A Tour Through John, Lesson 44

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/tour-john-lesson-44/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><ul><li>2 John has been called "1 John in miniature." As with 1 John, Gnosticism is the central theological issue in this epistle.<ul><li>Matter is evil (or irrelevant). Thus the body is treated in licentiousness or asceticism.</li><li>The biblical God is an inferior deity, levels beneath the true deity.</li><li>Enlightenment is intellectual and mystical more than moral or practical.</li><li>Gnostics use a similar vocabulary to Christians, but the terms have vastly different meanings. (See 2 Corinthians 11:3-4.)</li><li>This heresy addressed in several other NT books: Colossians, 1 Timothy, 1 John, and the Gospel of John.</li><li>Gnosticism is resurgent in modern New Age Movement.</li></ul></li><li>About ancient letters<ul><li>Although to us 2 John, like the next epistle in the N.T., seems very short. And yet in the ancient world, private letters were usually around 90 words. Figures in literature typically penned letters twice that length. Papyrus sheets normally accommodated around 200 words.</li><li>Compare with Paul's shortest epistle, Philemon is 335 words. Romans is 7114 words!</li><li>For these longer epistles, sheets of papyrus were joined and rolled -- the scroll.</li></ul></li></ul><p>1 The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I but also all who know the truth, 2 because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:</p><p>3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and fromJesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love. 4 I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father. </p><ul><li>The elder (the aged John) is writing to "the lady," warning about the bad influence of Gnostic (Docetist) teachers who are spreading their erroneous ideas from house to house.</li><li>Who are the lady and her children?<u