Second John

Occasion of Second John
- Itinerant preachers/missionaries
- Verse 10: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching” (cp. 3 John 5-8)
- The Didache has similar instructions for itinerant preachers.
  - They can’t stay more than two days—if longer, they are false prophets.
  - They must practice what they preach; must teach sound doctrine.
- Similar to 19th century Methodist “pork chop” or “saddlebag” preachers.
Verse 1: “To the elect lady”
- An actual woman?
- More likely, a particular church personified as a woman.
- This is supported by:
  - Reference to “her children” (vv 1, 4, 13), who are members of the church.
  - Command to love one another (v 5).
  - Singular/plural “you”
    - 2nd person singular (vv 4-5, 13—inclusio)
    - 2nd person plural (vv 6, 8, 10, 12)
  - Contrast with 3 John, which is addressed to Gaius, and uses the 2nd person singular throughout.
  - Cp. 1 Pet 5:13: “She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings.”
Verses 1-2: “Whom I love in the truth … because of the truth that abides in us.”
- “The truth” in this context is the truth about Christ, i.e., Christology.
- “It was the truth which bound John in love to this church” (Stott, 205).
- In our day, love trumps truth; but not for John.
- Christian love is circumscribed by Christian doctrine.
Verse 3: “from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son.”
- Similar to a Pauline greeting, but John adds, “the Father’s Son.”
- Jesus is not only “the Christ,” he is also “the Son of God.”
Verse 4: “I rejoiced greatly …”
- “Walking in the truth” — the truth is a path along which we must walk and from which we must not depart. When we hear that God’s people are walking in the truth, we ought to rejoice greatly.
Verses 5-6: The new commandment again (cp. John 13:34; 1 John 2:7-8).
Verse 7: Another definition of the Antichrist.
Verse 8: “Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.”

“The readers are urged to take care lest they lose something the elder and his associates have worked to provide for them. This again is best understood in terms of the readers’ faith in Christ and the reward of eternal life which it brings. The elder has worked to make known the truth of Christ to them so that they might know God and have eternal life” (Colin Kruse, 211-212).
- This interpretation is supported by the immediately surrounding context (vv 7 and 9), which have to do with faith in Christ vs. losing one’s faith completely by falling prey to the heretical Christology of the false teachers John is combating.
Verse 9: “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ” (NIV).
- “Runs ahead” may be an allusion to the false teachers’ own claim to have “advanced” to the deep things of God.
- The verb proagō brings to mind the metaphor of running ahead so as to leave others behind (Danker’s Concise Lexicon).
It “reflects the way the secessionists understood their teaching; new insights that ran beyond the old message and rendered the old message obsolete” (Kruse, 212).

“Many today want God without Jesus Christ. They believe in God, they say, but see no necessity for Jesus” (Stott, 213-214).
- They think there are many roads to God. But you can’t reject Christ and keep God.
- Do you want to have God? Then you must believe in his Son.
- Cp. 1 John 2:23: “No one who denies the Son has the Father.”
Verses 10-11: Don’t show hospitality to travelling preachers/missionaries who are heretical in their Christology.
Verse 12: “I would rather not use paper and ink.”