2/3 John Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 2 John 1-3

1 The elder,

To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth – and not I only, but also all who know the truth – 2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us for ever:

3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.

A. Find Out:    

1. From whom does this come? v.1a,c
2. To whom is it sent? v.1b
3. How does John describe ‘the truth’? v.2
4. What does he want for them? v.3a
5. From whom does it come? v.3b
6. In what sort of ‘environment’? v.3c

B. Think:

1. Read the whole letter now. Observe for yourself the similarities here with the first letter of John.
2. How are love and truth apparently connected?
3. How do grace, mercy & truth flow from them?

C. Comment:

     This letter comes from “the elder” indicating John’s role in the church at that time, a very senior figure. To the “chosen” lady and her children. As we said in the Introduction, possibly a lady and her family, possibly a local church and its planting out. “Whom I love in the truth”? Truth here probably meaning ‘in Jesus’ or ‘in the faith’. But John also says he writes from “all who know the truth”, meaning he writes as from the whole church, i.e. he writes as a main leader speaking basic truths of the faith. He also says he writes “because of the truth”, so he is saying the love he has for her is because of the One who lives in him, it is Jesus who inspires him to write.

     Then he moves on to his blessing, but it isn’t the same as Paul writes, it is not a desire but a statement of what is! This blessing “will be with us”; this is not merely his desire for them but what God will give them. Note first that this blessing comes “in truth and love”, they are the environment in which grace, mercy and peace come. It is because God IS truth and love that He conveys grace (His unmerited goodness), mercy (His unmerited compassionate judgement) and peace (His assurance and security) to us. How wonderful!

D. Application:

1. God is utterly consistent, real and loving. All comes from this.
2. Everything He conveys to us is a reflection of these characteristics.

Passage: 2 John 4-6

4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

A. Find Out:

1. Why has John had joy? v.4a
2. Why had they been doing that? v.4b
3. What was he now giving? v.5a,b
4. What was it? v.5c
5. How did he define it? v.6a
6. When had that command come? v.6b

B. Think:

1. How are joy, obedience and truth tied up?
2. How are love, obedience and truth tied up?
3. How, do you think, this should work in daily life?

C. Comment:

     We now find John moving into an area we found him writing about in his first letter. He first says he is blessed by seeing some of her children walking the Christian life or, as he describes it, walking in truth. That is because Christianity is all about truth, about what has really happened (not made up stories but historical incidents) and what really is (about the existence of God and about His relationship towards us). When we live lives that are directly relating to all of that in the way that God has said and in the way that He leads, we are walking in truth.

     Then he reminds her of the command they had from Jesus in the beginning, before he died, to love one another (see Jn 15:12 ,17 again). Now we do this as direct obedience and when we do this we also show that we love Him. Love, as an expression from us to God, is real when we obey Him.

      Do you see the links here. God has spoken and given us a means of salvation and a way of living and that is truth. Incorporated in that is His love for us expressed in the sending and death of Jesus for us. When we obey the truth we are expressing our love for Him. Also love for one another is the expression of our obedience to His commands, the truth. There is no separating these things.

D. Application:

1. Walking in the truth is obeying Jesus.
2. Obeying Jesus means loving one another.

Passage: 2 John 7-13

7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.

12 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

13 The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings.

A. Find Out:

1. Who has come and how are they described? v.7
2. What are we to watch against and for? v.8
3. Who doesn’t and who does have God? v.9
4. Who are you not to welcome? v.10
5. What do you do if you do welcome them? v.11
6. What did John hope to do? v.12

B. Think:

1. What are the two centerpieces of the Christian faith?
2. How are people described who don’t have these?
3. How are we to respond to such people?

C. Comment:

     As with his first letter, John now moves into a warning phase. He warns about two sorts of people (who probably are one and the same) that we are to reject and not allow into our homes.

     The first group of people are those who deny that Jesus has come in the flesh, or those who reject Jesus as the son of God who came and lived on earth in a human body. John is speaking against the Gnostics of his day (see earlier note) but for us it is any religion, cult or sect that denies that the person who came in the flesh two thousand years ago in a human body is the Son of God from heaven.

     The second group of people are those who deny the teaching of Jesus Christ. This means the teaching about Christ (who he was and what he did and the teaching from Christ (what he said). “Anyone who runs ahead” can be taken to mean anyone who adds to the canon of Scripture with some additional teaching. The Book of Mormon would come into this category as a writing additional to Scripture that the adherents of that group consider essential. No, it is the bare Scriptures, the teachings of Jesus (about and from) that are to be on our hearts.

     Such people are to be avoided for they can lead you astray so that you lose even the truths you first believed in.

D. Application:

1. The Christian faith has fixed facts as content. Don’t add to it.
2. The Christian faith is about the Son of God who came from heaven.

Passage: 3 John 1-4

1 The elder,

To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, just as you are progressing spiritually. 3 It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

A. Find Out:

1. How does John describe Gaius? v.1
2. For what does he pray? v.2
3. It gave him great joy to hear what? v.3
4. What is John’s greatest joy? v.4

B. Think:

1. Read the whole letter. How many times is truth mentioned?
2. How many times does he refer to him as “Dear friend”?
3. What do today’s verses tell us about Gaius?

C. Comment:

     As you’ve just seen, there are certain similarities with 2 John as we noted in the Introduction to these two letters. Again it comes from “The elder” and again there are references to the truth.

     Gaius is clearly someone that John knows well, clearly a Christian and clearly someone who is going on in the faith. Note first of all, there is a very practical note: John prays for Gaius’s health. Is that perhaps a clue that Gaius is elderly as well, in a time when his health might be declining. He obviously lives some distance away from John, as some other Christians have come and told John what was happening to Gaius. It would appear that John was instrumental in bringing Gaius to the Lord, or that at least he saw himself in a fatherly role in respect of him (v.4). It may even be that Gaius had not known the Lord long, as John refers to his soul “getting along well”.

     Four times in these four verses John refers to “the truth” which must, in this context, refer to the whole Christian faith, the facts about Jesus and his calling on our lives. Again and again John shows us that the Christian life is not a nebulous wandering through life doing what we think might be good, but it is responding to a body of truth as revealed in the New Testament, about God, about Jesus, about ourselves. Faith is responding to declared truth. There is a certain amount of truth stated in the Bible for us to respond to. Do we?

D. Application:

1. The Christian faith is based upon facts.
2. My walk with Christ is grounded in declared truth in the Scriptures.

Passage: 3 John 5-8

5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honours God. 7 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. 8 We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.

A. Find Out:

1. How did John describe Gaius’s activity? v.5
2. What had he heard? v.6a
3. What did he advise? v.6b
4. Why had they gone out? v.7
5. What ought we to do? v.8a
6. Why? v.8b

B. Think:

1. What had Gaius apparently been doing?
2. What picture of church life is revealed here?
3. What need arises from that?

C. Comment:

     From a general commendation for walking in the truth, John moves on to a specific commendation for the way that Gaius had been looking after some travelling ministries.

  We see, first of all, a picture that we find in a number of other places in the New Testament, that of a travelling ministry team; note not just one itinerant minister but of a team travelling together. They have obviously come to the area where Gaius lived and he has put them up and looked after them.

     Gaius’s hospitality had obviously been commented upon in the church and this had somehow come back to John who was pleased. Gaius was expressing his (perhaps) new found Christianity in a very practical way. Have you ever opened your home to travelling ministries? Does it have to always be the leaders who look after such men or women? It does require a thoughtful caring and a sensitivity to the needs of those away from home. John encourages Gaius to finish the job off well and send them off well, presumably with provisions for the journey. A sense of being loved and cared for in the small things is invaluable when you are the travelling minister, to help overcome tiredness or loneliness or the strange surroundings.

D. Application:

1. Hospitality is blessing others with your home.
2. Travelling ministries are especially in need of hospitality.

Passage: 3 John 9-10

9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10 So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

A. Find Out:

1. Who had John written to? v.9a
2. Yet who wouldn’t have anything to do with him & why? v.9b
3. What had he been doing? v.10a
4. What also had he been doing? v.10b
5. What further had he been doing? v.10c

B. Think:

1. How had this man’s overall attitude made him act defensively?
2. What had his aim obviously been?
3. What perhaps had he feared.

C. Comment:

      Our temptation, perhaps, would be to merely glance over these verses and if we did that we would miss some important lessons. First of all, note the way John describes Diotrephes: “he loves to be first”. He is obviously a leader and he revels in his leadership. Jesus had some words to say on this, see Mt 20:26-28. What happens when a leader holds onto their “position” in such a way, is that they then become very defensive of that position and feel threatened by anyone who might be seen to criticise what they are doing. Such, we suspect, was the position of this leader, Diotrephes who now acted defensively. How did he do it?

      First he didn’t want contact with any senior figures in the church who might speak into his life, so he ignored John’s contact.

      Second, because others had heard of it, he spoke negatively about that authority and tried to poison the minds of the church against John.

      Then he refused contact with travelling ministries when they arrived in the area.

      Finally he banned his own church members from that contact as well.

     We might describe such behaviour as ISOLATIONISM and it always describes a defensive attitude coming from leaders. We need to work and pray against it when we see it.

D. Application:

1. We are members of THE Church and we need other local churches and other ministries into our own situation.
2. Leaders need others to speak into their lives, preferably a father figure to show care.

Passage: 3 John 11-14

11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone – and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.

13 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.

Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.

A. Find Out:

1. What does John say we are to imitate? v.11a
2. How does what a person does show who he has come from? v.11b
3. Who speaks well of Demetrius? v.12
4. What did John want to do? v.13
5. So how did he hope to do it? v.14a
6. What was his final blessing? v.14b

B. Think:

1. How does this passage contrast the one before it?
2. Why is behaviour important for the Christian?
3. What do we know about Demetrius?

C. Comment:

     In verses 5-8 John commended Gaius for the way he had looked after travelling ministries and then, in verses 9 & 10 he had remarked about Diotrephes who had opposed those ministries. Now, by way of contrast, John says don’t you be like that, but you imitate what is good. Verse 11 is similar to verses found in the previous two letters (see 1 Jn 2:29 , 3:6,10, 4:7,8,20, 5:12 , 2 Jn 9): if you know God it will influence how you live, it will determine how you behave. This is one of the central messages that keeps coming from John.

     Then he gives an example of another man, obviously known to all because he doesn’t describe him. He simply says that Demetrius is well thought of by everyone, including them, and the truth of the Christian message can be seen to be proved in him (“even the truth itself”) by the way he lives. What a testimony to have: everyone thinks well of him!

     Finally, in the same way he ended the second letter, John says he has much more he wants to say but doesn’t want to write it. The pastoral heart always wants to impart more and more blessing, and that through personal contact. Is that a mark of us?

D. Application:

1. Can it be said that everyone thinks well of me? If not, I have some work to do in my life!
2. Do I desire to personally impart blessing to everyone I know