Do take up your Bibles and turn with me to 2 John. You can find that on page 1025 in the pew Bibles. We’ve worked our way through 1 John and we’ll, Lord willing, look at 2 John tonight and 3 John next week. Tonight we’re at 2 John. We’ll look at the whole letter together. You may have heard it said before, some version of the quote, “If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter.” All the usual suspects are credited with having said that – Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin. But actually, it likely originated with the 17th century French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal. In a collection of his letters from 1657, he made a comment that, translated from French into English, says something like this – “I have made this letter longer than usual because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” What Pascal was saying, what others have said with similar sentiments over the years, is that a well-crafted, careful argument that is brief will take a longer time to prepare. It will take a longer time to write. In a short letter, in a short speech, every word matters. There is a deliberateness to a short message.
But not always. And sometimes a short message is short because it has to be. Sometimes a message is brief because the matter is so urgent and more explanation can come later. You’re familiar with these kinds of things. It’s probably every week that I get an email from a Pastor David Strain saying that he is in an urgent meeting and needs me to respond to his email immediately. Of course it’s spam! But we also are familiar with things like, maybe it’s a phone call, it says, “I’m done with my meeting. I’ll tell you more later, but can I pick up so-and-so from class on my way home?” Or maybe it’s a text and you say, “I’m on the phone with the contractor. Can we meet together at the house in 20 minutes?” Something that has to be done quickly, urgently.
Well, that’s sort of what we see in 2 John. Sometimes a short message is short because it has to be, because there is a sense of urgency; there is something that needs to be communicated right now and more information, more instruction will follow. Second John is like that. It’s a short letter. It’s one of the shortest books in the Bible, but John has an urgent warning about the danger of false teachers and deceivers and he wants to make this message clear, to get it across as soon as possible, while also planning in the near future to come and to visit them so that he can speak face to face and give more information. Here’s what verse 12 says before we look at the letter in whole. Verse 12 says, “Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use pen and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete.” You see the problem? It demands a full response, but for now, for now we’ll see what this letter has to say to us.
We’ll see two things, Lord willing, from this letter. Number one – by heresies distressed. And number two – saints their watch are keeping. That will be our outline for tonight. By heresies distressed. And saints our watch are keeping. Before we read, let’s pray and ask God’s blessing.
Our Father, as we bow before You in prayer, as we open up Your Word, we ask that You would give us a sense of that same urgency with which this letter was written, an urgency to hear Your Word and to respond as You call us to do. None of us would see the danger, none of us would see the urgency unless Your Spirit made it clear to us. And so I pray that Your Spirit would work in us to take away the blinders and the distractions, that Your Holy Spirit would work in us, and through Your Word would help us see Jesus and His all sufficiency, His supremacy, and that we would live our lives to glorify and honor Him. I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Second John, beginning in verse 1:
“The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
The children of your elect sister greet you.”
The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word of our God endures forever.
First, by heresies distressed. And let’s start in the middle in verse 7. “For. For many deceivers have gone out into the world.” And that little word, that little word “for” or “because,” it really tells us the reason that John is writing this letter. Verse 7 is like the hinge of the letter. It’s right in the middle. Basically everything turns on the issue that’s described in this verse. The first six verses anticipate what verse 7 says, and then the last six verses give the response that verse 7 requires. The matter at hand is the problem of false teachers. It’s the problem of error and divisiveness. It’s a real threat to this church and they cannot allow it to get a foothold. They cannot even allow it to gain a hearing among them. There is an urgency about this letter. This is a message that is marked as high priority. It’s time sensitive. It requires immediate attention. But who’s it for? Who is this message written to?
Well, you’ll notice that both the writer and the recipients of this letter are unclear. Verse 1 tells us that it’s from “the elder” and written to “the elect lady and her children.” We’re not actually told that the apostle John is the writer of this letter, but you can probably tell as we’ve read through it and as we have studied 1 John that there are a number of links between this letter and 1 John and also the gospel of John – truth and love. Joy complete. Love one another. Abide in Christ. Beware of the antichrist. All of those are parallels with what we have already seen from the apostle John. And early church tradition attributes these three letters to the apostle John.
Now what about “the elect lady”? Most likely, “the elect lady and her children” refers to a church. It refers to a local congregation, if for no other reason you notice at the very end of the letter in verse 13 the way it ends with a greeting from “the children of your elect sister.” That seems more like a greeting from a sister congregation rather than a greeting from an actual literal sister. But in many ways the message is the same, isn’t it? And the local church, the local church and individual Christians need to look out for deceivers. The local church and individual Christians need to press on faithfully in the Christian life, and we do too.
Back in the 1850s there was an Anglican bishop in South Africa, and he wrote some things to question the reliability of the Bible. He wrote some things, even, to defend the practice of polygamy. And as a consequence, the church in South Africa split over his teaching. Well back in England, there was an Anglican clergyman named Samuel Stone, and in response to this controversy, in response to the splitting of the church in South Africa, he wrote a collection of hymns. They are called, “Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of The Apostles’ Creed.” They were written to defend orthodoxy. Now one of those hymns is one that we still sing on a regular basis. It’s, “The Church’s One Foundation.” One of the lines directly addressed the problems that had arisen in the church at that time. He writes, “Though with a scornful wonder, men see her sore oppressed. By schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed.” And that’s the same thing that John is combatting in 2 John verse 7. He says, “Many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.” What he’s doing is he is warning the church, he’s warning the church about anyone, anything that denies the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Anything that denies that God became man. Anything that denies that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures. Anything that denies Jesus’ death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin. Anything that denies Jesus as the only way to know God and to know His blessing. In other words, what John is doing is he is warning the church about anything that is literally antichrist. Anything that is against the supremacy of Jesus Christ. “Such a one,” he says, “Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”
But you know it doesn’t have to be obvious and blatant heresy, does it? It doesn’t have to be obvious and blatant false teaching to be deceiving and anti-Christian. It doesn’t have to be the teaching of secular humanism. It doesn’t have to be that of the new atheism or of liberal theology or Mormonism. It can be much more subtle than that. I recently stumbled upon an AI translator site, website, called “Anything Translate.” And it will translate some written text into a particular dialect or speech pattern, so not into another language necessarily but from English into another kind of English. So for example, in graduation season, you could take a normal commencement speech, put it into the translator, and it will give you a Gen-Z slang commencement address. Now I would read some of that as an example to you, but that would be cring! What I did do was take a familiar Bible verse – Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” – and I put it in to translate into some different speaking styles. Here was one of the translations. “We all face moments where we feel we haven’t lived up to our highest selves. It’s okay to acknowledge these feelings. They remind us of our capacity for growth and connection to something greater.” That was the “Therapy Translator.” Or how about this, “They, they have orchestrated a grand deception and humanity has succumbed to their orchestrated flaws, straying from the divine blueprint that we are told exists.” That’s the “Conspiracy Translator.”
And there’s others that we could go on and on about that, but isn’t this true? This is so often the air that we breathe. Isn’t this so often the messages that we hear and we take in and it shows us, these little silly translators show us some of the ways, some of the subtle ways that our language can change; some of the subtle ways in which the dangers of sin and the sufficiency of Christ can be undermined in so much of our modern speech and practice, so much so that the Gospel is at stake. Second John is a warning. Second John is a warning against the outright heresies and the watered down teaching that have always threatened the church. They have always threatened the church, the body of Christ. “By schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed.” But how does the rest of the song, the line go? “Yet saints their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, ‘How long?’ Soon the night of weeping, shall be the morn of song.” I think if you hear the words to “The Church’s One Foundation,” it certainly sounds as if Samuel Stone is pulling from 2 John as he is addressing these issues that have come up in the church.
So the second thing for us to see, not only “by heresies distressed,” but “saints their watch are keeping.” Here’s what John is saying. Here’s what he’s saying to combat and to counter the false teachers and their ways. Basically two things. He’s saying “walk in truth and love” and “watch yourself and the congregation.” These are two sides of the Christian life. One is proactive and one is protective. One is defensive and the other is offensive. They are “watch” and “walk.” “Walk” and “watch.”
First – walk. Walk in truth and love. Look at verse 4. It says, “I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth.” Verse 5 and 6 – love one another. He says, “this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.” How should a Christian walk? How are we to walk? We are to walk in truth and love. I can’t help but think about the letter to the church in Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2. You remember that letter that the church in Ephesus, they knew the truth, they were strong in their doctrine, and the letter says to them in Revelation 2, “I know your credentials.” Jesus is saying, “I know that you have tested those that call themselves apostles and are not and have found them to be false.” They have zero tolerance for false teaching and error. But what was their problem? Their problem was a lack of love. Revelation 2:3 says, “But this I have against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Their problem, you see, was truth without love. And what did Jesus do? Jesus called them to repent because truth and love always go together. Truth and love have to go together.
I talked to someone recently who was retired and he was reflecting back on his career and his relationships. You know what he said? He said that he had plenty of ideas about what could be done better at work. He said he had strong opinions about what he thought was right to do for the company. And nobody could stand being around him. And too often we separate them, don’t we? We separate truth and love. And some people think of themselves as being a truth person who says the hard things, who makes tough decisions, who’s able to get things done, but don’t we find all too often that they do it by bullying and manipulation. And on the other side, there are those who are all love. They want everybody to be happy, they want to try to keep the peace no matter what, no matter what the cost is, and yet too often we find that it’s chaotic and self-indulgent.
But really, neither is right. Neither is right. And really, any separation of truth from love or love from truth, it’s actually a distortion of both truth and love. The Christian walks with a truthful, obedient love. The Christian walks with a loving and humble truth because that’s the way of Jesus. That’s the way of the cross. And at the cross, sin wasn’t swept under the rug. The law was not dismissed with a wink. No, righteousness, justice, the wrath of God demands the cross. Truth was upheld at the cross. But how did Jesus most fully demonstrate His power? How did Jesus gain the victory over sin and death? It was by not reviling when He was reviled. It was by not staking a claim to His rights, but He took the form of a servant. He took the form of a slave even and He gave Himself as the sacrificial Lamb on the cross. And see, what happened at the cross is, that’s where justice and mercy meet. The cross is where truth and love are on display in the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. How do we do it? How do we promote the message about Jesus? How do we promote the message about the cross? It’s by living a cross-shaped life. It’s by walking in truth and love. That means actively, intentionally in how you treat one another and in how you speak to each other, in how you carry out your calling, walking together, holding together truth and love. And it means not stopping. It means all the time, against your own natural instincts, against the schemes and the strategies of the world around us and for the rest of your lives. Truth and love. Love and truth. Together.
And I wonder, how much conflict, how much drama – think about it. Maybe it’s something that is going on right now in your lives. How much does it not call for something so simple and countercultural as holding together and walking in truth and love? He has told you. He has told you what is good. “And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.” That’s what we read in Micah 6:8. That’s the first thing. The first thing in guarding against deceptive messages and divisive schemes is to walk, to move forward in truth and love.
The second is to watch. Watch yourself and the congregation. Verse 8, “Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.” Here’s what Jesus said. He said, “Watch, watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Sometimes I have a recurring dream, I guess. It’s ridiculous really. It’s a preacher’s dream. Maybe you have similar dreams in your own contexts, but it’s nothing complicated. Usually it’s something like I forgot my tie or I can’t get my jacket on or I’ve forgotten my sermon notes and the service is just about to start. I know, that’s too much of my head space than you wanted to know! But it’s about not being prepared. It’s about not being ready when the time comes.
Jesus told a parable about that. It’s the parable of the ten virgins or the ten maidens. They went out to meet the bridegroom, and five of them were wise, five of them were foolish. The wise ones took extra oil for their lamps, but the foolish ones did not. And what happened? When the bridegroom came, the foolish virgins were not ready. They had gone out and yet they didn’t have oil. Their lamps had gone out and they were out of oil. And when they were out refilling their lamps, they missed the marriage feast completely. They weren’t prepared. They weren’t ready. “Watch,” Jesus says, “Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Now, right now is the time to watch. It’s the time to watch in such a way that looks out for anything that might numb us to spiritual dangers and temptations. To watch out for anything that distracts us from the blessings of the kingdom of God. To watch out for anything that dishonors Jesus. Watch out in such a way that the deceivers and the false teachers are not even welcomed into our midst or given a greeting. Verse 9 and 10 say that, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring the teaching of Christ, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.”
What’s that talking about? What these verses are probably talking is what was the normal ways of things in these days. Hospitality was a big deal, and travelers depended on the hospitality of others to open their homes when they needed a place to stay. But here’s the thing – churches also met in people’s homes, and to receive a false teacher into one’s home was to provide support, it was to lend a certain degree of respectability to their destructive ministry. And to greet them – now think about what Paul writes. Paul writes multiple times, he talks about greeting one another with a holy kiss. Peter says to greet one another with the kiss of love. Sometimes we talk about extending the right hand of fellowship to someone. Well to do that to a false teacher, to a heretic, that would imply that that person is a brother and a fellow follower of Jesus Christ. That would be a stamp of approval in some way on their ministry and teaching. And to do that would put the entire church at risk. “Do not show them hospitality,” John says.
Could we not say in a week where much attention has been given to the pope, the Catholic Church would say, would confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, but as far as the sufficiency of His death and resurrection, not so much. That works are required. That a mediator is still necessary. A mediator like a priest or the pope. Be careful. Be careful what kind of attention. Be careful what kind of reception or even reverence we might afford someone like the pope. “Watch yourselves,” John is saying. “Watch yourselves.”
I’ll close with this. Alexander White, in a sermon on being watchful, he said this. “My brethren, it is time for you as John said to the elect lady and her children, to look to yourselves. You will not be saved in your sleep. You will not waken up at the last day and find yourselves saved by the grace of God and you not know it. Watch. Watch. What I say unto one I say unto all. Watch. Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. In Christ, in Christ’s name, look to yourself and watch yourself. Watch what it is that moves you to do this or that. Look to yourselves when you lie down and when you rise up, when you go out and when you come in, when you are in a society of men and when you are alone in your own heart. Look to yourself when men praise you. Look to yourself when men blame you. Look to yourself when you sit down to eat or drink.” And this is what he says at the end. He says, “Were you never told that every Christian man and woman, every truly and sincerely and genuinely Christian man and woman watches themselves? It is the chiefest and best mark that any person is a sincere and true Christian that he watches himself always.”
Watch yourself and the congregation. Walk in truth and love. “The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is His new creation, by water and the Word. From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride. With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.” What does John say in verse 7? “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”
Let’s pray.Father, we come before You. We pray that You would give us, give us a watchfulness in all that we do, and give us an activity, a moving forward in a walking in truth and love, that You would protect us from deception and error and from divisiveness. That You would give us a sense of unity, holiness, love for one another, that we might be witnesses to the beauty of Jesus Christ, to His sufficiency, to His supremacy, to all who see us. And we pray this in His name, amen.