One thing many people today hate – is hypocrisy. When someone doesn’t live out their faith.
A few years back, I parked the car badly. I found a note on my windscreen that simply read: Do you call yourself a Christian? Well, I do. But it’s why a fish sticker is a bad idea – unless you’re a very courteous and careful driver. It gives other road users two reasons to dislike you. Not only are you a bad driver, you’re also a Christian and that makes you a hypocrite.
There’s nothing more wonderful than a Christian who lives what they believe.
The question is: What does it look like to live out your faith? Is it about driving carefully? What is involved?
Ben here has just signed up to be a Christian. Or at least, his parents have just signed him up. Many people do that, and it doesn’t make a great deal of difference to the way they live their life. But what if he were to live out today for the rest of his life? What would it look like?
Many of us here are Christians. We want to live as though we are. We don’t want to be hypocrites. So what’s at the heart of it?
And most weeks there are some folk here who are still looking at the Christian faith from the outside. Trying to decide whether to follow Jesus for themselves. If you started out, what difference would it make to your life?
Well this little letter of 2 John will tell us.
Tucked away at the back of the New Testament are 3 little letters that are often overlooked. They’re called 2 John, 3 John and Jude. Today we’re looking at 2 John. I’m told it’s exactly the right length to have been written on one piece of papyrus. It’s the ancient equivalent of one side of A4. Paper was very expensive. You couldn’t write a shorter letter and make good use of that valuable sheet.
It’s written by John, one of Jesus’ first followers. He addresses it to the elect lady and her children. This is probably a way of speaking of a local church, the lady, and the people who belong to it – her children.
And John says that he’s delighted to know that some of these Christians are walking in the truth. They’ve living in a way that matches the truths they’ve believed.
So here’s our chance to find out what this looks like, as John urges two things on this church if they are to live consistently.
Love other Christians – no solo Christianity
First, he says: Love other Christians – there’s no solo Christianity. Love other Christians – no solo Christianity.
Verse 5. I’ve got nothing new to say to you. It’s something Jesus told us to do. It’s something Jesus did for us. Love one another. Love one another.
Many people today live only for themselves. Life’s about my comfort, my enjoyment, my job, my family, my friends, my needs.
Jesus demonstrated something quite different. He didn’t live for himself. He left the comforts of heaven for a difficult life on earth. And in the end, he allowed himself to be nailed to a Roman cross. He carried the things that you and I have done wrong on his own back. All for our benefit.
And just before he died, he left us this instruction: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
The Christian church should be unlike any other institution on earth. We’ve experienced the love of Jesus, unlike any other love. So we can put the needs of one another above our own. We can live counter-culturally. Selfless, giving, others-first love.
Now, whenever we meet a Bible passage that says Christians should love one another, a question pops into our heads. Why are we being told to love other Christians? Should we not love everyone around us, whatever their creed?
Of course we should. But as well as telling his disciples to love their neighbours, Jesus also told them to love each other. A Christian church should be a unique place. There should be a culture of sacrificial love you’d find nowhere else.
That’s one of the consistent marks of a Christian throughout the Bible. We love each other. We put the needs of other Christians above our own.
Which means that there’s no such thing as solo Christianity. You can’t be a Christian on your own. You can’t love the other Christians in a church unless you belong to one, go along regularly, and build deep relationships with the others there.
There are two types of sport. There are team sports and solo sports. Solo sports are about my performance. Strength. Stamina. Am I better than the next man or woman? Running a marathon. Performing gymnastics. Singles at tennis. But then there are team sports. You can’t play football on your own. If you want to play footy, you need to join a team – even if it’s only 5-a-side. The same is true for volleyball.
John is saying that being a Christian is fundamentally a team sport. You need to find a church. You need to join a church. It is possible to come to a church for years, but for it all to be superficial. That’s not joining the team. You need to play an active part in the life of a church. Only then do you love the other Christians around you in the way Jesus asked us to.
This is one of the things that Ben will need to do if he is to live out his baptism. Wherever his parents move to, they’ll need to get stuck in to a church together. Sometimes there’s a choice of church – we’ll come to that in a moment.
And it’s what each of us needs to do if we are to live out our claim to follow Jesus. Find a church, whether it’s this one or another one. And commit to the people who are there. Love them, as Jesus loved us.
And notice, in passing, that John says that love is walking according to God’s commandments. When God asks us to love others, he’s not asking us to mean well but make up the details for ourselves. God tells us, in his word the Bible, what loving behaviour looks like.
Love other Christians – no solo Christianity.
Hold to the truth – no innovation
John urges these Christians to do something else if they’re going to keep living out their faith. He tells us: Hold to the truth, and that means no innovation. Hold to the truth – no innovation.
The truth about Jesus is wonderful. Jesus lived, died and rose again. Those who witnessed these things were charged by him to spread the good news.
Verse 9 says that everyone who abides in this teaching has both the Father and the Son. Jesus offers us nothing less than the chance to know him, and his Father. We can have a living relationship with the living God, the maker of all. We can be adopted into his family. We can walk through life with him, as he speaks to us and we speak to him. What a joy, and what a privilege. And it’s available for everyone who trusts and follows Jesus.
It’s that good. But now, in verse 7, John says many deceivers are out there. People who claim to be giving Christian teaching, but are denying key truths about Jesus. Denying that he is God’s eternal Son. Denying that he lived a real human life. Denying that he died on the cross to pay for our sins.
Denying it. Which is often done by trying to update the message about Jesus. Christians aren’t innovators. In verse 9, he warns about those who go on ahead. Who don’t stick with the Jesus who lived and died 2000 years ago. But who try and move on to a new one.
The truth about Jesus gives us a wonderful relationship with God. Denying it risks losing that. Verse 8: Don’t lose what you’ve worked for. Make sure you get your full reward. Don’t lose the chance to know the God that made you.
Being robbed of something precious is painful for a whole host of reasons. But one of them is the sense of injustice at it all. We’ve worked hard. We’ve saved up what we’ve earned. We’ve bought this thing with our own money. We’re entitled to it. It’s ours. But then someone with no right to it has stolen it from right under our noses. It’s just so wrong.
John urges us not to be robbed of the chance to know God and to be in his family. Jesus has given us that. Those who told us about Jesus worked hard to tell us about him so that we could have this great privilege. Don’t lose it. Don’t be robbed.
And certainly don’t give such damaging teaching a platform. Verse 10: If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
In the ancient world, there was no idea that people have rights. Only people in your town have any rights. If you come as a foreigner, you’re a nobody. Until someone takes you into their home. Then you’re a guest. You have to be treated with the same courtesy as a local. You have a platform.
The truth about Jesus is so wonderful. Hold to it. Don’t fall for those who have moved on from it. And certainly don’t give such teachers a platform.
All that was within one generation. John was one of the eyewitnesses. Even in his own day, people were twisting, distorting and innovating.
We’re now 2000 years down the line. Churches and denominations have fragmented more times than we can count. Christians disagree about all kinds of things. Sometimes it’s amicable. Sometimes it’s not.
So as Ben grows up and his family moves to a new area, they’ll need to find a church to join. The trouble is, there’s usually a choice of churches. The same choice faces any of us whenever we go to university or move house: we need to join a church – but which church?
What we need to do is hold to the teaching about Jesus that his first followers taught.
Some of the things that Christians differ on are really important. Just as much in John’s day, there are people teaching a Christianity that is not the same one Jesus taught. But other differences are nowhere near that important. Then we just need to say: “These are fellow Christians. Jesus told me to love these people. I may not agree with them about everything, but I’m going to love them.”
The Bible will help us work out which is which.
John is urging us to be discerning. Not every Christian book holds to the teaching of Jesus’ first followers. Not every clergyman or church leader teaches the same thing. Just because something was on a Christian TV channel, it doesn’t mean it’s about the real Jesus. We must be discerning. Discerning about what we believe. Discerning about what we give a platform to.
Conclusion
Nothing gets our backs up more than a hypocrite. Nothing is more beautiful than a Christian who truly lives out what they believe.
Which is Ben going to be as he grows up. What am I going to be? What are you going to be?
Are we going to love other Christians? Or are we going to be lone rangers?
Are we going to hold to the wonderful truths about Jesus that have been passed on for centuries? Or are we going to be innovators?