Continue in the teaching
Day 693, Sunday, July 5
2 John (all)
2 John doesn’t break any new ground in terms of what it teaches; it continues the warning against false prophets that we read in 1 John.
Verse 9 says, “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.” While this sounds repetitions, maybe it needs to be.
As I was catching up on some reading recently I came across two articles written by pastors who would probably label themselves progressive. In both cases, they supported the teachings of Jesus (at least some of them), while questioning, or at least de-emphasizing, the person of Jesus. Their priority was following the moral and ethical teachings of Jesus, not salvation from sin and death. That isn’t a minor matter; it was important in the days of the early church, and remains so today.
Another thing to note in 2 John is some language we’ll see a lot more of in our final weeks in the New Testament. John addresses the letter “To the lady chosen by God and to her children,” and ends it with, “The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings.”
While this could mean that he was sending the letter to a particular church leader and her family, the more common interpretation is that the “lady” is the church he is addressing, and “her children” are the individual members of the church.
As we begin reading Revelation next week we’ll see this kind of language much more often. Churches, cities and governments are personified and spoken of as though they are an individual, often a “woman” or “lady.”

Sunday meditation

Ecclesiastes 4:13-16
Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning. The youth may have come from prison to the kingship, or he may have been born in poverty within his kingdom. I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth, the king’s successor. There was no end to all the people who were before them. But those who came later were not pleased with the successor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Prayer focus
Make us mindful, Lord, of those who seek to teach enough of you to sound credible, but without truth.

-Rev. Mark Fleming