Before reading this commentary, I encourage you to first read the text of 2 John.

Verse 1

The salutation

Verse 2

— because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:

Reading the above verse, I am immediately reminded of the verse which says, God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)

Worship him in spirit is referring to the infilling of the Holy Spirit. But I would like, for a moment, to focus on worshiping God in truth. What exactly does that mean?

There is a common phrase in Christianity, “majoring on the minors”. I have seen Christian content creators on the internet unilaterally declare someone a false teacher and a liar for simply offering an interpretation of a bible verse that was different from that of the content creator’s.

The height of that content creator’s arrogance to suggest that anyone with an opinion that differs from his own is a liar and a false teacher.

That being said, however, in order to worship God in truth, which as we just read, is God’s will, we must be in agreement on the majors (i.e. “majoring on the majors”).

God requires that we worship him in truth. For example, mother nature is not God, all roads do not lead to heaven, other religions do not share the same God, Jesus is not the brother of Satan, hell is a real place, and we don’t go into heaven by being a good person, etc, etc…. We can not worship God according to falsehoods. We must worship God in truth.

I recall in high-school, when going to my next class, I was walking down the steps, and seeing Christy walking up the steps, I called out, “Hi Sandy”. She immediately stopped in her tracks and yelled “Sandy?!?!”. I had to correct myself and said, “Sorry Christy, I’m supposed to meet Sandy for our science lab project and I must have had her name on my mind.”

Christy was not going to continue a conversation with me calling her by the wrong name. She immediately took issue with my error. In like manner, God is not going to be in relationship with us when we are calling him by the wrong name. Christy and Sandy were not the same person. Likewise, all other gods and Jesus Christ are not the same person.

Verse 3

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

Verse 4

I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father has commanded us.

Again, let me emphasize that God has commanded us to walk in truth. We can not worship him through falsehoods.

Verses 5-6

And now I urge you, dear lady—not as a new commandment to you, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love.

John is urging the lady with whom he is corresponding that she must walk in love and that she must “love one another”.

Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

Verses 7

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, refusing to confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.

This is not referring to the antichrist depicted in Revelation, rather, anyone who denies that Jesus is the Messiah is himself acting as an antichrist. Watch out for such people.

Verses 8-11

Watch yourselves, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be fully rewarded. Anyone who runs ahead without remaining in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever remains in His teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you but does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home or even greet him. Whoever greets such a person shares in his evil deeds.

We’ve been focusing herein on truth and love. In verse 11 John is advising that we shouldn’t even greet a person who brings a teaching contrary to the truth.

That might not seem very loving and today much of our modern American culture has fully embraced the notion that in order to show love, we must accept everyone and be tolerant of everything.

But Jesus said above, that the greatest commandment is to Love God. That is number one. The second priority is to love one another. This list is in order of priority. Therefore, to receive a person who brings a false teaching is an act of no longer loving God. You may think you are being accepting and tolerant of the person who is bringing the false doctrine, but what you are actually doing is ceasing to show your love for God by allowing someone who openly rejects the truth of God to teach and lead others astray.

To show your love for God would be to reject that false teacher. To not invite him to teach in your church or in your home and to not even greet him when he knocks on your door. It seems counter intuitive, but remember love for one another is the second commandment. The first commandment, (the higher priority), is to Love God.

John is telling us that we demonstrate our love for God by worshiping him in truth. Furthermore, Jesus said that God commands us to worship him in truth. So, if you allow someone to come into your church or small group and teach falsehoods, you are not loving God.

There was a church whose pastor retired. The four church elders began a search for a new pastor. Eventually they found a young man who had become a Christian only 6 years earlier. He didn’t have any formal seminary training but was very excited about Jesus. They hired him to be the new pastor. His style was to teach topically, rather than verse by verse. Every Sunday he preached uplifting and encouraging sermons about God’s love. But after about a year of preaching, one of the church members approached him privately and asked, “Why do you never preach about sin, or hell or about God’s wrath?” The pastor replied, “Oh, I don’t believe in that.”

There are some pastors who need to be in the pews listening and learning, rather than in the pulpit teaching.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly (James 3:1). We must worship God in Truth and in Spirit.

I would like, at this point, to circle back to verse 8 in which John says “so that you do not lose what we have worked for…” notice that the very next words are, “but that you may be fully rewarded.” This verse is not about losing one’s salvation, but is about being rewarded in heaven.

Verse 12

John concludes his letter by saying that he would prefer to explain the truths of God’s word to her face to face rather than by letter.

Verse 13

And lastly either this woman’s nieces and nephews send her greetings, or she has a friend who herself is saved (thus John is referring to her as a sister) and that woman’s children send greetings.