John’s two-fold purpose in this letter was to motivate the church
to be obedient and responsive to the revealed truth. Besides, he also wanted
them to prevent the advancement of false teachings. He called on the church to
resist the false teachers and their evil intention of distorting the truth.
Here, in verse 4, John started by commending the
church for their obedience. He personally had known or met some of them who
kept living in the truth that they were taught. Hence, he expressed his
gladness that they were doing so. He then reminded them that his message to
them was not a new one. They were told to stick to this truth to love one
another. This was critical as the false teachers were influencing the people to
leave the truth that they were receiving. John went on further to reveal that
true love begins with being obedient to God’s Word. Here, we get the impression
that to truly love a fellow believer would require one to love the person
according to what God has prescribed in the Word.
In this letter, we can see that John also dealt
with other issues. He told the believers to resist the false teachers who were
distorting the truth and deceiving some of the believers. According to him, the
false teachers were the anti-Christs and deceivers. Their error mainly centered
on the Christological issue. They did not acknowledge that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh. So John warned his readers to be watchful and not to be
taken in, and lose all that they had attained, and so ultimately losing their
reward. He was also refuting the wrong idea that one must obtain more
knowledge. He said the issue is not about how far one has gone, but how much
one has abided in the teaching of Christ. It is in abiding in the teaching of
Christ that one can claim to have both the Father and the Son. John urged them
not to entertain people who did not bring these teachings of Christ. They
should not be received into the house nor be accepted by them. Why? Anyone who
greets a heretic participates in his error.
John said he had written to them only briefly although he had more
to say to them. His desire was to go to where they were and explain to them
face to face. He wanted to be with them to bring cheer to them. The word
“sister” in verse 13 suggests a sister congregation, and is probably the one
where John was worshipping. He was in effect assuring them that they were in
the hearts of the members of where he himself was worshipping, so he sent the
greetings of the members too.
We have often been urged to be discerning, and be discerning we
must. The issue is on what basis can we discern accurately? Needless to say,
it’s the Word, the Truth of God. The next searching question is how much of the
Truth do we know? And then again how much should we know? The call of the Word
of God is to let the Word dwell richly in our hearts. So let us be encouraged
to read, meditate, memorize, digest, assimilate and apply the Word. For it is the
surest way to recognize error when we have the Truth and know them well. So go for
it!
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