The Vision (7.12.24): Look to Yourselves (2 John 7-13)

 

Image: Saint John of Patmos, South German, c. 1460-70, The National Gallery, London.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on 2 John 7-13.

Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward (2 John 8).

In the closing verses of John’s brief second epistle to a church and her members (“the elect lady and her children” v. 1), the apostle offers three specific admonitions under the general call, “Look to yourselves”:

First, he warns against false teachers and false teachings (2 John 7-9). He calls them “deceivers” and “an antichrist” (v. 7). He charges them with not abiding in “the doctrine of Christ,” referring both to the teaching Christ gave to them (like the New Commandment in John 13:34-35) and also right teaching about Christ (Christology). John likely has in mind here refuting the same “false prophets” and antichrists” he denounced in 1 John 4:1-3, who denied that Christ had come “in the flesh” (i.e., that he was and is a true man).

Second, he warns against extending hospitality and even greetings to these false teachers (2 John 10-11). Hospitality among family and friends was essential for travel in the first century, especially for Christian ministers and preachers. This is why there are repeated calls for hospitality in the NT (see Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2; 1 Peter 4:9). Here, however, John reminds the church that the “welcome mat” was not to be offered to false teachers, nor were they even to be given greetings (“God speed”) on their travels.

Third, he encourages “face to face” fellowship among believers, as well as fellowship among churches (2 John 12-13). John expresses his desire not merely to write to the saints “with paper and ink,” today we might say by keyboard and screen, but to see them “face to face.” Paul had likewise warned believers not to forsake “the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 13:25). We should place a high priority on spending time in person with the brethren. John closes his letter by sending greetings from “the children of thy elect sister” (the members of a sister church, perhaps the church at Ephesus where John served) (v. 13).

When the church at Antioch had controversy over circumcision and salvation, they appealed to the church at Jerusalem for help in discernment (see Acts 15). We as individual believers need not only the “face to face” fellowship of the brethren, but, corporately, as a church, we need intentional fellowship with sister churches.

Through the inscripturation of 2 John, these admonitions can be applied to every church across the ages, including our own. Let us then look to ourselves in these areas as we move forward in service to Christ.

Blessings, Pastor Jeff Riddle