2 and 3 John
Tape
#C2637
By
Chuck Smith
Tonight, we
want to look at 2 John and 3 John and the book of Jude, all short little
one-chapter epistles. The epistles of 2 John and 3 John were of course, written
by the apostle John. A situation existed in the early church of itinerant
prophets. There were men who traveled and they would come to the various
churches that have been established or founded. And they would exercise to the
churches their gift of prophecy, speaking through the anointing of the Holy Spirit,
in the edifying of the churches, in the comforting of the saints, building up
the body of Christ.
Now there
were those who would come to the church claiming this gift of prophecy,
claiming to be speaking in the name of the Lord who were
really false prophets, and they would be giving off with their false concepts
under the guise of a prophet. If someone should come in here and say, I’m a
prophet of God, you know, and I have a message for the church, we’d send them
to Romaine to check out the message.
But in the
early church, there would be these groups, itinerant prophets who would travel
around, come to the church, minister to the church.
Now there came to be abuses with this. There would come those that would claim
to be a prophet speaking for God and they’d say, Thus saith
the Lord, Prepare a great steak dinner, mashed potatoes and green beans, you
know. Or, In the name of the Lord, you know, they would --they would say, Thus saith the Lord, you know,
Take care of this man’s needs. Give him money for his purse.
So it was
necessary in the early church that they write some guidelines for these
itinerant evangelists and prophets. And so there was a book known as the Dedike, which means the teachings of the apostles, the
didactic. And this Dedike were instructions from the
apostles to the various churches on how to judge a false prophet and basically,
some of the rules by which they judge them. If they come in, if they came in
and ministered, received them and all, accept them, and if they stayed more than
three days, then they were false prophets. Started living off the people, you
know.
And they
did have a rule in the Dedike, it said, If they order a meal prepared in the name of the Lord, and
if they eat of that meal, they’re a false prophet. But if they order it
prepared for the poor, and all, and don’t partake, then they are to be accepted
and honored. If they, in the name of the Lord, you know, order money to be
given to them, they were false prophets. Now in the second epistle that John
writes, he deals with the truth. Of course, both epistles are very interested
in the truth. And in the first one, he deals with those false prophets and
their false testimony concerning Jesus Christ.
In the
third epistle, he deals with one of the men in the church who did not want any
prophets coming in, would not accept or receive any of them because he himself
was one of the preeminence. And to Gaius, who the
third epistle was addressed to, he told them that he did well in accepting and
giving hospitality to these itinerant prophets and evangelists and that there
was one, Demetrius, who was coming and he encouraged him to receive him. He was
a good man. So behind the two epistles
lie these itinerant prophets and evangelists who just traveled around, sort of
nomads in the early church. And of course, the theme of both of the epistles is
truth.
So the
first or the second epistle of John, he writes to the, he writes addressing
himself as the elder. Now that word “elder” could mean aged or ancient. It also
was a title within the churches. Each of the churches had their elders who were
the overseers of the church, but the Greek word “presbyturos”
was originally just used for an aged person. At this point when John is
writing, he’s probably over ninety years old, so he’s very qualified to call
himself the elder. Both of these epistles, if you’ll notice, are quite short
and in both of them, he mentions that there are a lot of things he wants to
write about, but he will save that until he sees them face to face. He’d rather
just talk to them about it than write to them about it.
Now in
those days, they had a writing material, a parchment, that was 8 x 10 inches,
which is close to the 8 1/2 x 11 notebook paper that
you grew up in school with. And interestingly enough, each of these little
epistles would fit very well on one of those little 8 x 10 pieces of paper. So
that’s probably what John originally wrote these on, just some of that original parchments that they had, 8 x 10 inches and he
wrote out these little epistles.
But he calls
himself the aged,
The elder unto
the elect lady and her children (1:1),
Now there
is, you know, question as to who the elect lady was, if it were actually a
person, an individual, or if he was writing to a church. “The
elect lady and her children.” We don’t know. But he said,
whom I
love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth (1:1);
As I said,
the truth is the theme of the epistle.
For the truth's
sake, which dwells in us, and shall be with us for ever (1:2).
Jesus said
my words are truth. He said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, my words shall
not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). The truth exists forever. And so I love in the
truth. I love in truth. And all they that have known the
truth, for the truth’s sake.
Grace be with you, and mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and
from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love (1:3).
Grace,
mercy and peace: these are common greetings in the New Testament epistles.
Usually just grace and peace, some of them is added mercy. To Timothy and Titus
was added grace, mercy and peace. The grace of God is
God’s unmerited favor to you. It’s getting what you don’t deserve, the goodness
of God, the blessings of God which we don’t deserve, yet God bestows upon them.
That’s grace. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve.
David when
he prayed, prayed very wisely, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to the
multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions” (Psalm 51:1). And
whenever I pray, I always pray, Have mercy upon me, O
God. I never say, O God, I want justice. I’d be burning, mercy, Lord, not
getting what I deserve. But God goes one step further, grace, hey; He gives me
what I don’t deserve, His love, His goodness, His kindness, His blessings. I
don’t deserve them but He bestows them upon me, the grace of God, the mercy of
God and peace.
He said,
I rejoiced
greatly that I found thy children walking in truth (1:4),
Boy, if you
don’t know that truth is the theme of the epistle, you ought to know it by now.
He in each of the verses so far has mentioned it at least once, sometimes more
than once. “I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth,”
as we
have received a commandment from the Father. And now I beseech thee, lady, not
as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the
beginning, that we love one another (1:4‑5).
This is
really the essence of the New Testament and the commandments of Jesus. Jesus
said, “A new commandment give I unto thee, That you
love one another.” Jesus said, “By this sign shall men know that you are my
disciples, that you love one another” (John 13:34‑35). This is a sign to
the world.
Now
unfortunately, the church’s witness to the world hasn’t been that good. When
churches get in squabbles with each other, when there is fighting and division
in the body, it’s a very poor witness to the world. It’s no sign that we’re His
disciples. “We know,” John said, “that we have passed
from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14). How do I
know that I’ve really passed from death unto life? God’s love planted in my
heart for the brethren. So the commandment that we have from the beginning is
that we should love one another.
And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the
commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it (1:6).
So we
should walk in love. Love one towards another. This is the agape love that’s
sacrificing, self-effacing, giving love.
Now he
deals with,
Many deceivers
are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist (1:7).
Remember in
his first epistle, he said, “Believe not every spirit but try the spirits to
see if they be of God. And every spirit that testifieth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: But every spirit that
testifies not that Jesus is come in the flesh is not of God: the spirit of
antichrist, which is already at work in the world” (1 John 4:1‑3). So now
again he talks about “deceivers entered into the world, who confess that Jesus
Christ, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” (2 John 1:7).
Interestingly
enough, though it looks identical to his first epistle, there is a very
interesting difference in the Greek. That difference lies in the tense. And in
the second epistle here that we are considering tonight, the word literally is
“coming in the flesh.” Now in the first epistle, it was that He had come in the
flesh; that is, His first coming was in the flesh.
You see,
there were the Gnostics who declared that Jesus was a phantom, an apparition.
There appears to be a person but it wasn’t really there. It’s just an
apparition. That everything of the material is evil,
everything that is of material substance is inherently evil. Thus, had Jesus
had a material body it would have been evil and He could not have been God;
therefore, He did not have a material body because that’s evil. All material is
evil. And the Gnostics taught that Jesus was just a phantom and they had
stories about when He would walk on the sand, you wouldn’t see any footprints,
you know, and they developed all kinds of things like this. Jesus was an
apparition. He didn’t really come in the flesh.
John said
in the first epistle that whoever declares that was, you know, that’s the way
you test the spirits to see if they’re really of God. Here the test is: Is He
coming in the flesh? Now there is a very interesting point to be made here and
that is, the Jehovah Witnesses deny that Jesus is coming in the flesh. His
coming is a spiritual coming. He came in 1914, established the
Now look to
yourselves [or be careful],
that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full
reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God (1:8‑9).
Though they
claim to have the Father, Jehovah Witnesses, yet their denial of Christ is also
denial of the Father.
He that abides
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come
any unto you (1:9‑10),
On Saturday morning.
and bring
not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him goodbye,
God speed: for he that bids him God speed is a partaker of his evil deeds (1:10‑11).
So when
they leave, don’t say, Well, God bless you, brother. Or God bless, you don’t
want God to bless their pernicious ways. They are denying the truth of God that
Jesus Christ is God manifested in the flesh and that Jesus is coming in the
flesh. They deny that. So don’t bid them God bless you. You might say, God
bring you to the truth. God bring you out of darkness into the glorious light
of His Son, but not God bless you.
Having many
things to write unto you, I would not write them with paper and ink: but I
trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full (1:12).
Fullness of
joy, that’s what the Lord wants for every child of God. The fullness of joy is
mentioned by Jesus in John, the fifteenth chapter. It’s related to abiding in
Him. In the sixteenth chapter of the gospel of John, it’s related to your
prayer life. “Ask, that you might receive, that your joy may be full” (John
16:24). In the first epistle of John, the fullness of joy is related to our
fellowship with God. “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you might have fellowship with us: and
truly our fellowship is with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ. And these
things write we unto you, that your joy may be full”
(1 John 1:34). Now the fullness of joy is related to just getting together
with the body of Christ in fellowship.
Tomorrow we
go out to
So there’s
that fullness of joy as we relate to each other the things of Christ, as we
talk about the Lord and about the ministry of the Holy Spirit within our hearts
and through our lives. Fullness of joy. “I’d like to
write other things to you but I’d rather wait until we see each other face to
face, that our joy may be full."
The children of
thy elect sister greet thee. Amen (1:13).
3 John
So the
third epistle of John is now again, John addresses himself as
The elder [the presbyturos] unto the wellbeloved Gaius (1:1),
Probably
not the Gaius mentioned in Paul’s epistle to the
Corinthians where he was in
whom I
love in the truth. Beloved (1:1‑2),
And he’s
talking to Gaius.
I wish above
all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth (1:2).
Now there
are many people who quote this scripture as a sort of promise for healing. And
they twist the scriptures slightly making it really sort of God’s declaration,
God saying I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in good health,
even as your soul prospers. But this is a personal letter from John to Gaius. And he is greeting Gaius
who is well-loved with this beautiful wish that you may prosper and be in good
health. As we so often in our letters writing to someone we haven’t seen for a
long time, I hope that this letter finds you in good health. So to use this as
a promise for healing is really not scriptural, as God’s promise for healing.
It is the wish of John for Gaius. Beautiful wish
indeed. “I wish that you might prosper and be in good health, even as your soul
prospers.”
But it is
interesting that there is a relationship made between the prosperity of the
soul and the physical well being. And we are discovering more and more as we
study the human body that there is a very definite direct relationship between
a person’s physical health and their mental well-being. We are learning how
that attitude can change the body chemistry and that bad attitudes can create
harmful chemicals that will attack your body physically. And there’s a definite
relationship between mental attitude and organic illnesses in many cases. The
psychologist say ninety percent, I think, that they’re overstressing their
side. But there is a definite relationship between many illnesses and the
mental attitude of the person. So there’s a correlation made between the
physical well-being with the mental, the prosperity of the soul, the mind.
There is a
proverb that says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Proverbs 17:22).
You know that they have discovered that that is scientifically correct. That
laughter aids tremendously in the digestion of food. You ought to have a joke
book at your dinner table. Bitterness can eat at your physical being, can create ulcers, chemicals that are harmful,
destructive. So it is interesting that John would make the correlation between
the physical and the emotional or mental. “I wish above all things that you may
prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers.”
For I rejoiced
greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee,
even as you walk in truth. And I have no greater joy than to hear that my
children walk in truth (1:3‑4).
I can
concur with what John is saying here. The greatest joy, I think, of a teacher
is to hear that their children are walking in truth. You know, to come across
someone that you ministered to fifteen, twenty years ago and find them walking
in the truth is just a thrill, no greater joy.
In the same
way, there’s probably no greater sorrow than to hear that your children have
turned from the truth, got caught up in some weird doctrine, some heresy.
That’s painful, that hurts. But “no greater joy than to hear
that they are walking in the truth.”
Beloved, you do
faithfully whatever you do to the brethren, to the strangers; Which have borne
witness of your love before the church: whom if you bring forward on their
journey after a godly sort, you will do well (1:5‑6):
Now he’s
talking about Gaius’s treatment of these itinerary
evangelists and prophets. You’ve been hospitable to them. You’ve helped them
along their way. And in this you did well. It was, and they’ve come, and
they’ve told of your love. They’ve told of your hospitality.
Because that
for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing from the heathens (1:7).
So these
itinerant prophets have gone forth in the name of the Lord and for his name’s
sake, but they wouldn’t take anything from the Gentiles, which is in the New
Testament Greek the heathen or the pagans, because in Christ, you know, they
were all brothers. “There is no Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian” (Colossians
3:11). So the Gentiles referred to those outside of Christ.
I question some of the fund raising techniques of the
churches today that go to the major corporations or they go to the businesses
or they they go to the world to find financing for
the ministry and for the work of the church. The early prophets that went forth
did not practice that. In fact, as I told you, if they asked for money they
were considered to be a false prophet. That’s the apostle wrote their Dedike and they said if they ask for money they’re false
prophets. So he is encouraging Gaius in his
hospitality, the love that he had shown was good.
It had been
reported and he said,
We ought to
receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers of the
truth. Now I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes,
who loves to have the preeminence among them, did not receive us (1:8‑9).
Diotrephes, an interesting character. We look how his sin has been
exposed throughout the years. A man who loved the preeminence
in the church. He didn’t want to give, you know, any place to anybody
else. He wanted the preeminence. So when these prophets would come in, he
wouldn’t receive them. In fact, he even refused John the beloved, apostle of
the Lord. There are Diotrephes still in the church
today, those who are looking for a position for themselves, those that are
looking for a place of power and authority, who want preeminence.
So John said,
Wherefore, if I
come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with
malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the
brethren, and he forbids them that would, and casts them out of the church (1:10).
I mean,
this guy was a real tyrant. He wouldn’t receive these itinerant ministers and
if someone in the church would receive them, he’d throw them out of the church.
John’s
exhortation is
Beloved, follow
not that which is evil, but that which is good. And he that doeth good is of
God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God (1:11).
Again here,
John puts the emphasis upon what a person is doing. “Be ye
doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourself” (James 1:22).
“Not he who has the law is justified by the law, but he who does the law is
justified by the law” (Galatians 3:11‑12).
Having the
knowledge of Jesus Christ doesn’t save you. It’s following Him as your Lord
that brings salvation. It isn’t mouthing the Apostle’s Creed that will save
you. It’s what are you doing. You’re doing good, then
you’re of God, but if you’re doing evil, you really don’t know God.
Demetrius has a
good report of all men (1:12),
And
probably this letter was given to Demetrius who was headed that way as a letter
of reference from John and he told him to give it to Gaius,
and so he is encouraging now, when Demetrius gets there to receive him.
“Demetrius has good report of all men,”
and of
the truth itself: yes, and we also bear record; and you know that our record is
true. Now I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write
unto thee: But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to
face (1:12‑14).
So as he closed the second epistle, so he closes the third with the
anticipation of seeing him, not having to write to him the things that are on
his heart.
Peace be to thee. Our friends greet you. Greet the friends [my friends] by name (1:14).