Loving One Another in Truth and Love Part 3: The Threat to It - 2 John 1:7-13

1:29And so he wants. His people loving one another in truth. You just read the whole letter. We'll be looking at verses 7 through 13. I want to read the whole letter just so that we are, again, these things are fresh in our mind and we get a picture of the whole. Verse 1, the elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth. For the sake of the truth, which 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 Son of the Father, in truth and love.

2:15I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which 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, that you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ. Does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he 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 and do not give him a greeting. For the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to face so that your joy may be made full. The children of your chosen sister greet you.

3:36We may remember in Matthew 24, 12, Jesus said these words: Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. As Jesus looked ahead from his vantage point, he saw a time where lawlessness was going to increase. And because of that lawlessness, many people would cease to love one another. A coldness, a chill coming over people with regards to one another. Fundamental problem in humanity is that we really do not know how to love. You look at this great planet Earth. In many ways, it's much like a gladiatorial. Arena, self-interest, self-competition, and all the spectators rejoicing in the carnage.

4:44Jesus wants us to become masters at loving one another. In fact, he said in John 13:34, he said, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another. And by this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And he went on in John 15:13 and said, Greater love has no one than this, than one lay down his life for his friends. Jesus came to show what love is like. It implicitly involves self-sacrifice for the benefit of another, regardless of the merits of the other.

5:29He came to show his disciples what God's love is, and then he commanded them, you go and love one another like this, and you set before the world the standard of what God has in mind for planet earth, what God has in mind for humanity that bears his image. It's to love one another with a sacrificial disposition, just like Christ had. What a standard. What a vision. Could you imagine? Planet Earth, where instead of becoming masters of taking advantage of one another, we become masters at laying down our life for the well-being of others?

6:12Sounds like paradise. Yes. Welcome to what God is doing in the earth. Welcome to what heaven is going to be like. God is the one who commands us to love one another, and He is the one who defines what that love is. We have many very confused ideas of what love is. We call many things love that, according to the Bible, are not God's love, right? It doesn't reflect the kind of love. Well, God wants love in the world, and the world needs us. The world needs the church to love one another, to show, put on display how we are to live. Let's face it, if the church isn't going to love one another, if our love grows cold to one another, what becomes of those living outside of the truth, those living in darkness? No, the love for the church is to be a light. The love for one another is to be such light.

7:28Well, that's really the threat. us. John wants us to love one another in truth. He loves in truth in love. We've looked at the theology of it, first couple of verses. We've also looked at the joy of it. There's a joy in loving one another in truth. Today we're going to look at the threat to it, the threat to it. And that is really what the main emphasis of this book is about, or this letter. And I want us to understand the main threat to loving one another so that we will always be a church that loves one another the way God wants. High ideal, right? But it's pretty simple. If we're going to follow Christ, we want to love like he did, and specifically, we want to love each other like he did. If anyone else, right? If no one else, we should, as a church, love one another as he did. That's what it means to follow him. Well, what John does in verses seven through the rest of the book, seven through 13, is he shows us that threat. He describes that threat, and then he shows us how to deal with that threat. So that's where we're going. We're going to look at the threat, and then we're going to look at how to defeat or deal with the threat. So in verses 7 and 8, he describes that threat. Verse 7, for many deceivers have gone out into the world, those that do not acknowledge Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist. The first Threat is that of being deceived. That of being deceived. Many deceivers, numerous deceivers have gone out. In fact, in Revelation 16:13, there's this picture of the dragon coming forth and the false prophet coming forth and the beast coming forth. They open their mouths and these deceiving spirits, like frogs, come out to go deceive the nations to so bring them to harm again.

9:34Lying spirits, deceptions that basically take on Christ. Let's oppose Christ. He is not God's ruler. Antichrist is. And that's where these deceiving spirits go out. But many deceivers here in verse 7 have gone into the world. And what is their fundamental lie? They do not acknowledge Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. Inevitably, the deception involves the person of Christ. Who is this man? Who is this individual that stepped down into history and walked on this earth? Who is he?

10:23Fundamental deception is to pervert your understanding of who he is. John, the disciples, clearly, this is God among us. He did only that which God can do. He spoke words only God could speak. He is God among us. He is Jesus. He is Messiah in the flesh. He is Jesus the Messiah in the flesh. He has come. It's interesting to note the verb here. It says they do not acknowledge, that is, they are not confessing, they are not affirming. That's the problem with these lying spirits, these who have captivated teachers who are going around masquerading as teachers of the gospel when they really are not. The fundamental denial is that they do not affirm that Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, as coming in the flesh. The word is coming, is coming, not has come, but is coming. It's the present verb.

11:43He is coming in the flesh. Listen, if you deny that he came in the flesh, guess what? You deny that he's coming in the flesh. Fundamental way, if you say, well, that really wasn't God in the flesh, that really wasn't the Messiah in the flesh, then you're not looking for that. Messiah to come in the future, right? But John's very clearly, he has come. He is coming because God took upon himself flesh and he never put it aside.

12:14Christ, the God-man, is, was, is, and is to come. There's a lot of late century, late first century perversions to who Christ was. There were many who just couldn't go with where the disciples went in terms of understanding Christ. And so there was a lot of these false teachings that started surfacing at the end of the first century, and the first three centuries are going to be dealt with, are going to be spent dealing with the person of Christ largely. Theology proper and Christology proper. Who is God and who is Christ? There is a certain teacher named Cyrinthus that Irenaeus writes about. He taught that Christ descended upon Jesus. So you've got Jesus and then Christ descended upon him on his baptism. So that Christ himself was spirit, not flesh and blood, but spirit. And so Christ descended upon. Jesus, I guess the two of them went around explaining who the father was, and then just before he crucified, was crucified, Christ took off. See you, Jesus.

13:46What does that do? Then all of a sudden, we don't have a Christ who died for us, do we? We don't have a Messiah that laid down his life for us, and we're asked to lay down our lives for him, right? You can see how perverting that understanding, how it all of a sudden changes everything. There's another Basilides, he said these things, or Irenaeus says this about him, or what he was teaching. Open quote: The Father sent his firstborn, who is called the Christ. He appeared on earth as a man and performed miracles. He did not suffer, but a certain Simon of Cyrene was compelled to carry his cross for him. And this Simon was transformed by Jesus so that he was thought to be Jesus himself and was crucified through ignorance and error. Jesus, however, took the form of Simon and stood by, laughing at them.

14:51Yes, thank you. It should cause you to choke, right? Yes. What kind of a picture of Christ is this? One Who is content to let an innocent bystander carry his cross, be crucified, and then laugh at him? What a perverted view of Christ. Now, keep in mind, this is the same Christ that tells us to love one another as he did. Makes a very big difference, doesn't it? Your view of Christ really impacts how we are to relate to one another.

15:28If Christ didn't die for his people, guess what? Should we? If Christ stood by laughing as others took his place, if Christ stood by laughing in deception, no wonder. Controversy in the first century, right? No wonder we had these counsels. But to degrade the person of Christ is to degrade the command to love one another like he loved. That's the threat. If you are deceived in who Christ is, you will be deceived. You will not be able to love in truth. Yeah, truth. Love by necessity emanates from the God of love.

16:21Truth as he really is. Love is connected to an eternal reality, an eternal purpose. Person, eternal being. So, an attack on truth is inevitably an attack on the command to love in truth. And that's what John is dealing with. So, the first threat is that of being deceived. Second element of this threat is losing ground, losing ground, the threat of losing ground. Look at verse 8. Watch yourselves that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Watch yourselves. First command in this book: watch yourselves, be aware.

17:11Y'all be watching yourselves. That's the plural. Y'all, pay attention. This involves a church. He has in mind a church. Y'all be careful. You can lose ground two ways. The first way you can lose ground is by losing what others have accomplished. John is concerned here. See, watch yourselves that you do not lose what we have accomplished. The apostles, Christ who died, Christ who came, died, rose again, and commissioned his disciples, trained his disciples, sent them out. The church in Asia Minor didn't just happen. In a vacuum. It didn't just magically appear. There were sacrifices that were made. And those churches that were established were the works, the work, the effort of the Spirit of God through the people of God.

18:17And now, what John is saying is like: watch yourselves. Don't be welcoming in of these doctrines that are destroying the person of Christ. Because when they destroy the person of Christ, they inevitably destroy the church of Christ. Listen, even this church here is built upon the sacrifices of others. And we're always just a short way away from losing it all. The moment we start turning this pulpit, start turning our thinking away from the Christ to scripture, and start entertaining words that deny his very fundamental being of who he is, we destroy the work.

19:20It's just like freedom in the United States. By neglecting the duties that come with being a free society, we can easily lose what others. Others have accomplished. And it has come at a high, high price. It's taught a song growing up: freedom isn't free. You have to pay the price. You have to sacrifice for your liberty. Well, this is the fundamental issue involved in what we call institutional drift. You can look across our land, you can see universities, colleges, mission boards, and entire denominations and churches that have lost what had been at once accomplished because they started entertaining notions that were absolutely inconsistent with the Christ revealed in Scripture. You can't just say, oh, Christ rose spiritually.

20:21You cannot deny the resurrection without absolutely undercutting yourself, detaching yourself completely from the Christ revealed in Scripture. And when institutions, universities, no matter how great, or denominations, no matter how great they once were, when you start entertaining notions that diminish the person of Christ, you destroy the work. There's a second way of, sorry, losing ground, and that's the loss of reward. Look back. Verse 8, but watch yourselves that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. There is a reward for those who fight the good fight. And what is that reward? Joy in the presence of Christ when he is revealed. There is going to be such a celebration, and there is going to be such a celebration for those who have fought the good fight.

21:29But if you have destroyed, if you have inadvertently been part of a machine that has destroyed the work of Christ, you will not be able to rejoice as much. It will be, but praise God, he keeps us. It's a proof of our faith. Such a celebration awaits. Let me keep going. So, after describing the threat, John tells us how to defeat it. There's a real threat. There's a threat of you being deceived. There's a threat of us being deceived here. There's a threat of us losing ground, losing what has been accomplished, and losing future reward, joy in the presence. So, how do we deal with that? How do we defeat that? Well, that's what John talks about next: how we defeat the threat.

22:31But fundamentally, for the church to defeat the threat, the church has to assure itself that Antichrist deception is not propagated, right? The one way to defeat the threat, very simple. Don't let Antichrist theology infiltrate your ranks. Very simple. That's how you defeat it. So, how do you do that? Well, first you have to identify who the false teachers are, and then you have to respond appropriately. John tells us how to do both. He gives us a simple test, and then he follows it with a simple instruction. That's how you defeat the threat. Look back at verse 9. There's a simple test. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. It's very simple. The one remaining under the teaching of Christ is the one who has God, the teaching of Christ. You remember that whole John 15 is Jesus said in verse 4, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he Is thrown away as the branch and dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. Teaching of Christ. You remain in my love if you do what I command. Just as Christ remained in the Father's love by doing what His Father commanded him.

24:21So notice, look back. The one who abides in the teaching, the teaching of Christ. Very simple. If you're going to be a follower of Christ, guess what you're going to embrace? The teaching of Christ. Very simple. Jesus claimed to be God, said he was God. He taught us, I am God in the flesh. He said, I have showed that to you. I have witnessed to you through words, through deeds, the scriptures. I've done things that only God can do. He taught us he is God in the flesh. He received worship and he told us how to respond to him as such. Yes, he claims for him to do so. That's what a loving parent does. What's good for their children? It's the best they can, anyway. But Christ, being perfect, told us about God. He showed us God. Yeah, God has a unique son. And the very simple test is that those who do not abide in the teaching of Christ do not have God, period.

25:30Simple test. He has a son, which the Judaism of John's day rejected. Islam rejects the father-son relationship. Even today, upon the temple mount in Jerusalem, in the Alex, in the dome of the rock, there is a part of the Quran that says, Far be it for God to have a son. But it's not just Islam that rejects this father-son, it's oneness, Pentecostalism, it's Jehovah's Witnesses, and so many others. There is a connection, God has walked among us. You relate to Christ and honor Christ as you would honor the Father. That's what the Father expects, because that is the Father's revelation of Himself to us.

26:37Simple instruction in light of the simple test. Verse 10: If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deed. Verse 10, it says this teaching. This teaching refers back to what John has just said in verse 9. The one, the teaching is that one must abide in the teaching of Christ to truly be of him. That's the teaching John's talking about.

27:17The one, an individual, very simple. If I'm telling you, here's the teaching: listen, the one who is abiding in Christ's teaching is the one who has God. That's the teaching. The one who doesn't abide in Christ's teaching does not have God. If a person doesn't bring that teaching to you, do not receive him into your house. This one does not abide. The one who does not abide does not have God. Do not bring him into your home.

27:51Those who, there's going to be many false teachers coming. You don't have the highly developed denominationalisms and confession, that first century. So somebody shows up at your house. Somebody shows up in the church, comes into the church. You've got these false teachers. Guess who's going to be sympathetic to the teachings of Christ? The church. And inadvertently, in their kindness, church, oh, you're a Christian. So am I. Come on in. Come on in. From one primary, and ultimately from one primary source, Antichrist, the one who is ultimately opposed to Christ.

28:30Do not give them a greeting. And the idea is: do not be happy to see, do not bring them in, do not encourage them by giving them lodging and so participating that way. And certainly, do not give them a platform to share or disseminate their false teaching. I don't think it's necessarily saying that if a Jehovah's Witness comes up and knocks on your door, that you can't meet him at the door and talk to him about and try to cordially talk to him about the things of Christ. I don't think that's exactly what he's, and there may be implications for that, but what he is specifically trying to get across is: don't encourage this, don't participate, don't be so hospitable that you inadvertently are supporting their work.

29:27So, the emphasis isn't upon being rude, but discouraging the enterprise. They have no place to lodge. If they have no platform within the church, they cannot propagate their error. He's literally saying, Do not get excited to see such people and welcome them into house. Notice your word says your house may very well be the house. Do not welcome them into the assembly. I remember years ago, I was a little boy, I was invited to a birthday party. I think I've told you this story. I was a birthday party, and the parents put on this birthday party in this national park. It was a very nice place, big, long, sprawling, and all kinds of good things to do out there. And the highlight of the whole event was to have a treasure hunt. And they mapped out this treasure map, and we were all to read it and go find the treasure. And we were to stay together as a group. And so we went off looking for this treasure. And after a little while of meandering around, I didn't have the map, wasn't really part of the one reading it. And I noticed that some of the parents were looking out. They were kind of behind the trees watching us. And they were looking. And something in me just triggered and said, ah, I know where the treasure is. Well, what they were probably doing is making sure we didn't get eaten by a bear or something. So they're probably looking out, and I think they're trying to keep us from the treasure. So what I do is I tell my friend, his name was Danny, I think I know where the treasure is. It's that way. Even though everybody's going that way, we're going that way. And so we took off in a completely opposite direction. Well, after a long while of walking, we're completely cut off. We're in this forest. And nighttime is starting to set in. I said, Well, I guess we better go back. Meanwhile, they've sent out a search party. Parents are frantic. Well, we've lost a couple of them. And we come back up the trail, and there's these people running out with this panic look. Where have you guys been? And I see the van drive away of all the other kids. They drove off. And so we missed the treasure. They found the treasure.

31:57Then they all took off. We got put in another car and we got taken straight home. The point is, my friend Danny lost his treasure because he was following the wrong guy, and that was me. He lost his reward, right? Because he inadvertently went along with somebody who was completely off course. And if you deny, God Himself sent His Son, His Messiah, and He took upon flesh. His name is Jesus. He laid down His life for us, King, crucified for us. When you get off of that, you miss the reality, and you will miss treasure.

33:00And all the blessings that come with being in Christ. Those who get off of that teaching of Christ and those institutions and those churches end up destroying the very work the apostles set out to establish. So, what do you do? Do not encourage such enterprise. So, we've looked at the threat described, we've looked at the threat defeated. Now, I want you to see the importance of dealing with this threat. John 12, verse 12: Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to face so that your joy may be made full. The children of your chosen sister greet you. John had many things to write, had probably one page of papyrus, many things he wanted to write, but guess what?

34:07He only wrote about this one thing because it was most pressing, very important that we do not lose sight of the Christ of Scripture and who he is. One observation, second part of verse 12: I had hoped to come to you and speak face to face, literally. Jaw to jaw, mouth to mouth. I wanted to come. I will hope to come soon. I am hoping that I'll be able to come and speak face to face so that your joy may be full.

34:42There's a certain kind of joy in the physical presence of one another. As we speak about the glories of Christ, as we sing about the glories of Christ, as we share with one another what Christ and what God is doing in our lives, there is a joy that gets to be filled up. Apart from that, it's lacking. Also, we've walked through 2 John, loving one another in truth. There's a theology behind it, there's a joy of it, and there's a threat to it.

35:26Our times are certainly filled by growing lawlessness, right? I think we see it all around. And the threat of the growing lawlessness is that love grows cold. In fact, some of the thing is not just hostility to those we're called to love, but sometimes it manifests itself in isolation. Let me go off into the woods, do my own thing, and detach. That's the idea. Opposite of what love does. Love seeks to sacrifice for the well-being of another, regardless of how much they deserve it. That's what love's about. It's based in truth because it's eternally connected to the person of truth, the person who loves.

36:22And the threat is that if the church ceases to love one another in truth, how is the world going to know? How is the world going to know? Now, more than ever, the world needs to know how to understand God's love. But how? Who's going to teach them? There's a man by the name of Telemachus, Christian, monk from the East. He came to Rome and he was absolutely horrified by what was happening in the Gladiator Games. So inconsistent with how God intends for man to live.

37:11And really, we've kind of reduced so much of this world to one big competition between peoples. For hundreds of years, the gladiator games were a place of carnage and celebration in that carnage. No respect for life, no love for life. A celebration. When life was taken. And this characterized the games for hundreds of years until the proclamation of Christ was heard in the Roman Empire, until that light that began in Galilee reached through the Roman Empire. And this man by the name of Telemachus, in the midst of a gladiator game in the Roman stadium, got up, put a stop to it publicly.

38:09He was probably stabbed first and then stoned to death by the crowd, or by some in the crowd. It's conflicting, or maybe collaborating reports. It's easy to understand him being stabbed in that conflict. And it's also easy to understand that many would be many of those who lost their game would get up and stone him. But that event did something. The emperor, Honoris, was impressed and moved to end the games. That day, the crowd left in silence.

39:00And that marked the end of the gladiator games because somebody was bold enough to stand up there and say, this is not what God has. This is not at all the kind of love that God expects for there to be between humanity. Somebody needs to tell the world, don't they? Somebody needs to put God's love on display so that they can understand what being made in the image of God is really like and what loving like God is really like.

39:42What a high calling the church has. Don't fail to connect that God has high purposes for you loving the person next to you. Husbands, love your wife like this. Wives, love your husbands, children. Brothers, love sisters. Sisters, love brothers. Friends, love friends. Church, it's a high calling. It's what the world needs. I'm afraid we could get sidetracked because lawlessness increases. And our heart starts to grow icy. It's costly to love. It involves crosses, lots of crosses. But that's the nature of love.

40:41And that's what this world needs to see. Welcome to your high calling. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for the truth that you've given us in these words. Father, we thank you for the privilege of the high calling of loving one another as you loved us. What a calling. Forgive us, Father, where we have so been distracted, where we have been so taken with ourselves so as to elevate ourselves as the one to be pleased. And therein, Father, is our base of our covetousness, of our stealing, of our desires, of our using other people. Forgive us, Father. Forgive us for not believing in you, for believing your word, for believing your son, for believing and trusting in you. Father, your ways are best and they are good. Forgive us.

41:45Truly help us to love one another as you commanded. In Christ's name, amen.