PT-2 "Intro to 2 John"

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/11/2025 7:11 PM

 

JOHN MACARTHUR’S INTRO TO 2 JOHN

 

            I mentioned in my last SD that I would quote the introduction on 2 John by John MacArthur, as I used Warren Wiersbe’s introduction in yesterday’s SD.  I think that it is good to get the prospective from both of these men of God.

 

Occasion And Purpose

 

            “The two brief epistles of 2 and 3 John are the shortest New Testament books.  Each contains fewer than 300 words in the Greek text and could have fit on a single papyrus sheet (cf. 2 John 12:3 John 13).  They closely approximate the conventional letter form of the contemporary Greco-Roman world.

 

            “But despite their brevity, both epistles are significant in that they stress the importance and boundaries of loving in the truth.  Second John addresses the same basic historical events as 1 John: false teachers were assaulting the congregations under John’s care (v. 7).  Having left the fellowship of believers (1 John 2:19), the heretics were traveling from church to church, taking advantage of Christian hospitality as they spread their venomous lies.  The lady to whom John addressed this letter may have inadvertently or unwisely show them hospitality.  John cautioned her (as a model for all believers) against participating in false teachers’ evil deeds by showing them hospitality.

 

AUTHOR, DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING

 

            “This letter’s close affinities with 1 John (e. g. , v. 5 and 1 John 2:7; 3:11; v. 6 and 1 John 5:3; v. 7 and 1 John 2:18-26; v. 9 and 1 John 2:23; v. 12 and 1 John 1:4) make it clear that it also was written by John the apostle…Second John was most likely composed at Ephesus at about the same time or shortly after 1 John (c. A. D. 90-95).

 

DESTINATION AND READERS

 

            “Many commentators believe the phrase ‘the chosen lady’ (v. 1) refers metaphorically to a local church.  The more natural understanding in the context, however, is to take it as a reference to an actual woman and her children, whom John knew personally.  The letter’s obvious similarity to 3 John, which clearly (v. 1) was written to an individual, favors the view that 2 John also was written to an individual.  Further, it would be unnatural to sustain such a figure of speech throughout the whole letter.  Such an elaborate metaphor is also not in keeping with the letter’s simplicity and tenderness of its tone.  Finally, the change from the singular form of the personal pronoun ‘you’ in v. 5 to the plural form in v. 12 applies more naturally to a woman and her children than to a church and its members.

 

OUTLINE

 

I.                    The Basis of Christian Hospitality (1-3)

II.                 The Behavior of Christian Hospitality (4-6)

III.               The Bounds of Christian Hospitality (7-11)

IV.              The Blessings of Christian Hospitality (12-13)

 

            We now have both short introductions to this second letter written by John, and it seems like both of them refer to the lady as an actual lady, which is something that in my short study of 2 John from a long time ago kind of disagrees with what I first was taught and that is John was referring to a church.  I think that my mind has been changed and John was actually writing to a real woman (lady) who perhaps housed a church in her house as Dr. Wiersbe mentioned.  At any rate, Lord willing, I will begin to look at 2 John in my next SD.

 

4/11/2025 7:37 PM