INTRODUCTION
If you do not want something read, do not write it on a postcard.
Several years back a friend of mine pastored in a small, rural town in Oklahoma. Because he did not have a church secretary, he personally went to the Post Office to get his mail where Post master was not a member of his church. On the post-card I requested that my friend send me his resume, because there was a church I wanted to recommend him for consideration as pastor. We were together shortly after that, and he told me several people had asked him if he were moving.
I began thinking about that. What else does a post-master in a small, rural town have to do during the day? Think about how fun it would be at break time to catch up on the latest news by reading other people’s post-cards. Before email we used to get post-cards telling us our package had arrived at Sears. Other members of the family would read the card and ask you what you ordered. If you don’t want something read, don’t write it on a postcard. (This is said in jest.)
If you do not want something read, do not write on a postcard.
There are four one chapter letters in the New Testament, which are, funnily, some of the least read books of the Bible. Philemon, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude could be called post card epistles. They are meant to be read. 2nd John is less than three hundred words in the original language and holds an important word for the church. Its message is contemporary.
This quarter in Sunday school we have a lesson that glances at this book, but let us take a Sunday to look at its message. Its message supports 1 John.
Looking over John’s shoulder, we read:
(1) The Elder:
To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth—and not only I, but also all who have come to know the truth— (2) because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us forever.
(3) 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.
(4) I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, in keeping with a command we have received from the Father. (5) So now I urge you, lady—not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. (6) And this is love: that we walk according to His commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: you must walk in love.
(7) Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. (8) Watch yourselves so that you don't lose what we have worked for, but you may receive a full reward. (9) Anyone who does not remain in the teaching about Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son. (10) If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and don't say, "Welcome," to him; (11) for the one who says, "Welcome," to him shares in his evil works.
(12) Though I have many things to write to you, I don't want to do so with paper and ink. Instead, I hope to be with you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete.
(13) The children of your elect sister send you greetings.
On the whole, conservative scholarship identifies this elder with the apostle John. Who was “the elect lady”? Some believe she was a real person. Others think John was referring to the church. Neither opinion alters the message of the letter.
The word “elder” is our word “presbytery” or “Presbyterian.” Originally the word meant an older man. Later it came to refer to a person with a high office in the church; he oversaw some work. For us, it refers to the pastor, and describes one of his responsibilities: the pastor is to administrate, or oversee, the church’s effort to serve Christ. In every organization of people someone has to lead or nothing gets done. For example, the Lord looks to the husband to be responsible for the well-being and productiveness of the family. If no one is in charge a family becomes chaotic. God gave this supervisory role over the church to the pastor.
First John was written to believers in danger of following false teachers. The believers addressed in 2 John seem to be facing the same temptation. John is known as the “apostle of love.” He frequently admonishes us to love one another, but this love must be discerning. It is not naïve or unthinking: it’s dangerous to float through life with an undiscerning love. We are to have fellowship with God. We are to fellowship with other believers, but we are not to have fellowship with false teachers. Your love is to have limits. For some reason that does not sound right; let us unpack 2 John to understand what John means by limits on our love.
In the Apostle John’s time, the church was not a slick, well-organized operation. There were no massive buildings; in fact, the church met in the courtyards of people’s homes. The threat of persecution by Rome or local authorities kept the church small in number. When a became a certain size they would start another home church; a bit like starting a new Sunday school class. They did not have Bibles, only portions of letters or parts of the Old Testament books. So how did they listen to God when they had no completed Bible?
God spoke through men called apostles and prophets. The apostles referred to the disciples of Jesus, plus Paul. These men were given authority by Jesus to speak on behalf of the Father and the Son as they were led by the Holy Spirit. The apostles could speak on behalf of God without error about God’s New Covenant in Jesus Christ. Prophets were like circuit-riding preachers God used to speak His word to the church. They did not have the same authority as an apostle.
When these men, or traveling evangelists, or missionaries came to a city, they needed hospitality provided. Most often this was the role of women in the church. The inns in that day were often filthy and practically brothels. The church and its members would open their homes and provide for these traveling apostles and prophets. Some who came were false prophets. John writes to limit their love expressed through hospitality. Your love is to have limits.
Everywhere you turn today you hear, “Love, love, love.” We are to love everybody and we are not to judge the choices they make; that would not be loving. This idea is simply not true. Even the most liberal person has a limit to what they will accept as a loving act. If a believer is to have limits on his love, what criteria does he use to set those limits?
I. LOVE IS LIMITED BY TRUTH (2 JOHN 4-6)
(4) I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, in keeping with a command we have received from the Father.
It is encouraging when a teacher or camp counselor says, “Your kids are turning out alright”; John is saying, “The folks in your church are doing well.”
What does it mean to “walk in truth”? “Walk” refers to our lifestyle, our habit of life. In John’s letters we understand “that walk in the truth” refers to two issues. First, we believe the truth, especially pointed to in these letters, of the full deity and full humanity of Jesus. Second, we obey the truth. We intentionally seek to conform our lives to the will of God as revealed in the Bible.
Picture, if you will, walking down a path. The path is the safest, wisest way to get to our destination of blessing. We get off this path when we begin to believe that which is false or act in an unrighteous way. To get off the path is not just an unfortunate error; it is willful, active disobedience. The stress is on the Christians believing and conforming to the truth.
(5) So now I urge you, lady—not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. (6) And this is love: that we walk according to His commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: you must walk in love.
Truth and love are interwoven throughout these first six verses. Christian fellowship is to be marked by truth and love. Truth and love balance one another and avoid extremes. Love can compromise and become soft if it does not adhere to the truth. Truth can make us cold and hard toward people if it is not softened by love. We are commanded to love one another and to hold to the truth.
One of my regrets is I did not love a fellow pastor enough to be truthful with him. A group of us used to ride to seminary together every Monday. We had great fun and grew close in our friendship. In the fall we would listen to Monday Night Football on the radio on the way home. I was surprised to learn it was on TV! I remember times of prayer for one another and unburdening frustrations, but I did not love David enough to tell him the truth.
We used stop at a convenience store to get gas and a snack. Time after time David would be at the magazine rack. There were things he would say about his marriage, or a conversation he had with a lady in his church that would not set quite right with me. The others saw the same thing, but none of us loved David enough to confront him with the truth.
Eventually we all went to other pastorates and graduated. My friend David went to pastor in another state. That is where it happened: he committed adultery with a woman in his church. The last I knew he was selling insurance. I have wondered if David would still be using his good gifts to pastor God’s people, and never have broken his wife’s heart, if any of us who called ourselves his friends, would have loved him enough to point out that he was straying from the path of truth. Love is limited by the truth.
You cannot love error; it is too destructive. It destroys lives, families, churches, and nations; it is that powerful; it is that destructive. Your love must have limits.
Truth is a criterion that limits love. Discernment is a criterion that limits love.
II. LOVE IS LIMITED BY DISCERNMENT (2 JOHN 7-9)
John expresses his concern and the need for discernment in verse 7:
(7) Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
In verses 4-6, John was speaking about the fellowship of the church. Here he is speaking about the false teachers. Just as God has sent us out into the world to proclaim the truth, the devil has sent out witnesses to promote lies.
How successful are the false teachers today? We are so much more advanced than those superstitious people of the first century. I am sure we are not as easily taken in.
While Southern Baptist churches have declined in membership the last five years, the Jehovah’s Witness and Mormon churches have been growing. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is only exceeded in membership by the 60+ million Roman Catholics, the 16 million in the Southern Baptist Convention, and the ten million United Methodists. The Catholics and Methodists have been losing members at a far greater rate than SBC. Jehovah’s Witnesses in three years (2009-2011) went from the 25th largest religious group in America to the 20th. Thankfully the Assemblies of God are growing, but they are growing slower than either of the cults mentioned.
The Mormons take in seven billion dollars annually in tithes. They have the most extensive missionary program of any non-orthodox religion. The Southern Baptists likes to boast of 5,000 international missionaries and 5,000 North American missionaries. We cannot seem to get much beyond that. The Mormons have 30,000. The young men and women on your door step are there at their own expense. Their birth rate is twice the national average. Only Roman Catholics are wealthier than the Mormons. Recently the Republican candidate for President in 2012 was an open, practicing Mormon! One hundred fifty years ago they were driven into the wilderness because of the practice of polygamy. The Mormons boast that the largest group of converts comes from the ranks of Baptist.
2 John was written for today. John was concerned with the witness of false teachers harming the church at that time; it’s harming us today.
So what is a believer to do to avoid the deception of the false teachers?
(8) Watch yourselves so that you don't lose what we have worked for, but you may receive a full reward. (9) Anyone who does not remain in the teaching about Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.
Find out what they teach about Jesus. They will use our language but they will not mean what we mean. Mormons will say they believe Jesus is God’s Son but they mean He was a created being who is the offspring of a physical God and an earthly woman. They use our dictionary but they change the definitions. I have asked the cultist if he believes that Jesus Christ is co-eternal and co-equal with God the Father. They honestly answer they do not. I ask if they believe He is the second person of the trinity. They do not. Do they believe that His death on the cross is all we need for our sin in order to be eternally saved? No, they do not. “Young men,” I say, “We are not talking about the same person.”
The Unitarians believe there is one great Being, but they refuse to say that Being is Jesus. Christian Scientists believes Jesus is the divine idea but not the deity. Jehovah’s Witnesses scoff at his deity. He is a created being less than Jehovah God.
Be alert. Be vigilant to these false teachings that seek to lead you away from the truth. Why? You will lose your reward. He is not talking about your salvation; that’s a gift. You lose the reward God has for those who faithfully serve. The picture is of a man receiving wages after the work is done. If he leaves the field before the end of the day he forfeits his pay when the owner pays the laborers.
Emilia Earhart, the famous woman aviator, disappeared on July 2, 1937. She and her navigator disappeared at sea in their attempt to circle the world. There is much speculation about what happened, but most believe she missed the tiny island she was going to land on by 40 miles. Maybe it was a small miscalculation, or a slight instrument failure, but the little error cost her life.
Is the difference in what we believe about Jesus Christ really that big of a deal? Many of the liberal churches have caved on this belief. Many people in other faiths are very good people. Is this as important as I am making it out to be? With all you have to deal with in life, is this really what I should take up your time discussing? It is the difference between being saved or lost. It is the difference between being in heaven or hell. According to verse 8, it is the difference between whether you have God or you do not have God in your life. This is no little matter.
In verse 9 John says what the false teachers do is “go beyond” the teaching about Jesus. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, had a new revelation from the angel Moroni. He taught he was giving a more complete gospel. Sun Yung Moon of the Moonies was sitting on a hillside in South Korea when he had a new revelation. He was the new Messiah for our day. Mohammed’s vision was a superior revelation to the gospel. They boasted of superior knowledge and advanced views. John says, “Yes, they’ve gone ahead. They’ve advanced so far ahead that they’ve left God.” Any belief which does not rest squarely on the Biblical teachings about Jesus Christ, no matter how sincere, is not a belief from the true God, period.
Actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta practice Scientology. They want God, but they don’t want Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Oprah Winfrey is a New Age kind of spiritualist. She wants God, but she denies the Biblical teaching that Jesus Christ is God’s one and only Savior for all of mankind. It could be said of your neighbor or co-worker that they want God, but they do not want Christ. They refuse to submit to His claims of sovereignty over their life. You cannot have one without the other. To miss out on Christ is to miss out on God, to miss out on forgiveness, and to miss heaven for eternity. What a person believes about Jesus Christ is no little matter. This is the central question a human being must answer before he departs from this life. It determines his next life. Love must have discernment, perception, and insight.
Truth is a criterion that limits love. Discernment is a criterion that limits love. Another criterion that limits love is encouragement.
III. LOVE IS LIMITED IN ENCOURAGEMENT (2 JOHN 10-11)
So what are we to do when false prophets and false teachers come to our door peddling their false teaching? This is what John addresses next. Don’t encourage the false teachers.
(10) If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and don't say, "Welcome," to him; (11) for the one who says, "Welcome," to him shares in his evil works.
When John says “If” he does not mean it may or may not happen. No, it is sure to come. How many of you have had a Jehovah’s Witness follower come to your home? Would you raise your hand? How many of you have had a Mormon missionary come to your home? See what I mean? What does God want us to do when they come?
You are not to encourage them. John tells the church to stop offering the hospitality and provision of the church to these promoters of the doctrines of hell. Obviously we are not to be mean to them. We are to love the lost. We are told to pray for our persecutors and to feed our enemy, but that is a long way from affirming them in their devilish beliefs. So what is a believer to do when two clean cut, mannerly young men are at your door?
If you are not well-versed and prepared to debate them, do what I do. I come straight to the point. I ask if they are members of the Church of …. I tell them that we have very different beliefs about Jesus. I believe Jesus is the co-eternal, co-equal Son of God, and is the second person of the Trinity. By faith alone apart from good works I have received Jesus Christ as my Savior and God. Because of that I have been eternally forgiven of my sin and upon my death or His return will go immediately to heaven. I am sure of this. Then I say to them that we believe in a very different Jesus. Either they are right or I am right. If they are right, then it will not be so bad for me. I go to a lesser quality of heaven. If I am right, they are going to go straight to hell. They had better be sure they have a hold of the truth. Their eternal destiny depends on it. Unless they want to receive the Jesus I described, I have nothing more to discuss. If it is hot, I will offer them a bottle of water to take with them.
One thing is certain with every cultist: he does not have the assurance of salvation. Your assurance rattles him. The Holy Spirit uses your assurance to appeal to him.
I do not tell them to have a good day; that is a form of saying, “God bless.” I do not compliment them on their devotion and zeal to share their false message. I do not say, “I wish our Baptist people worked as hard as you in sharing the Gospel.” I do not want them encouraged. I want them convicted and questioning their faith.
I have two observations. The first is, John is speaking about an official visit, not a casual visit you might have at work or across the fence with your neighbor. God has placed you in various situations with deceived people to be a witness and win them to the truth. They ought to be convinced you love them and care for them. In those circumstances this must come before you gain a hearing. The other observation I have, is that you can engage people in their false beliefs but watch out for yourself.
CONCLUSION
I know at first it seems a contradiction of our Christian teaching to hear a preacher say that our love is to be limited. But what would you think of a young woman who was seeking God’s man for her life and she gave her love away to every man who came into her life? Would you consider that foolish or wise?
You would counsel her to not do that. She needs set limits on her relationship with men. Some of the men who tell her they love her are not telling her the truth. She needs to be discerning. She must limit her love to the one who truly loves her; don’t encourage false lovers. Finally, she should only give her love to one man.
What is true in human relationships is more so in the spiritual realm. Limit your love for God only to Jesus Christ.
INVITATION
In Margaret Mitchell’s classic “Gone With the Wind,” Scarlett O’Hare kept dismissing the realities of the Civil War with the statement, “I’ll think about that tomorrow.” That may not be a luxury you have. The Bible says repeatedly, “Today is the day of salvation.” You must face the reality of your relationship with Christ. Do so today.
Christian, the day is coming when you will answer a knock at the door and it will be a false witness. Your heart will go to them. They are working so hard but they are on their way to hell. How are you going to handle that? 2 John was given to turn the tables and make you the witness to them.
