February 15, 2016
Scripture Reading: 2 John
1The 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— 2because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:
3Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.
4It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5And 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. 6And 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.
7I 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. 8Watch out that you do not lose what wehave worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9Anyone 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. 10If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.
12I 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.
13The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings.
Questions for Reflection:
We move into a new book, but it’s a short book. In fact, it probably only took you a couple of minutes to read the whole book. However, just because it is short, does not mean that it does not have powerful truths to teach us. Today, we begin with observation. Ask yourself some basic investigatory questions about the text: Who? What? Why?
Who are the people involved? Who is writing 2 John? Who is he writing to? What do we learn about them from the text?
The question of What helps us understand what the text is addressing. What is happening in the text? What does the author communicate to his audience? What words or phrases are repeated? What is the point? If you were asked to summarize the passage into a sentence, how would you summarize this passage?
The final question to ask is Why. As Bible scholar Howard Hendricks points out, “There is an infinity of Why? questions to ask the biblical text. Why is this included? Why is it placed here? Why does this follow that? Why does this precede that? Why does this person say that? Why does that person say nothing? Why? is a question that digs for meaning.”
Finish your time today in prayer asking God to make your time of study in this book fruitful this week. Ask Him to challenge you, comfort you, grow you.
For Further Study
If you need help answering some of those observation questions, you can read Charles Swindoll’s summary of 2 John. He provides an excellent overview of the book that will help you as we dive into the text more this week.