Protecting our church from false teachers: (2-John)
We Must Know the Truth: (1-3)
John used the word truth four times in this salutation, so it is an important word. Jesus Christ is “the truth” (Jn.14:6) and God’s Word is “truth” (Jn.17:17). He has given us “the Spirit of Truth” to teach us and to enable us to know truth (Jn.14:16-17; 16:13). Only truth will not help us. When we experience love from God which would help us to commit ourselves completely to Him. Then love and truth would reflect from our lives with a desire to magnify Him.
This elect lady and her children came to know the Lord. It was God’s grace and mercy (1:3). At that time many false teachers brought different interpretations. That’s why John was quick enough to say that Jesus was the son of the Father and Father and Son are equal. “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father” (1 Jn.2:23). Grace is God’s unmerited favour, mercy is God’s compassion for us in our misery and peace is the resulting wholeness of salvation. The elect lady and her children and the whole church was experience God’s grace, mercy and peace.
Once Unitarians (who deny the Trinity) asked Daniel Webster the American Statesman when Daniel boldly affirmed the deity of Jesus Christ in Trinity:
“Mr. Webster,” said one man, “can you comprehend how Christ could be both God and man?””No, sir, I cannot comprehend it,” Webster replied. “If I could comprehend Him, He would be no greater than myself. I feel that I need a superhuman Saviour!”
If our homes and churches are to be true to Christ and oppose the false teachers, we must know the truth. How do we learn the truth? By carefully studying God’s Word and allowing the Spirit to teach us; by listening to others who are true to the faith; and then by practicing what we learn. We must not only learn the truth with our minds, but we must also love the truth in our hearts and live the truth by our wills. Our total persons must be yielded to the truth. How important it is for parents to teach their children to love the truth! While we thank God for Sunday Schools and Christian day schools, in the final analysis, it is the home that must instill in children a love for truth and the knowledge of God’s truth.
We Must practice the Truth: (4-6):
Apostle John was glad that some of the household of the lady or the members of the church were obedient to God’s command. The Apostle was trying to reiterate the old commandment to love another. In fact this has become the second commandment which the Lord Jesus has referred when a Pharisee asked. We can show love in many ways: by avoiding prejudice and discrimination, by accepting people by listening, helping, giving, serving and refusing to judge. We must put into practice all these.
Again John defined Christian love in terms of obedience to God. A Christian who truly seeks God’s best for his brothers and sisters can only do so by obeying what God has commanded him to do. Love undirected by God’s revealed will, may easily degenerate into sentimental activity. Brotherly love is part of the truth God has revealed and commanded.
John further says “I am not giving a New Commandment but it is there from the beginning to love one another.
We must abide in the Truth: (7-11)
As Truth and love go together so as wrong doctrines and wrong life go together.
“For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh.” They went out from the church! At one time, they professed to believe “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3), but they turned from that faith and abandoned the truth and the church. “They went out from us, but they were not of us” (1 Jn. 2:19). “Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:30). There are many more false teachers who distort the truth and undermine the foundations of Christian faith. They may use the right words but change the meanings.