Add It Up

I don’t know if this has ever happened to you but it happens to me way too often. I meet someone and at first blush I’m excited because they seem to be as committed to the same ideas as me. However, over time, I realize we aren’t alike as I thought. They haven’t changed. I am noticing their inconsistencies. Their words and actions don’t match. When you realize this, you begin to question yourself and analyze everything they’ve ever said or did.

It’s why when I begin to wrestle with God about why He allows (you fill in the blank), I look at how those who were closest lived out their faith after Jesus left them. Did you know:

Peter and Paul - Both martyred in Rome about 66 AD, during the persecution under Emperor Nero. Paul was beheaded. Peter was crucified, upside down at his request, since he did not feel he was worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord.

Andrew - went to the "land of the man-eaters," in what is now the Soviet Union. Christians there claim him as the first to bring the gospel to their land. He also preached in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, and in Greece, where he is said to have been crucified.

Thomas - was probably most active in the area east of Syria. Tradition has him preaching as far east as India, where the ancient Marthoma Christians revere him as their founder. They claim that he died there when pierced through with the spears of four soldiers.

Philip - possibly had a powerful ministry in Carthage in North Africa and then in Asia Minor, where he converted the wife of a Roman proconsul. In retaliation the proconsul had Philip arrested and cruelly put to death.

Matthew -the tax collector and writer of a Gospel ministered in Persia and Ethiopia. Some of the oldest reports say he was not martyred, while others say he was stabbed to death in Ethiopia.

Bartholomew - had widespread missionary travels attributed to him by tradition: to India with Thomas, back to Armenia, and also to Ethiopia and Southern Arabia. There are various accounts of how he met his death as a martyr for the gospel.

James - the son of Alpheus is one of at least three James referred to in the New Testament. There is some confusion as to which is which, but this James is reckoned to have ministered in Syria. The Jewish historian Josephus reported that he was stoned and then clubbed to death.

Simon the Zealot - so the story goes, ministered in Persia and was killed after refusing to sacrifice to the sun god.

Matthias - The apostle chosen to replace Judas. Tradition sends him to Syria with Andrew and to death by burning.

John - The only one of the apostles generally thought to have died a natural death from old age. He was the leader of the church in the Ephesus area and is said to have taken care of Mary the mother of Jesus in his home. During Domitian's persecution in the middle '90s, he was exiled to the island of Patmos. There he is credited with writing the last book of the New Testament--the Revelation. An early Latin tradition has him escaping unhurt after being cast into boiling oil at Rome.

After the death of the apostles, we do not find great missionary figures of the stature of Paul. Yet the faith continued to spread like wildfire -- even though Christianity was declared an illegal religion.

Today, we open the second book of John. Remember, he was the only one to die of old age so His words give us insight into his heart and what mattered most to Him.

So let’s begin, with a little background. The scholars and historians don’t agree if this letter was written as is stated to a woman or to a house church. Many believe the use of the elder, lady and children is a veiled way of addressing the leaders of a church in an area where the church was underground due to persecutions.

1 The elder,

To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth— 2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.