[2 John, Proverbs 19]

H – 2 John 8, “Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.”

E – Watch Out!

2 John is an interesting letter, from all standpoints: whom the letter is written to, the purpose the letter is written, and the warning behind it. 

The letter is written to a woman and her children. They are known as “the elect,” which means that they had put faith in Christ. The purpose was to remind them to abide in the truth they had received, and the warning was to be on the lookout for anti-christ that sought to influence them through deception. 

This lady was called to “love one another.” John describes to this lady, once again, what real love was. Real love is surrender to the light of truth, Jesus. Real love is obeying or abiding or walking in His teachings. Real love is teaching these truths to those you have influence over; ie: your children (Deuteronomy 6). This “real love” is discipleship at its finest. For John, it began with this lady, personally, and then flowed to her family. (Reminds me of the saying, you can disciple the world, but if you fail to disciple your family, you fail). 

Not only is real love surrendering, abiding in, and teaching truth. Real love is watching out for deception that attempts to come into our lives and homes. This is a huge statement by the writer, “do not receive (deception) into your home (v.10).” WOW! Think for just a moment about all the ways anti-christ look to get into our homes through electronics, games, television, movies, music, other avenues of entertainment, books, literature, school (even homeschool), clothes, brands, and so on and so forth. We could go on and on on the extensiveness of deception. 

The enemy is using culture so much right now to guilt and shame people into being receiving and accepting of the culture around them. But for Christ followers raising other Christ followers, that is not love. Love is loving others, but not allowing deception to deceive others away from the “right” things one has worked for. Oh Christian, we need to heed this. We don’t need to be influenced by culture. We need to be influenced by Christ. Watch out for this type of deception. 

A – Watch out, surrender anew, abide in the truth and teachings of Christ, teach His truths out of love, guard against deception, don’t let unholiness have a foothold in my house. 

R – Lord God, thank you for salvation. Help me be watchful. Open my eyes to deception. Allow me the opportunity to teach your truths out of a holy and reverent love. Lord, guard my home, my family, and our faith family. Give us the boldness to say ‘no’ to the things that attempt to turn us away from truth. 

In Jesus Name!