2 John – New International Version

1 The elder,

To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth— ² because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

³ Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.

⁴ It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. ⁵ And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. ⁶ And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

⁷ I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. ⁸ Watch out that you do not lose what we^[a] have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. ⁹ Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. ¹¹ Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.

¹² I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

¹³ The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings.

 

First Impression?

1 John, only shorter was my answer. Others had truth, love, sharing, a big fat “I don’t know”, and teach your kids.

Who does the lady chosen by God represent?

Every individual believer.

Who do her children represent?

Everyone the believer ever helps to accept Christ.

Somebody on Sunday mentioned seeing everyone we love in heaven. I had a favorite song in college about reaching heaven to find a line of everyone who you helped get there ready to thank you for doing so. What is your Biblical understanding of how our loving relationships here on earth relate to the rewards we will receive in heaven?

I have a pet peeve about giving someone a false hope about what heaven or the future on earth is about. From the rapture being after the tribulation to not seeing loved ones in heaven who did not get there or simply being overwhelmed by the awesomeness of God those other relationships do not retain meaning.

I now want to believe that the relationships we build here on earth are part of our reward being laid up in heaven. I have not studied this, but I want it to be true.

Grace, mercy, and peace …with us in truth and love. Receiving what we do not deserve, not receiving what we do deserve, and rest in God combined with the truth of Jesus and God’s love for us. When we have these, what should our life be like?

When I read this, I want the troubles of the world to fade away and my only focus be on loving others. But I know I have to work while here, so how to balance the two.

One of my group shared a struggle with understanding peace amidst suffering. Another discussed the need for humility and surrender. Another said Billy Graham and we discussed how he did more because he relied on Jesus to do it and not himself.

John talks about joy in finding the love of God in the disciples of one of his disciples. Has anyone yet experienced this? What did it push you to do?

I had not thought of this until now, but I recognize this when seeing the kids of my classmates from when I was teaching Couples without Kids and seeing how well they turned out. It is not pride, but joy. It pushes me to keep going.

Love. This is the mechanism that we have before us to make disciples. How is this different from the methods you have seen used by people to make disciples?

I read something about the ability to influence that we have over others in reference to disciple making. I think the referenced mentioned the numbers of five thousand, twelve, and three for Christ. We can love three very well. We can love twelve pretty well. We can love five thousand only as a group. We need to choose how to invest our time to love in those around us.

In my guilt we talked a lot about how fear and guilt is used. Hell fire and brimstone scare pretty much every sane individual, but with out love, even those are only a gonging symbol. (I spelled this way on purpose.)

Deceivers. John identifies deceivers as those who deny Christ came in the flesh. He teaches that they are to not be welcome nor taken into your house. How do we differentiate the command to love and the command to not welcome deceivers?

In my mind, this is like letting a Muslim choir member stay in your house for an evangelism tour. I can love on the person, but I cannot support any thing not Christ centered. Discern through prayer and the lead of the Holy Spirit.

My printer did not print these two for use with my group. 

John wants to visit his old disciples. How do you experience this want and how do you discern who to invest in?

I want to visit them all, but I mostly do not visit any of them. I am conflicted.

How does the sentiment of the children of your sister, who is chosen by God, apply to those in your life?

God has chosen to allow us to be his children. Therefore, He has picked our brothers and sisters for us based on His wants, not ours. Even more so, he has chosen the fields for each of us separately and which of those come to accept Christ is well beyond our ability to know. Therefore, our family in Christ stretches out in a pattern than only He knows and our job is to love those in it and seek to follow our paths to expand it.

 

So in summary, each of us is called by God to follow Christ and to love Him enough to use His love to share the knowledge of this gift with others and whatever the rewards in heaven, we are to build loving relationships here on earth for the benefit of others on Christ’s behalf.