Genesis 11:1-12:4: Following the Lord’s Lead

Presented to Swift Current Corps on 29 May 2011[1]

By Captain Michael Ramsay

Today Julie has spoken to us about the Lord’s calling her into missions. On Thursday Dusty and Laurie were confirmed as candidates for Salvation Army Officership. They are following the Lord’s leading in their life.

God created us all, humankind, and He didn’t ask too much of us for obedience at first – He simply asked us to fill and take care of the earth and then later of course, in Genesis 2:17, He asked us not to eat the fruit off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – and we know how well that went.

So in Genesis 11 and 12 we are a couple of generations after Adam and Eve and if we haven’t messed things up enough already by eating the fruit and failing to do one of the two things God asked us to do, in Chapter 11 we are making sure that we really mess things up by failing to do the other one: refusing to move, refusing to go when God sends us.[2]

And by this time we should certainly know better. God has already de-peopled Eden because of the first sin. He graciously, however, let Adam and Eve live long enough to raise their own children, the first two it seems cause them a lot of heartbreak as their one son murdered his sibling – but even then God is gracious – Adam and Eve have more children and Cain (Genesis 4), the murderer, is spared the immediate death sentence.

There is even more that happens between the garden and today’s story of Babel that the people should know about: Noah’s Ark (Chapters 6-9). God has already drowned the earth and much of mankind in His sorrow and has, in his love for Noah, not only spared Noah and his family but also bound Himself through a covenant never to destroy the earth with a flood again and - even more than that – God set his rainbow in the sky to remind us of this (Genesis 9:1-17). Our God is all-powerful and our God is gracious.[3]

But even with all of this history. Even with the signature of God written with a rainbow upon the covenant and set in the heavens above for all to see (Genesis 9:17). Even with all of this…the first thing God told mankind to do when He created us was to go, scatter, fill the earth and the first story recorded after the flood episode and after Noah and his sons die, the first thing it is recorded we do in the very first narrative in Chapter 11 is to dig our heals in and refuse to move. We are given the commission to go and fill the earth and instead we build a city with a tower and say, ‘thanks but no thanks God, I think I’ll decline the orders to move.’[4] In Genesis 11 they want to make a name for themselves by disobeying God and remaining behind after He has tells them to scatter, go, and fill the earth.

Now, of course, God vetoes their request to stay and just to show that He isn’t eternally angry He gives them a bit of a going away present – He gives them the gift of tongues, so to speak (Cf. Acts 2).[5] He confuses their language. They stop building this city and they stop building this tower and they go forth and fill the earth. There is a little bit of irony here too. They wanted to stay and build the city and the tower so that they could make a name for themselves by working together and staying put and now they have been remembered throughout history for just the opposite: becoming divided and scattering.

God will fulfill His promises whether we willingly follow along or not (cf. Romans 3:3,4) and in Genesis 11, we have the story of some people who suffered the results of disobeying God and staying behind when he told them to move but the story of humankind and God’s blessing doesn’t end here any more than the flood story ended with the destruction of man’s evil plans. Just like God saved humankind from the flood and blesses the world through His covenant with Noah (Genesis 6-9), if we flip to the end of Chapter 11, we see that God prompts someone to move again so that He can bless his descendents and the world through them. Terence E. Fretheim tells us that the journey of Abraham’s family from Ur can be understood as part of the migration from Babel.[6] Genesis 11:31 records, “Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.” He stopped. He started to move to Canaan, he stopped but even though he stopped, God didn’t stop there, Genesis 12:1-4:

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

And so it is with Julie as she will embark on her mission journey that she has told us about today and so it will be with Dusty and Laurie as they follow the Lord’s leading into Officership which has been confirmed this week and so it should be for all of us. My question for us today is simply this. Is God calling you to follow Him into Ministry and if He is what are you going to do about it: are you going to stay behind and try to make a name for yourself or are you going to follow God into His blessing so that others may even yet be blessed through you? Let us pray.

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[1] Based on an earlier sermon and article: Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Genesis 11:1-8, 31-12:4: So that we can make a name for ourselves’, presented to the Nipawin Corps, 14 June 2009. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/06/genesis-111-8-31-124-so-that-we-can.html  And Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Genesis 11:1-8, 31-12:4: So that we can make a name for ourselves’, Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 70, December 2010 – January 2011, pp. 32-35. Available on-line:  http://www.armybarmy.com/JAC/article5-70.html 

[2] Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 412

[3] Cf. John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/I. Introduction to the Patriarchs and the Sinai Covenant (1:1-11:26)/E. The City of Babylon (11:1-9), Book Version: 4.0.2

[4] Cf. Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis,(John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia), 1982, pp.97-104 and Michael K. Chung , ‘The Narrative of the Tower of Babel in Dialogue with Postmodern Christianity’, Presented to Fuller Theological Seminary (Fall 2005), P. 7.

[5] Cf. R.C.H Lenski, The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles. (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 62.But cf. also Robert W. Wall, Acts. (NIB X: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2002), 55.

[6] Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 411.

3 John 11: Anyone who does what is good is from God

Presented to Swift Current Corps, 15 May 2011 and 10 Feb 2013

By Captain Michael Ramsay

To read the more recent version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/02/3-john-11-be-from-god-do-good.html

   

 Late one night, a burglar breaks into a house that he thinks is empty. He tiptoes through the living room but suddenly freezes in his tracks when he hears a voice say: "Jesus is watching you!"

When it becomes quiet again, the burglar creeps forward. And again the voice says, "Jesus is watching you".

The burglar stops dead in his tracks. He is frightened. Frantically, he looks all around. In a dark corner, he spots a… birdcage and in the cage is… a parrot.

Gathering his senses, he asks the parrot: "Was it you all this time who said ‘Jesus is watching me?’"

"Yes", said the parrot.

The burglar breathes a sigh of relief, then gaining some confidence he asks the parrot: "What's your name?"

"Clarence," says the bird.

"That's a dumb name for a parrot," sneers the now confident burglar. "What kind of a silly person would name a bird, 'Clarence?"

The parrot replies, "The same person who would call his attack dog ‘Jesus’… Jesus is watching you."

Parrots are good imitators and our verse today is exhorting us to be good imitators, it says, 3 John 11: “Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God”

Pertaining to this imitation: I think that we have all heard the analogy at one time or another in a sermon about counterfeiting counter-measures and how the authorities spot counterfeit currency. What they don’t do to learn how to identify counterfeit money is study counterfeit money. Instead what they do so is study real money. When they can identify the real thing then they know that all else is not the real thing. It is the same with us as it is only when we spend more time focusing on Christ that we recognize what is good and what is evil. And also as we spend the currency of our time with God we will obviously be more like Him; however, there are those who choose instead to use their time spending the counterfeit currencies of the world doing what is evil – well, 3 John tells us, they have not even seen God. We need to spend time with God, imitating what is good to build up for ourselves real treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-24).

3 John 11: Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. This seems pretty simple. But sometimes we make simple things a little more complicated than they should be, don’t we? When I was reflecting on how simple this verse seems I was reminded of a few quotes that also point to the obvious. Let’s see if we can finish off these famous quotes. Bonus marks if we can say who said them.

1. Sometimes a cigar is just a ______ (cigar; Sigmund Freud)

2. When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a _______ (duck - Cardinal Richard Cushing[1])

3. A rose by any other name is still a ______ (rose – William Shakespeare’s Juliet)

4.  Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen ______ (God – John, the elder)

These famous quotes are all telling us what should be abundantly obvious: sometimes a cigar is just a cigar; if it swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck; a rose by another name is still a rose; and anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.

Our Biblical quote today is from a very short letter that John, the elder, wrote to his friend Gaius (Verse 1) who probably lived in the city of Ephesus in the Roman province of Asia?[2] What present day country is in this area? (Turkey). Someone in this Ephesian church, that John may have founded, Diotrephes is challenging John’s authority (Verse 9); Diotrephes is making false accusations about John and his companions; Diotrephes is not accepting the missionaries that John sent (Verse 10); and Diotrephes is even kicking the people who do put up John’s friends out of church. This is infuriating!  Now, if we remember last week –when we were looking at 2 John – this last step is exactly what John told people to do with antichrists, not accept them into your homes (2 John 7-11). Now someone in this church here is turning the tables on him in this way and is encouraging people not to accept John-sent missionaries into their homes (1 John 10).[3] John is not pleased. John is very upset.

John is telling his friend, Gaius, in this short letter how to know who to trust and who not to trust in this church conflict. This infighting is happening in the church itself, remember. This isn’t people outside the church persecuting Christians. This is people inside the church tearing each other down. Sadly this happened even in the first century and sadly this happens even in the 21^st Century. Do we never learn? Some people always, I think, try to grab power and authority for themselves that is not theirs; maybe even like Adam and Eve reaching for the fruit trying to be like God (Genesis 3:4).

In this letter here, in the midst of this power struggle between John the elder and Diotrephes, John is away and he writes a letter to Gaius home in Ephesus (Verse 1). John tells Gaius that when John’s friends stayed with him they only had good things to say about Gaius (Verses 3-8) – unlike Diotrephes – and John tells Gaius too that he has an ally in Demetrius in their fight against Diotrephes who is challenging the God-given authority of John in this church.[4]

There is something ironic too about looking at this letter for me this week. We were in Winnipeg these last few days while Susan was taking a course: studying John Milton. John Milton, of course supported the republicans rebels who challenged the authority in their country, murdered their king and foisted such a repressive regime on England that as soon as the people could free themselves from the yoke of the Puritan Protectorate they invited back the son of the king, begging Charles II to rule over them. If anyone has studied the English Revolution at all I think you would note that there are numerous similarities between the power hungry Oliver Cromwell and the ambitious Diotrephes in our letter today.

John, in 3 John here, is shoring up support and trying to put down the revolt from within the church. In so doing John gives us this sage advice when he says that it appears that Diotrephes is acting badly and causing troubles and if it appears that way we have to realize that it probably is the way it really is: sometimes a cigar is actually just a cigar; if something swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck; a rose by another name is still a rose; and, verse 11, anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. This seems simple but it is actually very important for us to remember in this day and age.

It is basic for us in our world today. I think we have lots of people trying to tell us that a cigar isn’t a cigar and a rose is not a rose. They make these long, convoluted arguments that are nothing more than attempts to obscure what should be abundantly obvious to all (Cf. Romans 1-2). They act in one way and talk another. And so because of this I think it is very important to remain faithful, read our Bibles, and not to be deceived. We should realize that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar; if something swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck; a rose by another name is still a rose; and, verse 11, anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.

Do we know the origin of the “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” quote? It is attributed to psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud but a critic of Freud actually probably uttered the phrase. They have found no evidence of this quote anywhere in Freud’s myriad writings. Freud was an antichrist, openly. He had no time for religion at all. He thought it was for the weak and evolutionarily speaking, he considered it primitive and outdated.[5] Freud, in all his wisdom, thought that we all went through certain stages in our lives and that at some point boys all have crushes on their mothers, girls all have crushes on their fathers, women each envy a certain part of the male anatomy, people have oral fixations and certain items – like cigars – Freud said are phallic symbols. In response to this, a critic probably said, “Oh come on now, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”

Do we know the origin of the rose quote, “a rose by another name is still a rose?” William Shakespeare put these words into his character Juliet from his play, Romeo and Juliet, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." She is talking about her love. She says that you cannot change the beautiful nature of something by just simply renaming it. It doesn’t make it any different. A rose is still as beautiful even if you call it a turnip or a skunk. (Though in Anne of Green Gables it is suggested that the name not be changed.)

Today we have traditionally Christian denominations in Canada and the US trying to rename a rose, telling us that the Bible is not the inherent Word of God (TSA Doc 1). From this first error or deception they continue to ordain people in situations that the scriptures do not condone (i.e. divorced and remarried people, people practising homosexuality). We have allegedly Christian churches performing Christian ceremonies again outside of provisions made within the Word of God. We have allegedly Christian clergy in some of these denominations, who have thrown out the authority of Scripture, actually leading people away from holiness and away from God. This is wrong. We have some people who will string together long extra-Biblical arguments how it is better to appear nice to someone than to actually be true to someone. Some people in the churches actually discount the authority of Scripture and lead others away from God and if they do this they are at best like Diotrephes and at worst, as John says in 1 and 2 John, they are antichrists (1 John 1:18, 2:22, 4:3; 2 John 1:7). If we just read our Bibles and follow God we won’t fall prey to the Diotrephes of this world because we will see for ourselves what the scriptures make abundantly clear (cf. Acts 17:11) and that a cigar is actually just cigar; if something swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck; a rose by another name is still a rose; and, verse 11, anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.

Today we also have certain allegedly Christian churches that promote the prosperity heresy: this is the idea that God only loves rich people and hates poor people. This is a lie. We know that God speaks more about His love and our need to love the poor and the marginalized than He does about many other topics in the Bible.[6] But the Diotrephes of our world challenge the authority of Scripture and string together these big long stories and people fall prey to these lies and get hurt. We shouldn’t get drawn into such nonsense: simple scripture rebukes them (Cf. for example: Exodus 23:6,11, Leviticus 19:10,15, 23:22, 27:8, Deuteronomy 15:7, 15:11, 24:12-15, 1 Samuel 2:8, Psalms. 22:26, 34:6, 35:10, 82:3, Isaiah. 61:1, Ezekiel 16:49, 18:12, 22:29, Amos 2:7, 4:1, 5:11-12, 8:4-6, Zechariah 7:10). When people start to build artificial convoluted arguments that go against the Scriptures we have to not get pulled in to them and we need to just realise that sometimes a cigar is a cigar; if something swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck; a rose by another name is still a rose; and, verse 11, anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. Just read our Bible – all else will then be good.

Now there are many more examples of simple errors in the churches these days that come from people not reading their Bibles and so not even recognizing good and evil. It isn’t just in the large errors that certain denominations are making. We have individuals in good Bible-believing churches who fall prey to those who reject the authority of Scripture and thus do violence to the Word of God. We have people being tricked into disregarding the authority of scripture and instead buying into what is evil. It is sad because we know that, verse 11, anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God and there is an easy way to differentiate the good from God and the evil from the world: read your Bible and spend time with God. Don’t be a Diotrephes. Accept our God-given authorities. Accept the authority of Scripture. Pray. Read your Bible and you will find that you will faithfully follow God.

Returning to the earlier analogy about the counterfeit money. How do we know what is evil in order to avoid it? We know this by spending time examining what is good. The experts, who want to identify and stop counterfeit money, don’t spend time around what is bad and fake, they spend time around what is good – the real thing. We should spend time with our Lord praying and reading our Bible; we should spend time serving our Lord and doing good – giving hope today. That way we can be assured that we are indeed spending the Lord’s currency and building up for ourselves treasures in heaven.

Life’s not as tricky as some would have us think: sometimes a cigar is just cigar; if something swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck; a rose by another name is still a rose; and, verse 11, anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.

May all of us here continue to read our Bibles so that we can not only discern good and evil but so that we faithfully do what is good and not be led astray by evil. Let us pray

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1] Cardinal Richard Cushing’s duck quote available on-line at http://quotationsbook.com/quote/2701/#ixzz1LumYAmwv

[2] D. Moody Smith, First, Second, and Third John (Interpretation: John Knox Press: Louisville, Kentucky: 1990), 21.

[3] Cf. D. Moody Smith, 153-154 for a good discussion of this possibility, assuming of course that 2 John and 3 John are written by the same person.

[4] Cf. John R. W. Stott,: The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 19), S. 236

[5] Cf. Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion, 1926. Translated by James Strachey. London: Hogarth Press, 1968.

[6] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, "Good News to the Poor: Comparing a Christian Worldview as expressed in Luke’s Gospel to Marx", Presented to William and Catherine Booth College March 2009. Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com/Michael_Ramsay_History_TSA.htm#Marx

2 John 1-13: Love and Obey

Presented to Swift Current Corps 08 May 2011
and 14 May 2017 at 11am service of 614 Warehouse Mission

By Captain Michael Ramsay

To read the 2017 version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2017/05/1-samuel-218-21-2-john-1-13-love-and.html

Today is Mother’s Day: traditionally the busiest day across the country for Sunday brunch, so if you haven’t made reservations you may be in for a bit of a wait today. Anyone here who hasn’t called his or her mother yet, should probably do that right after church today.

A couple of big events have happened pertaining to our nation since I last preached here. We had a federal election, of course, where we returned a government to Ottawa. Also in the news, there was the marriage of a probable Canadian future Head of State. Prince William, second in line to the Canadian throne (as we are a part of the Commonwealth) just got married. He, of course, in all likelihood in some of our lifetimes here will be Canada’s Head of State – exactly when and for how long depends on whether his father is blessed with the same longevity of grandparents and his great grandmother.

I don’t know how many people watched the Royal Wedding. My mother and my aunt actually headed over to London to see it. I wasn’t going to watch it live on TV but I did watch the re-runs on-line with my girls. Today is Mother’s Day and weddings are often a time when particularly moms are really quite happy with all the planning and pageantry and everything involved in weddings and Prince William’s mom had passed away a few years ago but certain acknowledgments of her were even made throughout the event. Marriages are special around Mother’s Day but another neat thing around Mother’s Day is when someone becomes a first time mother.

My mom had her first Mother’s Day in the hospital, I was born a couple of days prior and in those days, apparently you were left in the hospital for a few days after giving birth rather than these days in maternity where they have the quick, ‘catch and release policy’ as it has been called.

The birth of your first child and grandchild is important. I remember when Rebecca was born, my folks were quickly in the hospital to see us and Susan’s parents stayed with us for a while afterwards and when Sarah-Grace was born my folks were kind enough to come and look after Rebecca while Susan was in the hospital with baby Sarah-Grace. That was when we lived in the same city as they did. Just this past year when Heather was born my folks came again for a couple of weeks planning to help out after the baby’s birth but apparently Heather and the doctor disagreed as to what her due date actually was and she arrived quite a few days late so my parents just got to introduce themselves to Heather before they had to return home.

Mother’s Day is an appropriate time to remember some of these important events around giving birth. My mom always tells the story about how important it was to my dad that I was born. It was so important that my dad actually made time to come down to the hospital and see me arrive, even though on that very same evening there was… a Stanley Cup play-off game on. And it wasn’t just any play-off game, it was the final series when I was born and no I wasn’t born in July. The finals actually used to be in early May.

Now for Mother’s Day, today, I thought we would look at 2 John. 2 John is a neat letter and this is how it opens: “The elder, To the chosen lady and her children whom I love in truth – and not I only, but also all who know the truth – because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever (2 John 1-2).” 2 John says it is addressed specifically to a mother and her children. This seems very appropriate for today. Now scholars like to research and talk about things and apparently either of the Greek words ‘chosen’ or ‘lady’ here, Electa or Kyria could also be translated as a proper name, so the opening of this letter might be ‘to the chosen Kyria’ or ‘to the Lady Electa’ but for our purposes on Mother’s Day we’ll deal with it as it is written in our pew Bibles as ‘to the chosen lady and her children.’[1]

One more thing before we move on to that too: I don’t know how many people here know a little bit of Greek. Do you recognize the word ‘Kyria’? The male form of this word ‘Kyrios’- do we know what that is often translated as, what it means? ‘Kyria’ means ‘lady’ and ‘Kyrios’, the masculine form of the word, means ‘lord’ and is often used in the NT to refer to the Lord Jesus Christ himself.[2] As a result many famous commentators take this phrase ‘to the chosen lady and her children whom I love’ to refer specifically to the church rather than to a certain lady.[3] This may well be the case but either way, whether this lady referred to is a local church or whether she is a lady who heads up a local church there is a very important message in this short letter for us on Mother’s Day.

John[4] writes this letter to ‘the chosen lady and her children whom I love in the truth.’ And in it is an important message. 2 John 4-6, records,

It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

John assures them and us that God desires us to continue loving and obeying Him. This is what I want us to remember today: God loves us and He wants us to continue experiencing that joy that comes from loving Him and the author of this letter, the presbyter, the elder mentioned in Verse 1, John tells the chosen lady that it gives him great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth.

Now this letter was probably – like most of the NT letters circulated around the churches in the Roman province of Asia, which –for those of us who have been attending Tuesday night Bible study – is roughly what contemporary country? (Turkey). This Roman province of Asia, Turkey, converted early to Christianity and ran as a near theocracy, a government dedicated to the glory of God, for the better part of a millennium (324-1453 CE): theoretically a millennial reign of Christ.[5] The children of this lady in Asia here and many of her children’s children, and her children’s grand children, and her grandchildren’s grandchildren and so on all experienced the joy and the blessings that come from continuing to love and obey the Lord. This is exciting. This is the same for many of us – though not all of us - here in Saskatchewan today too. Because of the faithfulness of our mothers and our grandmothers, much of Saskatchewan (unlike many other parts of this country) is faithfully following Christ today.

From history too I think of St. Monica of Hippo. No, just in case you were wondering, St. Monica of Hippo isn’t the patron saint of hippos. Hippo is the name of the Carthaginian city she came from. St. Monica was the mother of St. Augustine, also of Hippo. We know who St. Augustine was, right? Much of western Christianity has been interpreted through the lens of his theology. I hope that some here may have even read a book or two of this ancient Carthaginian Christian academic. He wrote, most famously, ‘Confessions’ and ‘Of The City of God’. Augustine was one of the most important people to early Christianity and he was not originally a Christian. He was a pagan but his mom, Monica, prayed for him every night. She prayed for him every day. She prayed for him faithfully. St. Monica prayed for her son and she actually lived to see him transformed into a new creation as a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a Mother’s Day present that would have been for her, if they had Mother’s Day back then to see her son give his life to over to God’s will to have him continue to love and obey the Lord.

The same is true today of any mother who has ever prayed persistently for her children and then seen them come to the Lord and the same must be true of the lady in our text today as some of her children are continuing to walk in love and obedience to the Lord (2 John 4).  If we love God and  love Christ, we shall show it by keeping His commands (John 14:15, 21; 15:10; 1 John 5:2–3). As we do, we will love our neighbour for ‘he who loves his neighbour has fulfilled the law’ (Rom 13:8).^[6]  But there is some bad news in this too as sure as some of her children are continuing to walk in love and obedience to the Lord by implication then some are not. Some are no longer walking in love and obedience to Christ (cf. TSA doc. 9). Can anything be more sad for a mother or a father? After all, what good is it if your son or daughter gains the whole world and yet forfeits her very own soul (Matthew 16:26, Mark 8:36)?

Some of this lady’s children, who were raised in the truth; some of this lady’s children, who saw the power of our resurrected Lord; some of this lady’s children, who experienced the blessings of growing up in the church and in a loving Christian home; some of these children – Verses 7-11 – some of her children have fallen pray to deceivers and antichrists who – Verse 7 – say that Jesus Christ never came in the flesh (cf. TSA doc. 4).

This is like a mother duck watching her children fly towards a wooden decoy only to be shot down by the evil one and delivered to their end in his dogs teeth. This is tragic. John warns all us Mother and Father Ducks here. John warns us loving parents, Verse 8 he writes, “Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.” Be careful not to let your ducklings walk towards the decoy, if you can. Verse 9, John warns us, “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work” (cf. TSA docs 8, 9). If we make provision for the dogs of the enemy, if we support antichrists as they attack our Lord, do not be surprised if they carry off our very children as their prey (cf. Deuteronomy 7:3-5). I think there are many ways that we fall into the trap of inviting the enemy into our homes and make provision for them in this day and age. I think there are many ways we can abandon our ducklings to the dogs of hell in this day and age. I think that if we leave our children alone in front of the TV or Internet then we are leaving them open to attack, unsupervised as the enemy is prowling around (1 Peter 5:8). I think that if we don’t spend time talking to our children about their day and their lives than we don’t know if they are wandering too close to one of the devil’s decoys. I think if we don’t read the Bible with and pray with and for our own little ducklings than they will have no idea how to recognize the devil’s decoys that will inevitably come floating by on the pond one day. If we don’t spend time in the truth with our children and our Lord then they will have no idea how to continue to walk in love and obedience to the Lord, like God desires of us (cf. Deuteronomy 4:9-10, 5:29-6:2; Proverbs 8:32, 14:26, 19:18, 20:7, 22:6, Micah 6:8; Ephesians 6:4).

That is sad because God really does love us and He really does love our children even more than we love our children and God wants us to continue to walk in love and obedience to the Lord so that we too can be safe from the enemy’s attack; we too can be saved. So, as we do read the Bible with our children; as we do continue to pray for; and as we do continue to pray with our children; as we do, ourselves, continue to walk in love and obedience to our Lord as God desires of us, then who knows maybe even our loved ones who are presently not walking in love and obedience to our Lord; maybe even still they will recognize the decoys of the enemy before it is too late, turn and be saved. After all that is why God sent his one and only Son so that whosoever may, will turn and be saved. John 3:17 tells us that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn that world but he came into the world that the world might be saved through him. God loves us even more than any parent or any child ever could. So this is my prayer for us today on this Mother’s Day. If there are any of us who are not right now continually walking in love and obedience to the Lord, I pray that we will turn (repent) and return to the safety of our Father’s nest. And I pray that if any of our children have began to wander astray after the many decoys of this world that indeed they will turn around and be saved before it is too late.

Let us pray.

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[1] C. Clifton Black, The First, Second, and Third Letters of John (NIB XII: Abingdon Press: Nashville, Tennessee: 1998), 449. cf. also D. Moody Smith, First, Second, and Third John (Interpretation: John Knox Press: Louisville, Kentucky: 1990), 139 and John R. W. Stott, The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 19), S. 210

[2] D. Moody Smith, First, Second, and Third John (Interpretation: John Knox Press: Louisville, Kentucky: 1990), 142

[3] Glenn W. Barker, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: 2 John/Exposition of 2 John/I. Introduction (1-3), Book Version: 4.0.2

[4] Cf. C. Clifton Black, The First, Second, and Third Letters of John (NIB XII: Abingdon Press: Nashville, Tennessee: 1998), 49 for a good discussion of this authorship.

[5] Cf. Steven Runciman, 'The Byzantine Theocracy' (Cincinnati, The Weil Lectures, July 1977) and Medieval Wall, 'The Rise and Development of the Byzantine Empire', http://www.medievalwall.com/general/rise-development-byzantine-empire/

^[6] John R. W. Stott, The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 19), S. 210