T HE ELECT LADY AND HER CHILDREN receive a postcard. Now that might be a reference to a prominent woman and her family, but most likely it’s a coded way of addressing a church and congregation. She, the church, and its members are in the midst of controversy. And this short note addresses their problem.

Who should be allowed to be a church leader — to teach, preach, educate, lead within the church? Where do you draw the line? To whom do we give permission to speak in our worship and who do we reject? Who is allowed to teach and who isn’t? Those questions underlie the 2nd Letter of John.

Their concern is still a concern within the church. The local church might monitor who teaches and what is taught within the church — but with access to modern and ancient writings in our homes, who controls those venues? Books and Bible studies and an endless assortment of preachers are available on our smart phone. There’s no way the church can police what members read, hear, believe, share, or disregard.

The controversy then and now: Are we hearing and receiving words that contradict Scripture and the very root of Christianity?

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EVIDENTLY SOME MEMBERS at elect lady don’t think that Jesus was really God in the flesh. Some don’t believe that Jesus really died. Their Sunday school class has a teach who insists that Jesus’ body was not real flesh and blood but only the appearance of flesh and blood.

Today, there are similar teachings. Or that the resurrection didn’t actually happen. Or that Jesus is not returning in glory. That God is more divine than Jesus. That the Holy Spirit is a force, like something from Star Wars.

What makes these teachings so dangerous is that most often they contain just enough truth to make you believe. Plausible teachers, using smooth words, seem to be confirming some truth of Christian faith. But, they stop short of the full Gospel.

For example:

● Christian faith as an almost exclusively subjective matter — a personal experience. One lives one’s faith in one’s heart, not in the world.

● A believer can live a life of faith in isolation from a community of fellow-believers and from the tradition of faith that came before.

● The “Old” Testament has been replaced and is irrelevant.

● A Gospel that equates poverty with sin and asserts that anyone can become rich through hard work.

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THE OVERALL THEME OF 2 JOHN is to “recall to the fundamentals of the faith” or “back to the basics of Christianity.” For John, the basics of Christianity are summarized by walking in truth, love, and obedience. The letter is an urgent plea to show love for God and His son Jesus by obeying the commandment to love each other and live in obedience to the Scriptures.

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.

 Walk in truth 
Now we’re not talking mathematical truth or scientific truth. We’re talking God truth. Theological truth. Foundational truth. And that comes from Scripture. It seems sometimes as if much of the church today is treading new ground: how to live out a faith without perusing its sacred texts and knowing its sacred stories. And in doing so, we fall prey to distorted truth. If the God you find within yourself disagrees with the God of your scriptures, well, so much the worse for your scriptures. The truth is we are to love one another.

 Walk in obedience 
Obedience to the commandments of God. A healthy walk includes knowing who God is and remembering how God has loved his people throughout history. Obedience is to the old commandment to love God and love one another. Obedience is living like you’re loved!

 Walk in love 
Yes, we’re back to love. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. John describes love not as an emotion or feeling, but action.

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THE EARLY CHURCH LED AND GREW WITH LOVE. They certainly had beliefs and a growing familiarity with what would become the New Testament, but not like today. With relatively low literacy rates, no printing press to produce Bibles and a less-developed theology, the memorized the Sermon on the Mount, and it became their template for living. They were compassionate. They were kind. They were forgiving. They were welcoming.

John reminds them of that. Don’t get lost in the weeds of arguments. Love one another. How can people outside the church believe we love them, when we can’t even love people within the church?

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WHILE OUR WALK WITH GOD INVOLVES remembering and retelling his story, we also have the responsibility and privilege of living as God’s loved people in this world. We trust that God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, is now working in and through us and we try to live in ways faithful to that calling.

During the various atheist regimes in East Germany, Christians still found a unique way to evangelize. Since the East German government wouldn’t allow signs to direct people to church, Christian youth started wearing T-shirts that read “Follow Me to God.” In other words, they became walking billboards pointing to Jesus. With or without a T-shirt, each Jesus follower wears the same sign: “Follow me to God.”

When folks follow you, are they led to a walk with God in truth, obedience and love?

— Keith Cardwell