EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/15/2025 8:23 PM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-1 “The Truth Unites Believers”
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: 2 John 1
Message of the verse: “The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth.”
I have mentioned a number of times that John was
very old when he wrote all of his letters, including the Gospel of John, and
Revelation, along with 1-3 John. John
was the last surviving apostle as Jesus hinted that in the 21st
chapter of John’s Gospel. MacArthur
writes “Even so, his reference to himself as the elder (presbuteros with the definite article) stresses not so much his age
as his position of spiritual oversight for the church. In the New Testament the term, borrowing from
familiar Old Testament usage (cf. Lev. 4:15; Num. 11:25; Deut. 25: 7-8, etc.)
generally refers to the office of elder (the exception is in 1 Tim. 5:1, where
it refers simply to an older man); the related term presbutes (translated ‘old man’ in Luke 1:18 and ‘aged’ in Philem.
9) describes an older man without reference to a leadership role. John’s description of himself reinforces the
truth that he wrote this epistle; someone impersonating him would likely have
chosen the title ‘apostle,’ while writer not trying to impersonate him would
not likely have called himself the elder
(cf. Alfred Plummer, The Epistles of St.
John, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges [Cambridge: Cambridge
Univ., 1911], 175). John did not need to
refer to himself as an apostle because his readers knew and accepted him as
such, though in the experience of the church, he served them as their pastor.” I have to say that MacArthur gives a lot of
information that I certainly have not seen or read before and that is one of
the reasons that I like to quote from his commentaries so that I can pass this
information along to whomever the Spirit of God brings to these blog posts, and
may the Lord be glorified for that.
Now in the New Testament, churches were always taught and
ruled by a plurality of elders, and in his commentary MacArthur gives many
verses to back that statement up. Now
let me say at this time that in the church where MacArthur preaches, (but not
preaching there now because he has been very ill for the last year), that
church is elder ruled. Now in the church
where I attend and for that matter I have always gone to this type of church
which is a Baptist Church of the Regular Association of Baptist Churches, which
started, I think, close to 100 years ago.
We do not have Elder rule as we have congregational rule. I have said this before and I stand by it and
that is you can have great Bible believing church with Elder rule, and then
there are some who take advantage of this and so it is not such a great
church. You can have the same kind of
thing with churches that have congregational rule too. If the Lord would have led me to a church
with Elder rule and that was where He wanted me to sever I would have gone
there, but He led me to a Baptist Church with a great Pastor, which was
replaced later by another great Pastor, and then with one that was not so good,
and so I left and decided to go to another GRABC church close to me where I and
my family go to this day. I guess we
have been there for about 14 years now.
Now I want to conclude this SD by quoting from MacArthur’s
commentary “But though there were other elders serving with John in Ephesus
(cf. Acts 20:17; see the Introduction to 1 John in this volume for evidence
that John wrote his epistles from that city), he was patriarchal elder, whose
authority and oversight extended well beyond Ephesus. Like Peter (1 Peter 5:1), John both an elder
and an apostle; as the last of the apostles, he was the elder, the most distinguished of all elders; the only living
elder who was chosen to be an apostle by the Lord Jesus Christ and was a member
of the innermost circle of the twelve apostles; the one self-confessed as the ‘the
disciple whom Jesus loved’ (John 20:2; cf. 13:23; 19:26; 21:7, 20). In contrast to the false teachers, John was
the torchbearer of apostolic tradition.”
4/15/2025 8:54 PM
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