Bible Passages I Haven't Heard Preached
No. 4: A New Commentary on II John
“You need to stop fighting amongst yourselves!” yelled my Mother to my sisters and me. Then the phone rang. She turned and picked up the phone. “Hello,” she said in a silky, velvety voice. We marveled at her dramatic shift of tone. She continued her upbeat, even jolly conversation with the person on the other end of the phone. We looked at each other in awe and walked back to our rooms.
Something similar to my mother’s shift in tone is happening with the letters of I, II, and III John. When we open the Bible to read these books we are like the friend on the other end of my mother’s phone conversation. We are expecting the usual upbeat and encouraging message. But instead of hearing John’s warm greeting to the church, we overhear him chiding the church as parents do their children.
“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. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.” -2 John 7,8
The elder’s “deceivers” and “antichrist” language strikes us as unnecessarily harsh. We haven’t been privy to the other side of the conversation so we don’t yet understand what has happened in this local faith community to cause such a message.
The challenge of understanding the other side of the conversation is common to all of the letters in the Bible. But in this case, the work seemed too much to many. In the debate over which letters to include in the Bible, key players didn’t have either II or III John on their lists. The great preacher of Constantinople, John Chrysostom (or “Golden Mouth”) wrote thousands of sermons in his lifetime. Yet he did not preach a single sermon in the Hagia Sophia on the two smaller letters of John. Nevertheless, both made it into the Bible because many found them useful in their journey with Jesus.
In our first post on I, II, and III John, we learned that these letters were written when Christianity had grown beyond a Jewish sect in Judea and Samaria and was taking its first steps toward the “ends of the earth.” The message of the faith was spread through itinerant ministers, people who would journey from their homes to other villages and cities to invite others to share the journey with Jesus. But this brought a challenge: these messengers were strangers, unknown to their audience.
The culture itself offered a solution. The ancient practice of hospitality continued to be a virtue during this time and was quickly adopted as a habit among followers of Jesus. This meant that, although the members of the churches did not know these strangers, they warmly welcomed them into their homes in the name of hospitality.
Verses in another letter (included in everyone’s list of documents to include in the Bible) encourage this virtue:
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” -Romans 12:12-13
But this virtue became a challenge to the elder’s churches when those who left the main congregation in I John,1 knowing very well that hospitality was a virtue in their culture, began using this practice to spread dissension to newer faith communities. The short note of II John was written with this difficulty in mind.
“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 – because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.” -2 John 1-3
This letter continues many themes from I John such as incarnation, sin and forgiveness, and love. But there is an increased emphasis on truth. The key question is how they continue in the way of Jesus, especially in terms of the virtue of hospitality, when people use that system to spread false teachings that differ dramatically from Jesus’ teaching. II John 8-11 places the truth before the virtue of hospitality.
Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 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. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.
In other words, when anyone comes teaching things that aren’t aligned with what they have been taught about Jesus, they should not offer them hospitality. Allowing them to stay in their homes only facilitates the spread of their false teaching. Instead, we should focus on holding firm to the truth of Christ and the fullness of the reward we have in him.
The message of II John should have solved the problem, correct? But it didn’t. Something else happens that requires another letter, even shorter than this one but no less important to these churches.
Next week we will look at that letter; III John.
We read about these people, whom the elder calls “deceivers” and antichrist,” in 1 John 2:19: “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”