October 17 – 2 John
Dear Lord God, we come before You in worship and praise, for You are the orchestrator of Your creation. Be with us as we spend time with You, and guide us to what You want to show us.
What a mysterious greeting in this second letter. Scholars believe this was written very late in John’s life, around AD 90. So, perhaps the persecutions were so intense that greetings had to be phrased in sort of a code? I don’t know, but let’s ask John when we get to Heaven. In any case, he keeps this little letter short, hoping he can visit in person soon and talk more deeply about two subjects that are at the forefront of his mind: love and truth. He reiterates his theme that we are to love one another and show our love for God by our obedience to Him. However, he wants us to walk in the truth. If people enter our church and start teaching that Jesus wasn’t really a man at all (an early heresy called Docetism per Charles Swindoll) but only appeared to be, we need to stop them. We don’t let a false idea of love make us pretend to agree with people who are teaching falsehoods. Real love for God and others means protecting the church from falsehoods about who Jesus is. A false kind of love would be to pretend that you were interested in this false doctrine just to “be nice,” and that would encourage it, leading people astray. Oh, how careful we need to be when it comes to “theories” about Jesus. John was Jesus’ friend. He knew Jesus was really human and really God. Let’s not walk away from that foundational truth about our Savior, no matter what.
My verse: 2 John 3, “Grace, mercy, and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ – The Son of the Father – will continue to be with us who live in truth and love.”
My response: Help me, Lord, to live in truth and love in all I do. Help me not to fudge the truth to “be nice” and help me to continue to love deeply as well. How thankful I am that You pour out Your grace, mercy, and deep, rich peace on me each and every day as I seek You. I need you, Lord.
What’s next?
As the Spirit leads, share what He has laid on your heart in the comment section below. Then join us again tomorrow for the next commentary.
