2 John 1

Continuing on with this journey, we enter 2 John 1. This passage can be broken down into bite size pieces by looking at verses 1-3 as an Introduction, or Greeting, verses 4-6 as a command to walk in Christ, verses 7-11 as a charge to watch out for deceivers, or Anti-Christs, and finally, verses 12-13 as a farewell or conclusion. This letter is not very long, but it is filled with truths important to understand and practice in daily living.

The passage starts out with the words, "The Elder." The writer, believed to be John, was indeed up in age by the time this book was written, but that is not really the point of these two words. The elder here is focused, not on age, but on maturity. John was one who walked alongside Jesus. He was entrusted with Jesus' mother Mary when Jesus was laying down his life on the cross. John was an apostle of the church, one of the very first called by Jesus to follow Him. He was a strong elder in the early church and did his best to exhort and encourage the believers of his day to stand fast, remember our Hope, and turn away from evil and pursue good.

His greeting focuses on expressing a blessing toward those he is seeking to address in this letter. He reminds his readers of the truth of God which they had received and that this brings about a unique relationship for all believers. He then moves into rejoicing that some are walking in truth, but that others are not and he is pleading with them to remember who they belong to.

He goes on to warn them about false teachers, those anti-Christ. These people do not believe in Jesus, who He is, what He did and is doing, but instead they are using the church as a platform for deception and to confuse people and draw them away from the truth. These false teachers teach others not to abide in the doctrine of Christ. John tells his readers not to listen to them, receive them in their homes, or even to greet them, because to do so makes that person a contributor to their evil deeds. It reminds me that we are to be careful who are friends are because more often then not they drag us down with them instead of us dragging them up with us.

John's farewell shares that his desire is to come and see them for he has many more things to share with them. He desires their company and to see them face to face and share the joy we all have in Jesus.

Thought and Application Questions

1. As you get older, what will be your role in the body of Christ? John was the elder, respected, sought after, and known for edifying others. What needs to happen in your spiritual life so that others will see you as an Elder, one worth listening to and receiving instruction from?
2. When you talk to others do you take the time to express love and greet them with a blessing, or are you abrupt in your conversation so that others feel you are not interested or a bother?
3. When you are struggling with conversation with others, do you take the conversation back to the cross and that which you hold in common with others so that God will get the glory and those you are talking with are blessed even if you can think of nothing to share of yourself? Are you willing to let the conversation be about God?
4. What is your response when you see others of our spiritual family walking in sin? Do you overlook it because you are a sinner too? Are you willing for God to use you to help others leave that sin which so easily ensnares them so that they turn back to Jesus, the One who loves them best?
5. What false teachers are you listening to? Are you able to tell false teachers from true ones? What are the marks of a true teacher and a false one? Take some time to write out a list from scripture so you can tell the difference.
6. Do you earnestly desire to have fellowship with other believers? Do others see you as friendly and loving? If you think the answer might be no to either/or of these questions, take some time to pray through and study what it means to be part of God's family and to have fellowship with the body of Christ. We are not meant to live this life alone and lonely. We are meant to have fellowship with God and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

I John 5

As I wrap up I John by going through it's 21 verses, the first question I am confronted with is the last question I left with from 4, what do I believe about Jesus? Is He truly the Savior of the world? If the answer is yes, then I am told that I am a child of God. Why does this question keep coming up? What we believe about Jesus, who He is, what He did, and continues to do, is foundational to the whole reason why He had to come in the way He did.

When we get to verse 3 we see that loving God and keeping His commandments are tied together. In our fallen nature we know that following God, obeying Him, and loving Him are hard. We are told that in our flesh we do the the things we should not do, and do not want to do, but yet we still do it. Romans 7 makes it clear we have a war going on between our flesh and our spirit and sometimes the flesh wins. When this happens our call from our Lord is to repent. To call our sin as it really is, sin and to seek forgiveness and to turn away from it and toward Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. This goes along well with verse 4 which talks about overcoming the world. In Christ we can overcome even when we fall. The important truth to remember is that we get back up again and do not quit, and do not turn back. By this we show the world that Jesus is real and that we would follow Him anywhere and everywhere even being subject to our own humbling to do it.

Moving forward to verse 6 gives us a beautiful picture of who Jesus is. He came by water and blood. What does this mean? All through scripture water is representative of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is who overshadowed Mary in order for her to conceive in the first place. The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove when He was baptized and The Father spoke from heaven. The Holy Spirit is who indwells followers of Christ and bears witness and speaks truth to us when we are prone to listen to lies from the enemy. He came by blood in a couple of ways. First He was born physically like all men and women are with the exception of Adam and Eve. This is doubly true since His earthly mother was a virgin. In addition to this he came as the Passover lamb. He poured out His blood as a sacrifice to redeem that which was lost. Like the Passover lamb in the Old Testament who had its blood shed to cover the doorways of the Hebrews in Egypt so that the angel of death would pass over them, He was a member of the family before being killed by those that were supposed to love and care for Him. This is what gave safety to us all.

Verses 7-8 talk about witnesses. Three witnesses are declared, which is important. In a court of law 2 witnesses who were in absolute agreement were necessary to be considered credible. In this instance 3 witnesses of impeccable character are given so that we can know that their witness is accurate. In addition to this one of those witnesses, The Spirit, lives in followers of Christ. That witness increases the witnesses of the truth exponentially and shows a far greater witness than the world has ever seen to the truth of Jesus and who He is. What is this witness for? To declare that Jesus is real, He is the Savior, the Son, and in Him is life. That life is eternal. Anyone who has not received Jesus does not have life.

Verse 14 moves us to prayer. In Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we can talk to our Father and ask in Jesus name and it will be given to us. This is not a prosperity message, but one that recognizes that we want what God wants and will ask according to His character, not our selfish desires. In this we can be confident that He both hears us and will answer.  In addition, this section of verses tells us how important it is to watch out for one another. We do this by not ignoring each other's sins. If we see a fellow brother or sister sinning, we are to go to them and talk to them, in love, about it with the desire to see them restored to the Lord. We also see here that there is a sin leading to death, but we are not told what that is.

Our final section of verses, 18-21, tells us to reject what is false because we know the truth. Once again we see a passage that has caused many believers to despair because of its seeming perfection. This isn't about being perfect after we have received Jesus. None but Jesus has been perfect, for the entirety of their lives, who has walked this earth. What we are to do is to confess our sins, repent, or turn away from those sins and turn back to Jesus and walk in His way. It is an unfortunate truth that most of us have to do this many times a day. The key is that we feel that conviction of sin when we do it and we want to be right with God. This is how we know that we belong to Him and not to the devil who is the enemy.

Thought Questions

1. When you sin, do you feel that sense that you have done something wrong and you need to go to the Lord and ask for forgiveness? Think about the last time you sinned. What went through your mind to do when it happened?
2. How much time in a week do you spend in the Word of God? Are you washing your heart and mind in the water of the word so that your mind is being renewed? If not, what do you need to do to correct this so that you are not stumbling more each day?
3. What kind of a witness do you say you are for Jesus? What does your life actually show about that witness? If there are things that are hindering you from being a true witness, what are they and are you willing to purge them from your life? Keep in mind these things will not be people like husbands and children. 
4. When you see family and friends around you doing something sinful, what is your response to it? Do you care enough to speak up in love and help them? How can you show your love by stepping up to the plate and helping them turn away from those things that are holding them back from pursuing a wonderful relationship with Jesus?
5. What false teaching are you listening to or trapped by that need to be sifted through and rejected? How can you know what is false and what is true? When you sin, do you feel that sense of conviction by it, or is your heart hard? 

I John 4

This passage starts out with a warning about listening to people who claim to be of Christ, but teach a different message from Him. God tells us through John to make sure we are testing the spirit of the person to make sure they really are of God and not trying to deceive us. Many people today claim to have a word from the Lord, but the word they are giving out is not from God because it does not measure up to God as He has revealed Himself to us in Scripture. The passage tells us one way we can know if the person speaking is really of God. "By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God."  Are there people who confess this truth and still teach wrongly and their word needs to be taken with great care? Yes. Many prosperity ministers will teach true elements of the gospel and yet the word they give relating to their area of sin is not in truth.

We are give a huge word of comfort in verse 4 when we see that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. Those who are not followers of Christ have a tendency to ignore key teachings of the gospel. Not walking in truth leads to a great deal of despair and hopelessness. We who are in Him can know we belong to Him. The passage goes on to talk again about love. God is love. If we say we hate someone, don't like them, etc... and then say we love God, we are lying. God is love and we cannot love God and hate others. God's greatest act of love was to send Jesus Christ to be our Savior. God took on human flesh, became part of His own creation and was willing to not only do that but suffer and die  because he became sin for us. His self-sacrifice serves as our example of how to love others, whether they deserve it or not.

Verse 12 talks about how love each other and abiding in Him are uniquely tied together. We have someone special in our lives who allows us to do what is otherwise impossible. Loving others is hard, and it actually goes against our human nature, which is to be pretty self-absorbed. We have the Holy Spirit, and therefore all we need to genuinely put away our hatred and antipathy toward others and to love them through Christ. Many people in our lives are hard to please, hard to deal with and just not a joy to interact with. Loving them is the highest form of loving God in many instances because it takes a supernatural measure of grace to bring it about.

The last topic I pull out of this passage is how perfect love casts out fear. I struggle with fear a lot. I do not have perfect love for my Savior. I love Him, but not as He deserves. Each day as I remember these words in this passage and think about what His love for me caused, and gives me I learn a little bit more to be less fearful and to walk by faith instead. It is an uphill battle that is worth the burn in my spirit to bring about the endurance to run the race before me. Really this passage, at its heart, is all about loving God by loving others and how this shows the world our genuine faith. After all, like I have pointed out already, loving others, especially those who don't deserve it, is hard, and takes God in order to really do it.

Thought Questions

1. Which ministers or programs do you listen to on a regular basis? What are they teaching? Are they teaching true to scripture or are there parts of the teaching you are listening to that are really not according to God's word?
2. When the words, "God is love," come to mind, what does that mean to you? Is it what the world is teaching about love, or what the Bible teaches about love?
3. Who do you say Jesus Christ is?
4. Is there anyone in your life now, or from the past that you do not love, and in fact hate, or dislike that you need to ask God to give you a new attitude about? Will you take that step today and start working on resolving this in your heart?
5. What are you fearful of? What steps can you start to take today to trust God and let go of the fear?