2 John - Truth, Love, and Christ

We began our verse by verse study of the Epistles of John with the second epistle rather than the first. For one thing we do not know what order they were written in chronologically anyway. The order
 they are placed in the New Testament has to do with length, not chronology. For another, if we look at 1 John first, what we find in 2 and 3 John seem a little superfluous since they just touch on themes which are expanded in the larger epistle. So what I decided to do was to treat 2 and 3 John as appetizers and 1 John will be the main course.

So in this Bible study we covered 2 John in its entirety--all 13 verses. Among the themes we uncovered were truth, love, and the importance of having a truthful understanding of and embracing of Jesus Christ. The situation is this: false teaching has infiltrated the churches of Asia Minor and the nature of this teaching amounts to a denial of the Incarnation of Jesus, or as John puts it:

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.--2 John 7

What we confess about Christ is vital. When John says these "have gone out into the world" he is saying they have left the faith. They have apostatized. And John says this has eternal consequences. While sound theology does not save us, the nature of true faith is that it embraces sound theology when it hears it. While not all truth is vital and we most certainly will not have a perfect knowledge of many things on this side of eternity, it becomes clear that some truth is vital and when we reject it we have rejected the faith and separated ourselves from Christ.




John will expand on these ideas in the larger epistle, but in the meantime you can listen to our bible study on this one by clicking the link below. I hope you will do so. God bless you.



Click here: 2 John - Truth, Love, and Christ



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Introduction to the Epistles of John

On Wednesday August 2, 2017 we started a brand new verse by verse study this time through the Epistles of John. We began this study as we do with any study of a biblical book by asking a few questions, questions like . . .

What type of literature is this?
What is an epistle?
Who write these three epistles?
When were they written?
By whom were they written?
What was the occasion of the writing?

We gave some of the cultural and historical background behind these letters in order to help us understand what is going on behind the text. Then we drew some conclusions about all this and began looking at the Second Epistle of John noting that it is impossible to know for certain in what order they were actually written.

To listen to this introductory lesson just click the link below. When you do another window will open in your browser where you will find the audio recording for this lesson. Listen and be blessed!



Click here: Introduction to the Epistles of John



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^