Context

Context

The importance of context, that is what has kept me awake with this weeks lesson.  Context is always important but this week it is extremely important. 

The question of the day:  Where do you hope to be in five years?  OR: What would you like to be different about your life in 5 years?

I have to be honest this lesson has kept me up at night.  In many ways it is so applicable to our church right now and this is for a church to a church that was going through some very difficult times.  Yet our class isn't about that.  Our class is about life application.  So... I need to stop, take a breath, and pray that God shows us how this is applicable for us. For you and for me personally.

Here is the challenge.  This lesson, needs context.  Without it, we are likely to go in some directions that were not intended.  So let's read the whole book....chapter, and then we will discuss context.

2 John 

1 The elder,

To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth— 2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.

4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we[a] have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.

12 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

13 The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings.

Well right off the bat how this book starts is interesting.  It is obviously a letter, and seemingly a personal letter.  Or is it. I will say there is much debate about who he is writing to.  Many say it is just a church.  "Lady" referring to the church as it is often referred to as a female. Still others say this is just a lady and her kids.  Many believe she was a home church leader, a lady with great influence.  Perhaps she was a widow and after her husband's death she continued to lead the church.  Others go as far as to name her.  I will admit though the widely accepted version is that it is simply a church, that doesn't sit with me. (It may be, I'm just not convinced.)  

So with way too many missed hours of sleep, I searched Ellen G Whites writings to see if she had anything to say.  She does although it is short.  She is talking about John and his disappointment with the church.  She goes on to say that he writes to,  "a helper in the gospel work, a woman of good repute and wide influence." Then she quotes John 2. 

So I am going to use what she wrote as how we will discuss this.  I realize maybe it doesn't matter, but I want a place to start this lesson from.  So we will assume she is a helper in the gospel work, a woman of good repute and wide influence. 

What does John first tell her?

He loves her in the truth.  

Then what? 

He creates this sense of community.  He let's her know she is not alone. How important is this?

This past weekend there were times when I had so much on my shoulders, I was away from Chris and felt alone.  However, over and over again, a different staff member would step in and not just help, but let me know I wasn't alone.  One time Lucy offered to walk to the cafeteria parking lot from the ad building late at night to retrieve my car that I had left up there earlier.  Just so that when I was done with the task at hand it would be there for me! Once Kevin Worth came running in the Ad building where I was working to set up somethings and asked what he could do.  

We need to know we aren't walking through this life alone.  Community and support is vital.  God said that it isn't good for man to be alone. 

John, with his opening words to this woman supported her and let her know she was part of something big, and that many loved her because they were in this all together. 

What gives him great joy?

It is quite widely accepted that "her children" are those in the church, similar to how in 1 John, John is always writing "little children" when speaking to the church.  So those she has brought into the church or members.  

He starts by telling her she is doing a great job, he starts with affirmation.

What lesson can we take from this?

Is there someone you need to let know that you're in this with them? They aren't alone? 

What about in your marriage?

At work?

Do your kids need to hear this?

Someone in church?

A friend?

What about the churches and friends in Florida?

Or around the world?

Then he tackles the difficult stuff.  

Notice he first lets her know she isn't alone. 

Then he tells her that she is doing a great job.

Then he warns her. 

How many times do we warn without the first two?

Ok back to the warning....

Context is still important here.  So people or members have left and no longer believe what?

What is the specific theological break.

Gary M. Burge writes how this must be looked at in context or it can be used to put up walls that God never intended us to build.  

These people who don't believe in the Father and the Son, were now trying to come into the church for the purpose of persuading the rest of the church to join them.  Burge warns that this is not about issues, such as music, ordination, or even homosexuality.  This is much bigger than that.  He tells of having conversations with a pastor from Egypt.  There the Arab Christian Church is finding it more and more dangerous in a climate where the fundamentalist Muslim community is threatening the church.  Burge wrote that as they compared notes he realized what John was talking about.  The warning and specifically the statement, "10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work," is not speaking of the issues we even see as so great and divisive.  This is talking about people who are coming in and wanting to preach and teach against the foundational church belief that Jesus is Lord, sent by God the Father.  

With that in mind...

Have we in anyway misused verse 11 to shun those who are struggling in sin, or who believe differently than we do on some theology or issues?

Burge also writes that this is not just about associating with those with differing beliefs, it is about letting someone come into the church and hold meetings about how Jesus is not Lord.  He emphasizes how this is something very specific.  

So with all that in mind...

What is a take away for us?

I want to close today with a fascinating sentence. 

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

Right now there is so much strife and controversy in our world church, are we walking in love?  I remember many times over the years when I have watched our world church struggle, being thankful that I am part of the small local church called University City SDA church.  

I want to encourage you to daily walk in love, walk in God.  Stay close with Him, commune with him, cry out to Him, and walk in love!  May this place, this family, this church be a place where we are not alone, where we love each other, where we affirm each other, where we are working together and most importantly where we Know Love, Live Love and Share Love!

Go and Love Well!