2 JOHN - Torn By False Teaching

One of the great blessings that God can give a Christian is a loving, close-knit family of fellow believers who are united in their love for God, His Word, and each other. And one of God’s great and enduring kindnesses to us is that this is the kind of fellowship He has given us here at Bethel Baptist Church. As John says in his third epistle (that we will, Lord willing, study next week):

3 John 4 (ESV)

4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

A close-knit, loving family of believers who are united in their love for God, His people and His Word is a wonderful blessing, refuge and strength in these turbulent days.

But it is naive for us to take this kind of fellowship for granted. We’ve said before—and it’s not being overly dramatic or unreasonable to say--that just about any congregation is no more than six months from a church split: One faction goes one way, another faction goes another way, and everyone in the middle gives up on church altogether.

There are a lot of reasons why churches split or fall apart—in some cases a church is already so unhealthy that a seemingly insignificant matter causes a disproportionately large consequence: The color of the paint in the fellowship hall causes half the families in the church to quit attending, a decision to pave the parking lot results in most of the trustees resigning. That sort of thing. Inconsequential differences of opinion that reveal fault lines that had been hidden and ignored in the congregation for a long time—the church had been full of the fumes of bitterness and resentment for years, and the color of the new carpet was just the spark.

But there are other times when an otherwise healthy and loving church is brought down because of the presence of false teaching in its midst. A healthy church family can (and must) agree to disagree when it comes to third-order issues of conscience (matters of indifference), and can even work together to respond in a godly manner to second-order issues that make fellowship impractical. But when a church has been infiltrated with teachings that attack those first-order issues—the very foundation of Christian faith itself—even the healthiest and strongest of congregations can be torn apart as a result.

I believe that this is what is happening here in 2 John—John is writing a letter of pastoral counsel and loving instruction to a church that is either being threatened by false teachers in their midst, or has already been torn by those teachers.

There are a few reasons I think this is the case: John addresses his letter to “the elect lady and her children”—the most plausible interpretation of this greeting is that he is writing to a Christian woman who is hosting a church in her home (or it’s possible that he is referring to the church itself as “the chosen lady”).

He says in verse 4 that he is glad to see “some of her children walking in the truth”, which implies that there are some of the members of the church who are not doing so. This would also make sense of his warning later in verse 9—it sounds as though there are members of that church who are being tempted to embrace false teaching:

2 John 9 (ESV)

9 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.

And his command in verse 10 not to receive or give any greeting to false teachers seems to indicate that this church either was tolerating or was being pressured to tolerate teachers who were actively rejecting Jesus Christ as fully God and fully man (those who “do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh” - v. 7).

When you read this short letter in that light, it becomes a beautiful picture of a loving elderly pastor writing a letter of gentle encouragement and firm instruction to a church that is suffering from attacks by false teachers bent on tearing them apart. See, for instance how beautifully he encourages them in verse 3:

2 John 3 (ESV)

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

It is also particularly poignant to realize that this sweet and encouraging letter was written by the same that Jesus called a “Son of Thunder” decades earlier because he wanted to rain fire down on people who rejected Him!

The same threats that the church in this letter were facing still exist today—false teachers and deceivers are still going out into the world attacking the fundamental truths of the Gospel and the person and work of Jesus. The pastoral counsel John offers to a church that is facing being torn apart by false teaching in the first century is just as vital for us today in the twenty-first. And so what I want us to see here in this brief letter from John is that

We protect our FELLOWSHIP when we LOVE each other in the TRUTH

John’s pastoral advice is structured around three commands that he gives to this church so that they will be able to stand against the attacks they are enduring and heal from the wounds their fellowship has suffered from these false teachers. The first command we see in verse 5:

I. Keep LOVING one ANOTHER (2 John 1:5-6)

2 John 5 (ESV)

5 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.

No matter what turmoil has engulfed a family of believers in a local church, the first response to that threat is always the same—keep loving one another! Even when the stakes are as high as the definition of the Gospel itself, we are called to never fail in our love for one another with the same unconditional sacrificial love with which we have been loved by Christ.

A few verses down in our text John does have some very stern words regarding the way false teachers are to be handled, and so here right at the beginning he sets the parameters for how all of these things are to be done—in the love that God commands.

And as he had done in his previous letter, John goes on to define what this kind of love looks like:

2 John 6 (ESV)

6 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.

Keep loving one another—and to love one another is to

Walk according to His COMMANDS (cp. John 15:10)

Jesus Himself said it in John 15:10

John 15:10 (ESV)

10 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.

This kind of sacrificial, unconditional love for one another can only come out of a life that abides in God’s love. And the only way to abide in God’s love is to be obedient to His commands!

What does a life that abides in God’s love look like? It is a life that is obedient to God—you care about obeying Him; you guide your decisions by what is most obedient to Him, and where you are in conflict with His will you strive to submit yourself to Him and obey Him rather than your own desires. It is only out of that kind of walk that our love for one another grows. We love each other when we walk according to His commands, and when we

Walk according to the TRUTH (v. 4, cp. Hebrews 1:3)

John tells the church that it gives him great joy to see Christians “walking in the truth” (v. 4). Here in this letter John is writing specifically about faithfulness to the truth of who Jesus is—that He really is God incarnate in human flesh, the eternal Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son born as a man..

In our day and age, the concept of “truth” itself has come under attack—we are more likely to hear the word “truth” coupled with a possessive pronoun rather than a definite article, aren’t we? We hear all the time about “my” truth and “your” truth and “her” truth—the idea being that as long as an idea or a statement is internally consistent with your own personal preferences, then that statement is “true” for you.

But the Scriptures demonstrate that Truth does not change according to our personal definition—Truth is eternal and unchangeable, because God Himself is the source of Truth! He is the “God of Truth” (Isaiah 65:16), and Jesus Christ Himself affirms that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).

The author of Hebrews shows us that Jesus Christ Himself is the source of all reality—He

Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)

3 ...upholds the universe by the word of his power...

The world is the way it is because God has established it so. As we observed last week, Christians do not live as though truth is an endlessly customizable affair that can change depending on your point of view—Truth is truth whether or not you or I ever existed, and all truth finds its definition in who Jesus Christ is and what He has said.

And so as we live and walk according to that reality, our love for each other must be defined by that reality. That is why we tell each other the truth—we do not lie to each other, but we speak the truth to each other in love (Ephesians 4:15). This is why we don’t back down from the truth. This is why we cannot compromise the Truth or “go along to get along”—this is why we must sometimes “draw a line in the sand” for the sake of the Truth—because Truth is not just a standard to affirm, He is a Person that we love!

We protect our fellowship in the church from being torn by false teachers when we love one another in the truth. John calls you to continue to love one another, and in verses 7-8 he reminds you to

II. Keep WATCH on YOURSELF (2 John 1:7-8)

In verse 8, John says

2 John 8 (ESV)

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

This is the second command John gives to a church struggling with being torn by false teaching. He says to watch yourself “so that you may not lose what we have worked for”. John has been working to establish the truth that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully Man, and in the midst of this church’s struggle against the false teachers who deny that truth, John knows the temptation will come for some members to say, “Why can’t we just get along? Maybe these teachers have a point, after all? Is everything they’re saying so bad? Maybe there’s some common ground?” But when it comes to first order issues like the identity of Jesus Christ, John says you need to watch yourself

That you don’t lose your FOUNDATION (cp. 1 Cor. 3:11-15)

John says, “Don’t lose what we have worked for—don’t walk away from the Truth about Jesus Christ, that He really is fully God and fully man”. The Apostle Paul writes in similar terms in 1 Corinthians 3, where he emphasizes that Jesus Christ must be the foundation of everything a Christian works toward in this life:

1 Corinthians 3:11 (ESV)

11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

If you give away Jesus Christ as your foundation—if you give up the truth that He is fully God and fully Man, if you say that there are other ways to define “truth” apart from Him, then there won’t be much left standing on the Day when your work is evaluated by God:

1 Corinthians 3:13 (ESV)

13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

That Day is not a day when a Christian will lose his salvation—nothing can take that away from you because nothing can take you out of Christ! But the Scripture is clear that you can lose a reward:

1 Corinthians 3:14–15 (ESV)

14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

And so John is saying here in his letter to this church being torn by false teaching— “Don’t give up your foundation of the Truth about who Jesus is—watch yourself

That you don’t lose your REWARD (Luke 6:22-23; 2 Timothy 4:7-8)

Watch yourself so that you don’t lose that “full reward”—don’t compromise, don’t “go along to get along”, don’t hide your light under a basket because you want to avoid conflict over who Jesus is and what He has done—Jesus Himself has promised you:

Luke 6:22–23 (ESV)

22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

John wants to keep before the eyes of that embattled congregation that they have a great reward waiting for them for their steadfast hold on the Truth! He wants them to make it their aim to be able to say, like the Apostle Paul at the end of his life,

2 Timothy 4:7–8 (ESV)

7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

A church that is under attack from false teaching must protect its fellowship by loving one another in the truth. John commands them to keep loving one another through all of the turmoil, to watch themselves that they do not lose the truth—and his third command, in verse 10, is a warning to

III. Keep from COMPROMISING the GOSPEL (2 John 1:9-11)

Look at verses 9-11:

2 John 9–11 (ESV)

9 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. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

John says that anyone who does not “abide in the teaching of Christ”—anyone who (in their case) denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that He is fully God and fully Man— “does not have God”, and whoever does abide in that teaching has God—the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son dwells in him. And so, John says, it is important to

Look for what is MISSING in their MESSAGE (v. 10)

John writes “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching...” Look for what they are leaving out, look for what they are minimizing or skimming over. For the church John was writing to, it was the reality that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh; that He really was fully God and fully Man. The prevailing philosophy of John’s day (embraced by the false teachers he was opposing) was that matter was evil, and that God was pure Spirit and could not mix with evil, corruptible matter. And so they not only left out the truth that Jesus was come in the flesh, but they actively denied it. And John says that leaving that part of the Truth about Jesus out of their message is what marked them as false teachers.

In the same way today you can see how there are false teachers who deliberately leave out this truth about Jesus Christ—the Mormons, for instance, have a wonderful theology of family and patriotism and morality and worship and service. If you just focus on what they say, you can be led to believe that they are teaching good and commendable things.

But look at what they leave out! They leave out the teaching that Jesus Christ is the eternal Creator God come in human flesh! They do not come bringing the teaching that John brings in his letters; they actively deny that Jesus is God. The same with the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses—they have wonderful-sounding teachings about how “You can live in Paradise on Earth”, but they vehemently deny that Jesus Christ is God, and put all of their energy into teaching the opposite of the truth of Jesus’ full divinity and full humanity.

To a lesser degree, you can see the same sort of thing in some Christian teachers as well—teachers who affirm the Deity of Christ, but who leave out the blood of Jesus shed for sin—teachers who want to minimize the truth of the wrath of God against our sin that could only be satisfied by the blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross. (A few years ago the Presbyterian Church in America decided to change the lyrics of “In Christ Alone” to take out the reference to God’s wrath: “Til on that Cross, as Jesus died, the love of God was magnified...”)

But the problem is that when you begin leaving out the truth of what Jesus did on that Cross by skipping over God’s wrath and downplaying our sin, you lose the whole point of the Gospel itself! If the blood of Jesus is missing from the Gospel you preach, then there isn’t enough “Gospel” left to be worth preaching! “A ministry that has not the Blood in it, is lifeless… and a dead ministry is no good to anybody!”( Spurgeon).

John exhorts his readers not to compromise the Gospel by an uncritical acceptance of the false teachers—look for what is missing in their message. And when you see that they have abandoned the truth of Jesus, that they are not abiding in the teaching of who He is and what He has done,

Be WILLING to be considered RUDE

2 John 10–11 (ESV)

10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

John has already exhorted his readers not to give up loving one another in the midst of the fight for the truth of Jesus Christ—and so that is the context in which he now warns them not to “receive” or “greet” false teachers. Bear in mind again that in John’s day, churches all met in private homes—church buildings weren’t common until centuries later. And so when John says in verse 10 not to allow a false teacher into your house, he was specifically saying not to allow them into your house church.

In the same way, his warning not to “give any greeting” doesn’t mean that saying “hello” to a heretic on the street means you are now a heretic too—a “greeting” in this context is an endorsement, a statement of agreement. (In our day, we might talk about this in terms of “giving someone a platform.”)

This church in 2 John either had done this (and as a result had been torn apart by the false teachers they welcomed) or were considering giving some of these false teachers a greeting and a platform. And so he warns them that anyone who receives one of these false teachers into their house church is helping to spread their lies.

Refusing to show hospitality in John’s day was considered a shocking breach of etiquette, but he says there are times when you have to be willing to be considered rude for the sake of the Gospel. Now, one of the besetting sins of so many Christians in our day and age is our fearfulness before the world—we are afraid that someone out there is going to accuse us of not being nice. We tell ourselves we don’t want to “be a bad witness”, that we don’t want to be accused of “hate speech” if we stand up for the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But, as has been said elsewhere, truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth. (Doug Wilson).

Many Christians and many churches today would do well to take the words of Oscar Wilde: “A gentleman is someone who never gives offence unintentionally.” There are times when taking a stand for Truth means that we have to refuse to “play nice” (as the world defines it.) There are times when we must simply reject out of hand teaching that will destroy the very foundations of our hope in Christ—because we love Him more than we love being accepted or considered “nice” by a world that denies Him. (But never forget that there is a world of difference between being willing to be considered rude and willing to be rude!)

John does not want his readers to ever separate Truth from Love—love without truth is lawlessness, and truth without love is legalism. Though the world around us will never acknowledge it, it is possible to differ with someone (even differ enormously) without hating them! If you must give offense by separating from false teachers and their teaching in order to stand for the Gospel, do it because you love Jesus, and not because you love being a jerk!

The same enemies of the truth that threatened to tear apart this church in John’s letter are still seeking to destroy churches today—not mere differences of opinion on matters of Christian liberty, but serious, sustained attacks on the Gospel itself. You hear these attacks on the Gospel everywhere in our culture today, and many of those poisonous teachings have made their way into the church.

Anytime that a Christian teacher asserts that there are some sins that cannot be washed away by the blood of Christ, they are teaching a false gospel. And two of the most prevalent false teachings being embraced by Christians in our day regard race and homosexuality.

Teaching that so-called sins of “white privilege” can only be atoned for by profuse and continuous apologies to people of color, and that the blood of Christ is powerless to destroy sins of racial pride or vainglory is to deny the Gospel. Teaching that homosexuality is so deeply ingrained in a person’s life as to be a permanent part of their identity that the blood of Jesus Christ cannot erase, and so you must call yourself a “gay Christian” is to deny the Gospel. And so faithful Christians must deny those false teachings—not because we love being jerks or want to pick fights—but because we love the truth of Jesus’ death on the Cross as the complete forgiveness of all sin!

False and destructive teachings like this will tear a congregation apart—and there are churches and fellowships and ministries and denominations around us today that are in the process of being torn apart by those false teachings. and so we must heed the Scripture’s commands here: When these controversies (and others like them) knock on our door, asking to be let into our church, we are perfectly willing to be called “hateful” or “bigoted” or “racist” or “ignorant” or “privileged” rather than give them any platform or endorsement whatsoever. We commit to watching ourselves (and each other), that we do not give in to the temptation to “go along to get along”. And most of all, we never stop loving one another, our neighbors (and even our adversaries) with the unconditional, sacrificial love of the One Whose blood washed us free of all our sin, the One Who is the Truth that we love so dearly, our Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Hebrews 13:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

Why does truth matter to Christianity? Why is it impossible for truth about Jesus to be relative?

Why does John identify love with obedience to God’s teachings in this book? What does that teach us about love?

What is the significance about the Incarnation of Jesus being at the center of the heresy John is combating? What made the Incarnation so scandalous to philosophers and thinkers in the First Century? How is the Incarnation still scandalous today?

Why is it so important for John to remind a church going through theological controversy to continue to love one another? How does controversy threaten the fellowship of a church?

Related Media

Related Sermons