Second John 1:1-4 Salutation

Alrighty, so the theme of dawn continues. So today let's begin as we usually do with, whoops. All right, so a summary of the last teaching of voice last week, and Andrew had a nice email he shared with some of us this week, which I think brought us into an update in terms of the interpretation. So to the best of my ability, spirit right here, what I did to try to summarize last week's lesson, which I did not hear, but reviewed. the email banner, which is quite informative.

So we, and I'm using scripture in italics as I usually do, who have been born of God do not sin because when or if and whatever, we keep ourselves from the wicked one. So, you know, this is something that really is the life we have in Christ, but we personally have that responsibility to guard ourselves against the power of the devil, the power of the flesh, and the power of the world system around us.

Second point, we know that we are a God who is true in his son, Jesus Christ, and eternal life is in him. Well, eternal life's not in him too, but it's a different eternity, right? There's life after death for everyone, but ultimately for us, it's in his presence forevermore. Alternatively, the world lies in wickedness and the future is not very bright.

And finally, ending up the first epistle of the Apostle John, we need to guard ourselves from idols, and idols can come in a wide variety of flavors. So anyway, I mean, Old Testament idols were pretty clearly described scripturally, but for us, you can think of everything that can distract us to the extent that we put more faith in them than we do the Word of God. All right, so let's begin by reading the first 12 verses. Interesting that title that Roger gave us is salutation, but the salutation doesn't start till verse three. But anyway, all that aside, that's the salutation.

So in my version here, New King James, to the elder, to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only, but I also those who have known the truth because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father in truth and love. First of all, I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth as we received commandment from the Father. All right, this became a little more interesting.

It's an interesting text, actually. And so there's some themes I've got out of here that I think will be useful to all of us as we consider this section of Scripture. First of all, only one chapter in 2 John, okay? So when I have, none of the verses I see 2 John 1, I don't see chapter 1, because there's only one chapter. All right, the first verse. to the elect lady and her children whom I love in truth and not only I but also all those who have known the truth.

Who is the elder? Is it an older person which is what the Greek term could describe? Or alternatively, is this someone who presides over the local church? What are your thoughts here? Or both? It could be, you know, in general we think of elders in the body as someone who's more mature in the Lord, older by age. What are your thoughts here?

We have no further description of who this individual is. By the way, there's no right answer here. I don't know. I think Jim said the obvious one is that it's John who is writing this letter. Okay. That's certainly a possibility. Interesting way to start it, isn't it? The Elder.

Is that John identifying himself at the beginning of the epistle? I think it is. I think John was an elder in that church, but he was also an apostle, and he was older. John's not a young man here. This is near the end of his life, chronologically. So yeah, I think this is an elder in terms of the leader of the local church or assembly, but also likely an older man. So I think it can be and, or I think it's probably and both. And it likely is John himself, but we have no further definition about this. All right, second question of the class.

Who's this elect lady? And what about her children? And I think ultimately, this is likely a Christian woman to whom the epistle of John is addressed. Ultimately, you know, I think there's lots of opinions about who this woman is. So, you know, in 2 John 1, 5, we're not going to get to that verse today, but it relates to her again. And now I plead with you, lady, and the text goes on. We'll have whoever's teaching next week address that. But anyway, she's mentioned twice here, so obviously the letter is directed to her for the purposes to follow, all right?

Now, here's all these opinions. I was hesitant to put all these down, but I thought they were kind of interesting in a way. Jameson Fawcett Brown, one of my favorite commentaries, Bengal takes the Greek as a proper name, Kyria, answering to the Hebrew Martha. I find that a little interesting, actually.

So this is a woman, perhaps in the Hebrew, named Martha, and that makes us think of other Marthas anyway, but I'm convinced it's not that Martha that we talk about who ministered to the Lord Jesus Christ. Vincent offers three possibilities. That the letter was addressed to a certain Babylonian named Electa. The second is, it's a person named Curia. which is really what Jameson, Foster, and Brown said. Well, alternatively, it could be Elector Curia, a compound proper name, whatever. We don't know who this woman is, but anyway, that's the speculation of who she was. Meyer says this is a model of old world correspondence written then by the apostle who is a guest of the nephews of the lady addressed.

Now, how have they gotten that out of here? The only reason I'm sharing all this with you is because it's so unnecessary for us to understand exactly who she was. She may have a name called Curia or Electa Curia, Hebrew, Martha, whatever, but then I think By the way, I think more important here in interpretation, are these her own children by birth, or are these the children she's brought to the Lord through the truth of her ministry? What are your thoughts about that? Yeah, Kevin? Just a note, in my Bible it said, to the chosen lady and her children could refer to a specific woman, or to a church whose identity is no longer known. What's not known, the woman or the church? The church. The church, yeah. Okay.

What about, do you think these are her children by birth? Again, we can only speculate. Probably doesn't make a lot of difference, does it? Or it could be children, you know, we find the offspring of our ministry ultimately bringing people to the Lord. Jim?

Yeah, Andrew says the same thing Carolyn said. The elected lady could be the church in this locality and the children are the... Yeah, I saw that interpretation too, that the lady could be the church itself. Although there's, I think, substantial reason to think that maybe that's not true, but it could be. I think that's another interpretation. Well, you know, in other places it's mentioned about the church as a female. Right, but wait a second. Is there anywhere else in scripture where the church is called a lady? Not a lady, no. Well, whatever. But these children could be our own children who are led in truth or ultimately the children that she brings to the world by a type of ministry of she or the church itself. I think we can only speculate here in terms of the executive.

All right, let's move on. You might have had a question online. I'm not sure. Do we have a question? We don't know if you can hear me, can you? Hard to hear you, Roy. Very low. How about now? Yes, we can hear you now. Look at the last verse of the chapter here, verse 12. The children of your chosen sister greet you. The emphasis there, of course, would be maybe, that's a parallel to what we're talking about, her children being the church, and the children in the church. Oh, verse 13 you mean? Yeah, did I say it differently? Yeah, you said 12, that's okay, but I was looking at 12, I didn't see it, but I do see it,

13. Yeah, anyway, I find that interesting. Okay, next.

What is the predominant theme of these first few verses here? Or even this verse? Go back to the verse. The elder to the elect lady and her children whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also those who have known the truth. What's the theme? Truth. Very good. That's an easy question for you. All right, we're going to kind of look at this in a little bit more detail.

Whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known Gdanska, by the way, and more thorough knowledge or in-depth knowledge, the truth. bronze definition of truth. It is taught in the Christian religion respecting God and the execution of his purposes through Christ. and respecting the duties of man opposed alike to the superstitions of the Gentiles and the inventions of the Jews and to the corrupt opinions and precepts of false teachers even among Christians. And we might say in this section we're anticipating false teaching and that will be the theme of what follows next week. But anyway, that's a long definition.

And I'm going to drill down on this because I'm really a great believer that truth is the most important thing that the Bible offers. And I'm going to put that in context in a second. So the question of the class, how important is truth to us as believers? I think truth is important because actually to me the most important thing is our faith.

You can't have faith unless you believe completely in what you're having faith in. So you've got to have the truth or you're not going to get the faith. In this political world we live in and the world system all about us, what do we rely on is truth in terms of somebody who's making up to any given standard?

It's the Bible, is it not? So, truth is so incredibly important. I'm going to document this here. So, I'm going to make a statement. I believe truth is everything and without our faith is truly Let's look at a little scripture to support this. And I could pull it from the epistles left and right, but I'm going to take time to read these verses for everyone's benefit or, you know, reminder.

And the word became flesh and dwell among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Okay. John 1.17, for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Truth.

John 14.6, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Boy, that's a pejorative statement to the unbeliever. You know, all these other religions of the world.

John 8.32, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. What does that mean, by the way, the truth will make us free?

Do you feel free? I do. What's that freedom? Yes, please. Well, I think part of it is freedom from our earthly desires to a certain degree. Instead of being completely overwhelmed by the secular things in our life, we know the truth and we're not always in the control of Satan's secular things. Alright, I think of the freedom really positionally placed.

So the penalty of our sins is taken care of and the sin nature has been crucified. So when Christ said, I'm going to make you free, that's free to live a life of joy and glorifying to God by the absence of any penalty for our sin, although we do fall short. But it's a freedom to live a life free of sin. It's a new freedom that only God can give us. Free from condemnation. Free from condemnation. We say the penalty of sins is taken care of and ultimately the sin nature before our Lord.

He hath made him to be made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So positionally sound. You also say, Bob, that it's freedom from the sin nature because that's part of this whole idea that the truth will set you free if you believe it and trust in it. from your sin nature, which is, you know... That sin nature, though, it's resolved before God, but not in ourselves, because we still have it. Right. But we need to reckon ourselves, indeed, dead in the sin. You have to, you know, the Lord wants us to count upon that. Count upon it. Consider it true. Right. Okay, good. All right, let's go on here.

John 14, 17, the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him, meaning Christ, nor knows him, Christ, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. So the spirit of truth, the world can't see that, but we can see them through the power of the spirit.

John 17, 17, sanctify them by your truth Your word is truth. 2 Timothy 2 15 are one of multiple examples in the epistles to follow the gospel accounts. Study to show thyself approved of the God of workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

And that's a verse that I just keep in my mind all the time. That's our job here at Holly Hills. And it's job for the church, the spiritual church, is to rightly divide the word of truth. All of the Bible is for us, but all of the Bible is not about us. The Old Testament is under law. God's principles never change. But ultimately, how we respond to them, we live in a cloud of grace, which is a whole different ballgame. We're going to come back to that in a second. So in fact, I'm going to make a pretty strong statement. This point was made earlier.

In fact, without truth, nothing else occurs or really matters. Love, faith, hope, obedience, any of these things fail if we're not basing these things. Our love, our faith, our hope, and our obedience to the truth of the word has to be founded on the truth of the word. So the theme here is truth, and we can't get around that. And I think as we think about this as our day-to-day lives continue, God willing, ultimately the truth of the word of God is our of what's right and what's wrong. And again, rightly dividing the word of truth, going back to the proverb. Proverbs are wonderful in terms of their principles of God, but the proverbs aren't always applicable to the atmosphere of grace we live in today.

Okay. All right, any further comments on verse one? Well, I was just thinking, who shall make you free? I was thinking, some people spend their whole life trying to find the truth. But we know it, so we're free from that. Yeah, and keep in mind this freedom that we have ultimately may be in different, in each and every one of us. I mean, our personalities are all somewhat different. And personality's not wrong or right, it's just some people are more talkative, some people are shy. So that has nothing to do with the truth of the word of God. Carolyn, why are you laughing about that? I didn't say anything. You don't have to. Let's move on to verse 2 then.

Because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Okay. Because the truth which abides is present active. Okay? That means now. Right? And it's ongoing. And it speaks I think further to the importance of truth. How should we interpret the truth abiding in us and will be abiding in us forever?

Well, Bob, I'm not sure you're going this direction. Maybe you are. You quoted the verse that the Lord said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Well, to me, this verse speaks of that. The truth is speaking of our Savior. And He's abiding in us. He is abiding in us. And will be with us forever. So to me, that speaks to the word Jesus. Okay, and what about forever? Is that truth going to be any different when we're out of these earthly bodies? No, the truth will always be there. Our relationship will be changed. will not be in our earthly bodies, will be in our spiritual bodies.

And in the Tutsi study, Roger, you're being exposed to that too, as I am, and Roy is and others. But the Tutsi study, what, you know, is when Christ comes again at the rapture, we're talking about the dead and Christ being raised first, but it's like an instantaneous thing. Those who are alive go to be with the Lord. But what happens when we die now? before the rapture.

Is that a different body that we have in heavenly places? We're not going to discuss that here with you. This truth that we have is the same we have now as we will have eternity. But the mind of Christ, we all say, well, I'm not quite sure I have the total mind of Christ right now. But boy, then we will. We will have a view, as he views, hopefully, of heavenly things and only things in heavenly places. I think it's a sentiment which John frequently emphasizes, isn't it?

1 John 1.6, if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. I mean, isn't that so true? I mean, again, emphasizing the importance of truth, the fact that it abides in us and continues forever.

And the second point is 1 John 2.6, which is next week. He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked. So this is this new life in Christ Jesus. to God.

I mean, I don't think we need to be schizophrenic about this. Gee, was that of the flesh or was that of the spirit? You go crazy with that kind of mindset. It reminds us, Margaret, of a man who used to be in our Bible study who in fact, you know, became schizophrenic instead of analyzing everything they said. did. Gee, was that of the Spirit or was that of the flesh?

We need to know Christ and live in Him. The power of the Spirit driving the life in truth that is part of each and every one of us. 1 John 2, 9. 1 John 4, 9, excuse me. And this, the love of God was manifested towards us that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through or in him. So this is what it talks about the truth of abiding in us now. And what do you think about abiding? I mean, we discussed that a fair amount in the first epistle. Thoughts out loud again about abiding. What's it mean to abide? Be at home. Oh, that's good. Okay. Like we all abide in our own residencies, right? Hal used to say hanging out with the Lord. Hanging out with the Lord. Okay. Yes, please.

I guess in the back of our minds, we're always putting Christ first. Whether we're successful or not, we have this desire, this strong desire to continue to have Him affecting the way we think and do everything. Yeah, that's a new life, isn't it? We are new creations in Christ Jesus. Yes, we're the same body, and we have the same soul, but it's being transformed in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For me to live as Christ and die as game, Jim. Jim and I were talking about that in the parking lot out there. So, okay, good. All right, on to verse three. Here's the salutation, if you will. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, and truth and love.

And this is a little different in different versions, but I don't want to get pinned down on the slight differences in this. I mean, it just really doesn't make that much difference as to whether the problem does here or there. But anyway, this is a salutation. And isn't this very much like Paul?

I mean, almost every epistle Paul begins this, John has to wait to the third verse to bring this up for whatever reason. But let's not dissect that one in terms of the intent of it being in the third verse and not the first. We need to learn about the elder and the lady first.

Notice that all these gifts of God through Christ is a promissory note, will be is in future tense, okay? Why do you make of that? Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ. Are we thinking about only an eternity future? Are we talking about now also? Don't you think it means going forward through your life?

There's unending grace, mercy, and peace, and we're going to define those in a second, just to be succinct here. Yes, we have it now, but it's going to be continuing forever. So let's define these, and I'm going to do my best to take things that nobody defines perfectly. says that, you know, grace is the least understood principle of the unsaved world, but also within us as believers. But I'm going to summarize it very simply, say undeserved and merciful kindness of God.

Okay? We don't deserve any of this, but we are filled with it. Ephesians 2.8, for by grace are ye saved, not through faith. If you're saved through faith and not of ourselves, it's the gift of God. Okay, so grace is the saving principle and it's through faith, that faith is the gift of God. The important point in that verse is that salvation is a gift, not faith. Faith is not the gift in that verse.

Well, that's why it's highlighted there also. Notice when I put things in bold, I want to bring more emphasis to that. All right, mercy, undeserved forgiveness, and that's of sins or the sin nature towards our miserable and afflicted state. I couldn't get around putting miserable and afflicted, because every Greek definition uses those terms. So we were miserable and afflicted, weren't we, before the mercy of God? Because the sin nature has nothing to bring to the altar.

All right, Titus 3.5, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.

Alright, so it's by mercy we're saved and then we get this gift of grace. So grace is undeserved and it's the new life we have in Christ Jesus. Is the peace before God or the peace of God? And that we could talk about, but I think this is the tranquil state of a soul, assured of its salvation through Christ, which is a result of grace and mercy. So these three are really tied together. Mercy, our sins are forgiven, grace is the new principle of life before us, and ultimately, peace is what we have. Isn't it neat to have peace with God? and the peace of God.

All right. 1 Corinthians 4, 7, the peace of God which passes all understanding to keep their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. We lose that peace at times, don't we? We get concerned about a lot of things. In fact, I lost it a little bit this morning feeling like I needed to get up a half hour earlier. Anyway. anyway. You're getting the lesson today anyway. Alright. From God the Father to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. Note the necessary teamwork here. Okay?

I mean, this is not the providence of God only. It's with his only begotten Son that all all this is accomplished. In truth and loves is part of this verse. Because of this emphasis again, this theme and the the first several verses, it implies false 7 through 11. Because I think this theme of truth, again, relates to what follows in this epistle.

And John, you know, calls anyone who's an unbeliever a false teacher, an antichrist. Isn't it amazing how many antichrists there are? We all think it'd be one antichrist in the book of Revelation, but John calls everyone who's unsaved an antichrist. And in fact, that is a theme that relates to the unsaved, isn't it? If you are not for me, you're against me, right? Roy, were you going to say something? Can I hear you? Oh, okay.

So verse 4, I rejoice greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father. All right, notice John here rejoiced greatly about all these children and it relates to how important it is to walk in truth.

So he had been witnessing or had sufficient information that this theme of truth has continued in the body who he's addressing in this particular epistle. And that relates to our lives. Again, I've said this a hundred times, Hal said, you may be the only Bible people ever read So our walk, our abiding walk, really relates to how the world sees us. So when and where did John find out? This is a perfect act of indicative. Let's go back to the verse. I rejoiced, Gracie, that I found of thy children walking in truth. How did he find out about them? That was my response, too. I have no idea.

It's not like a figure of speech. I might say I found Bob teaching today or I found Joe doing this or Sally doing that. I'm not more of a figure of speech. But Roger, I'm going to chow... Bob is teaching by God's grace at Holly Hills Bible Church on Holly Street in Denver, Colorado. But I, you know, I walked into the class and, oh, Bob's teaching today. I don't know. That's my... I think he found from the lady or whatever. The next verse says, no, I asked for a lady, so... Okay, so this lady plays an ongoing role. Yeah, or a church.

But we don't really know. I think, you know, these are the kinds of things that don't draw you away from the truth of the Word of God. They're just details that probably we don't have to have the answer to. But it's always fun to ask questions that we can't answer. It makes for class discussion anyway. So nobody has any other opinion.

Yeah, we don't relate John to any particular church or body of believers. I mean, there's no Well, this is a letter, is it not? He could have had a letter from the church. Yeah, and he could have been traveling and, you know. No. We're disturbed by word of mouth. Right. Okay, this is speculation 101 here, but anyway, this is okay. Speculation. Scriptural locations for dummies kind of...

2 John 12, having many things to write to you, I do not wish to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full. And in 3 John, verse 14, but I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face, peace to you, our friends, etc, etc. So just like Paul, how often Paul said, I'm planning to come to see you. And sometimes he got there and sometimes he didn't. But here John desires to join this group.

So we have no idea whether he ever got there. So is this written after his revelation of the book of Revelation at the hands and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, you think? Is this before or after? being heavily experienced. Who said? I thought it was before. Before? Okay, what other people thought? We don't have any knowledge, do we, that he ever left Patmos after he wrote Revelation? I don't, do we? Roger? I don't know, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

But I just look at my Bible, it has all these dates. This has circa 90 AD, and then Revelation has 95 to 96. So I thought it was before Revelation. That's supported by what Margaret just said. Okay, so the Patmos experience is really the terminal writings of the Apostle John. Walking in truth. The theme returns, doesn't it? Walking in truth, and truth is the source of everything to follow.

2 Corinthians 4.2, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, by the way, another way to walk, or handling the word of God deceitfully. How many people have quoted scripture out of context and used that as a law in terms of measuring or judging your daily walk? Be careful there. But by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

Again, John's really drilling down on truth. And scripture is the only source of truth. Yes, sir. In my life, and I can speak for other people, but the truth is important because a lot of people will come to you with half-truths. And I think that when God refines us, he allows those evil doubts to come in, and we have to build our strength and rely on the truth, because Satan's going to use this against us.

Yeah, well, I'll share a personal experience. I grew up in a mainline Protestant church and never heard the personal gospel. Now, that may have been my problem, not the church, so I'm not blaming question even comes up, is there really a God? And so I kind of left that space for a while, didn't think much about it.

Then my late wife, Sharon, and I were figuring out how to raise children. And we had two at that point. And I remember her dad saying to us very clearly saying, you know, you guys got to be more consistent. Based on your mood, you can't really Punish your children when you're in a good mood, you would. I mean, you need something more to get you solidified in how to be parents. So Sharon went to a Bible study at a local very mainline church. But anyway, she got involved with Bible Study Fellowship, which is a women's ministry that's been out there for a long time. And she got saved. And that's in September of 1977.

And she had heard about the Gothard ministry, so she took me to the Gothard ministry. And I didn't want anything to do with all this. But what I saw was a woman who I dated since she was 13, kind of change over that next year. And I was paying attention to this and then ultimately she convinced me to go back to a Gotham seminar. Now I'm not promoting the Gotham seminar, but what I'm saying is for two years in a row I heard the individual gospel and I saw it by her walk demonstrated to me and I thought this was the truth that I was a sinner that needed to be saved by grace. I didn't understand all that very well.

But on July 14, 1978, I came to the Lord. But it was the truth of the fact that I felt far short of God's holiness and righteousness, that I needed help. And so the truth is really what brought me to salvation. But that same truth is what needs to pervade in each and every one of our lives. And we're not to judge one another, except when it's scripturally sound for the elders to be involved within the body. But nevertheless, again, we all bring a different personality to living out the truth in our life. And it begins with getting saved. And I shared my own personal experience there. So we've received a commandment from the Father. What commandment is this? And doesn't He state this again? What are your thoughts? What's the commandment? You know, we don't need to be puzzled by commandments.

I mean, the two great commandments, love the God with all your heart, and secondly, love everyone else as He has loved us. And what kind of love is this? I may not like somebody, but the love of the Lord Jesus Christ extends past that. I can see them in Christ and say that you may not like this person, but I gotta love them. And that's a whole different ballgame. So your thoughts, what commandment is he referring to here? Is this another commandment? I thought we weren't under law anymore.

Well, let's see what we have here. 3 John 4, just as an example, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. And I think that's the commandment. I think, you know, you could say, well, love God with all your heart and all your soul, or you can love the other as Christ loved you, but that's all the truth being lived out. That's the walk. That's the abiding.

It's not something, some new law that we need to keep. How are you doing? in walking in truth. I mean, that's the question we need to be asking ourselves, not under some legal system, but the truth is the atmosphere of grace for which we've been saved and continue to be saved going forward. Remember, I was saved, I'm being saved day in and day out, and I will be saved once we leave our earthly bodies. Thoughts about this?

Well, Bob doesn't come back to the fact that our Savior is the truth. So as we walk with Him, as we abide with Him, hang out with Him, and fellowship with Him, we are in the truth. And so I think that kind of connects it together, that the focus is our Savior. All right.

Reverend Sanders says, just as the Father commanded us, well, That's a little different wording than the New King James, but I like this a little bit better just as the father commanded us. He commanded us to walk in truth and to abide. That's the theme that John brings forth here.

And presumably that again relates to walking in the truth. So to end today, 2 John 1, 6 to be covered next week, this is love that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. So I think since in verse 6 he clarifies what he's mentioning in verse 4, then I think unequivocally walking in truth is that new life we have in Christ Jesus, which is the commandment. All right, so we've probably come to close today.

Any further questions, thoughts, comments from anyone? That reminds me that 2 John 1, 6 reminds me of 1 John 2, 7, and 8, I believe. You want to read that again? This is the new commandment I'm giving you, that you should love one another, and so on. Very similar. Obviously John wrote this little epistle because it's so similar to his gospel and his first epistle. And you think about that, if that's the new commandment, we should love one another.

How are you doing at that? Yeah, right. I mean, the flesh doesn't have that capability. We can't do that in our flesh. No, it's only the new life. Like I'm saying, the idea that we need to like everyone is not something we're called to. We don't love them. Now, liking them is kind of a human experience. You know people you would like to be with a lot and people you don't want to be with a lot for no good reason or bad reason. It's just we all kind of get along with one another differently. But to love them is a whole different ballgame. Now, like and love are two different, completely different things. I may not like somebody, but I gotta love them.

Yep, and that's another nature, isn't it? That's your new nature, your new creation. That's the stripes of Jesus Christ. That makes you walk in truth. That's kind of neat. It kind of takes the pressure off, doesn't it? Yes, it does. To think if you're living under law and you must love everybody as Christ loved you, then you're going to fail at that. There's just no ability to do that in the human spirit. But in the new man we are in Christ Jesus, that becomes a way of life.

Any other comments, thoughts? All right, Jim, close us in prayer. Would you please? Father, we thank you so much for your love for us. We thank you that you live through us and we don't have to try and work it out in our flesh. We pray that you would continue to teach us throughout this day. We just love you. We love each other because of you. We thank you for this in Jesus' name, amen.