WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An international Sunday school lesson commentary
For Sunday January 6, 2019
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WALK IN LOVE
(Walking in love, obedience, and truth)
(2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 and 2 John 4-11)
In the Apostle John’s
second letter to the Christian Church he expresses the need for Christians to
beware of false teachers and teachings that arise out of “the antichrist
influence” that has long existed in the world. In fact the antichrist influence
predates the creation of mankind, as satan himself, has inhabited the earth
since being ejected from Heaven by GOD the FATHER, long before HE created any
other living beings on this planet.
The
purpose of this letter is to encourage “true Christians” to “continue in love”,
as well as to warn them against those whose job is to deceive believers in
matters concerning their faith. Here John charges the believer not to
participate in those evil things that deceivers bring into the Church from the
world, under the guise of saying that “they are trying to attract people to
CHRIST” by employing a “worldly familiarity”, or methods.
CHRIST
does not have, recognize, or endorse any worldly way of doing things, HE only
recommends those GODly strategies that are already laid out for the Church in
biblical literature. There is no room for “human ingenuity” in the Church (John
6:63b). Things that contradict the SPIRIT of GOD should be left outside the
Church when people join, and those who pledge themselves to CHRIST must also
pledge themselves to living “a changed life” that coincides with the teachings
of JESUS CHRIST, the LIVING WORD.
Those
who choose to come to CHRIST must do so by accepting the GODly idea of
“katharisomen” into their spirit. Katharisomen is a Greek term that means,
“separation from all people and things that defile”. It is a term that is
discussed more in debt in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1. When we join the Church where
CHRIST JESUS is the head, we make a vow to change and no longer live as partners
with those people that are intent on doing and promoting the lifestyles that
GOD deems as evil. We must come to the Church, “through the bible”, as CHRIST
had HIS disciples do in the first century, and not, the other way around. “HE
taught them the true Word” before HE ever sent them to work in the Church, or
to evangelize the world.
In
the first century and beyond, heavy persecution dictated the Churches use of
“code words, or expressions” whenever they communicated to each other in the
various towns and cities where they had established Christian congregations
(mostly house churches in hidden locations).
Here
in this letter, in verse one, we find the code words “favorite mistress”, or
“chosen lady”, in the Greek “eklektos kyria”, and her “children”, in the Greek
“teknon”, being used to hide the identity or exact location of the church from
those who sought to infiltrate it with worldly ideas and false teachings, to
the ends that the Church might be destroyed before it could take roots. GOD
does not wish for us to mix the “holy” with the “profane” (i.e. “miming” with
“praise dancing” in today’s Church), and the early Church went to great lengths
to keep that from happening.
John
begins this letter (v.4) by expressing his joy in how the newly founded church
had been dedicating themselves to the righteous living and truth that they had
been introduced to through the Word of GOD. Apparently John had recently met
with some members of that particular church, and wanted to express how pleased
he was with their Christian behavior in a public forum. He reminded the church
to also stay in keeping with the commandment of CHRIST JESUS that we “love one
another”.
John
also reminded the church of how some had gone out of the church, who, did not
truly believe their reports about CHRIST, and were giving the world a bad
impression of how true Christian really behaved. They did not believe the
“human example of perfection” that was presented by CHRIST during HIS life here
on earth, which was intended to show the world that “Christianity really does
produce the best men and women”.
In
this letter, John urged the church to be diligent so that they might receive
the full reward that they had worked so hard for (v.8). He tells them that they
must never wander away from the teachings of CHRIST, and always keep their
fellowship with GOD, and CHRIST, intact (v.9).
In
verse 10 John warns Christians that if anyone comes to their church and does
not teach the truth about CHRIST, don’t even invite them into your house, or
encourage them in any way. JESUS perfectly obeyed GOD as a 100% human being and
HIS very life tells us that we should too. Anyone who encourages a deceiver, or
false teacher, becomes a partner with them in all their evil work.
All
of the central teachings of Christianity hinges on the 100% humanity and 100%
deity of JESUS, our LORD. HE is the one and only “Hypostatic Union”, and the
only way to GOD. HE is the one and only truth, and the one and only source of
“eternal life”. No one, who doesn’t teach the humanity and deity of JESUS
CHRIST, can ever be held up as a teacher of the Christian Faith.
Finally,
in 2 Thessalonians 3, verses 1-5, the Apostle Paul chimes in by urging that the
Church pray continuously that the message of CHRIST JESUS will spread rapidly
and correctly through the world, just as
it is written. We should pray that our efforts to teach CHRIST in the Church, are
not met and overcome with contamination by evil people who do not really
believe in the LORD our GOD in Heaven, but only use the Word of GOD to try and
take advantage of those who want to believe, but are not yet fully committed.
As
professed Christians, we must pray that our confidence in the LORD will
continue to increase by way of our actually putting into practice, the things
that the Word of GOD (CHRIST JESUS) commands us to do. And as a result, GOD
will bring us into a deeper understanding of HIS love, and also, of the
endurance of CHRIST JESUS, WHO, as a 100% human being, overcame this world, by
way of HIS total obedience to GOD the FATHER.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official
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