Sermon Tone Analysis

2 John 4-11

Faith of the Baptists — The Teaching about Christ

 

/I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.

And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one 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, so that you should walk in it.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.

Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God.

Whoever abides in the teaching 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 or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works/.[1]

/Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God/.

Christians who are willing to jettison or ignore doctrine, thinking that by so doing they demonstrate love for the brothers, are detrimental to the advance of the Faith.

Love for God is revealed through willingness to obey the teachings concerning Christ.

Love for God—real love, love motivated by the indwelling Spirit of God—will prove to be greater than every desire for ease that keeps us from confronting error.

The stands taken by our Baptists forebears in days past is the stuff of legends.

The actions, often extreme but always taken to maintain doctrinal purity, included advocating separation from parent denominations, such as was the case for the Baptist divine Charles Spurgeon, who resisted doctrinal drift in the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

Others imposed strictures against professing Christians willing to tolerate or even to embrace error.

The Redstone Baptist Association and the Brush Run Baptist Church debarred Alexander Campbell for teaching the heresy of baptismal regeneration.

These saints from a bygone era were willing to hold individual Christians accountable for their beliefs and actions, accountability that is thought extreme today because of its rarity.

If our forefathers erred on the side of strict discipline in their practise of the Christian Faith, we modern Christians have a tendency to err in the opposite direction through our failure to oppose heretical beliefs and actions that deny the transforming power of our Lord among His people.

Undoubtedly some of those preceding us in the Faith were extreme and far too strict in their pursuit of doctrinal and ethical purity, but contemporary saints often appear to exercise scant discernment.

We seemingly accept almost any error, if only we are not pushed out of our personal comfort zones.

Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John during the First Century of the Faith.

The elder from Smyrna related an account that demonstrated John’s firm insistence upon doctrinal integrity.

The aged Apostle went into a bath at Ephesus, and seeing Cerinthus, the Gnostic-Ebionite heretic, within, ran out without bathing, and exclaimed, “Let us flee lest the bath should fall in, as long as Cerinthus, that enemy of truth, is within.”

Polycarp also related how on another occasion, John met Marcion the Gnostic, who demanded, “Acknowledge us,” to which John replied, “I acknowledge the first born of Satan.”[2]

This is the type of caution the apostles and their disciples used, so as not to have any communion, even in word, with any of those that mutilated the truth.

These early saints would not give succour to those opposed to Christ Jesus.

Paul has taught us, As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned [*Titus 3:10, 11*].

When John refers to the teaching of Christ, it is important that we note that he is not simply referring to a particular account of Jesus’ life and ministry that has been related through the various Gospels, but rather he is referring to the entire body of Christology.

He is writing about the theological study of the purpose of God as revealed in Christ.

What we believe about Jesus the Christ is vital to how we live.

Focus your attention on the greatly neglected second letter of John as we think about the teaching about Christ.

The Teaching About Christ Defines the Faith — /I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.

And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one 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, so that you should walk in it/ [*2 John 4-6*].

The letter is addressed to the elect lady and her children.

Among saints of prior generations, the view that John was writing a matriarch of the Faith seems to have been prevalent.

Some suggested that although her name was unknown, she was clearly esteemed since she is addressed as *eklekt**ē kyria* [elect lady, *verse one*].

Others have contended that her name was *Kyria* (lady) and that she bore the title of *eklekt**ē*.

[3]

More recent students of the Word have suggested that the elect lady and her children to whom this missive is addressed are actually a congregation and the individual members of that church.[4]

It seems fair to say that the majority of modern scholarship adopts this particular view.

On the whole, it seems best to understand that John is writing a local congregation, addressing the people of God corporately and the membership of the assembly individually with this letter.

One’s beliefs are revealed through life.

In *verses four through six*, John commends the church he is writing because her members, especially those of whom John is aware, are walking in the truth.

How does John know they are walking in the truth?

Because they are maintaining the commands of Christ.

Jesus taught that love for Him is demonstrated through obedience to what He says.

He taught, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Again, the Master has said, Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.

And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

During that same conversation with the Disciples, Jesus said, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.

And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me [*John 14:15, 21, 23, 24*].

On one other occasion while instructing the Disciples, Jesus equated love and obedience, pointing to His own relationship to the Father as the example for their obedience.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love [*John 15:10*].

Apparently, John learned this lesson well since he similarly stresses this truth.

This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.

And his commandments are not burdensome [*1 John 5:3*].

The plea for us who have professed Christ as Lord of life to live as new people is a recurring theme throughout the New Testament.

Brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.

For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus [*1 Thessalonians 4:1, 2*].

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him [*Colossians 2:6*].

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called [*Ephesians 4:1*].

The teaching about Christ defines the Faith and sets the parameters of Christian practise.

John could observe that the members of the congregation to which he wrote were walking in the truth because belief is revealed through the way in which we live.

Apparently, what defines us as Christians is what we believe concerning Christ the Lord.

John concludes that those who fail to confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh are deceivers and opposed to Christ.

Well might we ask what it means to confess the Jesus Christ has come in the flesh?

First, understand that to confess Christ has come in the flesh denotes an acceptance of the revelation of the Bible as true.

The Bible is received by the Christian as a perfect revelation of the True and Living God.

This Word serves as a guide for life, given to direct the child of God into the life that pleases the Father.

The Word reveals Jesus as the Son of God who gave Himself as a ransom for all that all who believe.

Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah foretold throughout the Old Testament.

He is the Son of God, just as David said [cf. *Psalm 110:1*], and as Isaiah also prophesied [*Isaiah 9:6, 7*].

Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate and raised to life through the power of the Spirit of God.

Consequently, we are assured that through His death He provided Himself as a sacrifice because of sinful man.

We are taught that He was buried and that He has risen from the dead on the third day [see *1 Corinthians 15:3, 4*].

All who believe this truth are forever freed from all condemnation before Holy God.

All who place their trust in Jesus the Living Son of God are born from above, accepted into the Family of God, and forever after enjoy access into the presence of the Father.

Labels do not save anyone.

One may call himself or herself a Baptist and yet be lost.

One is born from above through faith in the Risen Son of God, just as Scripture declares.

By grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast [*Ephesians 2:8, 9*].

That particular portion of the Word continues with the declaration that the lives of those born from above are transformed when it declares, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them [*Ephesians 2:10*].

John states that those who possess Christ reveal the character of the Father through the way in which they live.

The Apostle Paul likewise becomes quite specific when contrasting the walk of Christians with the walk of those identified with the world.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore do not associate with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.