Will you please turn to the second letter of John—the second epistle of John?
This is a very short letter, so I will read through it.
The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not I only, but also all they that know the truth;
for the truth’s sake which abideth in us, and it shall be with us for ever:
Grace, mercy, peace shall be with us, from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
I rejoice greatly that I have found certain of thy children walking in truth, even as we received commandment from the Father.
And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote to thee a new commandment, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
And this is love, that we should walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, even as ye heard from the beginning, that ye should walk in it.
For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
Look to yourselves, that ye lose not the things which we have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward.
Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son.
If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting:
for he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works.
Having many things to write unto you, I would not write them with paper and ink: but I hope to come unto you, and to speak face to face, that your joy may be made full.
The children of thine elect sister salute thee. Amen.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, as we continue in Thy presence, we just look to Thy Holy Spirit to reveal afresh to us Thy Word, that Thy Word may not be just letters to us, but may be light and spirit to us.
We do thank Thee for Thy Word. We thank Thee for the living Word. We thank Thee for Thy Holy Spirit. We just commit this time into Thy hands and ask Thee to grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
This second letter of John, together with the third letter of John, are the last two writings in the New Testament. Probably they were written around the year 95 A.D.; in other words, they were written at the closing of the first century.
These two letters are addressed to individuals. The second letter is addressed to an elect lady, and the third letter is addressed to the beloved Gaius—one to a lady and one to a gentleman.
Now, we know that the purpose of God is corporate in nature. In other words, what God is after is a body, a church, a bride, a house. It is corporate in nature.
But because of the failure of the mass, of the majority, God has to call individuals as overcomers of the church. Through these individual overcomers, or through a company of overcomers—those individuals who respond to God’s call—God is able to perform what He wants the whole church to do.
Now, we know that these writings of John are concerned with the principle of recovery. Therefore, you find, in line with the principle of recovery, that the second and third letters are addressed to individuals.
The writer does not give us his name. He only says, “The elder.”
Now, we know that the word elder basically means one who is older in age. Because of this, it is also applied to some people whom the Holy Spirit has set apart and appointed as elders of the church. In other words, because they are spiritually more advanced, they are put in responsibility over the assembly of the church.
Now, how is the word elder used here? Does it refer to a person who is older in age, or does it refer to one who is an elder in an official position in the church? There are different thoughts about it.
Now, I personally feel—and if you do not accept it, it is perfectly all right, because this is not Scripture, is it? It is just an explanation—I personally feel this cannot refer to elder officially.
In other words, when the writer calls himself “the elder,” he does not mean to tell us that he is the elder of a church. Why? Because an elder of the church has jurisdiction, or authority, only over the people in the local assembly where he is. His jurisdiction or authority does not extend beyond the local assembly.
But here you find this man writing to someone not in the same locality. He is writing to someone in another place, and he writes with authority. There is a certain authority that you can sense in that matter.
Because of this, I feel that the word elder is not used here in an official way, but rather in the more common way: an older person, a person advanced in age, wise and experienced, who has spiritual weight and a long history with the Lord.
He is writing to a lady, sharing with her some of his advice, encouragement, and warning. So, most likely, to me, “the elder” is not an official position but rather describes a more intimate relationship.
Most people believe that the writer of this letter is actually the apostle John. You know, this is one of the ways with John. In all his writings, you find that he does not mention his name, except in Revelation.
In the Gospel, you do not find his name. He simply says, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Yet everybody knows that the one whom the Lord loved is the apostle John, and he is actually the one who wrote the Gospel.
Now, in the first letter of John, you find that his name is not mentioned either. We say it is the first letter of John because it is universally accepted that the writer of this first letter is the apostle John.
You find such similarity between the Gospel and the epistle. They must have been written by the same person, because you have the same atmosphere, the same approach, the same conviction, the same words being used, and the same expressions. Everything tells us that it is the same person who wrote the Gospel and the first epistle.
Now, when you read the second and third letters, again you find that the second letter is so similar to the first letter. The atmosphere, the expression, and the emphasis are again the same. So most people believe that this second letter was written by the apostle John.
But you find that he does not say, “The apostle John writes to the elect lady.” He could write it that way, because he is an apostle. Instead, he just says, “The elder”—the old man. He writes to an elect lady.
You do see here the humility of this man John. You find that he has the humility of Christ in him.
You remember, when our Lord Jesus was on earth, He always called Himself the Son of Man. Now, He is the Son of God. If He called Himself the Son of God, that probably would give Him more dignity, because He is. Yet instead of calling Himself the Son of God, which He is, He calls Himself the Son of Man, in such deep humility.
This man John has the humility of Christ. So instead of using his spiritual authority as an apostle in writing, he writes as an older man, one who has received much from the Lord. So we do believe that the writer here is the apostle John.
Now, he writes to the elect lady. Who is this elect lady? Of course, there are all kinds of theories about it.
You know, the word lady in Greek is Kyria. Kyria is the feminine form of the word kyrios, which means lord or master. So this is the Greek form corresponding to the Hebrew name Martha, and Martha means mistress.
In those early days, this could have been a common name, just as some people are called Martha. You do find people who were called Kyria. It can be a common name, or it can be a title: a mistress, a lady, one of noble character, well known and respected by people.
Now, this is one interpretation. The other interpretation is that it can refer to a church, or to the church universal. Why? Because you remember in 1 Peter 5:13, Peter says, “She that is in Babylon, elect together with you, saluteth you.” When the apostle Peter uses that expression, he refers to the church in Babylon.
So some people think that this letter was probably written to a local church. The church, in a sense, is feminine in nature. Christ is the Man; the church is the woman. The church is the bride of Christ. Therefore, it can be applied to the church, either local or universal.
Now, we really do not know for sure whether this letter was written to a noble lady by the name of Kyria, or simply to a lady or mistress, or whether it was addressed to a local church or the church universal.
Someone said very well that the writer could easily tell us who he is, and he could easily tell us who the receiver of the letter is. But somehow he purposely, intentionally, holds back his own name and the name of the addressee.
There must be a reason for it. Probably it is because of the danger involved. If you reveal your identity, perhaps there would be danger, because there was persecution at that time. Therefore, the names are withheld.
But, of course, the addressee knows who the writer is. There would be no mistake as to who writes and who receives this letter.
So, brothers and sisters, even though we do not know for sure who wrote and who received it, we do know that it is Scripture. Whatever is in Scripture is written by the Spirit of God, and it is written to us. So we receive this from God as a letter to us individually, as well as corporately.
Now, in order to understand this matter, we have to reconstruct, as it were, the condition of the church in those days. Remember that this is toward the closing of the first century.
After the death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus, from the day of Pentecost to this point, you find probably Christians of the second generation and even the third generation.
Christianity had been on earth for a number of years. After the ascension of our Lord Jesus, within thirty-some years the Gospel had been preached from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Then you have another thirty-some years. So, most likely, the church at that time belonged to the second or third generation.
The first generation had come and gone. This old man who writes this letter belongs to the first generation, and he is still living. We know the apostle John was the last of the apostles to live. He lived to a very old age, into his nineties.
He belongs to the first generation, but he is writing to the second generation, or perhaps even the third generation.
You know what really happens? Usually, in the first generation, people have vision. In other words, they receive revelation directly from God.
They have no tradition to follow. They are pioneers of the heavenly way. They have received revelation from above, and in obedience to the heavenly vision, they lay down their lives. They pay a tremendous cost in order to be obedient to the vision and revelation that God has given them.
So everything with the first generation is living, real, fresh, vivid, and powerful.
But when it comes to the second generation, the vision is passed on to them. The second generation sees the vision and the revelation given to the first generation, but the vision becomes a tradition. They do not have that direct revelation from God; they receive it secondhand.
Outwardly, it appears to be the same thing. There seems to be no difference. But inwardly there is a great difference. The inward revelation is not there. The outward form is retained, but the inward reality is not there. Because of that, the testimony begins to weaken.
Now, the tradition may be a good tradition. It may be the right tradition. Even though it is orthodox, scriptural, and right, you find that something is missing there.
When you come to the third generation, you find that it becomes even less living than the second generation.
Unfortunately, this is usually the case. If you read church history, you find again and again that God makes a move. God gives a revelation, a recovery of His truth and of Himself, to some people. A generation rises up in response to what God has revealed, and there is such power and livingness there.
But then they hand it to the second generation and the third generation. You find that the outward vessel is there, but the inward life is missing.
So this was the situation at that time. Christianity had gone to the second and third generation. Persecutions came and went, but the real danger in the church at that time was the intrusion and advance of false teachings in the church.
When the inward reality is lessened, you find the intrusion of false teaching finds its way into the church. When the church is in the light of revelation and vision, when the church has spiritual reality and a living relationship with the Lord, false teachings find it very hard to enter and creep into the church.
But when the church itself is weakened and fellowship is confused, then this is the time that the enemy tries to infiltrate the church with all kinds of false teachings. Of course, this further weakens the testimony of the church.
We know the ministry of the apostle John is of a very special kind. Why? Because his ministry is a ministry of recovery.
Now, remember when he was called by the Lord: he was mending the nets. When Peter was called, Peter was casting the net.
In a sense, Peter was called by the Lord to cast the net, gathering all kinds of fish—all kinds of people, Jews and Gentiles—to gather them together and bring them into the church. That is the ministry of Peter.
But John’s ministry is of another kind. His work is mending the net. After the net has been used, you find holes in the net. The net needs to be mended and strengthened so that it can be used again.
That is the special ministry of the apostle John. It seems as though his ministry did not really begin until Peter was gone and Paul was gone.
Peter was the one who gathered people in, and Paul was the one who built them together. Then you find both Peter and Paul gone, and the ministry of John really begins. He is the one left to mend the net. He is trying to mend the holes and strengthen the net so that the testimony of Jesus may be restored.
In doing that kind of work, you find that he always leads us back to the beginning. He always leads us back to the fundamentals. He always leads us back to the essentials.
What is more basic, more fundamental, more essential, and more at the beginning than life?
So you find the ministry of John is a ministry of life. When everything seems to be going wrong, then this matter of life needs to be re-emphasized. That is the reason why he always goes back to the beginning: to life.
What is the church? The very beginning of the church is life, and this life has to continue on to the very end. If you take life away, then there is no church. You have the framework, but there is nothing in it and nothing to it.
Life. Fellowship. Fellowship is the fellowship of life. If there is life, there is bound to be fellowship. If there is no life, there is no fellowship.
That is the reason why, in the writings of the apostle John, he always leads us back to life and to fellowship.
The Gospel of John is the Gospel of life. The first epistle, second epistle, and third epistle concern fellowship. But fellowship is based upon life.
So he is trying to lead people back into what life really is and into what fellowship really is. When there is a problem in life, there will be a problem in fellowship.
At the time when he writes the second letter, there is confusion in this matter of fellowship. The believers at that time did not really know whom to fellowship with and whom to refuse fellowship, whom to receive and whom not to receive into fellowship.
Dear brothers and sisters, in a very real way, I think we have the same problem today. Among God’s people, we do not really understand what fellowship is. We do not really know whom we should receive into fellowship and whom we should reject. There is such confusion today.
You know, some people think that the organized church is church and the unorganized church is fellowship. You call mainline Christianity church, and you call the offshoot fellowship. Now, is that your concept of fellowship?
Or, even worse, some people think that fellowship is smaller than the church. In other words, in the church in Corinth, you have the Pauline fellowship, the Apollos fellowship, and the Petrine fellowship. Fellowship is smaller than the church.
Not at all.
Because we find that the word fellowship is actually the active expression of the church. In other words, the church is a fellowship, and the fellowship is the church. They are the same thing.
If it is a church, it is bound to be a fellowship. If it is a fellowship, it is a church.
There is only one church. There is only one fellowship.
The scope of the church is the sphere of fellowship. In other words, as large as the church is, so large is the fellowship of the saints. There is only one fellowship into which we are called.
Now, what is the church? The word ekklesia means called-out ones, gathered together. God has called us out of every nation, every tribe, every people, and every tongue. God has called us out—called-out ones—gathered together unto the name of the Lord Jesus.
At the same time, we are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. We are called to be the church of God, and we are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
What is this fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord? It is the fellowship of the Father and of the Son in the Spirit.
It is the fellowship of the apostles. In Acts 2:42, it says:
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
In other words, the fellowship of the apostles is none other than the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, is none other than the fellowship of the Father and of the Son in the Holy Spirit.
So you find that there is only one fellowship. The fellowship of the Father and the Son in the Spirit is extended to mankind. God has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, that we may share with Him what He is.
We are called into fellowship, and the word fellowship means having in common. Actually, it is the Lord who shares everything in common with us. We have nothing to share with Him. Whatever we are able to share later on is actually given to us by Him.
He is so gracious that He is willing to share everything with us. He is the Son of God, and yet, as the Son of God, He is willing to share His Word of life with us. He shares everything with us.
That is why we are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. There is only one fellowship.
In writing to this lady, the elder says, “I love you in truth.” This elderly man loved this lady and her children in the truth. He said, “Not only I love you, but all who know the truth love you—the truth that abides in us.”
As you read this short letter, you find two words that stand out. One is love; the other is truth. The word truth is used five times in this letter, and the word love is used four times.
This is a very short letter, only thirteen verses, and short verses too. Yet you find these two are the key words.
What the writer is trying to impress upon us in this matter of fellowship is that there are two principles governing its practice. These two principles are love and truth.
In other words, fellowship must be in love, and fellowship must be in truth.
You cannot have fellowship in truth and not in love. If you do that, you become very hard, harsh, cold, and exclusive.
Neither can you have fellowship in love but not in truth. That makes you very liberal, as if you are willing to embrace everybody; but your fellowship will become very loose and weak.
Fellowship must be in love and truth together. What God has joined together, let not man separate.
The problem is that we always separate these two. We think that if you have love, you cannot have truth; and if you have truth, you cannot have love.
For instance, if you have love, then you try to love everybody and love everything. You even love sin. You condone sin. You indulge people. Because you want love, you cannot discipline anybody or speak with anybody; you have to be so soft.
We think that if you have love, then you cannot have truth.
Then, if you want to keep the truth, we think you cannot have love. You have to stand for the truth, and if you stand for the truth, you have to fight for it. If you have to oppose somebody, you have to hurt somebody or step on somebody. If you want truth, you cannot have love.
Humanly speaking, it seems impossible. Either you are for truth or you are for love.
But, you know, the reason is that what you call love is not real love, and what you call truth is not real truth. That is the problem.
The word love that the apostle, or the elder, uses here is not philia. It is not friendship. It is not mere affection.
Naturally, we have what we call human affection. Human affection is a good thing. If you read Romans 1, “without natural affection” is one of the sins listed there. Some people have no human affection at all.
Even so, human affection and friendship are very limited. They are conditioned by circumstances.
Why do you strike up a friendship with somebody? Perhaps you have the same temperament or the same interests. You can talk. You like each other.
Why do you show affection? Because you find someone lovable—someone who does not rub against your grain but somehow fits with you. So you form a friendship and have a kind of affection for that person.
But this love here is not philia; it is agape. Agape is divine love. It is selfless love. It is love that comes from within and is never affected by circumstances.
God is love—not because we are lovable, not because there is something in us to love, but because He loves. No matter what you are or how you are, He loves you. Your condition does not change His love.
That word agape is that unselfish love, love that initiates, love that never changes. It is that love here.
We fight for the truth. In Christianity, you find that the fiercest fights are often over what people call truth, not over falsehood. Sometimes we do not even fight falsehood, but we fight over truth, and it is a fierce fight.
You can find it to such an extent that husband and wife will not talk to each other. There are certain areas in which husband and wife cannot meet together because they stand for different “truths.”
Now, what we call truth is often not truth. What we call truth is actually interpretation.
Truth is one, but there are many interpretations. We fight against each other because we think, “Now this is the truth.” Actually, it is your interpretation.
If it is truth, there is only one, and we are together. But if it is interpretation, then we differ. That is the reason why people are divided. Actually, they are not divided over truth.
What is the truth? Christ said, “I am the truth.” Is Christ divided? Of course not. Then why does it seem that truth divides us? It is our interpretations.
Brothers and sisters, what is the basis, the principle, of fellowship? The principles of fellowship are love and truth: the agape love, the love of God in us.
Because this love is in us, we love one another.
What is the truth? The truth is the commandment of God. What is the commandment of God? In 1 John 3:23, it says:
And this is His commandment, that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as He gave us commandment.
This is the truth. The truth is Christ. We believe in the Lord Jesus. We believe in His person and His work. Because we believe in Him, we keep this commandment: we love one another.
As the Father has loved Me, the Lord said, so have I loved you; abide ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love.
So you find that truth and love are not separated. Actually, truth and love are together. Fellowship is based on love and truth.
The writer tries to solve this confusion concerning fellowship. But when he writes, he begins with the positive side.
You know, oftentimes when you try to fight against a heresy or falsehood, you become so involved with the negative that you lose your own ground. So you find in Scripture that it is invariably this way: whenever you are going to fight against an untruth or a falsehood, first show what is true. Encourage what is true, and then the falsehood will be exposed.
So in this letter, the writer begins with the positive. He says, “I rejoice greatly that I have found certain of thy children walking in truth, even as we received commandment from the Father.”
Now, dear brothers and sisters, it is very interesting that in this short letter we are shown something of the conditions of the believers in the early days of the first century.
We do not know too much about the church in the first century. We know a little bit, but not too much. Yet in this small letter you do find some clue, some hint, as to what the church was like in the first century.
John says, “I rejoice greatly.” In other words, it gives him great joy in his heart when he sees some of her children walking in truth.
On the one hand, this shows us a Christian family. This lady was probably a widow. She had a number of children. Even though some of her children were not with her at that time, evidently some of them were in another place, probably in the place where the elder lived.
The elder saw some of her children walking in truth. These children, even though they were not home, were so trained and so brought up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord that, even though they were in another city, away from home and away from their mother, they continued to walk in truth.
They continued to be faithful in following the Lord and loving the Lord. When the elder, the old man, saw such a situation, he rejoiced greatly.
This gives us a clue as to how Christians in the early days were built up in Christ. This is something we really need to learn today.
In our homes, we need to bring up our children with the knowledge of the Lord, with the love of Christ, and with the truth that is in Christ, so that even if they are away from us in another city or another place, they can still stand for the Lord and continue on.
That is rare today. Oftentimes you find Christian families where, when children are with their parents, they seem to be good Christians. But when they leave home, it is a different story.
There is not that solidity, stability, or foundation there.
We thank God that in the early church, even though it was already in the second and third generation, there was still some kind of stability. This is something that rejoiced the old man very much.
If this lady refers to the church, then it means that the church had laid a good foundation for all the brothers and sisters. Even though some young brothers and sisters had left and gone to other places to study or work, they were still standing and walking in truth, following the Lord and loving the Lord.
That shows that a good foundation had been laid in the church where they were brought up.
Again, this is something we need to be very careful about: how we bring up our young people so that they will be solidly built up in love and truth. Wherever they go, they will be in fellowship. They will not just get lost in the world, but they will continue in fellowship, walking in love and walking in truth.
I think this is tremendous.
Here you find, on the one hand, the writer expressing his great joy in seeing the children walking in truth. Then he encourages the lady. He says:
And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote to thee a new commandment, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
Now, in the old days, Christians met in homes. They did not have meeting halls like we have today. They met in homes, so some people opened their homes for meetings.
Most likely, this widow, who had such a noble Christian character and had brought up her family in such a good way, opened up her home for God’s people to come together and fellowship.
Not only for fellowship, but also for hospitality. That is what they used to do in the old days.
But because of the great confusion that came into the church concerning fellowship, she needed encouragement.
You remember our Lord Jesus said:
And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold.
But he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
When the church begins to lose its strength and spiritual life, you find that the love of many grows cold. There are many things that should not happen, but they happen. When these things happen, naturally you ask, “How can you love?”
Probably you feel that you have to compromise in truth. That is natural.
So what the writer tries to encourage us to do is this: no matter what confusion there may be, no matter how evil or how many abnormalities you see everywhere, you have to continue keeping fellowship in love and truth.
Do not allow what you see around you, or even what may happen to you, to lead you away from fellowship—to lead you away from fellowship in love and fellowship in truth.
I think this is very needed for us today.
After he has encouraged her to continue in fellowship, in love and truth, then he moves on to the negative side.
Now, again, we need to know some background here.
In the early days, they not only did not have meeting places; they did not have a resident pastor either. Today, wherever there is a church, there is a building and there is a pastor. The pastor resides there to take care of all the teaching and so-called spiritual services for the people.
This kind of pastor system developed later on.
In the beginning, on the one hand, all believers were priests. In other words, all believers of the Lord—not merely a small group of specially trained people—were to minister spiritually. You do not find a small group taking charge of the whole spiritual well-being of the church and monopolizing all spiritual service.
In the early days, Christians learned to build up one another in love. They learned to minister to one another. That is the way the church is built. They did not look to one man as their pastor to take care of all their spiritual well-being.
But in order to strengthen and help the believers build one another up, God gave to the universal church some apostles, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers. These people were given to the church universal, and they traveled around, visiting different assemblies and ministering to them in order to mature and equip the saints, so that the saints could build themselves up together in love.
That is the way you find it in Scripture. So, in the early days, there were people traveling around: traveling apostles, traveling prophets, traveling evangelists, traveling pastors, and teachers. They went around trying to strengthen and build up the church.
They did not go around building up their own domain or their own kingdom, like we do today. They went to build up the church of God. If Peter came, he would build up the same church. If Paul came, he would build up the same church. They were not building their own kingdoms.
Some people, like Paul, were well known and did not need letters of recommendation. Paul told the Corinthians that, although others might need letters of recommendation, he did not need one because he was their spiritual father and they ought to know him.
But others, such as Apollos when he first started out, needed recommendation. He was in Ephesus, and Priscilla and Aquila received him and helped him into a fuller knowledge of the Lord Jesus. When he wanted to go to Corinth, they introduced him to the brothers there because nobody knew him.
So in the old days, you find many traveling ministers, traveling preachers, in modern words. They traveled around, visiting different groups, assemblies, and fellowships, trying to build up God’s people so that they could build themselves up.
At that time, you find that the church was not highly organized at all. It was not God’s will that it should be highly organized.
Because these were fellowships, these were churches in many places, and you find that the doors were wide open. They received anyone who came in the name of the Lord to help and build them up.
When people traveled around, they went to this church, this assembly, and this fellowship, trying to minister, and the doors were wide open.
Because of this, some problems arose. There were false teachers and false prophets, even in the first century—and, of course, we have more today.
These false teachers and false prophets brought in false teachings. Because the doors were so open, they took advantage of the sincerity and innocence of the believers.
They would come in and say, “I am a servant of the Lord, come to help you.” The believers would say, “Okay, come in.” Then they began to minister, seeking to advocate their false teaching.
So there was a problem. How would you control it? Are you going to close the door to all visiting ministers?
If you are highly organized, you do not have this problem, because you only have those who are in your organization. Whoever is outside the organization is out. That is easy.
But it was not organized. It was wide open. The Christians were sincere, ignorant, innocent, and loving. Anybody could come in and take advantage of them, leading a whole church astray. It was a serious matter.
What is the false teaching that the writer is especially writing about?
In the Gospel of John, at the back of John’s mind, he is fighting against a false teaching that denies the deity of Christ.
Even at that time, there were false teachers and false prophets who denied the deity of our Lord Jesus. They said that the Lord Jesus was only a man. He was not God at all.
They even said that when He was baptized, God came to Him, but before He was crucified, God left Him. They said He was merely a man and not God. That is a serious heresy.
That is one reason why John wrote the Gospel. At the back of John’s mind, he is combating the idea that the Lord Jesus is merely a human being and not God.
Dear brothers and sisters, this heresy continues even today. There are many today who teach that the Lord Jesus is merely a man and not God.
But in the epistles, you find just the opposite error. People began to come and teach, “Jesus is God. He is not man. He is not man at all. God has never become flesh.”
Why? Because Gnostic teaching had entered into Christianity. According to Gnosticism, matter is evil. Matter itself is evil; therefore, the body is evil.
How can God join Himself to that which is evil? He cannot do that, they said. Therefore, there is no incarnation. The body of the Lord Jesus is a phantom; it is not real.
They rejected the truth that the Lord Jesus came in the flesh. They did not believe in His humanity.
Now, brothers and sisters, the heresies that we find in Christianity today are mostly centered upon the person and work of our Lord Jesus. Of course, there are other things, but you find that all heresies have something to do with the person and work of our Lord Jesus.
If you reject the person, you reject the work. If you do not believe that He is God and say that He is only man, then He cannot save you. You have to save yourself and try to behave as He behaved.
If He is God and not human, then we have no mediator. When you reject the person of the Lord Jesus, you reject His work. You throw away the very thing that God has delivered to us.
It is not a matter of interpretation. We can have different interpretations on many so-called truths. But when you come to the basic matter—the person and work of our Lord Jesus—it is no longer a matter of interpretation. It is a matter of truth itself.
This is what false teaching really is. These people who go out proclaim that they have advanced. The word there, “goeth onward,” actually carries the idea of development.
They say they have developed Christianity. They have developed Christian truth into something that can be accepted more intellectually. They think they have advanced beyond the truth revealed in Scripture. That is their claim.
But in doing that, they destroy the very foundation of Christianity, the very foundation of fellowship.
In view of that, the writer shows us whom to receive and whom not to receive.
You remember Romans 15:7:
Wherefore receive ye one another, even as Christ also received you, to the glory of God.
How do we receive one another? We receive one another as Christ has received us.
How does Christ receive us? He receives us in love—the agape love. Not because we are lovable, not because there is something in us that can be loved, but because He loves us. Therefore, He receives us.
How does He receive us? He receives us in truth. He does not merely love us and say, “It does not matter if you sin. It is all right.” No. He receives us in truth.
Because of that, He lays down His life for us. He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.
So you find that the way He receives us is in love and in truth. The Lord says, “Receive one another” likewise.
We need to receive one another in love and in truth. In love, because they are of God. You are of God; he is of God. Therefore, no matter who he is or what he is, we love one another. This is the love of the brethren. We love because there is life there; there is Christ there.
We receive one another in truth. What is the truth? The person and work of our Lord Jesus. We believe that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. We believe that He came in the flesh. We believe that the Word became flesh. That is the truth.
This is the way we receive one another.
Applying this principle to not receiving: whom do we not receive into fellowship? We do not receive those who are neither in love nor in truth.
In other words, fellowship is having in common. What do we have in common? Christ.
If a person does not have Christ, he is not begotten of God. If a person does not believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that He came in the flesh, then there is no truth there.
If there is neither truth nor love, there is nothing in common. Because of that, the writer says, “Do not receive him; do not even greet him.”
Now, he is very serious.
Brothers and sisters, you may think that this is contradictory to love or contradictory to truth. Not at all.
What is said here is: whom do we receive into fellowship? We receive into fellowship only those who have something in common, and that something in common is Christ.
These false teachers reject the Son; therefore, they reject the Father. In doing that, there is nothing in common. Light has no fellowship with darkness. Truth has no fellowship with falsehood. That is where the line of separation is.
Now, brothers and sisters, this does not mean that because we do not receive somebody into fellowship, we must reject that person. It does not mean that.
People who do not know the Lord, we should love them. We should share the truth with them. We should tell them about the Lord Jesus, that they may be received into the fellowship of the church.
Before a person is in love and truth, he is not in the fellowship. But we reach out to bring him in by love and truth, through the way of love and truth.
Another thing: it is not because some people have different interpretations from you, or differ in their viewpoint on certain truths in the Bible, that you say, “I cannot receive you.” No, it does not mean that. Remember this.
Even those who seem to hold false teachings may not know better. In other words, they have never really been taught the truth. Do not reject these persons. They are not included here. We have to help them to see the truth.
But only with those professionals—those who claim that they have more light, those who claim that they have developed beyond the truth—these are the people from whom we have to keep away. Do not even greet them, lest we partake in their evil works.
Now, it is serious. Do not think that you are able to mingle with these people and not be contaminated or defiled.
History tells us that some people tried to mingle with these people. Even though they loved the Lord very much, gradually they were turned away from the Lord, because human reason is very powerful.
What we find here is the way those who teach false teachings are kept away, so that the church may be kept pure and the testimony may be preserved.
Finally, of course, he says, “I want to fellowship with you more, not with ink and paper, but face to face.”
In other words, in spite of all the problems with fellowship, we still need to desire fellowship. Do not think that because fellowship is troublesome, therefore we should stop fellowship.
No, we need to desire fellowship, that our joy may be full. There is nothing that brings us more joy on earth than fellowship.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee for calling us into the fellowship of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a privilege, what an honor, and what a joy that we can fellowship with Thee and with one another.
Our Father, we do acknowledge that there is confusion in fellowship today. We pray that Thou wilt open our eyes and understanding, that we may be kept in the purity of fellowship; that we may not close ourselves to fellowship with people whom we should receive, nor open ourselves to fellowship with those whom we should not receive.
Lord, we ask that Thou wilt give us discernment and give us wisdom. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.