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2 nd John

2nd JOHNThe elder unto the elect lady and her children

2 John: IntroductionThe early Church in the 1st century was under attack from both the inside and the outside.

It should not surprise us that the Holy Spirit has anticipated every conceivable form of attack and diversion.

These three epistles are full of insights that are timely for each of us

— at the personal level as well as at the corporate.

2 John 1: Express Purpose of John’s MinistryAnd many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. John 20:30,31

2 John 1: Background: EphesusEphesus was the capital of proconsular Asia, which was the western part of Asia Minor.

It was colonized principally from Athens;

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In the time of the Romans it bore the title of “the first and greatest metropolis of Asia.”

It was distinguished by the Temple of Diana, whose chief shrine was there; and

for its open-air theater which was the largest in the world, capable of containing 50,000 spectators.

Many Jews took up their residence in this city, It was here that the seeds of the Gospel were sown immediately after Pentecost (Acts 2:9; 6:9).

2 John 1: Paul’s MinistryPaul first visited Ephesus at the close of his 2nd missionary journey (about 51 ad) when he was returning from Greece to Syria (Acts 18:18-21).

He remained in Ephesus for only a short time as he was hastening to keep the feast, probably of Pentecost, at Jerusalem;

He left Aquila and Priscilla behind him to carry on the work of spreading the Gospel.

During his 3rd missionary journey Paul reached Ephesus from the inland parts of Asia Minor, and tarried there for about three years (Acts 19:1).

So successful and abundant were his labours that “all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10).

On his return from his journey, Paul touched at Miletus, some 30 miles south of Ephesus (Acts 20:15).

Sending for the presbyters of Ephesus to meet him there, he delivered to them that touching farewell charge which is recorded, and in which he warned them in Acts 20:18-35:

For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. Acts 20:29-31

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Indeed, there was a rise of false teachers (the “Gnostics”) that emerged subsequently.

This is the very situation that John is dealing with in his letters

2 John 1: John’s MinistryEphesus was also prominent as the first of the seven churches in Revelation, which John had received while in exile on Patmos.

They, by then, however, were apparently quite diligent regarding doctrine, but had “lost their first love.”

The apostle John, according to tradition, spent many years in Ephesus, where he died and was buried.

GnosticismHuxley coined the term “agnostic” = “without knowledge”; (Latin = ignoramus)!

Paul: Epignosis, “super knowledge”! (Col 1:9).

These heresies promised people “spiritual perfection” if they entered into the teachings and ceremonies prescribed.

This “depth” and “full knowledge” could only be enjoyed by those initiated, etc.

These were all based on man-made traditions and philosophy, not on divine Truth (Col 2:8).

2 John is a response to Gnosticism

(Greek: Gnosis = knowledge).

It was a mixture of mysticism, Eastern speculations and Jewish legalism.

Alexandria was a major headquarters.

Eastern speculations + mysticism:

1. Man-made traditions and philosophy (Col 2:8);2. Matter was evil (Col 1:16);3. Astrology: angelic beings associated with heavenly bodies

(Col 2:10,15).4. Plus, a form of Jewish legalism:5. Good and evil were derived from rules (Col 2:21);6. Circumcision (Col 2:11);

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7. OT dietary laws (Col 2:14-17).

The gnostics came to the false conclusion that matter was evil;

That a powerful spirit world used material things to attack mankind.

They held to a form of astrology, believing that angelic beings associated with heavenly bodies influenced affairs on earth (Col 1:16; 2:10, 15).

Added to these Eastern speculations was a form of Jewish legalism:

the idea that the rite of circumcision was helpful in spiritual development (Col 2:11); and

the OT dietary laws were also helpful in attaining spiritual perfection (Col 2:14-17).

Good and evil were derived from rules and regulations (Col 2:21).

Docetic GnosticsThe Docetic (from dokew, “to seem”)

Gnostics held that Jesus did not have a real human body, but only a phantom body.

He was, in fact, an aeon and had no real humanity.

These views were increasingly prevalent in Ephesus (and elsewhere) and form the challenges that John was dealing with in this letter and in his sermon known as “1 John.”

The Cerinthian (followers of Cerinthus) Gnostics admitted the humanity of the man Jesus, but claimed that the Christ was an aeon that came on Jesus at his baptism in the form of a dove and left him on the Cross so that only the man Jesus died.

Some Gnostics thought that Jesus was “just a man” — similar to Christian Science and other phases of “New Thought.”

Paul deals with this heresy directly.

Other Gnostics held that Jesus was only spiritual, not material at all;

John also deals with these in his three epistles.

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Gnostic ErrorsPaul met the issue squarely and powerfully portrayed his full-length portrait of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Son of Man (both deity and humanity) in opposition to both types of Gnostics.

This heresy sharpened the issue concerning the Person of Christ already set forth in Philippians 2:5-11.

Colossians seems written expressly for our own day when so many are trying to rob Jesus Christ of his deity.

These errors are important to understand since these attacks on the deity of Christ are just as prevalent today as then.

Each cult group involves a strategy to misrepresent some aspect of revealed truth in regards to Christ and His redemptive work.

These views undermined the very foundations of the Christian faith attacking the person and work of Jesus Christ.

To them, He was but one of God’s many “emanations” and not the very Son of God, come in the flesh.

The Incarnation means “God with us” (Mt 1:23),

These false teachers claimed that God was keeping His distance from us!

When we trust the Son of God, there is no need for any intermediary beings between us and heaven!

The Age of SyncretismThese false teachings were a combination of many things:

• Jewish legalism, • Oriental philosophies, • Pagan astrology, • Mysticism, Asceticism, • with a touch of Christianity.

Here was “something for everybody” — an attempt to harmonize and unite many different schools of thought into a composite religion.

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These teachers claimed that they were not denying the Christian faith, but only lifting it to a “higher level.”

Do we have any of these heresies today?

Indeed, and they are ever more dangerous!

Nothing “New” in the “New Age”!Every modern erroneous cult is some ancient Satanic heresy revived.

Every “new” heresy has been anticipated by the Holy Spirit.

Satan has nothing new to offer.

We live in a day when religious toleration is interpreted to mean “one religion is as good as another.”

Many people try to take the best from various religions and fabricate their own.

To them Christ is only one of several great religious teachers, with no more authority than they have.

He may be prominent, but certainly not preeminent.

When we make Jesus Christ and the Bible only a part of a total religious system or philosophy, we cease to give Him preeminence.

When we strive for “spiritual perfection” or “fullness” by means of formulas, disciplines, or rituals, we go backward rather than forward.

We must beware of mixing our Christian faith with such alluring things as yoga, transcendental meditation, Oriental mysticism, and the like.

We must also beware of the “deeper life” teachers who offer a system for victory and fullness that bypasses devotion to Jesus Christ.

In all things, the Lord Jesus Christ must have preeminence!

Introduction to 2nd John3rd John written to Gaius.

2nd John written to “the Elect Lady.”1st John written to the church at large.

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Both 2nd John and 3rd John are short, individual, personal letters.

1st John is more of a sermon than the typical letter.

We’ll study it last as the climax of the series.

The message of John’s 2nd epistle is essential to having a proper perspective of what he has said in his first epistle.

It is remarkable how timely these letters are for today:

The cultural war being waged in our country has deep spiritual significance far beyond simply cultural or political philosophies.

2nd John may be the most neglected book of the NT.

It may also harbor one of the biggest surprises!

We don’t know the order that the three were written

It seems that 2nd John was written to the same community as 1st John, but at an earlier date

The false teachers evidently still had access to the church in 2nd John, but had seceded from it in 1st John.

They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but

they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. 1 Jn 2:19

We believe the three letters were written after John’s exile at Patmos.

By the time of Patmos, Ephesus was diligent in doctrine, but had “lost their first love” (Rev 2:1-7).

False teachers not only invaded the churches,

They also tried to influence Christian homes.

It is significant that the pagan left continually embarks on a militant campaign against the family.

As goes the home, so goes the Church and the nation.

The family is an important target in Satan’s war against truth

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THE ELECT LADY (2Jn 1:1-3)1:1-3 The Elder to the Elect Lady and to her children, whom I love in truth (it is not only I who love you and them, but so do all who love the truth) because of the truth which abides in us and which will be with us for ever. Grace, mercy and peace will be with you from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

2 John 1:11] The elder unto the elect G1588 lady G2959 and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;

The ElderThe writer designates himself simply by the title of The Elder.

Elder can have three different meanings.

It can mean simply an older man, one who by reason of his years and experience is deserving of affection and of respect.

The letter is from an aged servant of Christ and the church.

In the New Testament the elders are the officials of the local churches.

They were the first of all the church officials, and Paul ordained elders in his churches on his missionary journeys, as soon as it was possible to do so (Ac 4:21-23).

The word cannot be used in that sense here, because these elders were local officials, whose authority and duties were confined to their own congregation.

The Elder of this letter clearly has an authority which extends over a much wider area.

He claims the right to advise congregations in places where he himself is not a resident.

Almost certainly this letter was written in Ephesus in the province of Asia. In the church there Elder was used in a special sense.

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The elders were men who had been direct disciples of the apostles;

It is from these men that both Papias and Irenaeus, who lived and worked and wrote in Asia, tell us that they got their information.

The elders were the direct links between the second generation of Christians and the followers of Christ in the flesh.

The writer of the letter is one of the last direct links with Jesus Christ; and therein lies his right to speak.

1] The elder unto the elect G1588 lady G2959 and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;

The Elect Lady Who is “the elect lady”?

This identity is the primary mystery of the letter.

There are those who hold that the letter is written to an individual person.

In Greek the phrase is Eklekte (<G1588>) Kuria (<G2959>).

G1588 εκλεκτος eklektos [ek-lek-tos‘]

From G1586; select; by implication favorite - chosen, elect.

G1588 εκλεκτος eklektos [ek-lek-tos‘] is never assigned to any other individual in the NT as a single predicate

(except in Rom 16:13, “chosen in the Lord”).

G2959 Κυρια Kuria [koo-ree'-ah]

Feminine of G2962; Cyria, a woman: - lady.

G2959 Κυρια Kuria [koo-ree'-ah]

May be a proper name of a woman, a title of honor, or symbolic/

The view of kuria taken as a symbolic description of the Christian Church has occurred consistently since as early as Jerome

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[Jerome (Ep. Xi. Ad Ageruchiam); later Calovius, Whiston, Michaelis, Augusti, Hofmann (Weissagung u. Erfüllung, II. P.321, and Schriftbew., I. P.226ff); Hilgenfeld (1855), Ewald, Candlish, Barnes, Huther, etc. Also, more recently, Harris, Marshall, Plummer, Stedman, Vines, McGee, Wiersbe, Walvoord, and other modern commentators.]

G2962 κυριος kurios [koo'-ree-os]

From κυρος kuros (supremacy); supreme in authority, that is, (as noun) controller; by implication Mr. (as a respectful title): - God, Lord, master, Sir.

It certainly must be a prominent woman

There has been much speculation as to who The Elect Lady might be.

The elect lady is an unknown individual, probably a prominent lady in the Church at Ephesus.

This view would make this the only book in the Bible specifically addressed to a woman.

The writer knows her sister and her sister’s children (v.13).

It is true that John uses a plural (vv. 6, 8, 10, 12) and a singular (vv. 1, 4, 5, 13) form of address.

The fact that he embraces others as well in passing doesn’t alter the intended addressee.

The family of the “Elect Lady” is clearly in view.

It has been suggested that The Elect Lady is Mary, the mother of our Lord.

She was to be a mother to John and he was to be a son to her (Jn 19:26-27), and a personal letter from John might well be a letter to her.

The most likely prima facie suggestion is that the recipient of this intimate letter is:

the most “elect” of all women, the one that Jesus entrusted to John’s personal care:

Mary, the mother of Jesus (Jn19:26,27) and she did have a sister (v. 13; Jn 19:25).

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This view, however, is not even discussed among modern commentators.

[Except Knauer: Stud. U. Krit., 1833, Part 2, p.452ff; q.v. Huther, J. E., Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the General Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude (translated from the German) (11 vols.), Funk and Wagnalls, 1884.]

We know so little of her subsequent history from the Scriptures:

There is the dismissive statement during the wedding at Cana (Jn 2:4).

There are minimal allusions in the Book of Acts (1:14).

She apparently remained in the care of John in his retirement in Ephesus.

This conjecture would indicate that 2nd John would have been written earlier than 90 ad, since Mary would have been about a century old by then.

Most of what is commonly published by the Roman Catholic Church has been contrived by subsequent Popes to promote their doctrinal heresies, etc.

Most Biblical believers, from their revulsion to the tragic and heretical deification of Mary by the Roman Catholic Church, tend to dismiss her and ignore her situation and predicament.

Kurios (<G2962>) means Master; and Kuria (<G2959>) as a proper name would mean Mistress.

In Latin, Domina is the same name In Aramaic, Martha; both meaning Mistress or Lady.

It has, therefore, been suggested that the letter was written to Martha of Bethany.

If kuria is symbolic of the Church, then who are her children?

The “Elect Lady” is loved “by all they that have known the Truth.”

This seems to point to far more than simply an unnamed prominent person within the local church!

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If this suspicion is correct, it places an entirely unique complexion on the letter, and also provides a number of significant insights.

If this letter is written to a church which is symbolized by the phrase ‘Elect Lady’, it is likely that it is a church which all men love who know the truth (2Jn 1:1 ).

2Jn 1:4 says that some of the children are walking in the truth.

In 2Jn 1:4 ,8,10,12 the word you is in the plural, which suggests a church.

Peter uses almost exactly the same phrase when he sends greetings from The Elect One (the form is feminine) which is at Babylon (1Pet 5:13).

The view of believers as “children of the Church” may have been comfortable for Jerome, et al., for ecclesiastical reasons, but it flies in the face of Scriptural usage.

We are “children of God,” not “children of the Church.”

It is significant that this word is not used anywhere else representing the Church.

The allusion to the sister (v.13) would further complicate this view.

The addressee may be deliberately unidentifiable.

The letter was written at a time when persecution was a real possibility.

If it were to fall into the wrong hands, there might well be trouble.

And it may be that the letter is addressed in such a way that to the insider its destination is quite clear, while to the outsider it would look like a personal letter from one friend to another.

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2 John 1:1-21] The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;2] For the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever.“...and her children”: This should make the case unequivocal: Mary’s sister was also at the cross when John was called to take Mary under his provision (Jn 19:25-27).

“...whom I love in the truth...”: Most expositions of this letter highlight the prominence of “truth,” in concert with “love” as the keynote of the letter.

Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because

there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. Hosea 4:1

Real love always operates within the sphere of truth.

If you take love away from truth, you don’t have Christian love

What Is Truth?Jesus’ declaration is conclusive and comprehensive:

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (Jn 14:6).

Here “the Truth” suggests a personal identification:

The Truth “dwells in us” and “shall be with us forever.”

John is using it as a title of Jesus Christ, just as he so often uses the Logos, The Word (Jn 1:1-3, 14; 1 Jn 5:7; Rev 19:13).

It is astonishing to observe our institutions now denying the very existence of that which they were founded to discover.

As if 2 + 2 = 4 is subjective and subject to debate.

In any case, Truth is unchangeable. “

What is true is not new And what is new is not true.”

LOVE AND TRUTH (2Jn 1:1-3)

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Note how love and truth are inseparably connected.

It is in the truth that the elder loves the elect lady.

It is because of the truth that he loves and writes to the church.

Christian truth tells us the way in which we ought to love.

Agape (<G26>) is the word for Christian love.

Agape (<G26>) is not emotional passion with its ebb and flow nor is it an easy-going and indulgent sentimentalism.

And it is not an easy thing to acquire or a light thing to exercise.

Agape (<G26>) is undefeatable goodwill; it is the attitude towards others which, no matter what they do, will never feel bitterness and will always seek their highest good.

Agape (<G26>) is absolute, full commitment to its object.

Christian love - Agape (<G26>) - will always seek the highest good of others and will accept all the difficulties, all the problems and all the toil which that search involves.

John writes in love to warn. Christian truth tells us the reason for the obligation of love.

In his first letter, John talked of the suffering, sacrificing, incredibly generous love of God; and then he says,

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" (1Jn 4:11).

We love him, because he first loved us. (1Jn 4:19)

The Christian must love because he is loved.

He cannot accept the love of God without showing love to the men God loves.

Because God loves us, we must love others with the same generous and sacrificial love.

How do we demonstrate our love for God.

Joh_15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Mat 22:36-40

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(36) "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"(37) And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.(38) This is the great and first commandment.(39) And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.(40) On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

De 6:5, De 10:12, De 30:6; Mk 12:29-30, Mk 12:33; Lu 10:27; Ro 8:7; Hb 10:16-17; 1Jn 5:2-5

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2 John 1:33] Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.Grace? Mercy? Love?John begins this letter with a greeting, but it is a very unusual greeting. Here is the faith which never doubts the promises of God in Jesus Christ.

He literally says, "Grace, mercy and peace will be with us."

Here the greeting is a statement: "Grace, mercy and peace will be with us."

In every other New Testament letter the greeting is in the form of a wish or a prayer.

Paul usually says, "Grace be to you and peace."

Peter says, "May grace and peace be multiplied to you" (1Pet 1:2).

Jude says, "May mercy, peace and love, be multiplied to you" (Jd 2 ).

John is so sure of the gifts of the grace of God in Jesus Christ that he does not pray that his friends should receive them; he assures them that they will receive them.

Ephesians 2:4-5 combines all three:

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved…

Grace is getting what we don’t deserve;

Mercy is not getting what we do.

Love is that in God which existed before He would care to exercise mercy or grace. — Lewis Sperry Chafer

It is interesting that love never saved a sinner. The love of God caused God to move in the direction of mercy and grace; it caused Him to exercise mercy and grace. — J. Vernon McGee

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Salvation is not only an expression of the love of God; it is also an expression of the justice and righteousness of God.

To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Ro 3:16

Grace: “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” — Hal Lindsey

...Son of the Father”: It is suggestive that in v.3 John emphasizes that Jesus’ paternity — “Son of the Father” — to the recipient.

This is another of those passages that links — and equates — the Father with the Son.

The paternal emphasis in would have had very specific implications for Mary.

Can you imagine the burden Mary had to endure throughout her entire adult life from the cloud of the ostensible illegitimacy that was imputed to her first pregnancy?

The aspersions cast in John 8:41.

Jesus then discusses their parentage in 8:44!

The childhood insights of Ps 69:7-12.

Whosever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. 1Jn 2:23

I and my Father are one. John 10:30Before Abraham was, I AM. John 8:58

In each of these instances, the leadership understood what He was claiming:

they tried to stone Him for blasphemy.

Furthermore, this was the was the specific indictment for which they crucified Him (Mt 26:63-66).

It is astonishing that so many are unaware of the numerous claims of Jesus’ Godship!

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TROUBLE AND CURE (2Jn 1:4-6)1:4-6 It gave me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, as we have received commandment from the Father. And now, Lady, not as if I were writing a new commandment to you, but a commandment which we have had from the beginning, I beg you that we should love one another. And this is love, that we should walk according to his commandments; and this is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that we should walk in it.

In the church to which he is writing there are things to make John's heart glad and things to make it sad.

It brings him joy to know that some of its members are walking in the truth; but that very statement implies that some are not.

That is to say, within the church there is division, for there are those who have chosen to walk different roads.

2 John 1:44] I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.“...of thy children”: Jesus was raised in a family of (at least) seven:

5 sons and 2 sisters (Mt 13:55, 56; Mk 5:3).

James and Jude became believers after the resurrection;

They each wrote books in the NT that bear their names.

Jesus appeared to James after His resurrection (1 Cor 15:7)

The Greek actually indicates “some of thy children” rather than all of them (Jn 7:5).

It is only a surmise, but perhaps some of the others brothers and sisters also became believers.

“...walking in truth”: The issue here, as in all these letters, is that love and truth must be practiced: “walked.”

“To walk in the truth” means to obey it.

It is easier to study the truth, or even argue about the truth, than it is to obey it.

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Knowing the truth is more than giving assent to a series of doctrines;

It means that the believer’s life is controlled by a love for the truth and a desire to magnify the truth.

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2 John 1:55] And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.“...from the beginning”: The recipient was not a latecomer: she was there “from the beginning” (vv.5 & 6 ).

The “we” carries a joint identity.

“...love one another”: Love is a commandment.

If ye love me, keep my commandments (Jn 14:15).

When I obey, I do what God tells me to do.

Real love is a choice, not an emotion.

I choose to love you.

For all things John has one remedy and that is love. It is the word of Jesus himself:

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn 13:34-35).

Only love can mend a situation in which personal relationships are broken. Love is the one thing to heal the breach and restore the lost relationship.

Rebuke and criticism are liable to awaken only resentment and hostility; argument and controversy are liable only to widen the breach;

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (Jn 14:15).

Anyone who does not keep this commandment does not really love God, however much he may claim to do so.

The only proof of our love for God is our love for the brethren.

John’s first cure for all the troubles of the church is love – love for God that is proven and shows itself in our love for each other…

This is the commandment, says John, which we have heard from the beginning and in which we must walk.

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2 John 1:66] And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.Do not presume that any of us are beyond the need for exhortation or encouragement.

Mary was subject to the same frailties as all of us:

pride and doubts, and thus also needed frequent encouragement, counsel, and, perhaps, exhortation.

A tendency to pride would certainly be a serious challenge for her:

the most blessed of all women who had ever walked the earth!

What would be Mary’s “thorn in the flesh”? (2 Cor 12:7-9).

Both truth and love can be perverted.

In view of the onslaught of the Gnostic heresies and doubts may well have brought unique challenges for Mary, especially!

Mary (in Perspective)Simeon’s hymn followed:

“a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luk 2:35 );

a testing of her character as well as to all others (Jn 9:39; 19:25; Ps 42:10).

Dismissiveness (Mt12:46):

Her misgivings and doubts is implied during accompanying His brethren, as if enthusiasm was carrying Him too far (Mk 3:21, 31-35; Jn 7:5).

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THE THREATENING PERIL (2Jn 1:7-9)1:7-9 There is all the more reason to speak like this because there have gone out into the world many deceivers, men who do not confess that Jesus is Christ, and his coming in the flesh. Such a man is the deceiver and the Antichrist. Look to yourselves that you do not ruin that which we have wrought, but see to it that you receive a full reward. Everyone who advances too far and who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not possess God; it is he who abides in that teaching who has both the Father and the Son.

1Jn 4:1-2 (1) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. (2) By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

In 1Jn 4:2 the Greek is that Jesus has come in the flesh.

The idea is expressed in a participle and the participle is in the past tense.

It is the fact that the incarnation has happened which is stressed.

In 2Jn 1:7 there is a change and the participle is in the present tense:

the literal translation would be that Jesus comes or is coming in the flesh.

2 John 1:77] For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.Here is a clear response to the prevalent Gnostic teachings.

They were teaching that Jesus Christ was not really a person, just a phantom.

When He walked He didn’t leave a footprint!

This is partially Scriptural! (Mt 14:25; Mk 6:48; Jn 6:19)

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He walked on water…

“...is come”: the present (continuous) tense is used:

Jesus Christ had come and still exists “in flesh.”

In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, he emphasizes,

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14

In the sermon we call 1st John, he opens with a similar emphasis:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life... 1 John 1:1

The Pharisees were the conservatives of Jesus’ day;

The Sadducees were the liberals.

The Pharisees with the Sadducees were the leaders of the persecution of the Lord Jesus.

The Sadducees were the greatest enemies that Christ had and were the main instigators of the first persecution of the Church.

After the death of the Lord, most of the Pharisees dropped the whole affair.

They lost interest in persecuting Him or His followers; in fact, many of them became Christians (Acts 3 & 4).

A Pharisee named Nicodemus was converted, as were many priests obedient to the faith (Acts 6:7).

There is no account in Scripture of a Sadducee ever coming to Christ for salvation.

The acid test of the Sadducees was the resurrection, as it is today among the “liberals.”

The prevalent Gnostic teachings would have had a disconcerting problem for Mary.

Why would she have been immune to doubts and misgivings?

2 nd John

…Jesus Christ is come in the flesh

It could mean that Jesus is always coming in the flesh,

that there is a kind of permanence about the incarnation,

that it was not one act which finished in the thirty years during which Jesus was in Palestine but is timeless.

That would be a great thought and would mean that now and always Jesus Christ, and God through him, is entering into the human situation and into human life.

It may well be that in a late Greek writer like John, who did not know Greek as the great classical writers knew it, we cannot lay all this stress on tenses; and that we are better to take it that he means the same as he meant in 1Jn 4:2.

That these deceivers are denying the reality of the incarnation and therefore denying that God can fully enter into the life of man.

The great church thinkers held on with both hands to the reality of the incarnation.

In the second century, again and again Ignatius insists that Jesus was truly born, that he truly became man, that he truly suffered and that he truly died.

Martin Luther said of Jesus: "He ate, drank, slept, waked; was weary, sorrowful, rejoicing; he wept and he laughed; he knew hunger and thirst and sweat; he talked, he toiled, he prayed...so that there was no difference between him and other men, save only this, that he was God, and had no sin."

"The Son of God in whom we are able to believe must be such a One that it is possible to mistake him for an ordinary man."

If God could enter into life only as a disembodied phantom, the body stands for ever despised; then there can be no real communion between the divine and the human; then there can be no real salvation.

He had to become what we are to make us what he is.

2 nd John

“...an antichrist” should be “the”!

The Greek, o avnti cristo has the definite article.

The prefix “anti-” actually means “instead of” or “in place of”

The modern use emphasizes “against.”

Both are true.

John himself does not use this term “antichrist” in the Book of Revelation.

2 nd John

2 John 1:88] Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.“...we lose not”: Even Mary could lose her “reward”!

None of us should take anything for granted.

We cannot lose that which Jesus completed;

but we can fail to retain that which “we have wrought,” those things which derive from our own faithfulness.

Every believer ought to be working for a reward, and be able to hear Him say:

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Mt 25:21)

In 2Jn 1:8-9 we hear beneath the words of John the claims of the false teachers.

It is their claim that they are developing Christianity discovering more truly what it means. John insists that they are destroying Christianity and wrecking the foundation which has been laid and on which everything must be built.

2Jn 1:9 is interesting and significant. We have translated the first phrase everyone who goes too far. The Greek is proagon (<G4254>). The verb means to go on ahead. The false teachers claimed that they were the progressives, the advanced thinkers, the men of the open and adventurous mind. John himself was one of the most adventurous thinkers of the New Testament. But he insists that, however far a man may advance, he must abide in the teaching of Jesus Christ or he loses touch with God. Here, then, is the great truth. John is not condemning advanced thinking; but he is saying that Jesus Christ must be the touchstone of all thinking and that whatever is out of touch with him can never be right. John would say, "Think--but take your thinking to the touchstone of Jesus Christ and the New Testament picture of him." Christianity is not a nebulous, uncontrolled theosophy; it is anchored to the historical figure of Jesus Christ.

2 nd John

2 John 1:99] Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.John was not suggesting that all religious teachings are true in one way or another and that we should not be critical just as long as people are sincere.

To John, there was a deadly difference.

He that does not have Christ does not have God.

“...transgresseth”: parabaino: to go beyond the limits; to go past, to turn aside;

to extend beyond the pale of orthodoxy.

This is the characteristic of every cult.

They always have some new information or insight that goes beyond the clear and express doctrines of God.

Every cult finds a new way to deny the deity of Jesus Christ.

“...abideth”: “abide” means to remain;

it is intended to be a permanent arrangement.

Even Mary, of all people, may have had particular difficulties in this area.

She certainly would have been drawn into the raging controversies over the real nature of Jesus.

2 nd John

NO COMPROMISE (2Jn 1:10-13)1:10-13 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not greet him on the street; for he who greets him becomes a partner in his evil deeds.

Although I have many things to write to you, I do not wish to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to see you and to speak to you face to face, that our joy may be completed.

The children of your Elect Sister send their greetings to you.

Here we see very clearly the danger which John saw in these false teachers.

We have to remember the situation. There was a time when it was touch and go whether the Christian faith would be destroyed by the speculations of pseudo-philosophic heretics. Its very existence was in peril. The church dared not even seem to compromise with this destructive corrosion of the faith.

2 John 1:1010] If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:Hospitality — especially in those rough times — was extremely critical to the ministry.

The “hospitality industry” of motels and related services came later.

The inns of those early days were neither safe nor adequate.

Traveling pastors or teachers needed homes to stay in (3 Jn 5-8).

HospitalityPaul stayed in the home of Aquila and Priscilla when he was in Corinth.

The situation is quite different today.

Many traveling speakers prefer the privacy of commercial accommodations for study and prayer,

2 nd John

which is rarely available when one is being received in a private residence, however well intended.

Christians are admonished to open their homes to visitors (Rom 12:13; 1 Tim 3:2; 5:3-10; Heb 13:2; 1 Pet 4:8-10).

But in the context here:

We must not let the poison of false doctrine get into our home.

False teachers are to be given no hospitality

The refusal of hospitality would be the most effective way of stopping their work.

The church members were to ‘disassociate’ themselves from them.

2 nd John

2 John 1:1111] For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.False teachers are not even to be given a greeting on the street.

To do so would be to indicate that to some extent you had sympathy with them.

It must be made quite clear to the world that the church has no tolerance for those whose teaching destroys the faith.

“...Godspeed”:This is a disturbing caveat for all of us!

“Goodbye” means “God be with you”;

It is a petition for God’s blessing and sanction.

We can never compromise with mistaken teachers but we are never free from the obligation of seeking to lead them into the truth.

False TeachersJohn did not want any of God’s children to:

1) Give a false teacher the impression that his heretical doctrine was acceptable;

2) Become infected because of association and possible friendship; and,

3) Give the false teacher ammunition to use at the next place he stopped.

John is admonishing us to not receive or encourage false teachers representing anti-Christian groups.

If John admonishes us regarding false teachers, what should our response be to false religions and ‘religious inclusiveness’.

This is another grave reason that you should investigate everything you give to as a Christian, because if you are giving to the wrong thing, God considers you a partner in it.

Do you suppose this a general principle?

Or was it a particular injunction for Mary as one who could inadvertently clothe heresy with the mantle of her approval?

2 nd John

2 nd John

2 John 1:1212] Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.John will not write any more for he hopes to come to see his friends and to speak to them face to face.

Both Greek and Hebrew do not say, “face to face”, but mouth to mouth.

In the Old Testament God says of Moses: "With him I speak mouth to mouth" (Num 12:8).

Is this an allusion to intimacy and imminancy?Or it could be a precaution to disclosure(s)?Or is John a prisoner on Patmos as he writes this and unable to come back to Ephesus?

David said a similar thing: Ps 45:1 My heart overflows with a good theme; I address my verses to the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

The Hebrew, mahıyr sapher, the “ready writer” (KJV), or “skillful writer” (NIV), is translated in the Greek Septuagint, oxygràphos, a synonym for tachygràphos, or “shorthand writer.”

The technical term must have been common enough among Greek speaking Jews in the 3rd century b.c. for its use in the Septuagint to have any purpose.

John knew that letters often only bedevil a situation and that five minutes heart to heart talk can do what a whole file of letters is powerless to achieve.

In many churches as in personal relationships, a text, email and letter have merely succeeded in exacerbating a situation;

The most carefully written letter can be misinterpreted, when a little speech together might have mended matters.

Tone of voice and expression of face – body language cannot be communicated through written messages between us.

Church courts and Christian people would do well to make a resolution never to write when they could speak.

2 nd John

2 nd John

2 John 1:1313] The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen. The letter closes with greetings from John's church to the friends to whom he writes, greetings, as it were, from one sister's children to another's, for all Christians are members of one family in the faith.

This verse also argues for the addressee to be a specific individual.

Mary did have a sister;

Joh 19:25 Therefore the soldiers did these things. But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

2 nd John

Ultimate Ecumenicalism?Mary could also prove to be the common element uniting the religions of the world…

The Catholics (& ECT, et al.);

The Muslims — Muslims believe Mary is one of the great women of Islam, and Jesus as a prophet.

“The Chapter of Mary,” Surah Maryam, in the Qur’an, speaks about Mary (Maryam) and Jesus (Isa) in Islam;

The New Age (Mary and the Gaia community, et al.).

The Marian ApparitionsThe deification of Mary by the Roman Catholic Church represents far more than simply a heterodox departure from the Biblical faith.

In addition to be a blasphemy on the deity, role, and person of Jesus Christ,

This pagan contrivance appears to be the continuing vehicle for the execution of strategic demonic activities of the most sinister sort.

Most Protestant observers tend to dismiss the sequence of sightings and encounters with what purports to be the Virgin Mary as simply hallucinations, hoaxes, or incidents of well-intentioned religious hysteria.

While some of these incidents may well be, there are a significant number of them that evidence clear supernatural involvements and deserve our serious caution!

For instance, The Visions at Fatima, 1917, in Portugal on May 13 and October 13 by three children; 70,000 witnesses.

2 nd John

FURTHER READING - Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)

J. N. S. Alexander, The Epistles of John (Tch; E) E. Brooke, The Johannine Epistles (ICC; G) H. Dodd, The Johannine Epistles (MC; E)

Bibliography• Barnes, Albert, Notes on the New Testament, James to Jude,

Barnes Notes (14 vols.),• Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI (reprinted from 1884

edition by Blackie & Son, London).• Candlish, Robert, 1 John, Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh,

Scotland, 1870.• Harris, Ralph W., ed., The New Testament Study Bible (16

vols.), World Library Press Inc., Springfield, MO 1986.• Huther, J. E., Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the General

Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude (translated from the German) (11 vols.), Funk and Wagnalls, 1884.

• Knauer: Stud. U. Krit., 1833, Part 2, p.452ff; q.v. Huther, J. E., Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the General Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude (translated from the German) (11 vols.), Funk and Wagnalls, 1884.

• Marshall, I. Howard, The Epistles of John, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI 1978.

• McGee, J. Vernon, Through the Bible (5 vols), Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN 1983.

• Plummer, A., C. Cemeance, et al., The Epistles of St. John, The Pulpit Commentary, William B. Eermans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI 1950.

• Stedman, Ray C., Expository Studies in 1 John, Word Books, Waco, TX 1980.

• Vines, Jerry, Exploring 1-2-3 John, Loizeaux Brothers, Neptune, NJ 1989.

• Walvoord,JohnF.,and Zuck,Roy B.,ed., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Chariot Victor Publishing, Cook Communications, Colorado Springs, CO 1983.

• Wiersbe, Warren W. , The Bible Exposition Commentary (2 Vols), Scripture Press, Wheaton, IL 1989.

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