You can listen to this sermon at https://www.npbc.org.au/podcasts/media
2 John 1-13
“Sometimes Be Inhospitable”
A foundation interpretive principle of Scripture is that Scripture will never contradict Scripture. While this interpretive principle is always true … there are many occasions where Scripture seems to speak in a way that is in opposition to other parts of Scripture. Here is a quick example of such an occasion.
Proverbs 26:4
4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.
Proverbs 26:5 … the very next verse … says
5 Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.
So, which is it?
It can’t be a contradiction because Scripture will never contradict Scripture.
However, in order to work past what at first glance looks like a contradiction, the historical background, the broader context, the literary genre … and other interpretive tools … are all going to be required to move from the apparent contradiction to a solid interpretation.
One day in the future we will come back to Proverbs 26:4 and 5.
Today, as we are making our way through a series on the Epistles of John, we are going to focus on the letter of 2 John.
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 for ever:
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.
7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.
12 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
13 The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings.
Love one another.
It is a command. The new command Jesus gave in John 13:34-35
34 A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.
Jesus spoke this new command in approximately 30AD. John’s letters were written around 90AD … which means at least 60 years have past since Jesus gave the new command. In this letter, which we know as 2 John,
John the elder writes “to the lady chosen by God” … which is another way of describing the church.
John writes to “the children” of the chosen lady” … which is another way of saying these people have confessed Jesus as Lord.
John writes to them about the new command.
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.
2 John 5-6
The new command of Jesus, which is now no longer new. Is to love one another.
The children of the chosen lady are to keep loving one another.
The children of the chosen lady are to keep walking in love.
This is such a significant biblical teaching that, in our time, loving one another has been elevated as a key principle for those who believe in Jesus. It can even be argued that this command to love one another has become an overriding command of the whole Bible.
It is such an overriding command that people will say – of God – how can a God of love send people to hell … to the eternal punishment of the lake of fire?
That isn’t loving.
So, because it isn’t loving, it can’t be possible that God would eternally punish.
If we as humanity have no problem accusing God of not being loving, then we certainly will have no problem accusing each other of not being loving. And even for those who can accept that it is biblically just for God to judge and leave people to experience the consequences of their choice in the eternal lake of fire. Even these people find it very easy to look at situations and say, “That is not loving.”
If something is defined as “not loving one another” then that something must be in contradiction to Scripture. That is how this Scripture to love one another can be applied.
Now let’s read 2 John 10-11 again.
Remember this is the letter where John has said “keep loving one another” and “keep walking in love”. In that context John says.
10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.
2 John 10-11.
That doesn’t sound very loving does it.
Where there are people to whom you can say, “You are not welcome in my home.”
Remembering that many churches met in homes. So the words apply equally to how the church responds. We, as a church, can say, “You are not welcome here”.
And, if other people in the church community welcome these people into their home, you can say to the host family, “What you are doing is a wicked work.”
The teaching of John in these two verses is that
There are times when you need to be inhospitable.
And there are times when you can judge as wicked the work of those who show hospitality to the ones to whom we should be inhospitable.
That doesn’t sound loving. And it seems to contradict other verses of Scripture like
Hebrews 13:1-2
1 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
And 1 Peter 4:8-9
8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
When you love, you show hospitality, even to strangers. Those who have the true spirit of love offer hospitality without grumbling. And saying things like, “You offered hospitality to the wrong stranger so you are wicked” … that kind of sounds like grumbling doesn’t it.
So, what do we do?
We certainly want to be those who lovingly show hospitality, to strangers, without grumbling.
We just as certainly what to make sure we don’t participate in a wicked work by welcoming into our home a person to whom we should be inhospitable.
So, what do we do?
For us to have any chance of understanding how to apply these verses in our lives today we first need to focus on the historical context.
We do this by asking … What is the significance, for a person in the first century, to welcome people into their home and offer hospitality?
Let’s imagine you are a preacher, or a teacher, or a philosopher. You are someone who has a message that you believe is really important and you want to get that message out to the world.
You could write a book, or letters, that contain your message. But books were very expensive to buy – so you would only have a limited audience. And if you are going to write a letter, you need an audience to send the letter to. Which means you need to have some prior connection with the audience.
So, how do you get your message out? You become an itinerant teacher. You hit the road. You start walking to the next town. When you get to the next town, you find a public place and you start proclaiming your message. If that process sounds familiar to you … well it is.
We are reading Acts 13:4-5
4 The two of them (Paul and Barnabas), sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper.
As they make their way on this missionary journey Paul and Barnabas are just doing what any itinerant teacher would do. On a later missionary journey Paul ends up in Athens. We are reading from Acts 17:16-19
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the market-place day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, ‘What is this babbler trying to say?’ Others remarked, ‘He seems to be advocating foreign gods.’ They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
Paul speaks at the synagogue, the market-place and the Areopagus. Out into the public spaces. That is how all itinerant teaches spent their day getting the message out to the public.
But what do you do for accommodation? Where do you sleep? Where do you eat?
You could stay at the local inn. There were inns in all cities. However, inns generally were seen as the place where those with a doubtful reputation stayed. People who stayed in an inn was likely to be treated with suspicion and they would very much be put into the “stranger-danger” category. So itinerant teachers didn’t stay in inns.
Which means you need to find someone in the town who would welcome you into their home and offer hospitality. This is where it gets interesting … and where our understanding of hospitality, and the first century understanding of hospitality is very different.
In the first century most people didn’t go far from their town, and village. Also, in those days, most towns and villages were not all that large. In many places the residents had a socially comfortable existence where they basically knew everyone. So, when a stranger walked into town they were almost treated as a non-person. As a non-person they had no standing in law or custom, they were really on their own.
What this meant for the stranger … in this case it was an itinerant teacher … they needed to find hospitality from someone who would act as a patron. Someone who would give the teacher hospitality so that they could be transformed from being a stranger to being a welcomed guest. Offering hospitality and welcome meant the teacher would go from being an outsider to becoming part of the community.
There was a real sense where, when you offered hospitality you were aligning yourself with the teaching and the character and the philosophy of the stranger-now-guest. Offering hospitality also meant that you would be vouching for the teacher that they would follow the local laws, and local culture.
Hospitality
… in the sense of letting people stay under your roof.
… not just giving a meal, or saying hi to them in the street.
Hospitality was a way of saying to the community my guest is a reflection of me. And if that guest behaves in a way that the community feels is unacceptable – the host is deemed to be just as complicit as the guest.
You can see this social situation happen when Paul goes to Thessalonica he stays at Jason’s home. As a result of Paul’s preaching … I’m reading now from Acts 17:5-8
5 (Some) Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the market-place, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: ‘These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.’ 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they put Jason and the others on bail and let them go.
Paul and Silas are the guests who the community believes have misbehaved.
Jason is completely identified with the teaching and philosophy of Paul.
That is how hospitality worked in the first century.
Now let’s go back to John’s letter.
7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.
There is a new itinerant teacher in town who kind of sounds like they are bringing the Gospel. However their teaching is not the Gospel—it is not even biblical.
They do not continue in the teaching of Christ.
At some time in the past they heard the Gospel message, and perhaps had even accepted the Gospel. But then they have deviated from the Gospel. They are twisting the Scriptures – so it kind of sounds biblical but it isn’t.
It is not a small twist. It is a huge deviation.
They do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.
They deny the Trinty by saying that Jesus is a created being – for them there was a time when Jesus was not.
They say things like “It is not possible for flesh and divinity to be in the same place.” Or “It is not possible for divinity to pour out wrath on divinity.”
They read John 1:1 which says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” And they say “no” that is not true. First there was God, then there was Jesus.
They do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.
This deviation from Scripture makes them deceivers and one of the antichrists
They pretend to be bringing the truth. You listen to them and they say the right words that make people feel they should be accepted. But it is a deception because they have ripped a key truth out of the Scriptures.
What they are teaching is a heresy.
Those who have that teaching are not for Christ … they are anti-Christ.
Now this teacher is at your door asking for hospitality.
For you to be their patron.
For you to give them credibility.
For you to enable them to move from being an outsider to becoming part of the community.
If you welcome them then you are saying “their teaching is my teaching.”
In that circumstances John issues a command “Do not take them, or continue to keep them, in your home. Do not welcome them.”
And if someone else from the church community takes them in, you go to that someone and you tell them – as a host to these people you are sharing in their wicked work. You need to get these people out of your home.
That is not unloving.
Indeed being inhospitable and not welcoming such people into our lives is actually an act of love.
A love which recognises that, if we do not have the fully-divine fully-human Christ-Jesus as the foundation of our lives, it won’t make a scrap of eternal difference how hospitable we are. And if we support people who have such a view it is unloving for us not to point out that their eternal destiny is at stake.
If we give credibility to those who are deceptively moving us away from having the fully-divine fully-human Christ-Jesus as the foundation of our lives … then we will be eternally lost. In the process we are denying the love that God has for us where He gave His only Son so that we may have eternal life.
If we sit back and silently watch others give credibility to those who are deceptively moving them away from having the fully-divine fully-human Christ-Jesus as the foundation of their lives … then we are participating in the anti-Christ agenda. There is nothing loving about that.
In certain situations, being inhospitable and not welcoming people into our lives, or challenging people who are acting this way,
… in certain situation this is the most loving response we can have.
What does that mean for us today?
John is calling us to discern if we are giving credibility and welcome to people in our lives who are deceptively moving us away from the foundational truth that Jesus is the Christ.
So, if you have an uncle who used to go to church but is now an atheist. You lovingly welcome that uncle even when he says things like, “We think differently about spiritual matters, but you believe what you believe.” We keep inviting him over – because you never know.
Actually, we do know – how many ex-Christian no atheist uncles and aunties have recommitted their lives to Jesus because of conversations which their nieces and nephews.
And if you have friends who don’t believe in Jesus and you have been praying for them and talking with them for years. You have them over for dinner. And you walk the journey with them. They are not anti-Christ … they have never know Christ. They are living in ignorance, and they need you to share the Gospel.
You might even know a Muslim, or a Buddhist, or a Hindu, or a Jew. They all don’t believe that Jesus has come in the flesh.
You might even know a Jehovah’s Witness.
If they are willing to have the conversation, let them into your home. Let them into your lives. Welcome them.
John is not against any of this.
It is when we give credibility to those in our lives who are deceptively moving us away from the foundational truth that Jesus is the Christ.
How do we know when the deception is at work?
The word “deceive” in 1 John 7 is the same word that is used for the word “imposter”.
The one who deceives is an imposter.
The one who deceives is the one who is imposing their “truth” that Jesus isn’t the Christ. Their “truth” that we don’t need a fully-divine fully-human Christ-Jesus Saviour.
So, when our atheist uncle starts saying, “We can’t be family unless you give away this Jesus rubbish” … well now it is time to think about being inhospitable and putting in some boundaries.”
Or when that friend we meet regularly for coffee, is starting to draw us more and more away from church, and faith, and Christian community. Where they make us doubt the centrality of Jesus. Now we are getting into the “time to be inhospitable” territory.
When there are people in your lives who are causing us to lose – maybe quite subtly causing us to lose – the enthusiasm that we have for eternal life. That could well be the time to stop being hospitable. To stop letting them impose their deceit.
And certainly, when there are those in the Christian community who deny that Jesus is the Christ. It would be unloving towards the rest of the Christian community to continue to all that deceit to be imposed onto the lady chosen by God and to her children.
Are you giving credibility and welcome to people in your life who are deceptively moving you away from the foundational truth that Jesus is the Christ?
Are they being welcomed into our homes? Are they being welcomed into our church?
The teaching of Scripture is clear.
Stop letting them impose their deceit.
Stop being hospitable.
That’s biblical love in action.
Prayer
