Truth or Love. Must We Choose? (Part Three)

This is a three-part look at II John, one of the shortest letters in the Bible, but also at one of the most important controversies in the church and on the street. It is a crucial issue which has many pastors fooled. We must get it right.

Truth is central and includes love – but some object!

Not everyone cares enough to worry about love and truth.  Some, we have noticed, select only one of the twins, though that is not a choice God gives to His faithful. Some do it anyway. And then others are opposed to the very idea of the incarnate Lord, which just happens to be at the center of the Christian faith.

The test: truth about Jesus ⁷

When we understand what the Bible means about its own central issue, that our Creator-God has come here to earth in the flesh, we realize why this is significant.  Truly believing and confessing Him is the way of life, including forgiveness and righteousness.

He is for sure the main emphasis in God’s revelation of truth to us.  He is the beloved eternal Son, the promised Anointed One, the Savior of all who believe, who spiritually embrace this God – and man-at-once. So to deny Him is to rule yourself out on the commanded life of truth and love.  There is no second way.  None at all.

John’s letter to this nice lady or church turns even more serious.

The issue ^{8, 9}

If these people would now turn against the center of God’s own truth and love to us, they would lose any momentum or rewards they had built up thus far. The apostle despairs of that as he writes, “Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.”

We must “continue in the teaching of Christ,” showing that God is in our lives, and that His teaching is ours (9). And anyone today who chooses another way to approach the truly meaningful and eternal life is missing the target.

As pastors, this raises the question of whether or not we center on Him in our most personal and devotional moments.  And also, whether it is apparent that He is the real subject of our preaching and ministry. He is that important, of course.  He should be talked about in our board meetings, and in our emails to the congregation, and around the office.  He is why any of this is even happening. He, Jesus, is why we do church.

Or seek to live in truth and love.

Our support

The final verses of II John warn us not to support bad teaching.

Now immediately we should distinguish between heretical teachers and people who believe bad  teaching.  Surely there is no way, in the context of scripture, that we would ever want to rule out being friends with people who believe bad teaching.  They are in fact the people we are to love, and “the world” into which we are to go with the good news.  They are everywhere.

In fact, Paul told us that you would have to go out of the world if you weren’t going to associate with them (II Corinthians  5:9-11).

But clearly the church should not support false teachers.  And it should not allow anyone in its own family, in the church, to continue teaching if that person majors on things that are not true in the Bible.  That is heresy.

In those days the support showed up in hospitality, as the motels were not yet built!  So John tells the people who are listening not to receive these people into their homes, and not to help them in their ministries in any ways.  Surely that would translate today into a prohibition about giving time in the church or offerings in the plate!  We should not give any help to people who do not confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God who came to this earth and who teach their unbelief.

Doctrine is that important.  Truth is that clear.  Love is that defined.

Here’s a reminder that John is writing by the guidance of the Holy Spirit (II Timothy 3:16).  He is being guided in everything that he writes.  Therefore everything that he writes is true.  The scholar-practitioner Francis Schaeffer used to call it “true truth.”

That’s what the Bible is, because every word was moved by the Holy Spirit through the personalities of the writers of course.  And it is truth for us today. And the truth in this letter, like many other verses, is calling for us to love in a very, very strong way.  That’s the truth and that’s the command. Both are important.

(John Says Goodbye ^{12, 13})

A couple of these final verses are purely personal.  I used to use verse 13 in letters that I wrote to Jeanine when we were dating – just for the smile.  It’s a verse that clearly says I would like to see her!  Now I use III John 2 sometimes at the end of a letter or an email – wishing the person well.  (I’m sure John would be excited that I’m using his verses in personal correspondence!) John is clearly showing his love for the people here.  And he has just warned them about protecting the truth.

So even in the personal parts we see that both love and truth are very important.  Why do we even debate whether we should have one or the other?

Both. Two wings of the airplane! Two huge concerns of God for our lives.