According to the Scriptures

Damian Kyle: Today on According to the Scriptures, we see what love looks like. Agape love is not supremely expressed in a feeling that we have for another person, but John tells us it is rather best expressed in making loving decisions related to that person, and deciding to do what is best for the other person. And God's love always does what is best for the other person as opposed to what would be the easiest thing to do in that relationship, which is oftentimes the way the world defines love.

Well, hello again and welcome to According to the Scriptures with Pastor Damian Kyle. We're about to open our Bibles to Second John. And while it doesn't take long to read, it does take a lifetime to apply. You see, it's all about truth and love, and those are two things that are under attack and greatly misunderstood today. So we'd do well to give our attention to what it has to say.

Having studied First John for the last several months, it seemed only appropriate not to leave his other two epistles hanging in the wind, so to speak, and to study Second and Third John before we move on to our next Sunday morning teaching series. This short letter was probably written very soon after John wrote First John, so very much in the same time period. And Second John, as has to be the case with any letter as short as it is, it gets right to the point.

And the purpose of John's letter is threefold. First, to affirm our commitment to the truth as Christians. And then second, to plead that we love one another as Christians. And then third, to warn and instruct us concerning false teachers and deceivers. And so in verses one through four, the apostle John, his affirmation of Christians' commitment to the truth, and that's what he wants to affirm us in, is our commitment to the truth.

Including not only the commitment to the truth of the scriptures of the church he was writing to 2000 years ago, but a commendation of our commitment to the truth here 2000 years later. Verses one through four constitute John's introduction to the letter and his greeting, and it's more than just an introduction or a greeting. He uses the word truth five times in the opening four verses in order to make the importance of this in the Christian life unmistakable to us.

Additionally, he uses the word commandments four times in the letter and the word walk fully three times in communicating that a Christian, our commitment to truth, is not merely a verbal commitment, but a commitment that views God's truth as commandments in our lives. And that raises the question, then, I think, of what truth is John talking about here? And Jesus answers that question for us best of all on the night before his crucifixion as he was up in an upper room with the disciples.

And as he prayed for them, his high priestly prayer before going to the cross the next day, and he prayed to the Father not only for the disciples, but for all of us all through the ages who would come to know him, he said, he prayed, "Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth." And the truth he's talking about is the truth of God's word. Well, let's get our bearings here a little bit by noting John's greeting here and introducing the letter.

It's a very common greeting in the ancient world. The letter writer would begin his letter or her letter by introducing themselves, and then they would address the person they're writing the letter to. Then there would be a word of greeting, and then there would be an expression of thanksgiving for the person or the group that they were writing their letter to. And all of this is evident in this letter.

We remember that in the ancient world letters were, came in the form of scrolls. And even though this would have been a one-page scroll, but to receive a longer letter, you didn't want to scroll all the way to the end of the letter to find out who in the world was writing this to you. So they would identify themselves at the very beginning. And so the apostle John identifies himself here as the elder in verse one, and it might be a reference to his age.

He was certainly a very, very old man at this point in his life, maybe 80 years old. That's very old in ancient times. And, but I think it's best to understand John's use of the words "the elder" to identify himself in terms of his position within the church and his official position there in the early church at that time. And so he writes this letter with apostolic authority. Who he's writing to is given to us in verse one, to the elect lady and to her children.

There are a couple of theories and it's really important to understand this. It's not just, you know, filling in blanks related to the letter. But there's a couple of theories about who this elect lady was. Many believe that John was writing to a literal lady, a woman in the early church and her children. And many others hold the view that John is writing to a church when he refers to who he refers to then as the elect lady.

Kind of in the same way that sailors will refer to even today their boats as "she." "She's ready to sail, Captain." Or not uncommon in the New Testament for the body of Christ to be referred to in feminine terms and to be referred to as the bride of Christ, and thus "and her children" would refer to the members of the church. I'm inclined to hold that latter view related to the fact that he's writing to an entire church and for a couple of reasons, rather than to a literal woman in the early church.

First in verse one, it's very unlikely that the apostle John would address a woman without including the mention of her husband and who is noticeably absent in the greeting with the words "whom I love in truth." Second in that same vein, it's inconceivable that John would write to a woman in any age, much less in the modesty of that age, in verse five as he writes to her "that we love one another."

Clearly he's reminding a larger group of Christians of the importance of loving one another as Christians. I think also in verse 13, John closes the letter stating, "The children of your elect sister greet you." And it's clear there that "your elect sister" refers to the church John is writing from, and the children of refers to the members of the church as opposed to being a greeting from a group of relatives to their aunt. And so John uses the same imagery at the beginning and the end of the letter.

And so why would he adopt this kind of language? It's probable that John refers to the church in this figurative fashion rather than by name because of the very intense persecution that was being brought against Christians in the Roman Empire at that time. And they had become a target of all of the power and all of the wealth of Rome. And so if the letter fell into the hands of Roman officials, then and everybody was identified within it, then it might make that church an especial target of persecution.

But however you want to view this, whether to view it as him writing to an individual woman and her children or writing to a church and then the individual members of that church, the instruction in the letter is not affected by that at all. It applies equally to an individual and as it does to a church. The apostle expressed his love for his readers, including us, there at the end of verse one and into verse two.

And he tells us that he loved them in truth, which not only communicates the sincerity of his love, but that he loved them in the truth. And you notice after he talks about loving them in the truth, he then follows that by declaring twice within verses one and two that what he's talking about is the truth, referring to the truth of the word of God as it's revealed in the scriptures.

And so John expressed his love for them because they were in the truth. That is, they are Christians, and further Christians who shared a mutual love for the word of God that he possessed, and that was marked, as he says here, by their abiding in that truth. They gave God's word a deep, abiding, living, obedient place in their lives, just as John had done. And so this kind of a mutual love for God's truth produces when it is present in two Christians, it produces a powerful bond of love between Christians who possess that awe and that appreciation for the truth.

Additionally, at the end of verse one, John declared that they were loved by all those who have known the truth. And so he lets them know, and it would have been very encouraging to them, that they were widely appreciated and loved by the body of Christ in that early church in the Roman Empire for their love for the truth. Now John's words of greeting there in verse three having to do with God's grace and his mercy and his peace.

Very, very common greeting in the New Testament letters. But here John writes it and we want to notice there's a couple of distinctions that he makes here in verse three. It's interesting that in his greeting, John does not represent this pronouncement of God's grace and mercy and peace upon them, he doesn't represent it as a wish or as a hope on his part toward them.

John does not say, "May grace, mercy, and peace be with you." Instead, he flatly declares that it will be. And I think that that demonstrates the confidence of not only the apostle John but of any saint whose walk with the Lord for a long time that God's grace and his mercy and his peace is always going to prevail in our lives. As we abide in the truth, as we just simply live our lives in obedience to his word.

And so he makes that as a pronouncement that this is a part of their lives and be a part of their future. He declares this greeting "in truth and love," as he declares it there. In other words, grace, mercy, and peace come from the Lord, but it is that grace, mercy, and peace is only experienced to the degree that we live a life of obedience and of love.

His thanksgiving is recorded in verse four and John rejoiced greatly that he had found some of her children walking in truth as we received commandment from the Father. And so walking in truth means that he had in my view, John had encountered Christians from that church. John writes this probably from Ephesus. And but he had come into contact with those that attended this church in all the movement of the early church in that in that day and and he found them to be walking in obedience to the Bible.

And so somewhere, somehow, he had engaged in them and been impacted by their strong commitment to the truth and it produced a great joy in him. And of course that's what's going to be very, very high in terms of producing joy in somebody like the apostle John and that is when he sees strong Christians coming out of a local church and thinks to himself, "Praise the Lord, there's strong Christians being produced out of that particular church."

Now in verses five and six, having strongly affirmed in our lives the importance of truth in the Christian life as he mentions it five times there in the first four verses, John then follows it with an equally strong plea that we should love one another as Christians. And he now repeats the word love fully four times in the opening six verses. And so John wrote this letter at a time in church history when like our own, depending on where you live in the world, a time in which tremendous persecution was being meted out against Christians.

And also it was the ancient world as it is today, many, many false teachers and false teaching going forth by those that claimed to be Christians but who were not. And so this intense persecution of Christians that began under Caesar Nero in about 64 AD, now by the time John writes this a little bit later, some 20 to 30 years after that persecution of the reign of Nero, now the Roman Emperor Domitian comes into place.

And if Christians felt that the persecution of Nero was strong, this was persecution on steroids. And so with so much persecution being leveled at Christians and so much false teaching and apostasy going on, John let them know that it's critical that we love and we care for one another as Christians. After all, he says to us as well, if we don't show love for one another, then who in the world is going to do that?

Not the world, not the Roman Empire, not any government of of the world. If we don't love one another, then we are not going to be loved in this world in the way that we need it. And so John covered the importance of truth and love in the Christian life in his first letter, now going to engage it on that level again in this letter, but there are a few things John wants to remind us of here. Notice first of all in verse five that John described his command to love one another as Christians as an old one.

And so it was. Again on the night before his crucifixion, in the upper room with the disciples, Jesus there in Jerusalem after the departure of Judas, who was now sent off and would betray Jesus, Jesus declared to the disciples including John, remember John is present in that scene, he hears it from Jesus' very lips, and Jesus said in John 13, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Then notice in verse six that John doesn't leave us in the dark as to what love looks like in this regard. Again as we've mentioned before, when somebody talks about our need to love one another or even the word love, the subject is so big, it breaks our brains. And so it's like, "Okay, you tell me to love, but what in the world does that look like? I mean where do I even start in terms of showing love toward another Christian or another person?"

And so we're really at a loss without somebody helping us to know what it looks like exactly. Otherwise we're going to sit waiting for kind of a warm fuzzy feeling to overtake us, and then when it does, and we have it for the other people that are around us, then we'll engage in a big group hug. Well that's not what John is talking about here. He tells us in verse six is so valuable in this regard that the love that John is talking about here is agape love.

It's the love of God and the love that God has for his people that is brought into our life by the Holy Spirit when we are born again, when we become a Christian. And so agape love is not supremely expressed in a feeling that we have for another person, but John tells us it is rather best expressed in making loving decisions related to that person, and deciding to do what is best for the other person.

And God's love always does what is best for the other person as opposed to what would be the easiest thing to do in that relationship, which is oftentimes the way the world defines love. Well, that then raises the question of how can I unfailingly know what is best for someone or everyone in my life in order that I might then do that best thing for them? And John's answer again in verse six, "This is love, that we walk according to his," that is God's, "commandments."

That is, the most loving thing, the very best thing I can ever do for another person is to just uncompromisingly obey God's commandments in that relationship that I have with that person. And the moment that I compromise God's commandments in a relationship with another person, I have ceased to truly love them. And instead now there's another love that is involved and usually is not a love for them, but it's a love for myself.

And so I don't do the hard but the loving thing because I don't want to do that hard thing, or because I want everybody to like me, or I don't want to risk the relationship by doing the hard thing. And if my definition of what would be the loving thing to do toward a person or in a particular situation is different from what the Bible tells me to do in that situation, then as we just obey the word of God, then that is the true expression of love of God's love.

And so true love John is telling us is always governed by truth. True love is always governed by truth, and it's governed by God's truth. Well, we'll leave you to think that one over. Again, true love is always governed by God's truth. Today on According to the Scriptures, Pastor Damian Kyle kicked off our study of Second John. As we learned, it's all about truth and love. He'll share more in just a moment.

For resource requests like today's message on CD, call 209-545-5530. That's 209-545-5530. Pastor Damian Kyle's studies can also be heard online at accordingtothescriptures.com, oneplace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we also have a church app where you can listen to Damian. Search for Calvary Chapel Modesto in the App Store or Google Play.

If you would like to partner with us through a financial gift, you're more than welcome to do that through our website, accordingtothescriptures.com. Let me also give you our mailing address, that would be According to the Scriptures, 4300 American Avenue. That's 4300 American Avenue, Modesto, California. The zip code is 95356. Well, let's go a little further now into Second John.

Now in the next section of the letter, John's going to call on these Christians, on this church that he's writing to, to do something related to false teachers in verses 10 and 11. And it may appear to be anything but loving in terms of addressing them and dealing with them. But it is to do what is best for them and for others. Now in verses seven through 11, John, extolling this letter, truth and love in the Christian's life thus far.

He has spoken about the importance of truth and love. Now in order to lay the foundation for his warning against false teachers. And so in John's time, the ancient world was just full of philosophers who traveled throughout the ancient world, salesmen, hucksters, preachers, speakers, some of them were legitimate, some of them were illegitimate. And all of them making their rounds in the ancient world. And so that was the technology of the day.

So the printing press at that time was about 1400 years in the future. Podcasts, the internet, social media is about 2000 years in the future from that day. If somebody wanted to make their truth known, or to make their product known to the public, you had to travel from city to city to do so and usually on foot. And this is how the gospel was preached throughout the Roman Empire. Men traveled from city to city, they had letters of recommendation from the leaders of the church that sent them out to preach the gospel in the Roman Empire. And they went out to do so and they were then often given an opportunity to share something at a church in the city, usually meeting in a home if a church did exist in that city. We'll finish up Second John next time on According to the Scriptures with Pastor Damian Kyle, a presentation of Calvary Chapel Modesto.