Truth
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Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is, as always, a great privilege to be here with you today and an absolute honor to share the Word of God with you.
This morning, we are going to be switching gears from what we have been going through for the past month or so. We had been looking at Psalm 119 and the wonderful treasure trove that Psalm is for reminding us of the sustaining power there is in God’s Word. That basic principle still applies and always will. It is good for us to be reminded of things that we know to be true. In fact, that is the primary purpose of preaching in the church. It is to remind the saints of what God has called us to be and give encouragement for continuing on in that calling.
In my life, and I would think that it is the same for most of us here today, I love and need reminders constantly. My wife knows that if I go to the store for us, I need a list! It’s not that I forget that we have needs in the house. I know and remember that we have to have food to survive and supplies for the babies. But when I walk into the hustling and bustling world of Costco, I am quick to forget the specific directives I had been given to meet the needs of my family. I mean who wouldn’t forget what they were supposed to be going when there are free samples on every corner and then turn and see a great deal on a 50 ft garden hose! It is in those moments that having the reminder of a shopping list is necessary to bring me back on track and ensure my duty as a providing husband has been fulfilled.
In a similar way, the exhortations from the pulpit of the local church are a reminder to those who love the Lord and understand their honor and responsibility to live for Him. God, in His great grace, has provided His children with His Word and His Church to remind them and keep them on track as they go about their lives in a lost world full of distractions.
We see this play out in Scripture. We are reminded the importance of gathering together.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
I shared this analogy this past Sunday night, but it’s important enough to share again. Long distance communication is a good thing with a purpose! Our troops overseas are able to communicate with their families back home and see them on a screen. It is a great form of communication in that application. But we would think it was absurd if they were to finish their service, make their way home, and then continue to only speak to their families through a screen! In a similar way, I am thankful for digital means to share the teaching of the church, but the fullness of Christian encouragement occurs together, in person! God has given us the local church to serve Him through. It is here where we are encouraged and challenged to grow together and hold one another accountable in our service of Him. We are reminded that we aren’t doing this alone but we are a singular part of the BODY of Christ. Coming together on a regular and consistent basis is a reminder of who are and what we are called to do.
And then, when we get here, the teaching that we receive continues to remind us and equip us to press on for God’s glory in our lives. The apostles, writing to the first churches, understood the necessity of reminders for the saints of the church:
But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.
Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
Biblical truths are reminded and repeated because they are essential for both the early church and us here today as we go about our lives for the glory of God. It is a great grace that God has given us His Word and His church to work in concert in our lives to remind us of our purpose.
I bring all of this up as an introduction to what we will be covering for the next four weeks as we walk through 2 and 3 John. These two letters are reminders. Reminders to the original recipients and us here today on our calling and our practice in service to the Lord. They are “quick hitters.” Both books are only one chapter and neither have more than 15 verses in total. But the goodness contained, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and recorded by the Apostle John, serve as great reminders for living out our faith in the God who reconciled us, all those believe in Christ as Lord, unto Himself.
With that in mind, would you open your Bibles to 2 John.
Today we will be looking at the first half of this letter. There is virtually no debate as to the authorship of this letter. The content contained in this letter is a complimentary extension of John’s major themes through the Gospel of John and the epistle dubbed 1 John. There is some debate as to who the recipient of this letter was, but regardless it is applicable for us today. Read with me the greeting of 2 John.
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, because of the truth that 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 Father’s Son, in truth and love.
The debate in deciding who the recipient of this letter comes down to defining “The elect lady and her children.” After combing through many different commentaries this week, scholars believe that this is either a particular lady, saved by the grace of God, or lady used as a metaphor for an early local church, full of members likewise saved by the grace of God. I am less concerned with ending that debate, and more interested in applying the direct and loving message John has for this group.
John here identifies himself as “the elder.” This word would be commonly recognized in the Early church, but is not seen very often in the modern baptist church. To put it simply, the word elder is used in the New Testament interchangeably with overseer and pastor. You can see this most easily in 1 Peter:
1 Peter 5:1–2 (ESV)
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly;
An elder oversees the local congregation willingly and for God’s glory. An elder shepherds the flock God has given him. The word Pastor means shepherd.
GO BACK TO 2 JOHN 1-3 AFTER I QUICKLY EXPLAIN PASTOR MEANS SHEPHERD
GO BACK TO 2 JOHN 1-3 AFTER I QUICKLY EXPLAIN PASTOR MEANS SHEPHERD
So when we see here in 2 John that he introduce himself as “The Elder” in 2 John, he is speaking to this group, whether it be a particular family or a congregation, with the loving affection and compassionate care of an overseeing shepherd. He is directing this group as God would have him do. The elder is seeking to glorify the Lord through this letter.
I want to drive this home because it helps set the precedent for all teaching you receive from an elder, from a pastor. The pastor MUST love those whom he serves as undershepherd.
Love has to be the primary force in the outworking of a pastor, but not only the pastor, also the Christian! Jesus said that they will know we are His disciples by our love for one another. John recorded those words of Jesus in the Gospel of John chapter 13.
In our Scripture from 2 John we see the application of that command. John loves this group and writes to them corrective and edifying words to build them up in their walk with the Lord. That is a loving act.
I have spoken about love before, particularly as we walked through the book of 1 John. Today, we will see the intrinsic relatedness of love and truth. Notice how John expresses his love and how it is centered upon the mutual understanding of 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, because of the truth that 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 Father’s Son, in truth and love.
John loves this group in truth. And he is not the only one who loves them, but all who know the truth love them. The truth that is in them abides, dwells, remains in them forever. All of these mentioned have grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and from God the Son, Jesus Christ, and they have it in truth and love. They are united together in mutual love by truth.
John starts with his particular love and then expands it to all those who know the truth. This takes the particular message and expands it all believers. All born-again believers, those who are saved by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, are united in love and truth, and not just for a certain time, but forever!
It has often been said that Durbin Memorial Baptist Church is a loving church. It is my sincere hope and prayer that that is always the case. I pray every day for this church and for the love of God to continue to permeate through our midst. But the love in this church is not something for us to boast about! It is something that we have received by the grace of God!
Look at verse 2 into verse 3. The truth, the binder and catalyst of love between believers, remains with them forever. Not only truth but also Grace, Mercy, and Peace WILL be with all those reconciled to God the Father through faith in the Son. By God’s grace all those who know the truth of Christ as Lord receive mercy and are brought into peace, not just in the short term, but for all of eternity! All of this pouring from and uniting us in the love of God!
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Here we see the Father and Son working in concert of perfect love to give undeserving sinners grace, mercy and peace! This truth, the absolute fact of Christ dying to pay for the sins of all who believe in Him and reconciling them to the Father, show the unity of these virtues in all of the redeemed!
Look back at verse 3. Here John is using a fairly common salutation to his letter. It is pretty close to the introduction I use in each sermon which comes from Paul’s letters to the churches. But don’t let familiarity obfuscate the deep meaning:
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.
Typically in these epistolary greetings, the apostles are writing to the churches “wishes” or hopes of grace and peace. Which is good! We should be hoping for and praying for grace, peace and mercy for other believers. But John here augments the greeting to say that grace, mercy, and peace WILL be with us.
One commentary stated that “Through truth and love, God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ have bestowed to us grace, mercy, and peace. These gifts are assuredly ours now and into the future and continue to shape and define us as the people God wants us to be.”
So Christian, take it to the bank that in this life, though we may falter and fail, if you have truly submitted your life the Lord Jesus Christ through repentant faith, you have all the grace, mercy, and peace, tied together in truth and love to live out a life that is honoring the Lord!
And that is John’s intention in this letter. He is reminding its recipients of their glorious position before God and pointing them on the path to honoring Him in their lives.
This is pastoral preaching! Look now at the encouragement John gives to the recipients in verse 4
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.
What a joy it is for an elder or a pastor to hear of God’s people walking in the truth, as we have been commanded by the Father!
Don’t mistake when John says “some of your children” are doing this, as a backhanded compliment. You know, like when your out at Walmart during a busy day so your in sweatpants and an ill-fitting t-shirt, someone comes up to you and says, “Oh hey… you look … comfortable.”
John is not deriding the group and saying that only some of them have been walking in truth while the others are out and about busting open the gates of hell.
He is saying that he has particular knowledge of specific things members of this group have done that show they have been walking in truth.
It is a joy for a pastor to hear of the things others are doing in service to the Lord! Just in the last two weeks I have received multiple messages from church members who are sharing with me about Gospel conversations that they are having. I rejoice greatly to hear some of the members here are walking in truth and sharing it! As a praise report, one of those conversations led to profession of faith! As a church, as we spur one another on in love and good works, it is good to share these stories for encouragement and reminder to keep pressing on and keep being faithful to the one who was faithful to save us! We don’t share these things for personal gain and self adulation, we share these testimonies to remind each other we are in this life together! We rejoice, giving God all the glory for the great things He has done and allowed us to be a part of!
So here in verse 4, John gives the group encouragement for the wonderful things he has heard of that are happening in their midst.
In the next verse we see pastoral exhortation:
And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.
John comes back to the reminder he has given through his gospel and as we saw as we walked through 1 John. The group is asked to love one another.
On the surface this is such a simple command. Love. If we were to survey 100 people on the street and ask them if we should love each other, I would guess that you would get 100 people who say yes!
The problem is that when we talk about love on cultural level we are broadly talking about subjective love. Subjective love is abstract love. It is made up of individual affections that change from person to person. This leads to people doing anything and everything they want in the name of love! Anything can be love if it means love to you.
To put it frankly, that is utterly preposterous! And deep down, we can all see the lunacy that is objective love. Our guy Charlie recently won an award at a car show for his antique Nomad station wagon. Now if I decided to cover that cherry red coat of paint he has on it with a can of spray paint from Walmart, he’d rightfully be furious. If I told him I did it out of love, he’d tell me that I have no idea what love is! And he’d be right! If I were to punch my man Troy across the chin and shout, Love you brother! He’d think I was crazy and probably snap me like a twig.
Deep down we know that there are proper demonstrations of love and those that are just not right. The examples that I am giving are ridiculous on purpose, but they illustrate a finer point. Love is not something that can be subjectively morphed into whatever we want it to be. And we can recognize when love is misapplied.
That is because whether we recognize it or not, love is not subjective. John is not giving that group some vague command to go around doing whatever makes them feel good in the moment. No, in verse 6 we see the objective standard of love and its intrinsic relation with truth.
And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.
What is Love?
“To some love simply means to tolerate any evil that comes around. To some love means sex, to others love is used pervertedly in ‘I would just love to punch so and so in the nose.’ Our text defines love as obeying God’s commands. This definition is far different than what we normally think of love. But it tells us what true love really is.”
True expression of love is obedience to God!
True love is not a mixture of emotions and debased desires. True love is desire to serve and obey God through everything that you do and all of the relationships that you keep. This is because as it says in 1 John 4:16, God is love!
The Word of God makes the absolute claim that God is love. And if God is love, then our love cannot truly be expressed unless it is sourced in Him. Everything that this world calls love and is antithetical to God’s commands is not love, it is a cheap fabrication. A knock off that is so shoddy, it is an offense to the original. Do you think that if Louis Vuitton was strolling around the local flea market that he would be pleased with the countless knock-off attempting to carry his name? He would rightfully be upset that his name was profaned and he would probably feel bad for those who were buying the fakes!
The love this world has to offer is fake love. It is a cheap knock off that brings no glory to the real source of and expression of love, the Lord God.
Do you think yourself a loving person? If you want that claim to be accurate, obey God! Walk according to His commandments! When we use this true and biblical standard, we see just how often we all miss the true standard of love. We think we are so loving, but according to the Word of God, we are not very loving, because we do not obey His commandments. I ran across this example this week: A man runs off with a woman and forsakes his wife and children because he says he is ‘in love.’ Nonsense, he is not in love. He is full of lust. If he wanted to display love he would have obeyed God’s commands and remained where he was.
Love of the Lord expressed through obedience to Him has always been the true way of Love.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
The command to Love the Lord first then to love others does not invalidate the rest of the commands and instruction in God’s Word. It illuminates them! All the Law and Prophets depend upon Loving God first and neighbor next! It is from love God that we seek to honor him and we express that love through obedience. It is our good pleasure, great joy, and deepest love to serve the Lord.
You see true love is centered upon truth. This world has been marred by sin and thus truth has been obscured. In our depraved unrighteous minds humanity suppresses the truth. We desire love, but fall for the fabrication. But praise be to God that He has shown us the truth of love. Look back to verses 4-6 once more.
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one 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, so that you should walk in it.
In these verses we see the intentional circularity in this loving pastor’s message to this group and us today. Believers are to love one another. Love is walking in God’s commands. And God’s command is that we walk in Love. Love is obedience, and obedience is Love.
Don’t fall for the fabrication of love. We are only able to truly love because of what Christ has done and we live out that love through study and application of His word.
We love because he first loved us.
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