2John – a New Year’s Call to love and guard your Church

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Sermon Outline 

1. Introduction
   1. 2 things that are worthy for us to remember
      1. Love in Truth
      2. Guard your Church
   2. The Author
      1. The opening words are “The Elder” (2Jn 1a, Rom 1:1)
      2. Normally we are used to letters like Paul’s that begin like this
      3. Term elder can mean (Jn 8:9, 1Tim 5:1, Mt 16:21, 1Tim 5:17, Mt 15:2)
         1. aged person (John 8:9, 1Tim 5:1);
         2. official in a group of people (Mt 16:21, 1Tim 5:17);
         3. person who has come before and established way of life (Mt 15:2).
      4. 2 Options for which official this might be:
   3. The Recipients (2Jn 1b, 13, 1Pt 1:1)
   4. Christians love the Church and her members (2Jn 1-3)
   5. The Church has been doing something Good: Walking in the truth (2Jn 4)
2. Walk in Love (2Jn 5-7)
   1. John wants them not only to know the truth, but for all of them to walk it out, to live it.
   2. But love is tied to the incarnation. (2Jn 7)
3. Guard your Church (2Jn 8-11)
   1. John Equates the denial of the incarnation with ultimate deception and so we much guard the Church
   2. Watch yourselves (2Jn 9-11)
      1. Recognize that doctrine leads to actions according to John,
      2. Part of watching our life is realizing where the center of life is and keeping our eyes fixed there (in the words of Hebrews)
   3. One of the concrete ways we watch ourselves and our churches is to guard the membership of the church
4. Let us commit ourselves to loving truly and to guarding the church.