical sounding words on the wrapper, and we swallow it whole.
The church today needs more men like Phinehas - the guy in the Old Testament, when Israel fell into sin and was taking Moabite women as wives - soon they’re sacrificing to Baal because of this - it all happens in Numbers 25.
Moses calls for the judges of the people and he says we have to cleanse the camp of any of these who have joined themselves to Baal.
So they put these idolators to death, and as the whole camp is grieving, one more man goes and grabs a Moabite wife… and a man named Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, grabs his spear and ends it.
Phinehas is rewarded by God for his passion for truth.
Years later, in Joshua 22, Moses is dead, and Joshua is running things, and the nation of Israel is starting to settle, and the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh go off and build this big altar - now it turns out they had good motives, but to investigate…
Joshua could have sent Caleb, Caleb was a fierce warrior, seasoned, an elder statesman, still vigorous even though he was in his 80’s, passionate for the Lord. But he doesn’t.
Joshua could have went himself, he was the guy running the show. But he doesn’t.
Joshua could have sent the High Priest, Eleazar, Aaron’s son, he’d know if they were up to some idolatry. But he doesn’t.
He sends Phinehas - someone who knows when the people are being deceived, and someone who is willing to do what it takes to cleanse the camp.
And like I said, it turned out okay, they had the right motives but you gotta wonder if when Phinehas met with Joshua, Joshua looked at him and said, “Phinehas, make sure you take your spear.”
We need watchmen on the walls like Phinehas today.
Or all we’ve fought for, all we’ve learned, all we have worked for goes down the drain with deception.
And it can go too far, look at what John says next.
Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
If the deception goes too far, soon we are no longer abiding in the teachings of Christ. and if we don’t do that, we can not say we have God.
To always seek new things, new truths, to be progressive - it’s not always a good thing.
In fact, it’s not often a good thing.
If we do not learn the word, if we do not listen to the word, if we become deceived soon enough we’re no longer in the teachings of Jesus, we’ve crossed over into something else entirely.
A failure to be faithful to the sound doctrines we know to be true, it exposes what our true passions were always after.
This is a central theme to John’s epistles.
1 John 2:23 “Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.”
1 John 3:10 “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifested: everyone who does not do righteousness is not of God, as well as the one who does not love his brother.”
We can not abide in Christ if we’d rather abide in the deception - and that word abide (men-ohn) means to stay within it, to take up residence, to remain in it.
The deception is easy, it often tastes sweet, but it’s not water from the river of life, it’s anti-freeze, it’s Jonestown kool-aid, and it’ll spiritually end us if we do not learn in truth.
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting,
for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.
This is where John truly draws the line. Don’t even greet them.
If they can’t give you the Gospel, if it’s got to be the Gospel plus something else, if it’s the word of God plus something else, if it’s worship plus something else, don’t even say hi to them.
Paul warns the Roman churches: Romans 16:17–18 “Now I urge you, brothers, to keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and stumblings contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own stomach, and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.”
In other words, Mark and Avoid them.
In our text, in the Greek John is basically saying “Don’t wish them well, don’t even smile at them. You aren’t happy to see them, they bring only death.”
Again, the words of Paul, Ephesians 5:11 , “Do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead even expose them.”
Believers are only about the truth, learning the truth, living the truth, loving the truth.
In the first century, teachers would often travel from town to town, and would be dependent on others for food, housing, and hospitality.
Many in the local Christian communities were quick to be loving and hospitable to such teachers.
Often, they’d use their own homes to give such people a platform to teach.
John’s instructions are here make sense - once you realize what they are, tell them to get moving on if they’re spreading deception or division.
They are not to be welcomed.
Paul warns, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6) and if there is no discipline for an immoral person, a deceiver, a false teacher, if he remains unrepentant, their deceit and immorality spreads in the body.
This is why Scripture study is so important, why understanding sound doctrine is vital, why revisiting the Gospel daily is necessary. It is so easy to become deceived.
I’m not above it myself - I was watching a guy preaching a while back, and man it was good stuff. I thought, wow… I want to check out more of his stuff…
Turns out he’s one of these modern day Sons of Sceva, out hunting demons, in one video he was talking about a demon of thumb sucking, a demon of bed wetting, and all sorts of other nonsense. I thought, well maybe he’s just weird. Next video I watch, he says how he’s learned from demons how demons enter the body.
I thought, “Wow, he almost got me!” It was Vlad Savchuk. False teacher.
We must learn in truth.
Conclusion:
Ask worship team to come back
As we close let’s look at the last two verses quickly.
Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made complete.
The children of your elect sister greet you.
John felt this message was more than just worth a letter - it was one he wanted to see through himself.
Like Phinehas, John went to deal with whatever may be ailing the church.
While we look out for one another, we must also be looking at our own lives. Open to the possibilities we may stray, and we must be ready to head back to the narrow path when called.
Pride won’t hear it.
Selfishness won’t submit to it.
While our flesh wants to have experiences and feelings, but our soul craves truth, and our hearts need love.
Today, as we close, I would challenge you to make this personal.
Ask yourself, am I living in truth?
Do I love truth?
Do I seek to learn truth, even if it may be an uncomfortable thing?
Ask the Holy Spirit to convict where He must, and to guide where we are unable to see clearly, with Scripture as our map bring us back onto the right path.
And when you have finished, join together with the church as we worship.
Close in Prayer