2 John 1–6

0:00 If you had to make a guess, what would you think is Satan's grand strategy in the world? And maybe you've never even thought about it quite like that. I mean, the Bible doesn't say anything really kind of like that. Here is Satan's grand strategy in the world. But, you know, Satan's an intelligent creature. He was one of the angels before he fell, according to the Bible. And so it's natural to think that if Satan is at war against God and against God's people, Well, he has some sort of strategy that he's carrying out.

0:31 So if there's some war room somewhere on earth or, you know, in the heavenlies, wherever it is, where Satan and his demons work out a strategy, what do you think they talk about? What do you think they say is the grand strategy by which they're going to try to take down God and God's people? I think a lot of times we just kind of think about it in the lowest possible terms, The grand strategy of Satan is just to get me as an individual Christian to do something wrong. Satan whispers in our ear, we say, or he sits up here on my right shoulder while there's an angel on my left shoulder.

1:04 And he just tries to out-whisper the angel and get me to do some little thing wrong. To commit some little sinling or something. But I don't think that's what Satan's strategy is. I don't think Satan's strategy is just to get you as an individual Christian to do something wrong. That's not big enough. That's not sinister enough. As I read the Bible, and as I kind of look around over the last, you know, 47 years or so of my life, I've come to an understanding that I think Satan's grand strategy is actually to attack and twist and ultimately destroy those things which most reflect the character and nature of God.

1:50 I think that's what he's doing. I think he wants to twist and mess up and ultimately destroy those things which most reflect the character of God. And therefore those things which God most wants to see in his people. So these days it looks to me like two things have come under extraordinary attack. Maybe this has been true throughout history. But it looks like hell has launched an offensive against two things in particular. And those things are truth and love.

2:21 Have you noticed that? I mean, it just seems in our society to be an all-out assault on the idea of truth and what is truth. A gigantic civilizational argument about what is actually true. And it goes all the way down into the very fundamentals of what it means to be human. You've probably seen the tweets, for example, where a slogan is just printed out 20 or 30 times in a tweet. It can be abortion is health care, abortion is health care, abortion is health care.

2:54 Or trans women are women, trans women are women, trans women are women. You know what the point of those tweets are, right? It's to make it look like those false statements are actually true and that only some moron would question it. It's like putting out a tweet that says the sky is blue, the sky is blue, the sky is blue. It's to say if you disagree with that, you're just utterly at odds with the truth. And the same kind of all-out assault is happening with the concept of love.

3:27 Love wins. Love is love. It doesn't matter who you love. It's taking something that's near and dear to the character and nature of God and twisting it into something that's not even recognizable anymore. Truth and love, those seem to be the targets of hell. in our society. And so it's providential that we're opening up today the book of 2 John, which encourages a particular local church to hold fast to both truth and love. So we're beginning a short series today, four weeks, through the books of 2 and 3 John. So let me invite you to take a Bible and turn over to 2 John. If you want to use one of these pew Bibles in front of you like this, you'll be able to find 2 John beginning on page 1025.

4:15 The first book you're probably going to find, because it's longer, is 1 John. That's another letter that was written by John. We'll talk about that in a few minutes. And then if you turn the page over a couple of times, you'll eventually hit 2 John, and then turn that page, and on the back of that you'll see 3 John. 2 John and 3 John, I think, are probably two of the most overlooked books in the entire New Testament. And that's for a couple of reasons. It's partly because these books are short. I mean, both of them, you can look at it. They each take up less than a half a page on your Bible. I mean, they tried to make them a little bit more substantial by sticking them on two different pages.

4:49 But you really could fit both of these books on one single page. They're tiny. They're the two shortest books in the entire Bible, in fact. And so we tend to overlook them. And, you know, because we think that short is less important, we tend to overlook them. Another reason that we tend to overlook them is probably because we just don't know much about these two letters. There's no sort of extended, detailed story that backs them up and that gives us background about them.

5:20 You remember, you know, a year or so ago we preached through the book of 2 Corinthians. And there's a whole back story to that book. And once you know the back story, the book of 2 Corinthians just kind of goes 3D, right? Because you're seeing it in its situation. You can understand why Paul said that as opposed to that and why he makes this argument. You don't really have anything like that in 2 and 3 John. We don't know when these books were written. We don't know to whom they were written. And we also don't know a lot about the reason they were written or the circumstances they were meant to address.

5:51 We just don't know a whole lot. In fact, everything we know about them is what we can pick up from the books themselves. Now, in terms of who wrote them, I mean, you can see pretty straightforwardly, they're the biggest letters on the page. Unbroken Tradition says that these two books, along with their counterpart, 1 John, were written by the Apostle John. We just spent a whole lot of time studying through the gospel that the Apostle John wrote, the gospel of John. And then some time ago, we spent a good amount of time reading through the other book that John wrote in the New Testament, the book of Revelation.

6:25 So there's an unbroken tradition that says John is the author of 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John, as well as the gospel and the apocalypse. Unbroken tradition. Now, that's not certain. I mean, none of these three letters actually says in its text that they were written by him. So the reason that we think they were written by John is because there are really tight similarities in vocabulary, in style, and in theme between these three letters and particularly the gospel of John that make us think it's a pretty good guess that they were written by him.

7:04 Now, as to the reason they were written, what we can pick up, you can read 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, what you can pick up from the whole thing is that apparently in whatever church these things were written to, and we don't know what church it was. The author doesn't tell us. He doesn't say like Paul often does to the saints in Ephesus or to the church in Rome. He doesn't do anything like that. So we have no idea to what church they're written. But apparently, in whatever church they were written to, some of the members of that church had turned out to be what our church's statement of faith calls superficial professors.

7:40 Now, I know that for some of you, when you read that phrase in the statement of faith for the first time, it catches you off guard because you're thinking about your university professors and how superficial they are, right? Yeah, yeah, I know. My professor, he thinks he's all that and he wears Gucci shoes and all the rest of it. But that dude is just an empty suit, right? He's a superficial professor. That is not what it means. What that phrase means and what these people were in these two books were people who professed faith in Jesus. So they're professors, right? Professors of faith in Jesus. But that profession turned out to be superficial.

8:14 It was just on the surface. There was nothing to it. They were superficial right on the surface professors, but it didn't go any deeper than that. So you can see that kind of thing, for example. You can look at these later. But if you turn back to 1 John 2.19, you'll see John kind of defining what this is. Though they were among us, they were not of us. They went out from us because they were not of us. They were not really part of us. They just claimed to be. If they were really of us, if they were really a part of us, they would have continued with us.

8:47 That's 1 John 2.19. And John even names one of these guys in 3 John 9. If you want to turn over there, Diotrephes. He says, doesn't recognize our authority, doesn't recognize the authority of the word. And so John says, if I come there to see you, I'm going to jack him up about that. That's what he basically says in 3 John 9. Well, at any rate, this guy Diotrephes and some of these other superficial professors had abandoned the church, and there were some other people who went with them. And the rest of the church members who were left were, as a result of that, left very unsettled.

9:21 They watched some of their friends go away. They watched some of these people who had at one time professed Christ abandon the church and go away. And they were left unsettled, wondering if maybe they themselves were going to prove to be just as false and just as superficial. So John writes these three letters really to settle their hearts, to encourage them to be strong in their faith in Christ. And to press on in their obedience to him and their love for one another. And I think that's one of the things that's, I'm not preaching 1 John. But it's one of the things that's critical for understanding the book of 1 John.

9:54 My guess is because we're in 2nd and 3rd, some of you are going to want to go read 1 John. That's great. I want you to understand it rightly if you do that, though. A lot of people approach the book of 1 John as if it is meant to unsettle the faith of apathetic Christians. That's how they approach it. If you're familiar with it, it's got these three what we call tests or marks of a Christian. That is, do you profess Jesus rightly? Do you understand who he is? Are you friends with the world? And do you love the brothers and sisters in your church?

10:24 Those are the three tests. And people approach that book as if it's terrifying. And when they read that book, what it's supposed to do is set off bombs in their soul to make them doubt their faith. So 1 John to a lot of Christians is a terrifying book. That is exactly the opposite of why Paul wrote it. Or John, not Paul. I'm going to do that a hundred times through this. So just, you know, I'm not going to correct it every time. But just write John in your notes. At any rate, it's the exact opposite of what John wrote. He had a church that was already unsettled because they'd seen people abandon it.

10:55 And so he writes 1 John and 2 and 3 to say to them, listen, look at yourselves. Look at your lives. You're not like them. They are friends with the world. They're rejecting Jesus. They're not loving the church, but you guys are. And so I'm writing these things so that you may know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life. It's a book. It's three books that are meant to settle faith, not unsettle it.

11:29 Christians, as they've read these three books, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, they've always noticed the similarity of theme that exists between these three letters. You have right profession of faith, obedience to the commands of Christ, not being a friend with the world. That's another way that John puts it. And then loving the brothers and sisters in the church. Those three themes weave through all three of these letters. You'll see that as we go through them. But why are there three different letters? I mean, were these to three different churches? Were they to different people within the church?

12:02 Well, why are there three? Well, as you read them, I think what you're going to realize is that each one of these three different letters was written for a different purpose. In fact, the best guess is that all three of them were probably carried in a single packet all at the same time by this guy named Demetrius that John commends at the end of 3 John. He basically says to the person he's writing to in 3 John, I commend Demetrius. He's well looked at by all the churches, and so you need to receive him, and here are the three letters that he's delivering for me.

12:36 Anyway, here's how these three letters seem to work. I'm going to tell you about them in reverse order, so starting with 3 John. Third John is a personal letter to one of the leaders of whatever church this is. Again, we don't know. But it's a personal letter from John to one guy named Gaius. Now, Gaius, we don't know anything about him. It's possible he was the main teaching pastor of the church. Maybe he was one of the elders of the church. We don't know. What we can tell from the book, what we can tell from the letter is that John had a deep personal friendship with this guy.

13:08 And so he writes this personal letter to encourage him as he's continuing to lead this very unsettled church. 2 John seems to be a letter written to the whole church and meant to be read publicly. And then 1 John, which isn't even technically in the form of a letter at all, seems to be more of a written sermon that was meant to be read to this church and maybe even to other churches in the area. So to bring it down to present day, it would have looked like a guy named Demetrius walking in with a leather satchel, and he's got three documents in that church that John has written. One of them goes to, you know, maybe me, you know, maybe John Hamilton is the vice chairman of the elders. It's coming to one elder, right? And so it's a personal letter from John to one of the elders, right? The second document would be a letter that John once read to you all as a church. It's very short, second John, that's what we're going to talk about. And then the third document would be a sermon. You know, like in our context, we'd either give over the morning sermon to it, and I would stand up here, and I would just read 1 John, or maybe we'd do it in the evening,

14:12 but it was a sermon that John wrote to be read to the congregation. And all three of those things are supposed to work together in the lives of the leadership, and in the lives of the congregation, and then through the preaching of the word to encourage this church to hold fast. So over the next four weeks, what we're going to be doing is looking at 2 and 3 John. We're going to look at The letter to the church and the letter to Gaius the Elder. We're not doing 1 John because I preached that already a few years ago. I don't remember exactly when. We might do that again sometime in the future. It's not going to be right now. But if you want to listen to those sermons on 1 John, you can find them, I'm sure, on the church website.

14:48 Okay, so let's read what John has to say to this worried, unsettled church. 2 John. The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth. And not only I, but also all who know the truth. Because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us. From God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son. In truth and love. I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth.

15:20 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 just the one we've 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.

15:52 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. Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete. The children of your elect sister greet you.

16:23 All right. Well, it's a short book, right? And in a short book like this, it's really not hard to sort of hold the whole thing in your mind all at the same time and get through your mind what John is trying to get across. It's just not that hard to do. Structurally, you've got three parts to it that are very, very easy to identify. So first you've got verses 1 to 3. That's the kind of intro, the greeting. Then you've got the body from verses 4 through 11. That's the big middle part. And then you've got the kind of outro or conclusion or the goodbye, the farewell, whatever you want to call it, in 12 through 13.

16:57 But look at the body. Look at that big middle part, verses 4 through 11. Even right there in the body, I think you can identify two distinct sections of it. And that's kind of where we're going to break these two sermons up. So in 4 to 6, John is encouraging this church to love one another just as they have been commanded to do by the Father. So the focus on that is love. In 7 through 11, he's warning them against embracing false teaching. In other words, he's encouraging them to hold fast to the truth that they have been taught.

17:29 So you can already see right here what this book is about. It's about two things. It's about encouraging this church to hang on to love. And it's about encouraging this church to hang on to truth. Truth and love. That's what the book is about. It's about looking this worried, unsettled, even panicking church in the eye, grabbing them by the lapels, and saying, calm down. Calm down. You are a people of truth and love. Stand firm on that and hold fast.

18:04 And I think that's the main idea. Here's what I think the main idea of this first half of 2 John is. We as a church, you and me, like us here at 3rd Avenue, We as a church are a people created by truth and therefore called to love. We are a people created by truth and therefore called to love. Friend, if those two things don't characterize you, if you are not characterized by truth and love, then you might very well be among us, but you are certainly not of us.

18:42 We are a people created by truth and therefore called to love. And if those don't characterize you, yeah, you may be among us. Maybe somebody who's here, somebody who attends, somebody maybe even who's a member. But if those don't characterize you, you are certainly not of us. Two points to the sermon this morning. We're going to look first at verses 1 to 3 and then verses 4 to 6. Number one, we are a people created by truth. First thing I want you to understand. We as a church, as Third Avenue Baptist, a local church, we are a people created by truth.

19:13 And second, therefore, because that is true, we are a people called to love. All right, so let's dive into it. We are a people created by truth. This book, 2 John, this letter, opens in the very typical way that most letters circulating throughout the Roman Empire opened during this time. You've got a statement of who's writing it. You have a statement of who's being written to. And then you've got some sort of a greeting, right? So the format is, you know, I, Greg, to the church at Louisville, greetings, grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, right?

19:48 That's the general form of these letters. And that's what you've got here in 2 John. You can see this pretty much in all the letters contained in the New Testament. Letters from Paul, letters from Peter. And you're going to see this very same formula there as here. John's intro, though, this greeting in verses 1 to 3 is interesting for a couple reasons. It's different from Paul and from Peter in a couple ways. I'm going to point those out. But the first thing I want you to look at and notice is what John's emphasis seems to be.

20:21 What is he talking about? What's on his mind? Now, how do you figure that out? How do you figure out what his emphasis is, what's on his mind? Well, one of the ways in reading your Bible that you can kind of start to understand what a passage is about, what its emphasis is, is to look for words or concepts that get repeated over and over and over. And when you see that, you can kind of jot it down. Like one of the emphases of this very clearly seems to be blah because it's said, you know, so many times in this paragraph.

20:52 So using that tool, what do you see repeated here over and over and over? Take a look at it. One through three, what concept or word even gets repeated again and again and again? It's truth. Truth gets repeated over and over again. It gets repeated, in fact, four times in three verses, and then there's a fifth time in verse four. So clearly, John is wanting to turn this church's mind toward the importance of truth. He doesn't want them sunk in falsehood. He doesn't want them blown about by every wind of false doctrine that comes through the church.

21:26 He wants their minds and their feet stayed on truth. And it's no wonder that he wants that. I mean, think about it. The whole problem in this church is that certain of its members have embraced some sort of false teaching. And therefore, because of that false teaching, they've abandoned the church and the gospel. That's what's caused the problem is an abandonment of truth. So right here at the start, Paul wants to take that concept of truth and set it front and center right in front of them. This is what I'm going to talk to you about. I'm talking to you about holding fast to the truth of the gospel and not abandoning it.

22:01 That's what he's doing. Now, all four of those uses of truth actually function in a slightly different way. They're doing different things. They're teaching us something. Each one of them is teaching us something a little bit different about what truth is and how it functions in the Christian life, in the life of the church. In a few minutes, we're going to talk exactly about how truth functions in all those various ways. But first, I just want you to notice a few details that make this intro different from like Paul and Peter. First of all, notice there in verse 1 that John refers to himself as the elder.

22:37 He calls himself the elder. The elder to the elect lady and her children, right? In Paul's letters or Peter's letters, you would get Paul called to be an apostle to the church in Colossae. Not here. You just get the elder. That's really the only identification of the author we get. Now, as I said earlier, there's an unbroken tradition that ascribes these letters to John. Like literally not many Christians at all through the last 2,000 years, whether Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic or Protestant, very few people have ever doubted that John wrote these letters, and the ones that have doubted it have not done so very credibly.

23:12 Their case is not very good. But if this is the Apostle John, why does he call himself the Elder rather than, say, an Apostle? Like John does, or like Paul does. I'm going to get them all confused. Paul says Apostle over and over again. John goes with Elder. Why does he do that? Well, it's not that John isn't an Apostle anymore. He is. And he's acting as an apostle, even in writing this letter, to a different church.

23:45 In fact, if you look at 3 John, he's even going to assert some apostolic authority in 3 John 9. But again, tradition tells us that by the end of the first century, by the end of his life, John had actually settled into a long pastorate, a long eldership at the city of Ephesus in that church. So for most of the last years of his life, his role wasn't any longer to travel around apostling. He was a pastor. He was an elder. And so that's how he identifies himself here.

24:17 It means he was a pastor of a church. Well, right after he identifies himself as an elder, he addresses his letter to the elect lady and her children. So who's that? The elect lady and her children. Well, lots of ink throughout the centuries has been spilled trying to figure out what this means. And the questions are just legion. Is this an actual lady who has some children? Maybe it's a rich patron of the church. Maybe she has a big house where this city's church can meet. And he's writing to this elect lady and her children.

24:48 My favorite guest, just in terms of I think it being the most amusing, is someone who said that he's talking about a lady named Electa. So you've got the elder to the lady Electa, because that's what the Greek word is. And people have said, that's her name. To the lady, Electa, which kind of makes me think she ought to look like a Spice Girl or something. Like, wow, I am Electa, right? Anyway, that's unlikely. It's probably not a lady named Electa unless, if you look down in verse 13, she's also got a sister who is also named Electa.

25:24 The children of your sister, Electa, oh, Electa, greet you. That's a weird family if that's what's going on. No, the best understanding of this is that this is a way to say the elect lady and her children, this is a way of referring to the church and its members. The lady, the elect lady, is this local church as a whole, considered as an institution, considered as an organization. It's got a mission, and it can act as one. That's the lady, and her children are the members of the church.

25:58 That's how you should understand it. Now, a couple things to say about that. For one thing, you just need to understand that this may not be a thing for any of you, but this is not uncommon, to refer to the local church as a lady, as a feminine figure. It happens all the time. So in Revelation, John will call the church the bride of Christ, right? Feminine figure. In Peter, in one of his letters, he calls the local church in Rome, she who is in Babylon, meaning Rome, right? She who is in Babylon, a feminine figure. So it's pretty natural, pretty common to refer to the local church as an elect lady.

26:34 I mean, there's just nothing unusual about that. Here's another thing, though, that I want you to notice here. Notice that John draws a distinction. He draws a distinction. He doesn't make a separation. But he draws a distinction between the members of the church, the children, and the church as a whole, the lady. There's a distinction between the members of the church and the church as a whole, considered as an organization. Now that's challenging to some of us, isn't it?

27:08 Because we often, even here at Third Avenue, we often say things like, the church is its members. It's not a building, it's not a hierarchy, it's not, the church is its members. And that's true. The church is its members. When you boil it all down, that's what it's made of. But John wants you to recognize here, too, that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Now, what do I mean by that? The whole of the church is more than the sum of its parts.

27:42 The church as an organization, an institution, is more than just a mob of Christians who have decided to be friends together. The church is not just a grouping of believers. The church is not merely its members. So what more is it? What more is the church as an institution, an organization, that its members, considered altogether, are not? Well, the church is a group of people, yes, but a group of people who have covenanted together to do and be certain things.

28:17 And when that group of believers does that, when they make that covenant together, King Jesus elevates that group of people into something more than a group, something more than a mob, into something that they were not before, something higher and more important than just a group of Christians. They become a church, an embassy of the high king of heaven in this fallen world. They become a military unit of the armies of heaven. Look, here's the danger of not seeing that. In our zeal to remember that the church is ultimately people, In our zeal to remember that the church is ultimately people, not a building, not this or that, it is very easy for us to talk ourselves into forgetting that the church is not merely people.

29:05 It's not merely a group of friends that gather together once or twice a week. No, the church is people who have done something. It's people who have covenanted together in order to be made into a church. An embassy of heaven, a military unit in the armies of the God of hosts. It's people who have covenanted together to submit to that embassy's collective authority, to carry out that embassy's mission in the world, to do everything and be everything that Jesus intends for one of his embassies to be.

29:37 So yeah, the church is people. There's no getting around that. Never lose sight of that. But also never forget that the church is also more than the sum of its parts to the elect lady and her children. Okay, well, let's look at those four uses of truth in these verses. If you look down at verses 1 to 3, four times truth is used. Two of them are in verse 1. So John says there that he loves this church in truth, right? And then he says that it's not just he himself who loves them, but it's everybody who knows the truth.

30:09 See that? So just in that first verse, you can see two things about truth. You can love someone in truth. So what does that mean? What does it mean to love someone in truth? And then you can also know the truth, right? and it's knowing the truth that causes you to love others in truth. So you can already learn all of that. Then there's a third use in verse 2 where John says that he loves them and the rest of the people who know the truth love them. They love each other because of the truth, he says. And then the last time in verse 3 where he says that grace, mercy, and peace will be with us forever, and they will be with us in truth and love.

30:46 Okay, so that's how the word is used. What's the picture that John's painting there? Well, when you start to pull it all together, what he's saying is that we as a church, as the elect lady, are a people who are created by and shaped by and driven by truth. By which he means the gospel of Jesus and all its entailments. Everything that Jesus taught is what establishes and creates the church. All right, so let's keep looking at it. So look at the first verse there. John says first that he loves this church in truth.

31:18 I love you in truth. What does that mean? Love in truth. Now, if your ears are sharp, if your ears are on, then you recognize that that's an interesting reversal of the far more famous phrase in Ephesians where the Apostle Paul says that we are to speak the truth in love. Now, that one we tend to like, right? Brother, you need to speak the truth in love. You need to speak the truth in love. And the reason we like it is because speaking the truth in love in our imaginations is not actually true.

31:53 But to speak the truth in love softens in our imaginations the impact of the truth. And so we like that. So there in Ephesians, it's you should speak the truth in love. Here, it's you should love in truth. And what he means by that is that the love that he bears for this church is not unfounded. It's not untethered. It's not just floating on a wild sea of sentiment and emotion. That's not what it is. It's love, yes, that is shaped by and grounded in what is true.

32:28 You get that? It's love that is shaped by and grounded in what is true. Now, friends, that is a critically important point, that we learn how to love in truth. Not just speak the truth in love, true, but we got to learn to love in truth. Because what Satan is busy trying to do to churches today, in our nation and across the world, what he's busy trying to do is convince us that to love someone means that in one way or another, we have to let go of the truth.

33:03 We have to loosen our grip on the truth. He's saying, look, if you really want to love someone, if you really want to love the people in your class, or at your school, or at your workplace, or your neighbors, if you truly want to love them, you've got to give on what the Bible says is true, for example, about human sexuality. You've got to compromise on what the Bible says about the fact that God made us male and female. To love, Satan wants us to believe, you have to concede just a little bit of truth by engaging in pronoun hospitality.

33:46 Look, I know that those sentences right there probably raise all kinds of questions for a lot of you. What do I do about this? What about this? What if this happens? What am I supposed to do with this? And frankly, I'm glad it does. I'm glad it raises those questions. Those are live issues for many, many people in our congregation, and I'm happy for those conversations, all those what abouts and what ifs. I'm happy for those to be happening among us in our home groups, with elders, with other church members. Glad for that to happen. For now, though, and even in order to help shape those conversations as you have them, I want to focus on what John focuses on here, which is the fundamental principle that love must be shaped by and grounded in truth or it is not love at all.

34:32 Love must be shaped by and grounded in truth or it is not love at all. All right, look at the next phrase. He says, they're not just I, but all who know the truth. It's not just I who love you. It's everybody who knows the truth. You see the point there, right? The point here is that he's not the only one who loves them. He's not the only one who's rooting for them in this trial that they're going through. The whole Christian world loves them. Everybody who believes the gospel. But look how he describes that Christian world. Look how he describes Christians all over the world.

35:03 They are those who know the truth. Now, that is a fascinating and, in our world, more than slightly offensive way to describe ourselves as Christians, isn't it? We are the ones who know the truth. You ever think about that? I mean, you and I today live in a dark world full of not much but ignorance and falsehoods, and we are the only ones with light. We're the ones who know the truth.

35:37 Now, I know that to 95% of the ears in our world, that sounds awful. It sounds exclusive. And maybe you're even sitting there. Maybe you're even a member of the church and saying, Greg, that sounds so arrogant. Maybe you should soften that a little bit. Maybe it's that we have some of the truth. Maybe it's the most important truth. But, friends, notice that I'm not the first one saying that. I'm not the first one calling us those who know the truth.

36:07 John is, and Jesus before him. Christians are those who know the truth. And honestly, I am pretty convinced that an impulse by many Christians to say something like, well, yeah, sure, we know the truth, but we're not the only ones who know truth. Other people have some truth too, and we need to be humble in recognizing that. I'm pretty sure that that impulse is a huge part of what cripples our desire and drive to tell people about Jesus. I mean, think about that. Think about it.

36:38 If there's saving truth out there everywhere, I'm not talking about truths like the sky is blue. I'm not talking about those kinds of truths. I'm talking about saving truth. If that's out there just everywhere for anybody to pick up from any religion or non-religion, then why should we bother to go out of our way to tell them about Jesus? They'll figure it out themselves. Oh, but listen, if we understand that what we know about Jesus and the gospel of saving faith is the only saving truth in the universe, then we're going to feel the burden far more heavily to go tell them because if we don't, where else are they going to get it?

37:18 It's not just laying around on the ground. We are the people, we are the only people who know the truth that Jesus alone saves sinners. Don't keep that to yourself. Go tell them. Look at the next phrase. It's key to the message of this letter. Verse 2. We who know the truth, here's a summary. We who know the truth, love each other in truth because of the truth that is in us. And will be with us forever. So we who know the truth, love each other in truth.

37:50 And the reason we do that is because of the truth. See that? The reason we love each other like this is because of the truth. Because we mutually embrace the truth that Jesus died and rose again and that he saved sinners. That's why we love each other. That's the truth that makes us love one another. In other words, it's the truth that creates us as a church and as a community of love. And the world has a whole lot of ideas of what love is. The world has a whole lot of ways to talk about love.

38:21 But what we talk about in the church when we talk about love is a mutual love between people who may not have much else in common at all except that they both love the Jesus who died for them and rose again. I mean, look around this room. You're going to see some people who are your life stage, your age, your ethnicity, whatever category you want to think about. You'll see those people. And the world wouldn't begrudge you for a second creating a relationship and a friendship of love with those kinds of people, the ones who are like you.

38:54 It's not weird at all. No, what's weird is when you look across those categories and you say, I'm going to love that person, even though we're not in any, the two of us are not in any one category that you can imagine at all, except the fact that we're humans. And you say, I'm going to love that person anyway, because the one grand category that we're both a part of is we both love Jesus. You see the point already, just looking at these three verses? Truth and love are not just two random things that are supposed to mark us as a church.

39:28 They are the defining characteristics of any church of Jesus Christ, and they're inextricably linked to each other. We are a community of love that is created by, and then shaped by, and then driven by the truth of the gospel. So, friends, is that true of us as a church? Is that true of you? A couple of weeks ago, I had a phone conversation with a long-time friend of mine.

40:00 I've known the guy for 25 years, and we had a thing to talk through. And at the beginning of that conversation, I said something to him like, listen, I know you to be a man of great love and great honesty. I don't remember the exact quote, but it was something like that. And honestly, I didn't even notice what I said at the time. Didn't notice the significance of it. But do you see what I was saying there? Essentially what I was saying, without even recognizing it, is I know you to be a man of truth and love. Of love that is shaped by and guided by truth.

40:32 I've known the man for 25 years. And that's what I know him to be. A man of truth and love. And brothers and sisters, that's what ought to mark every single one of us. I hope, I hope that when people spend just a tiny little bit of time with us, that's what they see. I hope they walk away going, that's a church that loves each other so well. They care about each other, but that's not a love that has bought into the lie that means letting people do whatever they want.

41:06 It's a love that is defined by what is true. When they speak to one another, they do it in love. And when they love each other, they do it in truth. That's my prayer for us, just as it was John's prayer for this church. We are a people created by truth. Point two, and therefore, we are a people called to love. Let's look at this. The body of this letter actually begins in verse four. It's worth taking just a moment to look at some interesting things in verse three first. I could point these out.

41:36 I don't think I'm going to talk about all of them. Do notice in verse 3, just kind of a sidebar, how John says that grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son. Normally you don't get the extra from there. You'll just get from God the Father and Jesus Christ the Father's Son. What John is doing with that extra from in front of Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ is elevating the Son in no uncertain terms to equality with the Father. That's what he's doing. He's putting them on the same plane. Grace, mercy, and peace come from the Father and equally from the Son.

42:10 So if you have any idea that the idea of the Trinity or equality of the Son with the Father came, you know, a century later or something like that, it's just not true. John is doing it right here. He's doing it kind of with a coded sort of thing. It's not straightforward. But he's already made it clear in his gospel anyway that that's what he thinks. Well, after he greets them in 1 through 3, he gets to the main body of the letter in 4 through 11. You can see that long paragraph there. We're going to look not at that whole thing, but at the first section of that body today.

42:44 So we're going to look at 4 through 6. So look what he says there. He says, I rejoice greatly to find or encounter some of your children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady, dear church, not as though I were writing a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning. I ask you 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, that you should walk in it. The so is probably not supposed to be there. It's just this is the commandment, that you should walk in it. That's probably what that means.

43:15 I think John's thought here is pretty easy to follow. There's nothing all that hard, at least until you get to verse 6. Verse 6 can be a little bit confusing. 4 and 5 are pretty easy, though. John is overjoyed, he says there in 4. He's rejoicing greatly to encounter, find. It's actually the Greek word eureka, right? It's like I have found something. Eureka, I found it. And he's saying I encountered kind of by accident some members of your church, and I'm overjoyed to see that they're walking in the truth. Now, that can be confusing because it can sound like he's saying, I'm glad that some of you are walking in the truth.

43:51 I was glad to find some of you walking in the truth. Others of you, not so much. It can sound like that. That's not what it means. What it means is that somehow or another, John encountered Eureka, some of the members of this church. And it just turned out that they happened to be walking in the truth, and John is glad of that. We don't have any idea how he encountered them. Probably what happened is that some members of the church were coming to Ephesus, found John the apostle, told him about what was going on in their church. It's a pretty common thing to happen.

44:21 You see it with Chloe's people talking to Paul. It's just very common in the Roman Empire for people to travel across the empire and bring news. So John's glad. These members are walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded. You know where the Father commanded that, right? To walk in truth. It's in John 6, where Jesus tells the people, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. You want to do what God says to do? Believe in him whom he has sent. John puts it like this in 1 John 3.

44:51 This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ. Just as he has commanded us. So that's what he means. The Father's commanded us to believe, and these guys are doing it. Yay. That's what that means. I met these members. They were walking in the truth just as God commanded. Well, five is, I think, equally straightforward. John asks this church to do what they already know they ought to do. Continue to love one another. Continue to love one another.

45:22 See that? I ask you, dear lady, not as though we're writing you a new commandment, but the one we've had right from the very beginning, I ask you that we love one another. A couple of interesting things here. For one thing, notice that at least as it concerns himself, not Jesus, but at least as it concerns himself, John, he puts this in terms of a request. Jesus doesn't put it as a request. John the apostle does. I ask you, dear lady, I ask you. Now, it's not that John doesn't have the authority as an apostle to say, I command you.

45:57 He does have that authority. But here he softens that authority into a request that he's confident the church is going to agree to. Sometimes there's wisdom in that, right? Sometimes you do, in fact, have authority to say to someone, I command this of you. I demand it by authority of you. But sometimes wisdom calls for authority like that to be attenuated. Sometimes it calls for that kind of authority to be softened into something like a request.

46:33 But I mean, behind that, you see pretty clearly that it's not just a request either. And he makes that clear. He's saying, I may be requesting it of you, but Jesus commands it of you. It comes with the power of a command, right? I'm asking you this, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but I'm writing you a commandment that we've had from the beginning. I'm bringing that commandment from Jesus to mind. What he means is I'm not telling you anything new. I'm telling you what you've known right from the very beginning. What you've known from the beginning is that Jesus commanded us to love one another.

47:03 He's talking about what Jesus said in John 13, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. And John's saying that commandment may have been new when Jesus said it, but it's been like 70 years and it's not new anymore. You all know this. Love one another. Well, then you've got verse 6, basically where John is tying love and obedience together into this one tight little package. But the problem is that the logic in it is so tight, actually, that you have to pay very careful attention to that verse to see what he's doing.

47:42 So let me try to walk you through it. First thing he says there, the first step in the logic that he's tracing out there in verse 6, is just defining love in a certain way. You see that? This is love. What is love? This is love. That we walk according to his commandments. Okay, so what does that mean? Well, what John's thinking about there is that he's thinking back to what Jesus said in John 14, 15. Do you remember? If you love me, Jesus says, you will keep my commandments.

48:17 It's almost word for word what John says here. It's the first step. If you love Jesus, you will keep his commandments. This is love for Jesus, that you keep his commandments. That's what he means. But that leads to the second step, all right? If loving Jesus means to keep his commandments, just as he said, then what are those commandments? What's the commandments? right? Well, some people have said, well, the commandments are everything that Jesus said.

48:48 Everything that Jesus ever taught, that's what John means when he says, keep the commandments. It's true that we should keep those commandments, but just looking at the way John talks, that's not really what he's talking about. He's not talking about every possible thing that Jesus said. Again and again in these letters, he's more particular than that. He's more specific. He puts particular emphasis on two of Jesus' commands. It's true in all three of his letters. He puts emphasis on two commands of Jesus. Number one, to believe in him. And number two, to love one another. That's how John summarizes the commandments of Jesus. Believe in him and love one another. That's what it means to be a Christian. And so that's what he says here. The commandment, and it's not a new one, you've known it since the beginning.

49:37 The commandment is that you walk in it and crash, right? Because that's where you kind of lose the threat. That's where you can't tell any more easily what he's saying. Walk in what? To love Jesus is to keep his commandment, and the commandment, which you've known from the very beginning, is to walk in it. Okay, so what's the it? What's the it? It's not clear at all what that it is referring to.

50:08 Is it the commandment? The commandment is that you walk in the commandment? It may be. It might be that. Because we know what the commandments are, right? They're to believe in Jesus and to love one another. So it might be. The commandment is that you do those two things. The commandment is that you walk in the commandment. Is it love? The commandment is to walk in love. Again, maybe. I mean, that would make verse 6 a nice little package, right? To love Jesus is to keep his commandment, and the commandment is to walk in love.

50:39 It's a nice little closed-up package there. Maybe. Or is it truth? The commandment is to walk in the truth. Again, maybe. Truth be told, I don't know what it's referring to. I don't know what that it is. Nobody knows what that it is. There's not enough evidence to nail it down. but I wonder if that's the point. I wonder if John wants your mind bouncing back and forth among the commandment and love and truth and sort of letting it all swirl together into one thing.

51:14 I wonder if that's the whole point. I wonder if he wants us to struggle with that little it and realize that it's talking about both truth and love. To love Jesus is to keep his commandments and his commandment, which you've known from the very beginning, is to walk in truth and to walk in love. I think that's probably the best guess. Whether you think that's what the it is talking about or not, that's certainly the message of this letter so far. If you love Jesus, you keep his commandments, and to keep his commandments is to walk in truth and to walk in love. That's the message of the book. We as a church are to walk in truth and we are to walk in love all because we are a people who know the truth of the gospel and have been loved to the uttermost by Jesus.

51:54 That's what it means. Okay, so what does it look like practically? What does it mean to walk in love and walk in truth when it comes down to the real stuff of life? Well, I think it's super interesting just to take John's phrasing here and put it next to Paul's phrasing in Ephesians. We are to love in truth and we are to speak the truth in love, both. And it's wrong to emphasize one of those to the expense of the other.

52:31 Because the fact is, I mean, you don't have to think about it very long to figure this out. Our love for each other can grow soft and compromised if it is not strengthened by truth. And our truth can grow hard and violent if it is not tempered by love. But you hold truth and love together in one hand, and you've got what John is talking about here. You are to love in truth, and you are to speak the truth in love.

53:03 Friends, this church ought to be marked equally by love and truth. And you understand, right, it's not that we've got this balance where love and truth are opposite things, and we just want to make sure that we've got, you know, enough weight on both to kind of keep it in balance. That's not the whole, that's not the point at all. Love and truth are not two opposites that balance each other out. Love and truth are inextricably connected because love is not love without truth. And truth is not complete without love.

53:37 So, thinking about that, what's your tendency? What is your tendency? Is your tendency to let love run amok? Because you're not willing at certain points to say truth, even hard truth, to people who need to hear it. Is that your tendency? Or is your tendency to let truth become an instrument of destruction because you're not willing to speak it in love? You'd rather just, you know, load up your Holy Ghost bazooka and destroy somebody's world. Brothers and sisters, let's do what John calls us to here.

54:11 Let's be a people of love and truth. Truth and love. Let's speak the truth in love and let's love each other in truth. That's what Satan wants us to forget how to do. And yet it's exactly what our King Jesus calls us to. Let's pray. Our Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are the way and the truth and the life. Our God, we praise you that you are love. And Father, as a church and as individual Christians, we want to reflect your character.

54:45 We want to reflect the character of your son, Jesus. So, Lord, we pray that you would make us a people that are marked by truth in love and love in truth. Father, help us. Help us to do all things well so that our Lord Jesus might be glorified and so that we might be blessed as a church. We pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.