John wrote this, his second letter, or epistle, around the
same time as the first, probably 85 – 95 A.D.
This was a time when Christian missionaries traveled all over the
region, planting and growing churches, just like Peter and Paul had done
earlier. Most of those churches met in
homes. At the same time, there was a
rise in a philosophy known as Gnosticism.
The Gnostics believed that the material world was evil, or at least
worthless. They embraced advanced
knowledge, philanthropy, and spiritualism.
They believed that by devoting themselves to these practices they could
become one with god. (I am not capitalizing
“god” here, because the god they worshiped was not the One True God.) They believed that they could, in fact, be
gods. This philosophy presented itself
in several forms, and is still very present in our world today. Some Gnostics believed that Jesus was god and
that He came to bring us a higher knowledge and life-style through which we
could become like Him, but they denied sin and His sacrifice for our sin;
others adamantly denied that Jesus was god, but believed that He was just a man
who had attained a higher knowledge to which we should all aspire; still others
called Jesus a “false messiah” who perverted the teachings of the
prophets. Just like the missionaries of
Jesus Christ, the Gnostics had missionaries who travelled the world teaching
their various philosophies, some of which sounded very convincing to immature
Christians who were anxious to know more about Christ and His teachings. At the same time in history, the persecution
of Christians was becoming more and more commonplace, and more and more
severe. Beginning with Nero in 64 A.D.
and continuing during the reign of Domitian in 89 – 96 A.D., Christians were
persecuted because of their “strange” religion and for not worshipping the
Roman emperor or his gods. That, I
believe, is why John addressed this letter in the way he did:
This letter is from John, the elder. I am writing to the
chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in the truth—as does everyone else
who knows the truth (2 John 1).
This “chosen lady” is the leader of the church to whom John
was writing, and “her children” were the members. This idea is reinforced by the closing words
of John’s letter:
Greetings from the
children of your sister, chosen by God (2 John 13).
“Your sister” refers to the church where
John ministered, a sister church. I
believe these clouded references to the church were meant to shield both
himself and the people around him, and the people who worshipped in the home of
the person to whom he wrote. When we
read John’s second letter from that viewpoint, it is very easy to apply John’s
teachings to our own lives, since we are brothers and sisters in Christ with
John and believers through the ages from all over the world.
When, in his introductory remarks, John
said, “whom I love in the truth – as does everyone else who knows the truth,”
he not only meant that “the truth” was “fact,” but he was also referring to
Jesus. Remember what Jesus said about
Himself:
Jesus told him, “I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except
through me (John 14:6)”
Before John began instructing the church,
he mentioned having met some of the members of their church and commended them
for staying true to what they had been taught:
How happy I was to meet some of your
children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father
commanded (2 John 4).
So, what did John teach us in this, his
second letter? And what did the Father
command? He instructed them about love
and truth. First of all, we are to love
one another. Just as he wrote in his
first letter, this is one way that we can know that we are children of God:
I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that
we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had
from the beginning. Love means doing what God
has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard
from the beginning (2 John 5-6).
Dear friends, let us continue to love one
another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows
God. But anyone who does not love does not know God,
for God is love (1 John 4:7-8).
Secondly, John taught that we are to do
what God commanded:
Love means doing what God has commanded us,
and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the
beginning (2 John 6).
And thirdly, he taught that we are to
beware of deceivers, like the Gnostics, who deny that Jesus is Christ, The Son
of God, and that He came in a real, human, flesh and blood body. He warned us about those who stray from The
Truth:
I say this because many
deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a
real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist. . . Anyone who wanders
away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in
the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son (2
John 7, 9).
John taught that these deceivers, who might
at first appear to be Christian missionaries, should not be allowed to come
into the Christians’ homes. This is
referring to the homes that are being used as a place for the church to meet,
and John meant that these deceivers should not be allowed to speak or argue
their points of view when the church was gathered to worship and teach. The purpose of this admonition was to prevent
the deceiver from having a platform from which to teach false doctrine to the
church. I do not believe that this is
telling us today that we should not allow a Jehovah’s Witness or a Mormon into
our homes. Yes, we must be very careful
about allowing false teachers into our homes, and we must rely on the Holy
Spirit to direct us and to speak through us if we ever have a discussion about
spiritual things with false teachers. Certainly
we should be prepared to share the Good News with anyone at any time. But unless we are firmly grounded in
scripture and totally submitted to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, I believe
we should also apply John’s warning to our personal homes, not just our
churches:
If anyone comes to your meeting and does
not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or
give any kind of encouragement. Anyone who
encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work (2 John 10-11).
How do we know when we encounter a “false
teacher?” Jesus Himself showed us how we
could know the truth when He questioned Peter:
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say
that the Son of Man is?” “Well,” they replied, “some
say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the
other prophets.” Then he asked them, “But who do
you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are
the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has
revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being (Matthew
16:13-17).
So what do YOU say about Jesus? Was He just a prophet, a mad man, or was He
The Christ, The Son of God, The Messiah?
If He was not who He said, then He was either a liar or a fool. When Caiaphas, the High Priest, asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, Jesus answered:
Jesus replied, “You
have said it. And in the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place
of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26:64).”
This is what is written about the
conversation between Pilate and Jesus:
Now Jesus was standing before Pilate, the
Roman governor. “Are you the king of the Jews?” the governor asked him. Jesus
replied, “You have said it (Matthew 27:11).”
And twice, God spoke from Heaven about Jesus
– at His baptism and at His transfiguration:
After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of
the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove and settling on him. And a voice from
heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy (Matthew
3:16-17).”
But even as he spoke, a bright cloud
overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved
Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him (Matthew 17:5).”
My prayer today is a prayer of praise. I hope that you will join me as we praise God
for sending His Son, Jesus, The Way, The Truth, and The Life, who gave His life
for us so that we can have an everlasting relationship with Him:
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave
his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but
have eternal life. God sent his Son into the
world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:16-17).”
All scripture references are from the New
Living Translation.
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