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Daily Bible Study

December 25, 2024 Bible Study — Loving Others and Recognizing False Teachers

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

Merry Christmas

I am debating separating what I write about these three books, or tying it all together.  I will probably tie it all together.  In the second of his three letters (I do not consider his Gospel a letter, and while the Book of Revelation is also technically a letter, it does not have the same personal feel that these three have), John repeats the themes which he writes in all of his writings.  First, he tells us to walk in truth and that doing so means loving others.  As part of that he writes that loving others means obeying God’s commands and that God commands us to love others.  That seems a little circular, but I believe he is telling us that all of God’s commands are about showing love to others.  Our actions following God’s commands should build others up and make them better people.  If our actions, or words, in following God’s commands cause hurt or harm to others which does not make them better we have interpreted God’s commands incorrectly.  In the third letter, John commends the recipient for showing hospitality in a way which holds it up as an example we should follow.  As I read it, he also tells us that giving hospitality to others shows our love for God by showing His love for them.

The other theme which John writes about in his letters is also touched on by Jude in his letter.  All three letters contain condemnation of false teachers who attempt to lead people away from the Gospel of Christ.  They deny, in one way or another, that Jesus is both God and man.  They discourage their followers from listening to those who disagree with their teachings.  I actually really struggled with explaining this one, since the writer speaks of refusing to listen to other believers, but these false teachers would claim that those they reject are not believers without giving their followers the chance to figure it out for themselves.  At various points in the New Testament the writers tell us to have nothing to do with those who hold to certain false doctrines, but in order to know if someone holds to a false doctrine you need to listen to what they proclaim.  So, the false teachers mentioned here must be telling their followers to just take it on their say so that someone holds to false doctrines, rather than encouraging them to find out for themselves.  Finally, Jude warns us that false teachers will try to convince us that sexual immorality is OK as part of the freedom we gain from following Christ.  They do so in order to exploit us for their own pleasure and gain.

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

Daily Bible Study

December 25, 2023 Bible Study — Those Who Deny That Jesus Came in the Flesh Are the Antichrist

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.

Daily Bible Study

December 25, 2022 Bible Study — Loving One Another Is Opposite To Immorality

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.

Daily Bible Study

December 25, 2021 Bible Study — Love Is The Antidote For False Teachers

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

Often times when I comment on passages from different books of the Bible I will separate my blog entry into different sections on each.  I have done that in the past for today’s passages.  However, today I want to comment on the theme which runs through all three.  All three warn us against those who claim to be Believers but preach untruths.  In his second letter (the first of the two we read today), John reminds us that the root of Gospel teaching tells us to live lives filled with love, to allow love to guide all of our actions.  He then warns us against false teachers who refuse to acknowledge that Jesus actually came in the flesh.  If Jesus did not live at the time and place which the Bible proclaims, then nothing in the New Testament is of any value.  In his third letter, John warns against those who spread malicious falsehoods about others in order to keep those over whom they hold sway from being influenced by the thoughts of others.  Then we have the letter from Jude.  Jude warns against those who pervert God’s grace as an excuse for immorality.  He warns us that these people reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings in ways that even the archangel Michael would not do against the devil.  We can recognize those that these writers warn against because they cause division, boast about their own accomplishments, and flatter others (an important point about flattery is that it is designed to make you feel that you are better than others and can look down on them).  Throughout these letters the writers remind us of the importance of God’s love: these false teachers do not practice love towards others and by practicing love towards others we can thwart their false teachings.

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

Daily Bible Study

December 25, 2020 Bible Study Warnings Against False Teachers

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

Merry Christmas!

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

John’s two letters which we are reading today and Jude’s letter were written to different people.  Yet, all three letters have much the same theme.  The writer in each of these letters emphasizes the importance of loving our fellow believers and not following false teachers.  In fact, I read them as saying that loving our fellow believers will aid us in resisting the teachings of false teachers.  The writers also seem to suggest that following these false teachers leads us to not love our fellow believers.  Each letter also gives us guidance about the sorts of things which false teachers will teach.  In the first letter, John warns us against those who teach that Jesus did not have a physical body, that it is the teachings which are attributed to Jesus which matter, not His actual existence.  In the second letter, John tells us that false teachers will discourage us from listening to anyone but them.  They try to silence all opinions which might run counter to their own.   In the third letter we are reading today, Jude gives us a series of behaviors, each of which provides a warning that someone may be a false teacher..  First, they live immoral lives.  Any one who claims to teach the Gospel, but lives an immoral life is a false teacher.  The other behaviors, while not individually decisive indicators, give us warning signs that a teacher may be teaching false doctrine.  They grumble and complain, they brag loudly about themselves, they flatter others to get what they want from them.  We should also take Jude’s letter as a warning against allowing such behaviors in ourselves.

Daily Bible Study

December 25, 2019 Bible Study — You Cannot Know the Truth if You Do Not Love Others, You Will Not Love Others if You Do Not Know the Truth

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

Merry Christmas!

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

Reading these three short letters today I was struck by how well they fit together, despite Jude being written by a different writer and intended for a different audience.  In the first of them, John’s second letter, he connects loving one another with truth.  Right there is a point worth an entire post about.  We do not know the truth if we do not love one another and we cannot love one another if we do not know the truth.  We know that John is making this point because he says that he wrote to remind us to love one another and then a few sentences later he writes that this needs to be said because of those who were teaching that the truth was incorrect.

In John’s third letter he commends the one to whom he writes for providing loving support for traveling preachers, despite the opposition of a Church leader local to that person.  He clearly suggests that that person is both a false teacher and someone who does not love others.  Which neatly transitions us to Jude’s letter.  Jude writes of those who claim to be followers of Christ, but teach that God’s grace allows us to live immoral lives.  I do not think I would see it if I did not read Jude’s letter together with these two from John, but Jude tells us that those who teach that we can live immorally because of God’s grace do so out of a selfish failure to love others.  They teach that we must be accepting of immoral behavior because we loves and should even indulge in immoral behavior as an expression of love.  Many of them even claim that calling people to live moral lives is divisive.  Jude writes that the divisive ones are those promoting immorality. 

I want to add one comment about my title.  You cannot know the truth if you do not love others and you will not love others if you do not know the truth.  As you learn to know the truth you will come to love others and if you genuinely love others you will come to know the truth.  However, many people start out seeking the truth and fail to truly learn it because they are unwilling to love at least some other people and many other people seek to love others but stumble because they are unwilling to accept the truth.

Daily Bible Study

December 25, 2016 Bible Study — The Conflict Between Love and Immorality

I am using 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

    The writer returns to the same theme he had in 1 John. In this he writes something which has an element of circular logic, but I have always thought there was a little more to it than that. First the logic:
Love is doing what God commands
God commands us to love one another
However, I believe there is more to what the writer is saying than what is written. The writer is not saying that the only God commands us to do is love one another. He is saying that everything God commands us to do is how we love one another.

    In his third letter the writer has a different message. There are actually three elements to this letter, although the writer does not separate them out in his writing. The first, and the one we must find by reading between the lines, is that the Church should send out traveling teachers who preach the Gospel to unbelievers. I am not quite sure why it is necessary for traveling teachers to preach to the unsaved in areas where there are already believers, but the writer encourages such behavior. He even tells us that we should support such teachers when they come into our area. Further, he condemns those that object to such teachers and attempt to make it difficult for them to gain support for their ministry.

    I have never noticed how the message of 2 John leads into the message of 3 John, which transitions us to the message of Jude. Second John tells us that all of God’s commands are expressions of the command to love one another. Third John tells us of the importance of accepting and supporting traveling teachers who teach the true Gospel and warns us against those who try to isolate us from teachers other than themselves. Finally, Jude warns us against people who claim that God’s grace means that we can live immoral lives. Such people base their authority on extra-biblical sources, such as dreams and revelations which they have received, or the writings of other faiths which they attempt to meld with Christianity. In most cases, if we examine their lives we discover that their teachings derive from their attempts to justify their own sins rather than confess and turn from them.