The second letter of John was written by the apostle John around 85-90 A.D. This short letter is written to "the chosen lady and her children." This could be actual people, or a code name for the church. There was a lot of persecution going on around this time & John may have been purposefully cryptic for safety reasons. The purpose of the letter is to warn against false teachers.
This is a common purpose for letters to the early church. There were many people spreading false messages. Not much has changed today. John emphasizes the "truth" in the first part of this letter. What is the "truth"? It is laid out for us in the Gospels through the words of Jesus Christ. John sums up this truth in one phrase, "walk in love." Oh, that is such a hard thing to do, walking in love. People can be irritating, they can hurt our feelings, they can make poor choices that leave messes behind. Yet, we are called to love, to treat others the way we want to be treated. If you mess up, you hope for grace and forgiveness. If you are making a poor choice, you hope those who care about you will step in and stop you. If you are being irritating, you hope for mercy. God gives us these things & He calls us to treat others the same way.
John then speaks of deceivers in the second part of this letter. Do not listen to teachings that conflict with the message of the Bible. There were, & still are, people who believe that Jesus was not fully a man. They think He was a spirit, that His death wasn't real. If you call yourself a Christian, if you have faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you must believe what Jesus said about Himself. To deny the Gospel is to call Jesus a liar. And really, why would you have faith in a liar? Test a teaching against Scripture. If it doesn't line up, stop listening! God has given us His Word, live by it!
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