Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 John, 3 John, and Jude.

Merry Christmas

In the two letters from John we read today, he writes that we should love one another and be hospitable to those believers who travel in order to preach God’s word.  In some ways it is interesting the way in which he tells us to love.  First, he writes that he has a command, but it is not a new command.  That command is to love one another.  Then he writes that to love is to obey God’s commands, and God’s command is that we love one another.  What is interesting is that John says that he wrote the above because there are many deceivers who do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ came in the flesh.  Now that wording makes it clear that John is addressing those who say that Jesus was not truly a physical being (the Gnostics).   However, I think what he wrote here applies equally to those who acknowledge Jesus’ humanity, but seek to deny His divinity.  John further writes that we should not welcome those who do not teach that Jesus was divine and that He came in the flesh.  So, John is telling us that loving our fellow believers will help us recognize and resist deceivers who try to teach us something other than the Gospel which Jesus taught.  I find it noteworthy that John warns us against welcoming false teachers into our homes in his second letter, then in his third letter her reminds us of the importance of welcoming strangers who are fellow believers into our homes.  It is in that third letter where he tells us how to tell the difference: those who do good are from God, while those who do evil not only are not from God, but have not even seen Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 John, 3 John, and Jude.

Merry Christmas

In today’s reading we have three separate letters, two by John and one by Jude.  Today I am going to write about their common theme(s).  In John’s second letter (we looked at the first one yesterday), he writes that God’s command is that we love one another.  John tells us that he writes this reminder because so many deceivers, who deny that Jesus came in the flesh, have gone out preaching.  Such deceivers are the antichrist.  Anyone who teaches anything other than that Jesus lived, died for our sins, and was resurrected, and that He taught us to love others, should be rejected, and avoided.  In his third letter, John tells us that we should welcome, and show hospitality, to those who travel around preaching, and demonstrating, God’s love to unbelievers.  In other words, we should show our love for them, and for their target audience, by providing for their needs.  We should avoid imitating those who maliciously refuse to welcome such people to the local gathering of God’s people.  Jude follows up on that theme by warning us that such people are a blemish on us in our fellowship.  Jude tells us that they boast about their own good deeds, while finding fault with others and grumbling about everything.  They will flatter others in order to manipulate them into following their flawed teachings.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.