A PERFECT, INTERNAL TRUTH

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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—because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

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

2 John 1:1-3

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

“If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”John 8:31-32

These are the words of our Savior Jesus as found in the Gospel of John, the same John who we find writing three letters found toward the end of the New Testament. We just finished our study of the first letter and today, we turn to the second, one that we will see is much shorter as will be the third when we get to it.

In both instances, whether we are reading the Gospel and John’s sharing of the words of Jesus or his letter where he is instructing and advising first century Christians, we find the matter of truth emerge.

In the passage that led off this message, we find Jesus speaking with a group of Jewish converts, letting them know that as long as they would “hold to” and adhere to His teaching, they would truly be identified as His followers, disciples who would “know the truth” that would set them free.

Of course, this promise was perfectly fulfilled by Jesus because later in John’s Gospel, we find Him proclaiming this in chapter 14:

“I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” v.6

Jesus, who is the Truth, will always bring truth into the hearts and minds of those who dedicate and surrender their lives to Him, and ultimately, it’s belief and faith in Him as Savior that will set the sin captive free and bring them into an eternal life with the Father. No one gets to the Father except through the Son.

With this as a backdrop, let’s look again at our passage for today, the opening three verses of 2 John, chapter 1. There we read this:

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—because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

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

Here, in typical fashion within the epistles, we find the writer (John) identify himself first (as the elder which reflected his age and authority within the Christian church) before identifying who the letter was written to. In this case, John was corresponding to a “lady” who was “chosen by God” (which meant she was a part of the church universal) and “to her children”. John adds that not only he but others had an affection for those he was writing to stating that he loved them “in the truth” as did others who knew “the truth”.

This truth John speaks of is no ordinary truth but rather THE Truth, the perfect truth found in Jesus who “lives in” every Christian believer and will “be with” them forever. It was this Truth, Jesus, who allows believers to love one another as He loves, a true love that is pure and holy and genuine. It’s the love that should always be at the center of everything that the church does.

What a wonderful, blessed way to open up this letter, with a proclamation of love that was coming from Jesus, the perfect and eternal Truth. In and of itself, this would have been enough but John wasn’t finished. For we then see him sharing his heartfelt wish for the chosen woman and her children, hoping that the very “grace, mercy, and peace from God” and Jesus would be upon them and all other Christ followers as they experienced the truth and love of the Father and His Son.

Friends, today and every day, let us as believers rejoice in knowing that we have perfect, eternal truth within us in the person of Jesus. And like the new Jewish believers in John 8, we will know the truth and find it setting us free when we stay dedicated and devoted to the will and teaching of Jesus, the One who is the Way and the Life.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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