Many believe that the author of this book is the Apostle John – the same John who authored the Gospel of John, 1 John, 3 John and the book of Revelation. But John’s name is never mentioned anywhere in this letter. Instead, John simply gives his title and his role. Verse 1 begins “The Elder.” This speaks of his reputation among the churches and among the churches during this time that hat when they see the letter begins “The Elder” they would immediately know – It’s from John.
And then he says who he is writing to: To the chosen lady and her children. There are two general thoughts about who the chosen lady is. First, that the chosen lady is an actual person and he is writing to this women and her children. And under that thought there are a lot of different opinions about who specifically that women might be. The second general thought is that the chosen lady and her children is not an actual person but a reference to a local church – a local body of believers. In the Bible, the church is referred to as the bride of Christ.
Now we really don’t know whether it was an actual person or a local church. What we do know is that he was writing to Christians, people who had placed their faith in Jesus Christ.
And the reason we know they are Christians is because he writes, “whom I love in the truth.” John is saying you are people of the truth and I am of the truth and because of that there is a special love between us. And that truth that is in them is Jesus Christ. And John is saying Jesus Christ is in us and we will remain in him forever.
These are great words of hope and encouragement: you are people are truth. And that truth will remain in you forever.
Verse 3
In verse 3, John gives us the theme of the letter. His purpose for writing is that these Christians would know God in truth and love and that they would walk in truth and love.
Verse 4-6
John tells his readers that the command to love one another is not a new command. You heard it at the beginning when you first heard the Gospel. It was always a part of the teaching of Jesus Christ. John as a disciple heard this first hand. In fact, John records in his Gospel Jesus saying this very thing.
John 13:34 Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
And so John is reminding these Christian: Please do not neglect to love. Do not get so caught up in a Christian lifestyle, don’t get so busy in the activities of church that you forget one of the core aspects of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is that you love one another.
I believe that the reason that Jesus commanded it and John reminded us of it is that loving others does not comes naturally to us. In fact, I believe loving one another is where we stumble the most.
All of us know how to love. We do it every day. We do it with all of our family, friends and community around us. The challenge is Jesus doesn’t want us to just love those who love us or are easy to love. Jesus wants us to love everyone. In Luke, Jesus expands the spectrum of who we should love.
Jesus says in Luke 27 : Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you ….If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them.
The hard part of loving one another is loving those who are hard to love. Loving our enemies is hard. Loving people who have hurt us is hard. Loving people who are difficult is hard. There is no question about it.
But Jesus said I want you to love one another, like I loved you. And how did Jesus love us? Romans 5:8 says God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were enemies of God, Jesus loved us with his life.
The reason we love our enemies is because they need to know the love of God. And when we love them, we shower upon them when they do not deserve–our love. We shower upon them God’s grace and mercy. The same grace and mercy that was showered upon us.
And so in this letter, John tells them what it means to love one another. He doesn’t just define it but he shows them what love does. When the Bible defines love, it defines it by how we should act. It defines it by what we should do.
Verse 6
The way we love one another is we obey God’s commands. That seems like a strange way to love one another. Are you telling me that the way I am to love someone is to simply obey God’s commands. What John is saying is the best way for me to love you, the best way for me to love my wife, the best way for me to love my kids, the best way for me to love anyone is out of a right relationship with God
When you enter into relationships with other people with a right relationship with God that is how you can truly love people. When I go into a relationship with someone and my relationship with God is not right, I am not walking in his truth. Therefore, I go into that relationship in my own strength, in my own abilities, in my own selfishness. And the reality is I will not have the ability to truly biblically love them – most likely what happens is that I will use them for my own benefit because I am not doing it out of obedience to God.
I think this is why we have a high divorce rate in the country. People leave marriages when they no longer are getting anything out of it, when it is no longer good for them or benefits them. A person can start to think, “I am not really getting anything out of this relationship, I am not getting anything out of this person why should I love them. And they are not really loving me so it doesn’t make sense to love them.” And that is not biblical love. Love says you love out of obedience to God. And when you love out of obedience to God, it is not you loving but God loving them through you. And when you allow yourself to let God love through you, you not only experience biblical love you experience biblical joy.
After he encourages them to walk in love, he reminds them to walk in truth.
Verse 7
There were some false teachers within their community claiming to be Christian teachers teaching a false Gospel. John says these people are deceivers and the antichrist. They are not the antichrist that will come at the end times but because they are teaching a message that is contrary to Jesus Christ he is calling them an antichrist.
And one of their false teachings was in the area of who Jesus was and is. They believed Jesus was not fully man and that he was really just a spiritual being and not truly human. And what John and the early church believed and what we believe is that Jesus was fully God and fully human. And the reason that is significant is if he wasn’t fully man, just a spirit bring, he would not have been an adequate sacrifice for our sins.
Romans 5:19 says, “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”
Since sin entered the world through a man, sin needed to be paid for by a man. By no man is perfect. No man can can be a perfect sacrifice for mankind. So God became man. That God became flesh and dwelt among us.
Hebrews 9:22 tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Jesus had to shed his human blood to pay for our sins. He had to be a man paying for man’s sins.
It is important we have a right theology when it comes to the person of Jesus Christ. And these deceivers and false teachers were trying to change who Jesus was.
Verse 8
What the Christian would lose here is not their salvation but rewards that God gives believers. We are not sure exactly sure what those rewards are but Scripture says that God will reward those who faithfully serve him. And John is saying you have been faithful and obedient to God and his truth, don’t lose your rewards that are coming to you.
Verse 9
This is one of those verses in this book that really jumps out at me. It is one of those verses where a stop sign comes out at me and says “Stop. Don’t go to verse 10 without thinking about what you just read” And the reason for that is that we are living this verse in our cultural today.
There are a lot of pastors and speakers today speaking under the banner of Christianity but they are proclaiming a gospel that is different than the gospel of Jesus Christ. And they are “running ahead” as John says with a new teaching and a different teaching. They are trying to re-image and re-brand Jesus to be less offensive to the masses, more inclusive to all religions and all world views. They are trying to re-brand Jesus so we do not need to submit our lives to him but rather they desire God to conveniently conform to them. Our culture continues to shout at us that what we believe is not really what Jesus said, it is not really what Jesus meant and they are trying to redefine Christianity.
When we hear people communicating a message about Jesus that is not consistent with the Bible we need to say, “Woah, that is not of God”. When people present a Gospel message that is different than what the Bible says we need to say, “Woah, that is not of God.”
And the only way we can know whether something is unbiblical is by being people who are biblical. We need to be people of the truth. We need to be people who know the truth and walk in the truth. Because we live in a culture that wants to redefine what the Bible says is truth. We live in a culture that wants to redefine what the Bible says about homosexuality. We live in a culture that wants to re-define what the Bible says about marriage.
And we need to be people who know the word of God and speak the truth with love and compassion and grace.
Let me encourage you with this. Your responsibility in proclaiming truth is not to change someone’s mind. Your responsibility in proclaiming truth is not to convince them of your position. Your responsibility in proclaiming truth is to proclaim the truth. Let God worry about their heart, their mind, their soul. Let God worry about their response. You simply proclaim the truth in love and compassion. Don’t do it out of anger or bitterness. Do not do it out of a desire to win a debate. Do it out of love and compassion and obedience to God.
Verse 10
The reason John makes this statement is because there were traveling preachers who would go from town to town and preach in churches and other settings. And John candidly tells his readers do not bring a false teacher into your churches and into your homes and support their ministry because they are not of God.