Sermon Notes

1 1 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, 2 because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from[a] Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love. 4 I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father. 5 But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new commandment but one we have had from the beginning: let us love one another. 6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment just as you have heard it from the beginning—you must walk in it.
7 Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist! 8 Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we[b] have worked for but may receive a full reward. 9 Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it,[c] does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching[d] has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive and welcome this person into your house, 11 for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a person.
12 Although I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink; instead, I hope to come to you and talk with you face to face, so that our[e] joy may be complete. 13 The children of your elect sister send you their greetings.[f] (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, NRSVue)

1 1-2 My dear congregation, I, your pastor, love you in very truth. And I’m not alone—everyone who knows the Truth that has taken up permanent residence in us loves you. 3 Let grace, mercy, and peace be with us in truth and love from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, Son of the Father! 4-6 I can’t tell you how happy I am to learn that many members of your congregation are diligent in living out the Truth, exactly as commanded by the Father. But permit me a reminder, friends, and this is not a new commandment but simply a repetition of our original and basic charter: that we love each other. Love means following his commandments, and his unifying commandment is that you conduct your lives in love. This is the first thing you heard, and nothing has changed.
7 There are a lot of smooth-talking con artists loose in the world who refuse to believe that Jesus Christ was truly human, a flesh-and-blood human being. Give them their true title: Deceiver! Antichrist! 8-9 And be very careful around them so you don’t lose out on what we’ve worked so diligently in together; I want you to get every reward you have coming to you. Anyone who gets so progressive in his thinking that he walks out on the teaching of Christ, walks out on God. But whoever stays with the teaching, stays faithful to both the Father and the Son. 10-11 If anyone shows up who doesn’t hold to this teaching, don’t invite him in and give him the run of the place. That would just give him a platform to perpetuate his evil ways, making you his partner. 12-13 I have a lot more things to tell you, but I’d rather not use paper and ink. I hope to be there soon in person and have a heart-to-heart talk. That will be far more satisfying to both you and me. Everyone here in your sister congregation sends greetings. (The Message, MSG)

The purpose of 2 John was to warn against false teachers that were introducing heresy to John’s congregation (perhaps the Church at Ephesus). A predicament in offering hospitality is addressed. It was customary to lodge teachers until they went to their next destination (Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2, III John 5-8), but this created a crisis because some itinerate false teachers presented false credentials to John’s readers. From these false teachers, a form of Gnosticism (the details of it are not known) was being introduced into the Church, and the writer cautions against extending hospitality to those who were spreading this heresy. Thus, the theme of the letter is, “Do not entertain false teachers.”

Most biblical scholars agree that 1 John was written primarily to the Church at Ephesus (and the surrounding area), sometime around 85-90 CE. Gnostic teachers had arisen in the Church, who claimed to have deeper, secret knowledge of the things of God. In reality, they denied God’s bodily incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth, denied Jesus’ deity, and taught other heretical concepts. Their motive may have been to take some elements of pagan religion and blend them with Christianity, to make it more acceptable to the pagan culture.
When these false teachers were confronted because of their teaching, they left and formed their own Churches (splits are not new to this generation of Church life). As in any Church split, relationships were strained or severed. People were confused and hurt; rumors and false allegations circulated. So, there was a need for godly leaders to bring the Church back to the basics of the faith.
*Every local Church should be strong in the knowledge of the truth so that we can avoid destructive heresies. They need to be strong in loving relationships (the agapè of Christ leading us to agapè each other) and Christ-like in their conduct. Without this, the Church will be unhealthy and more susceptible to deception.
2 John repeats many of the same ideas and addresses some of the same problems as 1 John. The letter may be divided in two large chunks: The Church must be sensitive to the life within (verses 1-6); the Church must be on guard to the dangers without (verses 7-13).

1-2 My dear congregation, I, your pastor, love you in very truth. And I’m not alone—everyone who knows the Truth that has taken up permanent residence in us loves you. 3 Let grace, mercy, and peace be with us in truth and love from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, Son of the Father! 4-6 I can’t tell you how happy I am to learn that many members of your congregation are diligent in living out the Truth, exactly as commanded by the Father. But permit me a reminder, friends, and this is not a new commandment but simply a repetition of our original and basic charter: that we love each other. Love means following His commandments, and His unifying commandment is that you conduct your lives in love. This is the first thing you heard, and nothing has changed.
The problem John addresses (in both 2 and 3 John) is that of circuit teachers that were spreading false doctrine. Should hospitality be extended to them? In this letter, John warns against receiving and encouraging false teachers (3 John encourages genuine hospitality towards true teachers).
John affirms that the life of the Church centers on a personal relationship with the Father through the Son, based on His sovereign grace. The initiative in salvation lies with God’s sovereign choice. When we choose to believe in Jesus Christ, it is because God has first chosen to make salvation available to us.
The fact that God chose us to be His children gives comfort when we are going through trials. These Churches had gone through turmoil when the false teachers caused confusion and division. It would be a comfort to be reminded that God had initiated their salvation and He would complete what He started (Philippians 1:6). These false teachers could not undermine what God had purposed to do in His Church.
The threefold opening greeting, “Grace, mercy and peace,” occurs elsewhere only in 1 and 2 Timothy. The succession these marks the order from the first motion of God to the final satisfaction of man. Any relationship with God begins not with our seeking God, but rather with His sovereign grace reaching down to us (Romans 5:6).
Grace is God’s unmerited favor to the ungodly who deserve His wrath. Mercy points to God’s compassion towards us in our misery that is due to our sin. Peace points to the result of salvation, both to the peace of God in our hearts and to the peace that we enjoy with God because of the cross of Christ. We are reconciled to God because Christ bore the penalty in our place. The cross removes the barrier to fellowship with God, so that now we can enter His presence as His children and know that we are accepted.
John says, emphatically, that these three benefits “will be with us.” It is John’s reassurance that God will not abandon them, despite what the secessionists might say. He uses “us” to rein-force the sense of their community of love. That these blessings come not only from the Father, but also “from Jesus Christ,” affirms the deity of Jesus, in opposition to the teaching of the heretics. “In truth and love” probably means that these blessings are experienced by those who continue to hold to the truth and practice love for one another, which the heretics failed to do.
*Being a part of a local Church is primarily a matter of coming into a personal relationship with God through his Son, Jesus Christ. To be a part of His Church means that we have personally experienced His grace, mercy, and peace through his salvation.
The life of the Church is founded on the truth about Jesus Christ. The heretics were deceiving people about the person of Christ, saying either that He did not have a real human body, or that “the Christ” came upon the man Jesus at His baptism and left just prior to His crucifixion (adoptionism). Wrong views of the person of Christ spill over into wrong views of His work on the cross. If we deny Jesus’ true humanity, then He could not be the Substitute, paying the price for our sin. For John, it was essential that the Church have sound doctrine on the person (that He is God incarnate) and work (that His sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection are the means by which our sin debt is paid and we are afforded the opportunity to enjoy eternal life) of Jesus Christ. When John talks about “some of your children living by the truth,” it implies that truth is something that every believer must continually grow in over time.
John is concerned about both truth and love. He uses love four times in these six verses. Truth and love cannot be separated. Love must be extended in ways that protect and affirm the truth.
Steven J. Cole explains this distinctive this way: “If someone came to your door who was infected with a highly contagious disease…you would not be acting in love to your family to welcome him to come in and stay with you. Since false doctrine about the person and work of Christ is a deadly, infectious disease, it is not loving to welcome those who are infected with this disease [to teach] in our Church.”
Discipleship in the Church is maintained through obedience. The word commandment occurs four times in these verses. Authentic Christianity consists of believing the truth about Jesus Christ, loving one another, and obeying God’s commandments. When John emphasizes that his readers had these commandments “from the beginning,” he means that Jesus gave us these commandments and that obeying them should be basic, first-level Christian teaching.
7 There are a lot of smooth-talking charlatans loose in the world who refuse to believe that Jesus Christ was truly human, a flesh-and-blood human being. Give them their true title: Deceiver! Antichrist! 8-9 And be very careful around them so you don’t lose out on what we’ve worked so diligently in together; I want you to get every reward you have coming to you. Anyone who gets so progressive in his thinking that he walks out on the teaching of Christ, walks out on God. But whoever stays with the teaching, stays faithful to both the Father and the Son. 10-11 If anyone shows up who doesn’t hold to this teaching, don’t invite him in and give him the run of the place. That would just give him a platform to perpetuate his evil ways, making you his partner. 12-13 I have a lot more things to tell you, but I’d rather not use paper and ink. I hope to be there soon in person and have a heart-to-heart talk. That will be far more satisfying to both you and me. Everyone here in your sister congregation sends greetings.
The Church must be on guard to the dangers without. These false teachers originally arose from within the Churches, but they left, showing their true intentions (1 John 2:19). Now, they were coming back to recruit followers. False teachings lure us in by appealing to our pride, telling us that we can save ourselves. Since pride is our prevailing sin, we are especially vulnerable. To be on guard to these dangers, we must:
1. Be realistic about the deceptive nature of it (verse 7). Twice John calls these false teachers, “deceivers.” They were subtle, probably using scripture to back up everything they taught. It is likely that their explanation of things seemed to make more sense of doctrines that were difficult to understand. But if their teaching rejects or contradicts the teaching that the apostles had given, it is false and our embracing of it means that we have been deceived.
2. Watch ourselves, to abide in the teaching of Christ (verses 8, 9). The heretics claimed to have superior knowledge that could take us farther in our Christian life than the teaching of the apostles. John is sarcastically saying, “Yes, in fact the false teachers have gone so far ahead that they have left God behind them!”
It’s very important that we properly interpret verses 8 and 9. In verse 8, John refers to those who lose part of their reward (what they have worked for), but the implication is that they are truly saved. However, verse 9 refers to those who do not have God at all, and thus are not saved. Salvation is God’s free, unmerited gift to all that will receive it. It is not a reward for anything (Romans 4:4, 5; 1 John 5:11, 12). If we have received God’s gift of eternal life in Christ, there are rewards for serving Him. Jesus talked about those who have used well what He entrusted to them. They will be rewarded with more at the judgment (Matthew 5:12; 25:14-28).
*We should be careful of Church leaders/teachers who have no concern for sound doctrine. Those who feel that way will, invariably, try to replace spiritual doctrine with human dogma, which is a death knell to a Church’s spiritual development and growth.
3. To not encourage false teachers (verse 10, 11). John is the apostle of love (verse 5). But now, he says that we should not receive a false teacher into our house or even give him a greeting, because to do so is to participate in his false teaching). While there were inns in that day, often the Church would extend hospitality to circuit teachers. According to the norms of hospitality, the host not only gave the guest food and lodging, but also provided patronage, guaranteeing the rest of the community that the guest was a worthy person. Thus, to provide hospitality, you were vouching for the stranger’s character.
So John says that we should not do thus for false teachers. Though we may love them and pray for their deliverance, we cannot support their heresy. To do so, would be to promote it and suggest your agreement with it. This again suggests that love should be tempered with discernment.
*We must seek to strike a balance between tolerance of opinions that are different from our and a seeming indifference to the truth.
4. Maintain fellowship with others who serve as we do and share our doctrine (verses 12, 13). There is great joy in genuine Christian fellowship, when we share in the things of God with those who have experienced His grace, mercy, and peace. We don’t want to become so exclusive in our walk that we cut ourselves off from other Churches or individual Christians that love Christ and the truth. We are members of the same body. Thus, we impoverish ourselves and bring dishonor to Christ when we draw the lines of separation too narrowly.
We should accept all that have responded to Christ’s call as his own (Romans 15:7). Again, all of this must be done with discernment and guidance from the Holy Spirit, particularly when we talk about linking up with Associations and Conventions.