Marc Miller: Thank you, Pastor Doug.
Marc Miller: So as Doug mentioned tonight, we will be studying a very short letter from John, second the letter of 2 John.
Marc Miller: But before we get started, let's just go to the Lord in prayer.
Marc Miller: Heavenly Father, we come before you, and Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come together as brothers and sisters and spend time in your word.
Marc Miller: Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you that we can access it, Father, and by accessing it, we can understand better your character and your will.
Marc Miller: Father, as we approach today's uh study in 2 John, we just ask you to send your Holy Spirit to be with us.
Marc Miller: We ask that uh you might just uh cause us to open our minds and hearts to the truths that you are communicating through your word.
Marc Miller: And we pray these things in Jesus' holy name.
Marc Miller: Uh so 2 John, if I could ask all of you to actually open up uh your Pew Bibles or your own Bibles, uh, you'll see uh it's page 1086 in your Pew Bibles.
Marc Miller: And what you'll see uh very quickly is that it is, in fact, a brief but a very powerful letter.
Marc Miller: Um as Jerry described last week um when he presented first John, um the Apostle John is presumed uh to be the author of this book.
Marc Miller: The Apostle John, uh one of Jesus' twelve disciples, the one along with uh Peter and James, uh, who in many ways were closest to Jesus in his ministry.
Marc Miller: And so the text doesn't specifically name him at the as the author, but as we'll walk through, and as Doug even mentioned, calling him an elder, it's pretty clear that he's the author of this letter.
Marc Miller: Um and as a reminder, uh John was uh the apostle who lived the longest, uh, so he had literally the longest life.
Marc Miller: Uh, and he was the only uh disciple who didn't die from persecution.
Marc Miller: So uh a lot of lifetime of wisdom went into his writing of this letter.
Marc Miller: Uh a few books, uh a few uh just facts about uh this book.
Marc Miller: It's one of five books written by John, the others being his gospel, the gospel of John, first, second, and third John, as well as Revelation.
Marc Miller: Um and this book, as I mentioned, it's short, as you'll see, it's it's one chapter.
Marc Miller: Uh, and it's one of only five books in the Bible that is consists of a single chapter.
Marc Miller: Uh the other ones being Obadiah, uh we have uh uh Philemon, Philemon, uh Third John, as well as Jude.
Marc Miller: Who is John writing this to?
Marc Miller: Um John addresses this writing to a woman and her children.
Marc Miller: And the content, as we go through it, you'll see, seems to be addressed to an entire church.
Marc Miller: The letter uses the term lady and children.
Marc Miller: So it is possible it's addressed to a literal woman and her family, but more likely, based on the full context of the letter, he is writing to a church.
Marc Miller: And we'll discuss this in more detail as we go through uh the greeting and text of the letter.
Marc Miller: Uh last bit of background, uh, when was this written?
Marc Miller: Uh it's presumed to be written at the same time as the other uh four books that John wrote.
Marc Miller: Uh so towards the end of his life, probably sometime between 80 and 95 A.D.
Marc Miller: Okay.
Marc Miller: So as we approach the text, uh we'll find that there are really two major themes that John's emphasizing in this letter.
Marc Miller: The first one John's focusing on is the twin foundations of truth and love as central to our faith.
Marc Miller: Truth meaning the gospel is mentioned five times, and love, which can be thought of as putting truth into practice, is mentioned four times.
Marc Miller: These two foundations help us to stay obedient to God.
Marc Miller: And they're self-reinforcing.
Marc Miller: As we grow in our knowledge of God's truth, we will demonstrate more of God's love.
Marc Miller: And as we grow in our love for God and His divine plan, creation, and His people, we will grow in our depth and understanding of God's truth.
Marc Miller: So that's the first major theme, this idea of truth and love as foundational to our to our faith.
Marc Miller: The other one is to watch out.
Marc Miller: Uh Doug actually mentioned that when uh we were talking about 1 Peter, but there's a very strong message to watch out, in this case for deceivers or false teachers who are teaching that Jesus rose spiritually, but not physically.
Marc Miller: Christians should have nothing to do with such teachers, John warns us.
Marc Miller: So therefore, previewing the two main lessons of this book, and this is with a nod to Pastor Doug and his love for alliteration, um, we are to one, walk obediently.
Marc Miller: Two, we are to watch out.
Marc Miller: So walk obediently and watch out.
Marc Miller: We are to walk obediently, how?
Marc Miller: In truth and love, which reinforce each other.
Marc Miller: And what are we to watch out for?
Marc Miller: In particular, obstacles to our faith.
Marc Miller: In this case, wicked deceivers or false teachers.
Marc Miller: So let's turn to reading God's Word.
Marc Miller: And given the relatively few number of verses in this text, um, I'd like to use our time tonight to exegete all 13 of the verses.
Marc Miller: So if you could turn your Bibles to 2 John if you're not already there, um, it would be helpful.
Marc Miller: There will be four sections in this group in this letter.
Marc Miller: It's pretty clear.
Marc Miller: There's a greeting, there's a section on walk obediently and love and truth, there's a section on watching out for false teachers, and then there's a closing.
Marc Miller: So let's start with the greeting.
Marc Miller: Uh, and greeting you'll find verses 1 through 3, which I'll read.
Marc Miller: The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us forever.
Marc Miller: 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.
Marc Miller: So John opens with the words the elder to the elect lady and her children, which raises two immediate questions.
Marc Miller: Who is the elder and who is the elect lady and her children?
Marc Miller: And as we've spoken up front, the elder is clearly the apostle John.
Marc Miller: And this designation is probably both a reflection of John's position within the early Christian church as well as the advancing years that we spoke about as he was the last of the living apostles.
Marc Miller: Elder, of course, is a term uh which describes a church leader.
Marc Miller: Uh, we first find it in the New Testament, uh, in Acts 11 30, when Paul and Barnabas brought gifts from Antioch to the elders at the church in Judea.
Marc Miller: And we also see the requirements of an el uh for an elder uh being detailed in 1 Timothy.
Marc Miller: Umte, and uh Pastor Doug uh you set me up perfectly, it's not the only time that an apostle called himself elder.
Marc Miller: In fact, in 1 Peter 5, we see the same exact thing.
Marc Miller: So even though most epistles typically open with the author disclosing his name and not using the term the elder, this isn't the only time that we see uh in in the Bible that an apostle does call himself elder.
Marc Miller: Okay.
Marc Miller: And and one other just note as we start, um, it's interesting that John uses the word elder to describe himself in this second letter, um, but uh he didn't use it in the first letter that we covered last week with Jerry.
Marc Miller: Um and in doing some research and in and looking at the commentaries, it appears that at least some believe this second letter formed almost a cover letter that was sent along with the first John letter that we worked through last week.
Marc Miller: The first letter, as you'll recall, you know, five chapters, a lot of exhortation, um, uh a lot of content, you know, pastoral content from John.
Marc Miller: Um, whereas this feels a little bit more overview-like.
Marc Miller: Um so it's not, I'm not stating that factually, but it is possible that it was accompany an accompaniment of a uh, as I said, a cover letter that uh uh went along with the first John letter.
Marc Miller: So that's the elder.
Marc Miller: The elect lady and her children uh who John was writing to.
Marc Miller: Again, again, you know, we could take this literally and say, oh, was John really writing to a woman and her children?
Marc Miller: And that is certainly one possible interpretation.
Marc Miller: Um but based on context, uh, that term elect lady most likely refers to a specific church and her children being the members of that church.
Marc Miller: Um this metaphor, elect lady and her children, to refer to a group of believers wouldn't have been unusual to readers at that time.
Marc Miller: Uh, for example, there are numerous times in the Old Testament that Israel is referred to as a woman with children.
Marc Miller: We see that in Ezekiel uh 16 and Hosea 2.
Marc Miller: Uh and in the New Testament, of course, we know the church is called the bride of Jesus.
Marc Miller: We see that in in Ephesians chapter 5, Revelation chapter 22.
Marc Miller: John himself refers to church members as children in his first letter.
Marc Miller: Uh that's in 1 John chapter 2.
Marc Miller: And as we'll see later in this closing of this letter, John also refers to an elect sister.
Marc Miller: And so, given that context, it's likely that elect sister is some sort of sister church, if you will, to the church that John's writing to.
Marc Miller: One final question that this opening raises you know, why didn't John use the church's name or the person's name, like many of the other epistles do?
Marc Miller: In reading various commentaries, um, they theorize that John didn't name this particular church because it was written at a time of significant persecution, and that level of persecution varied depending on where you were within the uh Roman Empire.
Marc Miller: So it's possible uh the church he was writing to was in an area of significant persecution, and he may have been driven by a concern that if the letter was intercepted, it would put those uh who were on the receiving end of this letter at great personal risk.
Marc Miller: Okay, so moving uh through verses one and two, uh, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us forever.
Marc Miller: Well, one of the first things we're taught to observe when we read scripture um is to observe.
Marc Miller: Sorry, one of the first things we learn is that we're to observe.
Marc Miller: And we'll see that John mentions the word truth three times in these first two verses.
Marc Miller: By truth, John clearly means the gospel, the good news of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has the power to save those who believe.
Marc Miller: John likely chose to emphasize truth so strongly up front because he was trying to contrast God's truth with that of the false teachings that were being um you know talked about by these false teachers that we're going to get to.
Marc Miller: So, really to draw the audience's attention is that there's truth and then there's false teaching.
Marc Miller: Um we'll return to that you know later as we go through the book.
Marc Miller: Um, but for now, let's focus on the fact that John and all those who had received and accepted the gospel have the truth.
Marc Miller: And John further encourages his readers by reminding him, reminding them that this truth remains in us and will be with us forever.
Marc Miller: The key words here are remains and forever.
Marc Miller: We can all take great confidence in the fact that the gospel's etched in us from now into eternity.
Marc Miller: We can all take great confidence in the fact that God's plan for salvation will never change.
Marc Miller: And in another theme that we'll return to, John not only has truth, but he puts his truth into action by loving the elect lady and her children, that is the church and its members.
Marc Miller: John further notes that these members weren't only loved by John, but they were also loved by all those who know the truth.
Marc Miller: This reminds us that when we know and love the gospel, like John, we'll put this into practice by loving our fellow brothers and sisters, who we also know and love in the truth.
Marc Miller: John completes his greeting in verse 3 with a blessing to his readers.
Marc Miller: 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.
Marc Miller: Let's focus for a moment on the word will in the sentence.
Marc Miller: Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us.
Marc Miller: John didn't merely wish grace, mercy, and peace for his readers.
Marc Miller: He confidently declared that through the gospel, we do and will always have grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father.
Marc Miller: And we have these in God's truth and love because God provides his grace, mercy, and peace to those who accept the gospel as a result of his great love for his children.
Marc Miller: The reverse is actually true too.
Marc Miller: Apart from God's truth and love, we can never truly experience grace, mercy, and peace.
Marc Miller: Also note in verse 3 John deliberately does not just say the words Jesus Christ, but he calls him the Son of the Father.
Marc Miller: He's likely doing this again to combat that false truth, not false truth, but that that falsehood from those who are denying Jesus as the incarnation of the true God.
Marc Miller: John's joining God the Father with Jesus the Son, as is a one and only Son, to emphasize that they together are the truth.
Marc Miller: For God the Father sent his one and only Son in his infinite mercy and love to die on the cross, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Marc Miller: So now we move from the greeting to the next section, uh, the idea of walking obediently, one of the two main themes from today.
Marc Miller: And again, it's walking obediently how?
Marc Miller: In truth and love, which will reinforce each other.
Marc Miller: Verses 4 through 6.
Marc Miller: Let's read.
Marc Miller: I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, in keeping with the command we have received from the Father.
Marc Miller: So now I ask you, dear lady, not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.
Marc Miller: This is love, that we walk according to his commands.
Marc Miller: This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning, that you walk in love.
Marc Miller: In verse 4, John's delighted to learn that at least some of the members of the church are living faithfully.
Marc Miller: These Christians didn't merely believe the gospel, they were putting their faith into practice by walking in truth.
Marc Miller: And what does walking in truth mean?
Marc Miller: It means living in line with God's revealed truth, just as God commanded us to do.
Marc Miller: Let's look to Scripture for other ways that we see that command to walk in truth.
Marc Miller: Psalm 86, verse 11.
Marc Miller: Teach me your way, Lord, and I will live by your truth.
Marc Miller: John 14, 6.
Marc Miller: Jesus told him, we all know, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Marc Miller: No one comes to the Father except through me.
Marc Miller: Colossians chapter 1, verses 9 and 10.
Marc Miller: We're asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.
Marc Miller: And one more.
Marc Miller: John himself spoke about the idea of walking in truth in his first letter, 1 John chapter 2, verse 6.
Marc Miller: The one who says, I have come to know him and yet doesn't keep his commands, is a liar.
Marc Miller: And the truth is not in him.
Marc Miller: So these verses collectively tell us that we are to love God by walking in truth, by faithfully obeying and holding on to the truth of who he is and what he promises.
Marc Miller: Living in obedience to God's word is not a choice for we Christians.
Marc Miller: It's a requirement.
Marc Miller: God commands all of us to walk in truth, and doing so demonstrates that we may remain steadfast in our walk with the Lord.
Marc Miller: Also note at the beginning of this verse 4 the words very glad.
Marc Miller: John's very glad to find this.
Marc Miller: Like John, all believers should find great joy in the faithfulness of other believers.
Marc Miller: The things that cause us to rejoice are a significant indicator of what's in our own hearts.
Marc Miller: If we love truth and love people, we too will be delighted when people live faithfully according to God's word.
Marc Miller: Continuing to verse 5.
Marc Miller: So now I ask you, dear lady, not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.
Marc Miller: John implores the church to put faith into action by following God's command that we love one another.
Marc Miller: John, of course, is referencing Jesus' own words, his exhortation to his disciples at the Last Supper.
Marc Miller: John chapter 13, verse 34.
Marc Miller: I give you a new command.
Marc Miller: Love one another.
Marc Miller: Just as I love you, I have loved you, you are also to love one another.
Marc Miller: As Christians remain faithful, John stresses a key aspect of this faithfulness.
Marc Miller: Loving one another as Jesus loved us.
Marc Miller: Our love should be driven by a desire to reflect the same love that Jesus showed his bride, the church, and all of his acts of grace towards us.
Marc Miller: Mirroring Jesus' own words, John reminds his leaders that this command, his readers, that this command to love is not new, but something they have known from the beginning.
Marc Miller: Loving one another is foundational to Christianity and to our walk with God.
Marc Miller: Just as we are commanded to live in obedience to God, we're also commanded to love one another.
Marc Miller: Moving to verse 6, this is love, that we walk according to his commands.
Marc Miller: This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning, that you walk in love.
Marc Miller: Here, John goes on to define love as not just loving one another, but also walking according to God's commands.
Marc Miller: These are linked.
Marc Miller: We are commanded to love, and a critical demonstration of our love of God is to obey his commands.
Marc Miller: For to love God is to obey him, as John himself wrote in his own gospel, John 14, verse 15.
Marc Miller: If you love me, you will keep my commands.
Marc Miller: So what does it mean to love others then?
Marc Miller: To love others means to encourage them and help them to obey God, just as we are to obey God.
Marc Miller: It's not merely showing affection to or support for them.
Marc Miller: It is instead a spiritual love.
Marc Miller: Today our culture too often teaches that to love someone is to indulge them, to let them do what they want, or perhaps even worse, to respect their truth.
Marc Miller: You've heard that?
Marc Miller: Of course, we offer our loved ones affection and affection and gifts, even sometimes to the point of indulgence.
Marc Miller: But that's not what John's talking about here.
Marc Miller: Spiritual indulgence is not true love.
Marc Miller: We don't demonstrate love when we disobey God and do something to or with another person that God forbids.
Marc Miller: That's obviously sin.
Marc Miller: And if we encourage or aid someone to do something that God forbids, this too is sin.
Marc Miller: The opposite of genuine love.
Marc Miller: Rather, we demonstrate love by sharing God's truth and seeking to prevent someone from disobeying God and instead urging them to follow God.
Marc Miller: If we love God, we will obey his commandments and encourage others who love God to do so as well.
Marc Miller: We don't do this to be legalistic or simply out of our fear for God, but rather because we know God has provided these commands out of his great love for us and in his great wisdom because they are best for us.
Marc Miller: These commands are a gift from us to us from God to direct our daily choices in living.
Marc Miller: Why wouldn't we want to share the truth in God's word with those we love?
Marc Miller: So to summarize this section on walking obediently in truth and love, verses four through six, to walk obediently with God means we must walk in truth and in love.
Marc Miller: And these three qualities, love, truth, and obedience, together are foundational to our Christian faith.
Marc Miller: As we put our faith into action by exhibiting any one of these qualities, love, truth, or obedience, we will find ourselves growing in the other two qualities as well, thereby growing closer to God in our own walk with Him.
Marc Miller: So that's the first major message here.
Marc Miller: Walk obediently.
Marc Miller: The second major message you'll recall is watch out.
Marc Miller: Watch out, in particular, about false teachers and deceivers.
Marc Miller: So that's what verses 7 through 11 speak to.
Marc Miller: Let's read.
Marc Miller: Many deceivers have gone out into the world.
Marc Miller: They do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.
Marc Miller: This is the deceiver and the Antichrist.
Marc Miller: Watch yourselves so you don't lose what we have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward.
Marc Miller: Anyone who does not remain in Christ's teaching, but goes beyond it, does not have God.
Marc Miller: The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.
Marc Miller: If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and don't greet him.
Marc Miller: For the one who greets him shares in his evil works.
Marc Miller: After describing what it meant to walk in truth, in this next section, John's switching emphasis to warn to protect ourselves against those who are not in the truth.
Marc Miller: In this case, the false teachers who had denied Jesus' incarnation.
Marc Miller: They had denied that Jesus had come in the flesh, as Jerry explained last week.
Marc Miller: The church that uh John wrote this letter to had become a battleground.
Marc Miller: Certain teachers had advanced an alternative and absolutely false message about Jesus Christ.
Marc Miller: These teachers had been influenced by contemporary Greek philosophy, and they divided the human Jesus from the divine Jesus.
Marc Miller: They taught that only Jesus, the man, was crucified, while the spiritual, non-human, non-material Christ as God did not and could not have suffered the indignity of the cross.
Marc Miller: These ideas are heresy, denying the truth of who Jesus is.
Marc Miller: And also claim, they, by the way, they also claim that this truth was only revealed to a select few.
Marc Miller: And together, these ideas came together to form a movement called Gnosticism.
Marc Miller: So turning to verse 7, John calls these false teachers, these Gnostics, deceivers and the Antichrist.
Marc Miller: They were antichrists because they rejected the truth of who Jesus is.
Marc Miller: They basically denied that the Word had become flesh and had come into the world.
Marc Miller: Their teaching separating material Jesus from the spiritual Jesus completely undermines the gospel.
Marc Miller: The good news that Jesus had come to us in the flesh, as both God and man, to be the once and forever propitiation for our sins.
Marc Miller: And John says that anyone who intentionally denies the truth about Jesus is not merely a deceiver, but has the spirit of the Antichrist.
Marc Miller: So what should believers do when faced with heretical teachings like these?
Marc Miller: First, in John 8, verse 8, John exhorts believers to watch yourselves so you don't lose what we have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward.
Marc Miller: John's urging them to beware, that is, to watch themselves, so they are not led astray by this false teaching.
Marc Miller: As we discussed earlier in the walk obediently section, believers can obey God if they're not in the truth.
Marc Miller: That's clear and self-evident.
Marc Miller: But he continues with a statement about the consequences of not following this false teaching.
Marc Miller: Losing what we've worked for and not receiving a full reward.
Marc Miller: Wait, what does it mean that we could lose what we've worked for?
Marc Miller: As Christians, we know that we are saved by God's grace alone, not by works.
Marc Miller: Right?
Marc Miller: Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9.
Marc Miller: One, I'm sure many of you are very familiar.
Marc Miller: For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is God's gift, not from works, so that no one can boast.
Marc Miller: So clearly the losing here has to refer to something other than our salvation, our souls.
Marc Miller: For only God works to save souls.
Marc Miller: So what then were John and the early Christian disciples working for?
Marc Miller: As they shared the gospel, they were engaged in teaching, discipling, encouraging, and rebuking.
Marc Miller: This had the impact of building early believers in their faith and helping them to become more spiritually mature.
Marc Miller: That work of discipling, encouraging, teaching, rebuking is the work that John doesn't want to be in vain.
Marc Miller: The sharing and spreading of the gospel and the impact this had on helping these early believers in growing mature and walking in truth and love.
Marc Miller: And so that's from the teacher's side.
Marc Miller: What about from the believer's side?
Marc Miller: Um these believers, of course, don't contribute to their own salvation.
Marc Miller: But they still took actions that is work to grow and learn and strive to be more Christ-like, just as we do today.
Marc Miller: In fact, John uses the word remain in the next uh verse, verse 9, uh, to describe what a true believer looks like.
Marc Miller: And a mark of a follower of Christ is one who perseveres in his or her faith.
Marc Miller: If they turn away, they will have wasted their efforts to be more Christ-like, and more specifically, they will have revealed themselves to be false false believers, because they didn't persevere in their faith.
Marc Miller: It's really important to be clear here.
Marc Miller: No one can lose a salvation they once had.
Marc Miller: If God has truly elected you as one of his children, you will remain there.
Marc Miller: And we know and trust in the fact that only God's grace and mercy, as expressed by Christ dying on the cross for us, saves.
Marc Miller: Nothing in us earns salvation, therefore nothing we do loses salvation.
Marc Miller: But turning to false teaching could reveal that despite all outward appearances, that person was never a true believer.
Marc Miller: As John himself summarized in his first letter, 1 John 9, verse 19, they went out from us, but they did not belong to us.
Marc Miller: For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us.
Marc Miller: However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.
Marc Miller: As for the end of this verse 8, receiving a full reward.
Marc Miller: This refers to the eternal benefits we receive from trusting Christ and persevering in that faith.
Marc Miller: These rewards are revealed in Revelation, Revelation chapter 22, verse 12.
Marc Miller: Look, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me to repay each person according to his work.
Marc Miller: This doesn't mean that we earn such a ward merely from our own deeds, but instead that God rewards those deeds which are fueled by his grace.
Marc Miller: Anyone who does not remain in Christ's teaching but goes beyond it does not have God.
Marc Miller: The one who remains in that teaching, this one, has both the Father and the Son.
Marc Miller: We hold that all scripture is complete and inerrant.
Marc Miller: 2 Timothy 2, uh, chapter 3, uh, verses 16 and 17.
Marc Miller: All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Marc Miller: By going beyond Scripture, as these teachers were doing, a teacher denies the Bible as being God's final word and his final revelation to us.
Marc Miller: He's heretically placing his own words that he's adding on equal footing to that of God.
Marc Miller: That teacher has neither God nor salvation.
Marc Miller: And John again warns us that not only believers, I'm sorry, not only teachers, but even those apparent believers who have heard God's true inspired word, but still choose to follow such extra false teaching, also live outside God's grace.
Marc Miller: So differently, if a person teaches something about God the Father or Jesus which is grossly false or outside Scripture, they cannot be considered a believer.
Marc Miller: But even more, even those who stray from God's word as a result of such false teaching and who fundamentally misunderstand or reject who Jesus is, those people are called unbelievers too.
Marc Miller: Someone can attend church, regularly profess his or her faith, and appear on the outside to be a believer, but if they teach or truly embrace a fundamentally false doctrine, that would show they were never saved.
Marc Miller: But on the other hand, which should be great comfort to us, John verse 9 also reveals that we Christians are allowed to be ignorant of certain biblical teachings and still be saved.
Marc Miller: For none of us is perfect, um, and none of us None of us is fully mature in our faith and understanding.
Marc Miller: As long as we remain in the truth, that is, in the gospel, John assures us we have both God the Father and the Son.
Marc Miller: A true believer will last in the face and faith and persevere.
Marc Miller: Praise God that we are not judged according to our inadequacies and meager efforts.
Marc Miller: Amen.
Marc Miller: Moving to verses 10 and 11, John gives specific advice how believers should deal with false teachers, who he rightly saw as corrupting the early church.
Marc Miller: Verses 10 and 11.
Marc Miller: If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, that is the gospel, do not receive him into your home and don't greet him.
Marc Miller: For the one who greets him shares in this in his evil works.
Marc Miller: Oh, wait a minute.
Marc Miller: Wait a minute.
Marc Miller: That sounds a little strict.
Marc Miller: I can't even greet.
Marc Miller: If you'll allow me just for a moment to channel my inner pastor Micah and his style of rapid style questions.
Marc Miller: Yes.
Marc Miller: Alright.
Marc Miller: So picture someone a little taller than I am right now, a little younger.
Marc Miller: Does this mean I can't say hello to the nice but misinformed Jehovah's Witness teacher when I pass him on the street?
Marc Miller: Or I can't play pickleball with the pac Catholic priest who showed up at the park courts?
Marc Miller: That one's not personal.
Marc Miller: And I can't invite the Mormon preacher who is a baseball fan to watch a game at my house with my fellow Mets friends.
Marc Miller: That one is personal.
Marc Miller: Is this what John is really really warning us about?
Marc Miller: Not surprisingly, there's an important difference in what it meant to greet or show hospitality in John's words, to receive someone uh into their home at the time of John's letter versus today.
Marc Miller: During John's time, church leaders uh and teachers who traveled could expect to be shown hospitality by local believers when they arrived in new towns.
Marc Miller: Various epistles speak to such expectations.
Marc Miller: For example, Paul's request of the Colossians to show hospitality to Mark, or um the for the Corinthians to receive Timothy.
Marc Miller: This often meant traveling evangelists were accepted into local homes, and these local homes were also serving as the local church.
Marc Miller: Okay?
Marc Miller: So these teachers were frequently given aid, even by such homes and churches.
Marc Miller: So receiving a false teacher into that type of home, also serving as a local church, would likely signal an acceptance of these false teachings.
Marc Miller: You know, a willingness to they were willing to introduce them to other believers within the church, um, they were perhaps even willing to financially support them.
Marc Miller: This would mean if you're engaging and supporting a false teacher to that extent, it would indicate that you were promoting that false doctrine.
Marc Miller: And therefore, if you're supporting and promoting this false doctrine, you are in fact, in John's own words, sharing in his evil works.
Marc Miller: Various commentaries further clarify that the warning against greeting, right, that you see here, and receiving in the original Greek context meant have no religious connection with these false teachers, nor act towards them so as to induce others to believe you acknowledge him as a brother.
Marc Miller: The key here is that clearly we're not to associate in such a way that would indicate acceptance of these false beliefs.
Marc Miller: So there's at least a chance John would give a pass to some of my Pastor Michael-like questions that I asked about greeting or showing hospitality to false teachers.
Marc Miller: Or maybe not.
Marc Miller: In my preparation for today, I was talking with Pastor Doug, and he shared a story about John that was recorded in an early Christian book called About Heresies.
Marc Miller: In this story, John was in an Ephesus bathhouse going about his business when he saw his Gnostic enemy, Cyrinthus, was also in the same bathhouse.
Marc Miller: How did John react?
Marc Miller: He immediately fled the building, hopefully with his clothes on, shouting, and he shouted, Let us flee, lest even the bathhouse fall down, because Corinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.
Marc Miller: So it can safely say be said that John not only walked in truth, but also in his own advice.
Marc Miller: While John might be at the extreme end of what he viewed as permissible social interaction, we should all use our discernment to make sure in our interactions with others that we don't communicate acceptance of such false beliefs.
Marc Miller: One final note from this section John contrasts how we should treat false teachers versus how we should treat those uh teachers who are faithfully teaching the gospel.
Marc Miller: Summarizing this section, we're not to greet or receive those who do not bring gospel truth, lest we lose all that we've worked for.
Marc Miller: But the opposite is true too.
Marc Miller: We're clearly instructed to show hospitality and to spiritually greet in love those who teach the truth as an outpouring of our own faith and our own love for God.
Marc Miller: So moving from that second point, right, about watching out for these false teachers, we come to the closing, verses 12 and 13.
Marc Miller: Though I have many things to write to you, I don't want to use paper and ink.
Marc Miller: Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete.
Marc Miller: The children of your elect sister send you greetings.
Marc Miller: In particular, verse 12.
Marc Miller: John has revealed himself to be a faithful elder with much more that he wants to teach and share with this church.
Marc Miller: He longs to see them in person instead of writing them from a distance, as he wants to experience communion and fellowship with those under his pastoral care.
Marc Miller: His strong exhortations in this letter about walking in truth and love and avoiding false teaching have clearly come from a place of love for the flock.
Marc Miller: Like any faithful pastor, he wants members of this church to continue to grow in the Word, in their spiritual maturity, and in their walk with God, so that his and his fellow teachers' joy may be complete.
Marc Miller: Everything about this letter reveals John's love for his people and his desire to teach, encourage, protect, and disciple them.
Marc Miller: He is an elder in every sense of the word, indeed.
Marc Miller: John concludes by sending greetings from the children of your elect sister.
Marc Miller: Consistent with what we spoke about up front, about the elect lady, this likely implies that the church John wrote this letter to has a sister church, the elect sister, probably where John was residing.
Marc Miller: And its members, the children, were sending their love in truth to their fellow believers.
Marc Miller: So, as we've discussed from this book of 2 John, there are two main lessons, right?
Marc Miller: Believers must walk obediently, how in truth and love which reinforce each other.
Marc Miller: And second, uh believers are to watch out.
Marc Miller: Watch out for what?
Marc Miller: Obstacles to our faith, faith, namely deceivers and false teachers.
Marc Miller: But what I'd like to leave you with is just a few questions about how we might apply these lessons to our daily lives.
Marc Miller: Um, but I ask all of you to ponder them as you come away from tonight's discussion.
Marc Miller: First question.
Marc Miller: How do we stay in truth and guard ourselves against false teaching?
Marc Miller: How do we stay in truth and guard ourselves from false teaching?
Marc Miller: And as we think about that, think about what it means to abide in God.
Marc Miller: There are a number of verses that speak to that.
Marc Miller: Uh John chapter 15, verses 4 through 7, uh, 1 John chapter 2, verses 24 to 27, and Colossians chapter 2, verses 6 through 8.
Marc Miller: So think about what it means to abide in God as we try to live in truth and avoid false teaching.
Marc Miller: Second question.
Marc Miller: Where do we need to be more intentional in loving others in truth?
Marc Miller: For example, how do we apply John's teaching to interacting with those that we love who may be living a sinful life, or those who are believing false doctrine?
Marc Miller: Third, to what degree may or should we engage with false teachers versus just shunning them completely?
Marc Miller: And what does that look like practically?
Marc Miller: And as we ruminate on that, you know, we should remember um even within kind of the evangelical uh evangelicals, there are differences that um separate some of our biblical and scriptural understanding from other Christ-centered, God-believing churches.
Marc Miller: So there are churches that we would say aren't fundamental, and there are those that we would say are fundamental.
Marc Miller: Where do we draw the line?
Marc Miller: And then how do we think about engaging with teachers who are teaching ones that are in our view fundamentally, in God's view, fundamentally wrong?
Marc Miller: And then finally, what if any restrictions should we place on practicing hospitality towards those in our lives that could potentially pose a threat to all that we have worked for?
Marc Miller: And along with that, how can we take care to show that our associating with them doesn't communicate acceptance of their beliefs?
Speaker 1: Okay.
Marc Miller: So you know, I encourage you to think of all these and applying these lessons uh, you know, in light of the two major themes, very simple themes from tonight, walk obediently and watch out.
Marc Miller: Um and I just thank you for this time we've been able to spend together in God's Word.
Marc Miller: Let's let's let's pray.
Marc Miller: Heavenly Father, we thank you uh for again this opportunity to come together in communion, Father, and to grow in our walk with you.
Marc Miller: Father, we pray that your uh truth and love uh would shine through us uh in all of our interactions and all of our daily actions.
Marc Miller: Uh Father, we uh just thank you for your word, and we thank you most of all for your Son Jesus Christ.
Marc Miller: In his holy name we pray.
Marc Miller: Amen.