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

Merry Christmas

I am somewhat torn about trying to write a blog entry which discusses these three letters together.  We have two letters from John and a third from Jude.  On the one hand, the two letters from John have a similar writing style, and can thus be easily addressed together, while the letter from Jude covers a theme which is also covered in the first of these two letters from John.  However, since these letters are short, I will try to sum it all up together.  First, John gives us the circular command to love one another.  I call it circular because he writes that love is obeying God’s commands and God’s commands are that we love.  I believe that John is expressing here what Jesus about the greatest commandment.  All of God’s other commandments are just expressions of the two commandments about love.  If we truly love God and our neighbor, we will carry out all of the other laws as an expression of that love.

All three letters talk about teachers.  John’s second letter (the first of those we are looking at today) and the letter by Jude speak about those who teach false doctrines.  John’s third letter speaks of those who travel and preach to those who do not yet know the Lord.  John writes that deceptive teachers do not acknowledge that Jesus actually lived as a human being.  I will note that this comes in several forms.  Some question whether Jesus ever really existed, or claim that it is not relevant whether or not He did.  Others, claim He was just a spiritual being, or otherwise not fully human.  John writes that all such teachers are the antichrist.  Jude writes that false teachers will claim that salvation through God’s grace means that we can behave immorally.  I want to note that when Jude writes that they promote a license for immorality, I do not think he was limiting that to sexual immorality.  I believe he was suggesting that they claim a license for all sorts of sins (which sins are acceptable varies from false teacher to false teacher).  In John’s third letter he writes that we should show hospitality to those who travel about preaching to unbelievers, which connects back to what he wrote about loving one another.  He also condemns those who refuse to welcome such preachers and teach others to do likewise.  In fact, I believe John would lump those who do so in with the false and deceptive teachers he wrote about in his second letter.

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