EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/16/2025 10:15 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “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.”
Now I have gone over that when we look at the term chosen
lady that John was talking about a real woman and not a church. I would think that this lady that John was
writing to did attend a church, but he seems to be writing to her. MacArthur writes “Lady translates the
feminine form of the noun kurios (‘lord,’
‘sir’). The husband is the ‘lord’ of the
household as its divinely ordained head (cf. 1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:23), but the lady
has her sphere of authority and responsibility as well (cf. Titus 2:3-5 and 1
Tim. 5:14, where ‘keep house’ translates a Greek verb that literally means ‘to
rule or manage a household’). That her
husband is not mentioned may indicate that she was a widow. In any case, she was responsible for
providing hospitality in the home, as is clear from 1 Timothy 5:9-10. Since John addressed her children too, they
may still have been living at home with her.
Families typically shared a common house, even after the children were
married.
“Chosen translates a form of the Greek word eklektos (‘elect,’ ‘chosen,’ ‘choice’). The term describes those selected by God for eternal glory, whether Christ (Luke 12:35; 1 Peter 2:4, 6), the holy angels (1 Tim. 5:21), or the redeemed (Matt. 22:14; 24:22, 24, 31; Mark 13:20, 22, 27; Luke 18:7; Rom. 8:33; Col. 3:12; 2 Tim. 2:10; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1; 2:9; 2 John 13; Rev. 17:14). The only other time outside of this epistle that it is used of an individual is in Romans 16:13, where Paul described Rufus as a ‘choice [from eklektos] man in the Lord.’
“John’s description of this woman (and her sister; v. 13) as chosen reflects the biblical truth that God sovereignly chooses believers for salvation (in addition to the vv. Cited above, see Mark 13:20; Acts 13:48; Rom. 8:28-30; Eph. 1:4-5, 11; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; James 2:5). Unlike those who hold a weak view of divine sovereignty, the New Testament writers did not hesitate to refer to believers as ‘the elect.’ In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself did so in Matthew 24:22: ‘Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.’ The term is no less appropriate than the more popular terms ‘child of God,’ ‘saved,’ ‘born-again,’ ‘believer,’ or Christian.’”
Lord willing I will finish this section in tomorrow
evening’s SD, but I have been asking for people who read my recent Spiritual
Diaries to pray for what is going on with my wife and her battle with cancer as
some new developments have come up today that has shown us that we need prayer
for the Lord to work things out for her surgery. Thanks in advance!!
4/16/2025 10:38 PM
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