Love and truth - 2 John 1:1-6

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Very good, dear brother, sister, dear friend. As I said, today we are going to consider biblical love and biblical truth.

Truth and love. And as we are going to read these 13 verses of the second letter of the Apostle John, you will realize that this is going to be the main thought that the Apostle has. Truth and love. As I said, a very important matter, not only for Christians, but very important matter for humans in general. We want to know the truth.

And certainly, we want to experience love. So we are going to consider truth and love. And I am going to ask you to please pay careful attention to the reading of God's word. You will realize that Apostle John is writing this letter to a church that he is going to call the Elect Lady and Her Children. This is a church in the region of Ephesus, very likely, and he is referring to this church as the Elect and Her Children.

So let us read. This is the reading of God's Word. Perfect, inerrant, immutable Word of God. Let us read it together. The elder to the elect lady and her children who may love in truth.

And not only I, but all those who know the truth. Because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father in truth and love. I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver, the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what you or we have worked for, but we may win a full reward.

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, that is the teaching of Christ, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting. for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink.

Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete. the children of your elect sister greet you. Amen. This is the reading of God's words. Truth and love, or love and truth.

There seems to be a controversy in Christianity about truth If you pay careful attention to Christendom and to the Christian world, you might perhaps find a sector or a portion of Christians that seem to emphasize on one side love, and they seem not to pay so much attention to truth. And there seems to be also another sector or section of Christianity that seems to emphasize truth. and not pay so much attention to love. Sometimes that controversy between Christians is not only sad, but also shows us that there's certain controversy, difficulty between those two groups, even to the point that there will be criticism from those who exult or pay attention to love, against the others who exalt or pay attention to truth. They will say that those people who emphasize or advocate for truth, many times they are passive in their works, many times they are cold in their hearts, and many times they are prideful.

That they only care about doctrine, that they only care about theology, that the only thing that they want to know is the truths of the scriptures, but they lack love. And then when you pay attention to the other side of that controversy, many times you will find similar criticisms from the side that is sold to advocate for truth. They will see to the other side of Christians who advocate for love and they will say, well those people many times, they only do things because of their emotions, they do not care about truth, they do not study the scriptures, they are only led by what they feel. And certainly that controversy between those who advocate for truth and those who advocate for love is not only sad to see and to observe in Christianity, but let me submit to you that is not a biblical thing. Because I'm going to submit to you that when you carefully pay attention to the scriptures, Truth and love are not two separate virtues that you can actually choose which one you're going to focus on.

I'm going to focus on truth, or I'm going to focus on love. But when you actually pay careful attention to the scriptures, you will realize that biblical truth produces and requires biblical love, and biblical love produces and requires biblical truth. Just as we say of faith, that faith without works is death, we could say the same thing about love and truth, brother. Truth without love is death. And love without truth is death.

These are not two sides of different things, but rather, when we understand from the biblical perspective, we know that truth and love are the sides of the same coin. That's actually what we read here. The Apostle says to this church, the Elect Lady and her children, that he loves them in truth. And not only the apostolic love is a love that is founded upon the truth, it is also the love of the other Christians who have known the truth towards the Elect Lady and her children is a love that is based on the truth. It's such a powerful connection between truth and love, the Apostle is going to tell us that the relationship between God the Father and God the Son is one of truth and love.

Christianity, Biblical Christianity requires Biblical truth and Biblical love. If a person says that they have truth and they do not have love, it is very likely that the only thing that they have is caught in different knowledge that abides in their heads. as the result, not of spending time with the Spirit of God and Jesus Christ, but rather spending time with men, and because of spending time with men and books, the only thing that they have fed is their heads, and not their hearts. And if someone says that the only thing that they have loved, and they do not care about the truth of the Scriptures, then it's very likely that what they have is just the result of the emotions of the practices that they have invented, to define Christianity, and they are deriving emotional satisfaction from the things that they do, very separated from the truth of the Scriptures. You cannot have truth without love, and you cannot have love without truth, at least, or at least, I mean, referring to Biblical truth and Biblical love.

For the Apostle, these two elements were core to Christianity. Every single genuine Christian, in a sense, has an encounter with truth and with love. You don't need to be a theologian. You don't need to be a wise person. When a person, by grace through faith, knows that they are sinners, that they repent of their sins and they place their faith in Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ is the only one that can forgive them that is an encounter with the truth of God and when that person comes to understand that simple message of the gospel that person has also had an encounter with the love of God because behold this is the love that God has bestowed upon us that has made us his children, biblical truth and biblical love.

Of course, we are to grow in both of those two, love and truth, but we should never separate them. And if someone is going to say that I'm going to focus and be loving, I don't care about the truth, brethren. That is perhaps something that is going on in the heart of that person. And if someone is going to focus primarily on love instead of the truth, it is the same thing. Because Biblical truth produces love, and love always comes with Biblical truth.

That is the message of the Apostle Paul in this letter. And I want us to consider the importance of Biblical love and Biblical truth. And to be able to differentiate and to disconnect that from the perception of love and truth that the world has. Because the world has a definition of love. And the world has a definition of truth.

And let me submit to you that many times churches will bring the definitions of love and the definitions of truth into the practice of the church, putting away the meaning of biblical love and biblical truth. And many times, those definitions of truth and love seem to be more pragmatic, and more efficient, and more according to what other people do. And then people tend to go that way, leaving behind the way of God, Biblical truth, and Biblical love. So it is very important for the individual Christian, and for the local church, that we would have a clear understanding and definition of Biblical love and Biblical truth. Not here, brother.

Because anyone can understand definitions and concepts and theology. The important thing for the Christian life is not only to have things here, but to have them here. And when we have them here in our hearts, they are manifested in our works and in our deeds. So what we do corresponds to what is in the heart, and what is in the heart corresponds to the truth of God. So I want us to consider from this text and primarily from the first letter of John as we give context to this passage that we have in the first six verses of 2 John, this idea of biblical love.

Biblical truth, the relationship that exists between those two, and from there I want us to understand how they manifest in the practical life of individuals. So first, we will address Biblical law. Second, Biblical truth. And then once we understand the connection between those two, then I want us to see the practical manifestation in the individual life and in the life of the Church. This is going to help us not only understand that, but ultimately, brethren, to check.

If that which I call that I say truth about Christ in my individual life is according to the scriptures, and more importantly, if the love that I profess to have for my brothers and sisters and people around me is a love that corresponds to what is written and is not perhaps the definition of love and truth that have been imported or taken from the world. Let us do that, biblical love, biblical truth, and also the practical manifestations of it. Let us start with biblical love, and in order to do so, I'm going to invite you with me to 1 John chapter 4. There, the same author of this letter, 2 John, has given us perhaps the most important passage that speaks about biblical love. And what I want us to do It is to just give you perhaps two or three characteristics of Biblical love.

Because when I ask you, define Biblical love, or Biblical truth, or love and truth, they seem to be such big concepts, that you know so much about them, but in the end you know nothing. Because you know so many things about Biblical love, or Biblical truth, that are such big concepts, that in the end you don't know how to put those things together. I want to give you just a couple of important things about love and about truth. That this is going to help us not only structure and define our definition and our concepts of love and truth from a biblical perspective, but I'm going to help our minds and our hearts to check if that which I have is biblical love, If that which I have is Biblical truth. A couple of characteristics for each one of them.

So as I said, in 1 John chapter 4 verse 7 through 12, we're going to find one of the most beautiful passages that speak about the love of God. This Biblical love that we are supposed to have. So let us read it, and I'm going to give you a couple of characteristics of Biblical love. 1 John chapter 4 verse 7. Beloved, let us love Let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God.

If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. My dear brother and sister here, the Apostle John tells us that the love of God was manifested in this, that God the Father sent his only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That means to die upon the cross to forgive us our sins. And there we see the first characteristic of biblical love. Biblical love is sacrificial.

Sacrificial is the main characteristic of what it is to love. In this case, the love of God. And if we are going to think about sacrificial, the word that we are going to see here repeated is that sacrificial love gives. Sacrificial love gives. God the Father gave his only begotten Son to die upon the cross.

This is the sacrifice of the Gospel. We see two sacrifices here. The sacrifice of the Father and the sacrifice of the Son. Jesus Christ was the precious Son of the Father, but the Father gave up His Son to die for the Church. This is the sacrifice of the Father.

Not only the Father sacrificed Himself, but also the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, gave up His life to die upon the cross for the people, for the Church. Biblical love is sacrificial, and sacrificial in that it gives. And when Biblical love that is sacrificial gives, it is always seeking the benefit of the receiver, and not the benefit of the one who gives. Biblical love, the love of God, is one that sacrifices and gives for the benefit of the one who receives. God the Father sends His Son for the benefit of you and I, and me.

This is the great love, the great sacrificial love of the Father. And just as He has loved us, we are supposed to love. And my dear brother and sister, this is contrary to the love of the world. Because the love of the world is transactional in nature. God has sacrificed himself in giving his son.

Human love is transactional. I give you and you give me. And I continue to give you as long as I perceive that you are giving me in return. In the point in which I assess your giving to me as of less value to what I'm giving you, I no longer love you. I no longer care for you.

You are no longer of interest to me. Human love is transactional in nature. The love of God is sacrificial in that it gives, seeking the benefit of the one who receives. That is completely antithetical and apart from the love that we experience as humans. And the Apostle is calling us to love in this way.

Only just by considering that simple point, brethren, we are all ready to test our love and to say, am I loving in a sacrificial way the same way that the Lord has loved me in giving His only begotten Son to die for me? But if that was not enough, my dear brother and sister, this biblical sacrificial love of God does not only give, seeking the benefit of the receiver, but this biblical sacrificial love also gives unconditionally. Human love gives expecting to receive. The love of God does not expect to receive anything in return. What can humans give in return for the Son of God?

What can we offer God in exchange for the sending of His only begotten Son? Absolutely nothing. There is nothing in us or all of us put together that we can contribute and compensate the great gift that God has given us in His Son. Because the love of God is sacrificial in that it gives unconditionally. This God of Glory has given the greatest of His gifts, that is His Son Jesus Christ, to die for our sins, and we are called to give in the same way, seeking the benefit of the person that receives and giving unconditionally.

My giving as a manifestation of love should not be contingent upon receiving from you whatever my imagination tells me that I should receive. But rather, the love of God should move me to give independently of receiving or not receiving something from the person whom I love. And if that was not enough, my dear brother and sister, God's love that is sacrificial does not give from that which is abundant and common, but God's love gives from that which is precious. God did not come and say, I'm going to create a great angel, or I'm going to create a great mountain, or I'm going to create a great creature that I'm going to give in exchange for my church. No, God came to his precious only Son And he took his only son to give in exchange for the church, because God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

The sacrificial love of God, my dear brother and sister, is not that one that comes and says, I have so much of this, and I'm going to take of the leftovers that I have and I'm going to give that to you and that is my manifestation of love to you I expect to receive something from you because I'm giving you all of this the love of God takes from that which is most precious and gives not expecting anything in return only thinking the benefit of the one that is receiving when you consider this from a human perspective you realize that the love of God is completely out of this world Who is going to give in that way? Who is going to sacrifice in that way? Who is going to consider something that is worthless, so valuable and so great, that is going to take the most precious thing a person that he has, namely the Lord Jesus Christ, and give it in return for nothing? Worse than nothing, because we as the Church, what we give in return is our sins and our unrighteousness. This is the greatness of the love of God.

This is the greatness of the sacrificial aspect of the love of God. And the Apostle John tells us in 1 John 3, verse 16, that this is the way that we know love, if you come with me to 1 John 3, verse 16. By this, we know love. That He laid down His life for us. and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

You know, sometimes when you read the Scriptures, there are demands or there are requests of the Christian life that they seem to be so strong and so radical that we just simply tend to read them and just to pass over them because they are so strong and they are so radical, the demands of the Scriptures to the Christians. But what we have here is the truth of God for His Church. that we know love in that God gave his son to lay down for his people and just as God gave his son to lay down for his people we are to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters Biblical love is sacrificial in that it gives. Human love, the love that we all have, is not of this sort. It is transactional.

Always stakes. It is always conditional. It always gives from that which is not important. It only gives from that which I consider that I could give. That is human love.

And the Apostle calls us to love one another with this type of love. To love your wife with the love of God. To love your husband with the love of God. Unconditional, not expecting, not waiting to see that this person fulfills certain requirements and now you are worthy that I love you. Or not expecting that the church will be something just fulfilling certain requirements and now I will love you.

Because you're fulfilling the requirement that I have in my mind, so now this transaction is good, and I'm going to engage in this transaction, I'm going to invest into this relationship, because now I'm getting from you what I'm expecting to receive. That is human love. The love of Christ is sacrificial, independently of what the other provides or gives in return. Every time that you think about this is unfair, just simply think about the love that God has given you and think if there is any fairness in God manifesting and giving that blessing to you because you have not given anything in return. Of course we understand that Christ Jesus makes all of that possible, but biblical love is sacrificial love that gives, not expecting to receive in return.

That's why the scripture says that it's more blessed to give than to received. It is more blessed to be a servant than to be served. It is better to be the one that is spent for others than to be spent for self. Because brethren, this is the definition of biblical love. First, biblical love is sacrificial.

Then the question is, how am I going to do that? Like, really, right? How am I going to live like that? If it is just so naturally in me to want to engage in a relationship in which there is a transaction, I give, you give me, and as long as we provide mutually, emotionally, and resources, or whatever it is, we can keep this relationship going. How can I do that?

The answer is in the second characteristic of Biblical love. And that is that Biblical love is not only sacrificial, but Biblical love, brethren, is divine. Biblical love is not human. Biblical love is divine. And when I say divine, I mean that the love that we have in the Scriptures is a love that only abides in the earth.

The Apostle has told us in this passage of the Scriptures, 1 John 4, 7-12, that God is love. God is love. So love, genuine love, not human love, but genuine biblical love, is primarily a divine thing. It is the character of God. Love can only be found in God.

Yes, we can have emotions and feelings towards each other as humans, and we can call that love, and perhaps that is a good way to define it. But the only real substance of love is found in Him. It cannot be found in me. It cannot be found in you. Genuine love is only found in God, because God is love.

And the way that God has manifested or revealed this love to us, verse 10, is in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this, verse 9, in this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son to die for us. That God sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins, 1 John chapter 4 verse 9. How is the love of God manifested? In the person of Jesus Christ.

This divine love is only revealed through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And hence, if I want to have this love in me, to love my wife, my husband, my children, my church, and the world, with a love that is not human, but with a love that is divine. A love that is not transactional, but a love that is not expecting to receive in return. I do not need to look inside of me. I don't need to work in five steps or five ways in order to become more loving or a better husband.

I need to look to Christ. And the love of God is shed into my heart by the Spirit of God, Romans chapter 5, verse 5. The love of God is given, is shed, put into the heart of the Christian through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the only way that humans can genuinely love is in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that brother?

The only way that humans can genuinely love is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from God Himself who is love, humans will have a definition of love that is purely transactional and that is always expecting to receive something in return. But the type of love that we are discussing here only happens in the presence of God Himself. And how can that happen, my dear brother and sister? By grace through faith.

When a person repents of their sins and puts their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then that person is not only being forgiven, but the love of God is being shed into the hearts of that person. That person is becoming one with God. And now this person has experienced the love of God in becoming a child of God. And by virtue of having the love of God being shed into our hearts, we can apply that love. Because apart from God, we can do absolutely nothing.

And apart from the presence of God in us, we're always going to want to have something in return. We're always going to have that person next to us as long as they do and fulfill the requirements that they are supposed to do according to my mind. I'm always going to be expecting from them something that I have required of them. And if they don't do it, I will be offended. And when I'm offended, I will walk away, and I will run away, and I will not forgive, and I will not be there.

Why? Because that is human love, brother. And everything that I have just said in the last 30 seconds, we all have experienced. That's why we need the Lord Jesus Christ, because biblical love, my dear brother and sister, is first of all sacrificial, and second of all, this love is divine. It's not found in us.

And because it's not found in us, then it's when we come to the connection of truth. How can I know this love? The answer to that is truth. Truth, biblical truth, is the means by which I understand, I receive, and I apply biblical love. Biblical truth is not the truth that gives me answers to theological questions, so I'm seen as a person who knows a lot about the Bible, but Biblical truth is the means, is the instrument by which I know the love of God, I receive the love of God, and I can apply the love of God.

If you pay attention to verse 16 of the 4th chapter of John, the apostle tells us something very interesting there. In verse 16 of the 4th chapter of 1st John, it says, so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. It says that we have come to know and we have come to believe the love that God has for us. God is love.

When the grace of God comes upon a person, and the heart of that person is transformed, the eyes of that person are opened, that person repents of their sins and puts their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the first manifestation of God's love towards that person through the truth of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the truth of God that is found in the scriptures is the one that not only explains to us that great love, that God sent his only son to die upon the cross, but it's also the one that gives us that love because it is the Spirit of God that sheds the love of God into our hearts and is the one that empowers to apply that love because the love of God is not something that we define and we observe and that abides in our minds as a poem or as a good writing, but the love of God is meant to be practical and active. And the only way that I can live out the love of God is through the truth of God. That's why I cannot disconnect bread and love from truth.

That's why the truth of God will always lead me to a greater and deeper and genuine knowledge of God and what He has done for me and eventually is going to be manifested in my life. That's why biblical genuine truth is not something that abides in the head but primarily abides in the heart of a person. So, we've said so far that biblical love is sacrificial and divine, and that the truth of the scriptures, or the truth of God, is that which is going to make me know the love of God, receive the love of God, and apply the love of God. But let me just tell you a couple of characteristics of truth. Because when it comes to truth, we might be tempted to believe that having truth is only having knowledge about the scriptures.

to read the scriptures many times, to memorize passages, to study theology, and just to have a lot of knowledge in our heads, and we say, that person knows the truth. But let me just simply give you two important characteristics of biblical truth, the truth that produces love, and then perhaps the Spirit will lead us to test our hearts before Him. The first one is that truth, biblical truth, my dear brother and sister, is spiritual in nature. Biblical truth is spiritual in nature. Yes, we do use our human senses, we do use our human understanding, we do use our human reason to understand and to comprehend the words, the grammar, the syntax, and everything that is in the book.

But biblical truth goes beyond the understanding that is supposed to dwell and to abide in the heart. Biblical truth is not something that is natural, but is something that is spiritual. One thing is to know the words of doctrine, another thing is to know the spirit of doctrine. One thing is to know the written doctrine, another thing is to know the spirit of doctrine. And because it is spiritual in nature, it means that this comes from my experience and communion with God in the Spirit.

Pay attention to this, 1 John 4, verse 4. Pay attention to this, brother. 1 John 4, verse 4. Little children, you are from God, and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

They are from the world, speaking of the false teachers. They are from the world. Therefore, pay attention to this. They speak from the world. And the world listens to them.

These are the false teachers. This is the side of unrighteousness and darkness. But now pay attention to verse 6. We, referring to the apostles, he says, we are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us.

In other words, whoever is a Christian listens to us. And the Apostle is not speaking here about the human ability to hear sounds with your ears. He is speaking about spiritual matters, right? So it says here, verse 9, We, the Apostles, are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us.

Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Biblical truth is spiritual in nature. That means that it is not the result of me spending time, intellectual time with a book, but ultimately it is the result of me spending time with Jesus Christ through the book. When I come to the book, if I'm pursuing to have the answer to 2 plus 2 equals 4, if I'm pursuing the answer, then I'm not pursuing the giver of the answer.

And I'm pursuing to know in the written level, knowing the spirit level. Biblical truth is one that is spiritual in nature. And because it is spiritual in nature, it does not only abide in the head, brethren. It abides in the heart. Because how is that person going to live their lives only trying to remember the doctrines that they have studied?

They can't. It is when the principle has been applied into the heart, that when tribulation comes, they don't need to go and check a book. The principle has been touched by Christ Jesus into their hearts, and they know how to respond in that moment. the written word has now gone beyond and is written but in the heart of the person with the finger of God just as God gave to Moses the ink tables now this person has in their heart inked the commandments of the Lord not through the mind but in the heart brother this is the type of truth that transforms and changes this is the type of truth that blesses our families, and that blesses our church, and that blesses people around us. This is the type of truth that transcends words only, that is powerful, that in the moment of temptation leads us to righteousness, that in the moment of despair points us to Christ, that in the moment of difficulty reminds us that there is a Savior who has all things in His hands.

This is the type of truth that sustains us when we know that we cannot move forward. This is the type of truth that is the truth that comes from above. This is the type of truth, brethren, that Christians have had for many years, and for that reason they have been willing to give their lives when persecution has come. This is the type of truth that the Lord has used to build up His Church over 2,000 years against the gates of Hades. This is the type of truth that will continue to prevail until the Lord Jesus Christ comes.

The question is not if this is right or wrong, the question is, do you have it? The question is, do you have this truth that is spiritual in nature, that is the visitation of the Holy Spirit that shows you the love of God in sending His Son Jesus Christ to die upon the cross for your sins, and now you know that your life transcends the temporal and is into the eternal, that your days are not here, but they go beyond. That is the question, do we have it? Because otherwise, this is just simply religion, right? It is just simply coming on a Sunday to do a certain thing.

It's just a different denomination of all of these Christians that behave in different ways. That is not the point, brethren. The point is, do we have the spirits of God in our hearts that speaks to us in this way. The truth of God is spiritual. Second thing, the truth of God is apostolic.

And when I say apostolic, I mean what the apostle says in 1 John 4 verse 6. He says, we are from God. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us.

The way that God has given us of His truth, it is through the prophets and through the apostles. In other words, it is contained in the Bible, it is the truth of the Lord. The way that God has revealed to us is through His words. In other times, He spoke to the fathers through the prophets, but in these last days, He has spoken to us through the son, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who heard the Lord Jesus Christ, Hebrews chapter 2 verse 4, the apostles, they testified with mighty words indeed, of the things that they had first heard from the Lord.

And now those things were written, this mystery that was given to the apostles and to the prophets, Ephesians chapter 3, was left in writing for us to keep. 2 Peter chapter 1, because the apostles were going to pass, were going to go into the Exodus, and they wanted to leave us this words of God so that the false prophets will not come to distract us, abeviate us, and that we will continue to walk in the truth of God as it is written, as it was given by God. The truth of God. It is spiritual, and it is apostolic in nature. We have the certainty and we have the hope that every time that we come to the scriptures, we don't only have a book that is wise and a book that was written in a good way and that was preserved throughout the ages.

We can have the certainty that brethren, that these are the words of God. And when we come to the book and we know that these are the words of God, then we can have certainty that the One who created the heavens and the earth, and everything in them, and the One that sustains all things, has decided to speak to us through His Word, and through His Spirit. And the more that we treasure up the words of Christ in our hearts, Colossians chapter 3 verse 16, the more that we have Jesus Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, Ephesians chapter 3 verse 17, the more that we have communion with the Spirit, Romans chapter 5, the more that we are walking in the life, John chapter 1, the more that we are spending time with the Lord and His words, and His word is in our minds and in our hearts, the Lord will lead us. The Lord will lead us without the need of the intellect, without the need of the mind. Of course, we do need it to understand, but the Lord will lead us in our way.

The Lord will lead us in our steps. The Lord will lead us in times of persecution. The Lord will lead us in times of tribulation. The Lord will lead us in times of temptation. Through the Word that has been deposited in our hearts, through the time that we have spent with Christ, the truth of God is spiritual and is apostolic.

And that's why the greatest treasure that we can have apart from being Christians, saying Jesus Christ, is not to have the words of God. Imagine, brethren, if we did not have the hope of God written in this book. Imagine if we did not know what the end of these things is going to be. Imagine if we did not know who God is. Imagine if we did not know who is the one who created the heavens and earth.

Imagine if we did not know that we have a greater hope than our present day. Imagine if we did not have that, brethren. But God was pleased to preserve his word and to give us his truth. His word is spiritual and his truth is apostolic. That's why you cannot get love apart from truth burning.

Love without truth is death. And truth without love is death. Because how can someone come to this book and study this book and not to be impacted and transformed by the great love of God that sent his only begotten son to die before the cross? That person is blind. How can a person be so into answering questions about systems and places and this and that and not be captivated by the love of Christ upon the cross in the gospel?

Truth without love is death. And love without truth is also death. Biblical truth makes us know, receive, and understand the love of God. And this love of God, brethren, is the one that will move us to live and to do. And having said that, in these last 10 minutes, we return to 2 John.

And I want to show you the practical manifestations of what it is to have the truth and the love of God. 2 John, that I just returned there, and I just simply want to show you a couple of things there. The truth and the love of God, in the letter of 2 John, is going to be manifested in two primary ways. First, the things that we are supposed to do, and then the things that we are supposed to feel. Because brother, we are human beings, we are not robots, we are not made of wood, we are not made of steel.

We are human beings and the truth of God is going to lead not only our intellect and our heart, but it's also going to lead the way that we feel and the way that we experience emotions. First, the things that we are supposed to do. I want you to notice very carefully there, from verse 4 to verse 6, that both truth and love are equated or come together with this word, walk in. Pay attention to verse 4. I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth.

as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing a new commandment, but the one that we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. Both truth and love are not something that abide here or here, Love and truth is not only that I know and I feel, but truth and love is something that moves me to do and to action.

Biblical truth and biblical love is going to be manifested not in the power of my words. It's going to be manifested in the actions of the Spirit that leads a person to know and to do. We are called to walk in the truth and we are called to walk in the love of God. The one who says that loves and does nothing about it is a liar. And the person that says that knows many things, but is not walking in the truth, is equally a liar.

Because the biblical truth that comes from above, and the biblical love that comes from Christ, transforms and changes a person. When that person sees the love of Christ, and what Christ has done for us, that person is going to be transformed and changed. It is easier to speak. It is easier to articulate words. It is more difficult to close the chasm between the things that I say and the things that I do.

Biblical truth, my dear brother and sister, and biblical love, it is practical in nature. And second, I don't know if you saw that, but truth and love are commandments from the Father. The Father has commanded us to have the truth, and the Father has commanded us to love. That is what He says once again in verse 4, I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. We are not only commanded to have an answer to a question, we are commanded to walk in the truth.

The Father has given us the Spirit of God, and this Spirit of God has empowered us, not only to know the truth, and to know the love of God, but to walk in them, and to practice the truth of God, to live the truth of God, and to live the love of God. He continues and says in verse 5 once again, And now, I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we had from the beginning, that we love one another, both truth, and love are commandments. And God is going to commend us something that He knows that we are empowered to obey as Christians. Why? Because He has given us of His Holy Spirit to walk in the truth, brethren, and to walk in love.

It is easier to say, but it's more difficult to do. And we have the Spirit of God that leads us to obey the commandment of truth and to obey the commandment of love. And finally, let me just simply point you about what Biblical truth and Biblical love experiences in the heart. From the example of this apostle. First, verse 1, this apostle was an apostle that loved, of course.

If you have Biblical truth, and if you have Biblical love, you are going to love. Verse 1, the elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth. And not only I, but all those who know the truth because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever. Christians love one another. Christians love each other.

Biblical Christians love each other. And the reason why they love each other is not because they agree about their preferential matters. The reason why Christians love each other is because when they are genuine Christians, independently who this person is and this person is, they have been bought by the same blood. They are sons and daughters of the same Father. They belong to the same family.

The truths of the Gospel have united them into the same body. And because they share the same Heavenly Father, the same Savior, and the same Spirit, they love one another. They do not love transactionally. They do not love depending on the circumstances. They do not love depending on how much you progress if you change those behaviors.

They love in the same way that God loved us, sacrificially, giving, not seeking their own benefits, unconditionally, and sacrificing from that which is precious and not which is common. Christians are called to love one another, not because they have the power in and of themselves, but because they have seen the power in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The second, there's four, but we don't have much time, so I'm just going to take you to the second. Christians rejoice. Now pay attention, biblical love and biblical truth is going to take you to rejoice.

Pay attention to verse four. It says, I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth. Have we? Have we rejoiced, brethren, for each other than when we see a brother and sister that is advancing in holiness and in conformity to Christ? Has our heart been filled with joy when we secretly, in the secret place of our prayers, we smile before the presence of the Lord because we say, thank you so much for what you are doing in this brother and this sister.

Have we been rejoicing when no one sees before the presence of the Lord, thanking the Lord for what the Lord has done in this brother without me coming and telling them, look, all of this that is happening. When the love of God is present in the heart of a person, and when the truth of God is present in a person, then we know what the important things are in life. And the important things in life are that a person becomes more like Jesus. And when we see the fruit of conformity to Christ in my brother and sister, that is a genuine reason to rejoice. A genuine reason to be filled with gladness, to see that another person is walking in the truth.

Has the love of God and the truth of God taken us to that place, brother? To see each other and to rejoice in the fact that God is working in that brother. He was like this, or she was like this, and now I can see, are we more tempted just to see the bad things about our brother and sister? Well, those things that should not be are the things that come more promptly to our brains and to our minds when we're thinking about them. May the Lord lead us to rejoice in the working of God among our brothers and sisters.

And then finally, a biblical love and a biblical truth is one that concerns. You pay attention to verse 5, it says, And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one that we had from the beginning, that we love one another. That word there that we have in the ESV, I ask you, is a little bit more strongly than just simply asking. It's kind of like I pledge you. It's very strong in the sense that says, church, brothers and sisters in the church, I know that I have said these many things to you, many times I have said this to you, but because I love you, once again I say to you, love one another.

The love of God and the truth of God which is present in the heart of a person leads that person to be concerned for the important matters of the Christian life for the brothers and sisters. So, brother and sister, love one another. Brother and sister, look to Christ Jesus. Brother and sister, do not look to the circumstances, to your own strength, or to your own power, or what is going on, but look to Christ. Trust in Him.

Come to Him. He is the only place in which you are going to find rest. He is the only place in which you are going to find peace. Look to Christ. Biblical truth and Biblical love is going to lead us to care for our brother and sister beyond the temporal matters and to care for those eternal matters in which our brothers and sisters are supposed to be grown.

So as you see, my dear brother and sister, when it comes to that controversy of truth or love, what are we going to emphasize? Love and truth. That is a false dichotomy. because biblical truth is always going to produce biblical love and biblical love is always going to lead us in the truth the question is not if we understand that the question is do we have biblical love and do we have biblical truth because that is what is needed for us to walk in the light individually and also for us to walk as a church in the truth and love but as I said Both truth and love are divine. Because when you read the scripture, my dear brother and sister, we read that there is someone who is truth, and whose name is Jesus Christ.

He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the truth that sets us free. God himself is love, and that love has been manifested in Jesus Christ. The solution is not, I want to have love, or I want to have truth. The solution and the point of the matter is, Where is Jesus?

I want to look to Him, because in Him I find love, and I find truth. The question is not where I'm going to go, but where I'm going to abide. And that abiding is in the person of Jesus Christ. When we come firmly to this book, we are to be in a pursuit of a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. When we kneel, our knees, and we pray, and when we close our eyes, that is not a religious pursuit.

This is a pursuit of a person. And the name of that person is Jesus Christ. When we come to the church and we gather together with brothers and sisters, it is not a pursuit of community or looking to each other. It is a pursuit, a collective pursuit of a person whose name is Jesus Christ. When we minister to each other throughout the week, and when we speak and we pray for another, it is not a pursuit of religious activity, it is a pursuit of a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ in me, and Jesus Christ in my brother and sister. Jesus Christ in the context of the Church, and Jesus Christ is the King of this world. It is a pursuit of a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. And only at the feet of Christ, brethren, is that we can receive and be imparted of this truth and this love that transforms us. Not the truth and the love of the world that is transactional.

So then we can see each other through the eyes of Christ Jesus. I love you dear wife, not because of who you are or what I expect you to be, but I love you because He loved me first, and I love you. I love you dear husband, not because of what I want you to be or what I expect you to be, but I love you because He loved me first, and I don't deserve to receive his love, so I'm going to love you. I love you dear children, not because you're going to be what I want you to be, perhaps you're even doing different things to what I trained you to be, but it doesn't matter. I love you, because he loved me first, and I'm going to continue to love you, even when you do what you're not supposed to do.

Brother and sister, I'm going to love you, not because I'm expecting you to fulfill the requirements of what I want you to be, but because he loved me first. and in manifesting his love to me now I'm empowered to love my brother and sister and the same thing for the world when we have a glimpse of the love of God given to this world in the church through the Lord Jesus Christ brethren all things fall into perspective and we realize that that which God requires of us is this compared to what he has done for us and when we are able to see the chasm between that from that which he requires of us and what he has done for us then we gladly come to his feet to be strengthened and empowered to do what He calls us to do. Because this little thing that He requires of us, when we don't have perspective of how great He is, He becomes a mountain that cannot be climbed in your own flesh and in your own strength. And that's why we need the perspective of who He is, what He has done in Jesus Christ, to do that which is required of us, walking in biblical love that is sacrificial and divine, and biblical truth that is spiritual and apostolic, living out this love and truth that are the same size of the same coin, giving glory to the Father, ministering to each other by the power of the Spirit, and abounding in righteousness in Christ Jesus for the glory of the one who loved us and gave himself for us. Amen?

Let us pray.