Congratulations to the winners of
the Sceptre & Stylus giveaway:
Elly
Hailey H.
Ashton R.
And because I felt like it, two bonus winners:
Paty H.
Rose A.
Thank you all of you who participated and showed interest in the Sceptre & Stylus Trilogy. I had far more enter than I expected, and your participation was quite encouraging!
Read 2 John 12-13.
Focus on 2 John 12-13.
Knowledge
Answer the following
questions from the text:
v. 12 What does John have to write?
How does he not wish to communicate?
What does he hope to do instead? (2 actions)
With what purpose/result?
v. 13 Who greets the letter’s recipient?
Understanding & Knowledge
Today we wrap up John’s tiny second epistle. We’ve studied his greeting and the intersection of truth, love, grace, mercy, and peace. We’ve examined the old command to love one another. We’ve grappled with how to handle deceivers.
This brings us to the final two verse of the letter, which contains John’s closing notes.
Final Salutations
Like the opening greeting, it is easy to skim past the final salutations of a letter. Yet this too has been included for our instruction. So what can we learn from these final two verses in 2 John?
1. We don’t have to address everything at once. John makes it clear that what he has written in his letter is not all he has to say. It isn’t even the majority of what he wants to say. But instead of cramming everything into one space (as I would be tempted to do), John exercises restraint. He recognizes that while it all might be important—and if must have been important if it was worth a physical trip to say it—he also knew not all the matters were urgent. So instead of requesting more parchment, he chooses to delay whatever else he had to say, merely letting the reader know that there was more to come.
Question to ponder: How do we delineate between the important which is urgent and the simply important?
2. In-person communication is preferable. Texting is convenient. Emails are nice. Handwritten letters carry a personal touch to be treasured. Telephone calls can delight, while Zoom often permits us to connect in ways that would otherwise be impossible. But in the end, there is something special about inhabiting the same place at the same time with another person. To be able to hear the voice, see the face, and give a hug or touch a hand. To be surrounded by the same environment, sharing the same sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and textures. To be with another in a way that technology, with all its benefits, cannot duplicate.
So John expresses his strong desire to come to the chosen lady and her family, to spend time with them, and talk face to face. Indeed, in an era of growing layers of technology, with screens and touch-ups and filters that can create a false reality, it may be that such in-person meetings are more vital than ever.
Questions to ponder: What are some of the unique advantages in-person visits can provide? How, both as individuals and as churches, can we cultivate this more/better?
3. Christian fellowship, at its best, produces full joy. This joy was one reason John wanted to visit the chosen lady and her family. He knew such a visit would bring joy—that is, delight, happiness, well-being, gladness—and that this joy would be complete and full, as the anticipated became reality and the far away drew near.
Questions to ponder: What hampers our Christian fellowship so it lacks this fullness and joy?
4. We all want to be remembered. John finishes his letter with greeting from the children of the lady’s chosen sister. This was fairly typical, as a quick survey of the other New Testament letters will show. However, this ordinariness doesn’t make such a greeting insignificant. Rather, it reminds us of the common human desired to be known. It doesn’t matter whether this refers to nieces and nephews greeting an aunt or one church greeting a sister church. Both collectively and individually, we want to be remembered by others—and collectively and individually, we need to take the time to remember others.
Questions to ponder: Who are some of the people we should especially take time to remember? What are some of the ways we can remember others?
Wrap-up Thoughts
Thus ends our study of 2 John. But as we close this book, I would like to invite you to pause and look back over the whole of the book one last time:
Make it personal
One truth learned:
One area of conviction:
One way to correct:
Written prayer:
Read 2 John 7-11.
Focus on 2 John 10-11.
Knowledge
Answer the following
questions from the text:
v. 10 What should we see if a person brings with him or her?
If someone doesn’t bring it, what is the first thing we ought not to do?
What is the second thing we ought not to do?
v.11 What kind of deeds does this person have?
What happens if we do greet such a person?
Understanding & Wisdom
John has been providing us instructions throughout this tiny letter how we are to love one another—and how we are not to.
So he explained in verse 6 that loving one another means conducting ourselves according to the commandments of God. Agape love simply cannot be divorced from God’s truth, otherwise it ceases to be agape love.
This is important to remember because, according to verse 7, many deceivers have gone into the world. Such people will prevent true love, because they bring lies and untruths and false teaching with them. Lies and truth cannot coexist, and where there is no truth, there is no real love.
Therefore, John’s first instruction for dealing with such deceivers is to watch ourselves. We need to stay aware and observant, lest we lose the good.
John’s second instruction for dealing with deceivers is to abide in the teaching of Christ. We need to continue remain within the boundaries of the teaching about Christ as well as the teaching from Christ.
Which brings us to John’s third instruction for dealing with deceivers: avoid them.
Context
Because this last instruct from John has been misapplied and abused, let me make it clear again who is—and is not—being spoken of.
1. This is not referring to non-Christians in general. John is not advocating that we shut ourselves away from the world and associate exclusively with Christians.
2. This is not referring to Christians with whom we disagree. There are many disputable matters, as Paul refers to them, gray areas where there is no clear right and wrong. Indeed, there are areas where what is right for you may be wrong for me and vice versa. Moreover, we are not going to see eye to eye with every Christian on every matter. So these disputes are not what John is addressing here, otherwise we couldn’t fellowship with other believers.
3. This is not referring just to Christians with an erroneous belief. Again, if it did, we wouldn’t be able to associate with ourselves, much less with any other Christian. For we all carry areas of wrong beliefs, no matter how hard we might try to understand rightly. It is simply part of being a fallen human and a growing Christian.
Rather, the person in view here is the deceiver who advocates false teaching. He or she claims to be Christian, when in reality they oppose the real Christ, and the teaching they are advocating is not the teaching of Christ. Rather, they have slipped outside those boundaries to promote false teaching and heresy.
Moreover, the phrases in verse 10, “comes to you” and “receive into your house” points to the letter’s historical context of traveling teachers and preachers. At the end of the first century, before the New Testament was compiled and canonized, the churches relied heavily upon traveling teachers and prophets to provide additional instructions, much as Paul provided on his missionary journeys. Because their traveling prevented them from earning money through a normal job, church members would house, feed, and provide for the needs of these itinerate preachers. Of course, both Christians and non-Christians soon figured this out and decided this was an easy and comfortable way to live. Thus many charlatans arose.
This all reveals that John is specifically referencing deceivers who not only claim to be Christians but also are or claim to be leaders and teachers in the church. Like false prophets of the Old Testament, these people claimed to speak for God or at least speak with a certain amount of authority from God. Yet their teaching directly opposed the clear, fundamental truths of God.
So as we deal with this final instruction, please keep in mind John’s advice is for handling leaders within the body of Christ who claim to be Christian but whose teaching is false and shows them to be opposed to Christ.
Question to ponder: In view of this, what kinds of people could potentially fall into this group? That is, who qualifies as a Christian leader?
Method #3: Avoid
This brings us back to verse 10, where John provides our third instruction for dealing with these people. There it says that if this type of false-teaching leader comes to us, we aren’t to receive them into our house.
Again, the historical practice of receiving someone into a house is a little more complex than we tend to think of it today. To receive someone into a house, especially in Middle Eastern culture, was more than simply offering a room to stay. You were taking responsibility for that person to the point of treating that person as a family member during their stay, giving financial support, providing for their needs, and offering protection against outsiders if necessary.
In addition to this cultural context, the verb receive, according to Bauer’s Lexicon, can include the recognition of another’s authority (page 584). To receive them could also be an acknowledgement of their position and power, and therefore their right to a certain amount of control.
Now in 21st-century
Question to ponder: What are some of the other ways we can receive into our home these leader-deceivers?
The second half of the command in verse 10 is to not “even speak a greeting to him.” This greeting is rooted in the concept of happiness and well-being. So even though this is a formalized welcome, much like wishing someone a “good day,” it is still the speaking of a wish that the other is well and will be well, and it indicates you’re on good terms with that person (Bauer’s Lexicon, pages 1074-1075).
So in short, we’re to shun these leader-deceivers. We’re not to support them financially. We’re not to affirm them verbally. We’re not to protect or provide for them. We’re not to associate with them. We’re not even to engage in friendly conversation or wish them well. We’re to sever all contact, if possible, with them. All this from the apostle who instructed us just a few verses earlier to love one another.
Question to ponder: Why is this shunning not a violation of the command to love one another?
Evil Deeds
All this leads to verse 11, and the reason we’re to avoid and shun such people: Even simply offering a greeting makes us a participant in their evil deeds. That is, we have in common, share in, declare a mutual interest in, and indicate a close association with such a person. We create, as the verb says here, koinonia (fellowship) with them. This makes us equally responsible for those deeds.
What kinds of deeds are we becoming responsible for? Here they are called “evil,” a characteristic which is emphasized in the Greek by how the adjective is set apart: we participate in his deeds—his evil ones. This makes it very clear that partial support of such a person is not possible. We can’t claim to be supporting just the “good” part of the person’s ministry. Supporting any part of a false teacher’s ministry or any association with a deceiver is a participation in the evil. Period.
And what kind of evil is being spoken of here? This evil is that which “causes labor, pain, sorrow, malignant evil.” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary, page 212) It can refer to an unhealthy physical condition, the qualitatively worthless, and the morally destructive (Bauer’s Lexicon, pages 851-852). In short, the deceiver’s deeds are unhealthy, worthless, and destructive, only leading to trouble, pain, and sorrow.
Question to ponder: How does giving a greeting, much less receiving into our homes, such a person cause us to participate in his or her evil deeds?
Therefore, as much as our culture and even some churches might say otherwise, we must love within the bounds of Truth, which means there is a time and place for shunning certain people. To do otherwise is to foster evil, which is neither love nor truth.
Make it personal
One truth learned:
One area of conviction:
One way to correct:
Written prayer:
Instead, I find myself fully occupied with writing book three, which is due to the publisher one week before Perplexity’s release. While I love watching that final part of the story unfold (because I’m still not sure how this is all going to work out!), that means I have little time and few braincells to spare for Perplexity.
So I find myself needing to rely on God and readers like you to spread the word. You would be amazed at how far a few lines about why you loved a book goes on Goodreads or Amazon. Or posting a picture on social media. Or requesting it at a library. Or whatever other ways you can dream up to share a favorite story.
Anyway, I am thankful to have this second book releasing soon, and a release of a book is worth celebrating. So, I would like to give a few books away to commemorate the event.
What do you need to do? Just fill out this Google form with a U.S. mailing address. I will pick three winners who will receive their choice of either a hardcover edition of Illuminary (book 1) or a paperback Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of Perplexity (book 2). Because who doesn’t love reading a book before everyone else? But you’ll not want to delay, because this giveaway is short, closing on February 28, 2026.
Now it is back to writing for me.
My new Bible study, Simplifying Revelation , is officially available to purchase! I had never intended to release a Bible study on this diff...
