2 JOHN (Letter 63, Larry Crabb’s 66 Love Letters)
Watch Out the Deepest Truth is the Most Easily Missed
Will we remain faithful to God when He withdraws His sense of presence from us?
Will we remain faithful when the feeling of His presence is fully absent?
Jesus Christ did.
Or do we assume that after all are our years of faithful service to him that it’s now time for His spirit to make our obedience easy?
Do we think that from now on walking in truth will mean to be carried along on the narrow road with all opposition swept away in the excitement of walking with Him?
C.S. Lews said – Does God then just forsake those who serve Him best? Well, He who served Him best of all said, near His tortured death, “Why have you forsaken me?”

After having a good experience we may want to assume that now it is our turn to consistently feel spiritually alive, to feel full of passion and excitedly aware of God’s presence.
But if God did that for us, our ministry would suffer. We would have less to say to His followers, and there are many, who wonder why they feel so alone and distant from God after praying so hard to feel otherwise. And we would have less power to speak into the hidden struggles of others, struggles that sometimes rage beneath the facade of togetherness and cheerful contentment that we often mistake for maturity.

Anchoring truth, not giddy excitement, has the power to keep us others-centered when our own pain screams for relief as it kept His Son, fully devoted to God’s plan while He hung on the cross though He was fully in pain, aware only of the Father’s absence.

M Scott Peck wrote that if the Gospel writers had been into PR they would have created a Jesus that most people are trying to create, walking around with a constant smile, patting little children on the head, strolling the earth with an unshakable calmness. But the Jesus of the Gospels did not have the kind of “peace of mind” we normally think of, so perhaps we won’t either.
Have nothing to do with those who claim to know the secret of knowing how to turn every misery into joy and every trial into blessing. God’s plan is not to remove trouble but to sustain us through trouble. Never support the message of people who invite you to live an easier life than Christ lived.

2 JOHN: From Ray Stedman

Click here for entire Bible Summary from Ray Stedman

2 JOHN: The Vital Balance

Two outstanding words are used all through the text. Truth and love.

We may emphasize truth, insisting that the Scriptures be followed carefully, even though what we say is exactly right, we may be rigid and cold and judgmental, maybe even cruel, at the expense of love.

On the other hand, there are those of us who make the mistake of emphasizing love at the expense of truth. They feel that we should accept everyone and everything, being tolerant in all directions.

This second group reminds me of the story Dr. H. A. Ironside used to tell about the man who came to church, and on the way out, as he shook hands with the pastor one Sunday morning, he said to him, “Oh Pastor, I want to tell you what a blessing you’ve been to me since you’ve been pastor of this church. Why, when I first started here, I didn’t have any regard for God, man or the devil. But since you came, I’ve learned to love all three.”

Two things are said here that describe the
fundamental types of Christian perversions. There
are only two;

All Christian error and heresies gather about one of two fundamental types of Christian perversion.

There are, first of all, those who are deceived about the person of the Lord Jesus.

If someone claims not to believe nor to accept that Jesus is the one who came from God into the world and became man then the person is in error, no matter what else they may say, they are not speaking as a spokesman of God.

The other type of error – Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son. {2 Jn 1:9 NLT}

If you get involved in something that is grounded upon false teaching, all your efforts are wasted. You are building nothing but an imposing facade.

2 JOHN – David Jeremiah (Understanding the 66 Books of the Bible)

Key thought: While we must love one another deeply, we cannot tolerate error and evil in our churches.

Key Verse: Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. 2 John 1:9

Key Action: If we’re vigilant against deceivers and deception, we will receive a full reward without losing the things we’ve worked for (see 2 John 1:8).