Glory to God! Greetings to all of you [our dear readers, our dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, our dear ministry partners, and the well-wishers] in the wonderful name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! As we say almost every week, this week also we say that our Lord God has been good to us during each moment of the past week. We are blessed in the Lord, we are peaceful in the Lord, we are joyful in the Lord, and we are contented with everything the Lord God has blessed us with! As we receive blessings from God, we need to bless others who are in dire need. Jesus said: Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Luke 6:38). This signifies that we need to help each other and bear one another’s burdens, as Apostle Paul stated: Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).

The Lord has blessed us with a very simple but noteworthy Scripture passage (2 John 1:8-9) for us to read and reflect and meditate upon. The Second Epistle of John is addressed to a lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I [John] love in the truth (2 John 1:1a). The lady chosen by God and her children John addressed in the Epistle could either be an important and influential woman and her children in the church or the term lady could refer to one of the local congregations and her children represents the members in the church – perhaps, a local congregation situated in Asia Minor that falls under John’s ministry supervision. The reason we assume to say that the lady and her children represents one of the local congregations under John’s ministry supervision is because John concluded the Epistle saying: The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings (2 John 1:13), which could be another local congregation that John is a part of.

Apostle John started this particular Scripture passage with a statement of caution, which states: Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for (2 John 1:8a), which implies that the believers to whom he is writing have been working towards making their life right with God during their earthly lifetime (earthly matters) as well as working towards making life possible for the other-worldly life (heavenly matters). This indicates that, spiritually, (i) they were working towards establishing a right relationship with the triune God who is the author of our life (John 1:4; 5:26; 11:25; 14:6; Acts 3:15), that is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; (ii) they were working towards escaping from the eternal condemnation (Matthew 10:28; Hebrews 10:31); (iii) they were working towards the salvation/redemption of their souls (Isaiah 12:2; 43:3; Psalm 18:2; Mark 16:16; Acts 16:31; Ephesians 2:8-9); (iv) they were working towards making possible a life in eternity with the Lord God (John 10:28; 1 John 5:11).

We have learnt from the book of Acts and from the Epistles about the involvement and participation of traveling ministers of the gospel (including evangelists, preachers, teachers, prophets, and so on) who enthusiastically took the gospel beyond the known territories of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria; and earnestly and intentionally preached the truth of the gospel to everyone who came across their lives. They, in fact, played major roles in the expansion of the gospel and paved the pathways for those who are coming after them to take the gospel to the rest of the world. Such traveling ministers of the gospel preached the truth of the gospel and set an example for others by obeying the commandments of Jesus and upholding the teachings of the apostles and living their lives according to the Scriptural truth. Thus, they became powerful tools in the hands of God to carry the gospel to many of the unreached places, which eventually set a blueprint for taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

As the Kingdom of God was expanding from one place to another through the preaching of the gospel, the enemies of the gospel also started working to slow down the expansion of the Kingdom of God on earth by confusing naive believers with false teachings and wrongful deeds; and many of the believers, including the elect, were confused and trapped in the wrong ideology of those false teachers. In such situations, Apostle John, being an elder in the Church at large (2 John 1:1a), urged the believers not to lose what they have worked for 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 (2 John 1:7); and these deceivers can cause confusion among the believers, including the elect, with their cleverly made up false teachings. Apostle John warned the believers to be careful and watch themselves from all kinds of false teachings (2 John 1:8) because these false teachers and deceivers do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh (2 John 1:7) and, thus, they unintentionally or intentionally deny the incarnation of Christ in to human form. Apostle John warned the believers because they are responsible for protecting themselves from the false teachers’ deception and preserve the Biblical truth (the righteous laws and decrees and holy commands) which is given by the Lord God Almighty through His saints, and the Christian doctrines which are given by Christ through His apostles. If the believers are enticed and attracted to the teachings of the false teachers, they themselves will compromise with the Biblical truth and there will be a breach in their relationship with Christ and other believers in the Lord.  And ultimately, they will fail to serve the Lord faithfully. Apostle John warned the believers to watch out that they do not lose what they have worked for (2 John 1:8a) because he wanted to safeguard (i) God’s calling in their life, (ii) the Biblical truth, and (iii) the apostolic teachings that the apostles received directly from Jesus Christ and passed on to the believers who in turn passes it on to the next generation. The main focus of our meditation and the outcome of our meditation ought to be to:

• • Love one another
  • Obey the righteous laws and decrees and holy commands
  • Learn to walk in Biblical truth
  • Learn to walk in God’s love
  • Be warned against false teachers who deny Jesus’ physical incarnation
  • Avoid association with ministers who spread false teachings
  • Live a holy life according to Biblical purity
  • Examine thoroughly the contents of the teaching they receive in the churches (like the Bereans who studied the Scripture thoroughly [Acts 17:11])
  • Reject any teachings that contradicts the Biblical truth and the teachings of the apostles
  • Guard ourselves from falling away from our faith in Jesus Christ
  • Let us be faithful to our God who has called and separated us for Himself
  • Let us fulfill God’s purpose in and through our life

Dear friends in the Lord, as the chosen vessels in the hands of God and faithful followers of Jesus Christ, let us understand the purpose of what Apostle John wrote: Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone 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 (2 John 1:8-9). We ought to know that we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:10), and, therefore, let us walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:2). It is time for us to continually abide in the teachings of Christ and have both the Father and the Son on our side (2 John 1:9b). More than anything else, let us be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:1-2). In the light of our meditation this week, let us uphold the Biblical truth and the apostolic teachings in order to live a life that is worthy of our calling and fulfill God’s purpose in and through our lives. Please be sure that His purpose in our life is to (i) know Him very personally, (ii) transform ourselves into His likeness and image (Genesis 1:26-26; 2:7), and (iii) do His will in our life. Let us pray to God to strengthen us to do His will in our lives at all times. May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!