EMMAUS SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL STUDIES

John specifies his epistle to the “Beloved Gaius” who is likely a church leader in the area of Ephesus. John addresses the main theme of hospitality toward other believers, especially those who are traveling teachers. John explains this through a contrast between Gaius and Diotrephes, both church leaders, one who is hospitable and the other who is not. John’s desire is for those congregations to see that there is importance in how they live. Their faith will be shown in their deeds.

The body of Christ exists to encourage each other to good works. This was an application point that I discovered in 3 John. They idea came from John’s excitement over Gaius’ walk in truth and love, and also the understanding that we as believers are called to be co-workers for the sake of the gospel. This challenges me because for quite some time I feel the Lord leading me to be involved in some fashion with Bat Cave Baptist. I am not sure what this involvement looks like, but through fear and a poor us of my time I have chosen to not pursue this.

The epistle of third John has much to do with hospitality even though it doesn’t even say that very word. Gaius was a church leader that John is writing to on the behalf of a man named Demetrius who is in need of a place to stay while he is in town doing the work of the Lord. It was very common back then for “traveling teachers” to depend on people in towns to be hospitable while they were doing God’s work. The need for hospitality today is not as severe but that doesn’t mean we need to not be hospitable.

I am reminded of Keith Green who is a wonderful and extreme example of being hospitable. In the book No Compromises, it tells of how Keith lived with his house full of people who were in need of a place to stay. His house was packed full of people just off the street etc. He understood the call on his life to love people and to be hospitable. People in America today are very concerned with their personal space and it is challenging to think of giving up this personal space we have grown to be so comfortable in. Change starts with being aware and now that we are aware, our aim to actively love people needs to prepare us for any circumstances of hospitality. Small acts of love in our lifestyle from a changed heart are where true hospitality comes in.

 John paints a great picture of how love, truth, and hospitality all are linked together. To know truth is to be able to discern from none truth.  Truth is only found in Christ, and because Christ has imparted it to us we can now enter in a partnership with those who also know truth and are taking to the world the message of the gospel.

Overall Timeless Truth:
Do not be partners with any message other than the message of Christ. (v. 11)
I was really challenged by the message of support in 2 John. In the past I would give money to organizations and even to my church, only for the sake of giving. In my mind, if I was giving to something, then I did not have to feel guilty about not giving at all. I was doing ‘my part’. Unfortunately, I was not doing my research, and I might not have been giving to a message that was Christ-centered. By giving money and support I am becoming partners with the message that cause proclaims, and if it is not one of Christ, it is one against Christ. The challenge to me was what am I putting my name on? There are so any organizations to help and to support, but what is essential for me is to support a cause that supports the gospel.

My application is to research where I am giving. To know who I am supporting and what message I am helping. I want my money and my support to go to spreading the gospel and helping the physical needs of others, because we can help their needs physically but there is a much greater need, in their need of a savior.

             I want to carry the knowledge from 2 John with me so I can be an equipped believer. I want to know The Truth and experience God’s love so that out of my heart flows hospitality for the only gospel and the real truth and the only mission God wants me to support. I want to remember what I invest in that runs contrary to the gospel. I want to not ever participate in those again. I will change the way I see false teaching, true teaching, and the implications of discerning between the two. I can give to missions, those teaching the scriptures, and my local body of believers. I will be educated on my money supporting the gospel going forth or not so I can ask God where He wants my money to go.  

I will change my actually reading the brochure Eileen gave me about the little kids in Burma. I want to leave bible school and make sure I am supporting the people teaching SBS so they can continue to portray the truth of God through the scriptures to change lives by the power of God. I will invite strangers into my home when lead by the Lord. I will invite strangers to my church and my bible study. I want to support those going forth with the gospel by every means I have. I will choose to invest in the truth through giving even if it uncomfortable for me. I will be educated and wise about who and what I give to also, so I do not partner in anything evil infiltrating the church. I will pray so God can show me exactly what that looks like in this time in my life.

The thing I most gained from this book is that being loving and open is a way of showing your faith. Loving your brothers and sisters is one of the tests that John set for the people to refer to when looking for the false prophets. So I was thinking if I measured up to those tests. Do I show through my actions that I love my brothers and sisters? Do I obey all of what God tells me to do? Do I put out the right doctrine to people? These are all questions that make me wonder, would I have made the cut in the time of John?

John writes this epistle to a church struggling with identity. They struggle to comprehend the vastness of God and driven by selfish desires begin to define God through their worldview as opposed to defining their worldview through him. The heresy ties back to a desire not to line ones life up with Christ. This is evident in the lifestyles lived out of the Gnostic heresy. These people turned church functions into sex-feasts. The change was not a sudden shift in thinking, but instead is a gradual corroding of the nature of God.

Are we that much different today? We rationalize so many behaviors. If I do not like the way God is all I have to do is change his character and he no longer challenges me. The problem with this thought is that the way to truly know God and experience his love is through obedience. He begins to transform our hearts by the daily decisions we make to follow him. If we begin to rationalize God to make him fit our desired paradigm we no longer have a God that will draw us to change.

John finished the epistle by describing the role of those in the body of Christ to pray and hold each other accountable in the way we conduct our lives. This is a major issue in my life at present. I do not want to rock the boat and therefore when I see a brother or sister at the school who is walking in some error, I tend to just hold firm to the idea that the Lord will work it out of that person. The issue is not that the Lord won’t work it out of the person, but rather that he has called me to be a part of this process.

The more I think about this and truly meditate on it I desire accountability myself. I do not want to remain as I am I want to walk out of certain destructive patterns in my life. It is the beauty of living in a gospel environment an environment where people to see my mess and love me enough to not allow me to stay there. I do the body of Christ a disservice by not holding a brother or sister accountable

loving others is evidence of our faith (1 john 4:7-12). what good is it if we claim to know God and to love him but we do not love others? it is of no good. when we have the goods and the means to help others in need, and we turn around and walk the other way, or avoid them all together, we show that we do not know God. and we show that we do not love him. our love for God and our love for others cannot be seperated. they go together. we show love for God by helping those in need and loving others, and we love others when we put their need above our own. we live in such a me-focused society. i want this, i don’t like that, that is my right, i deserve this. we will never find happiness or contentment when we only focus on ourselves, we were created for love, and to love others is to serve them. when we serve others, we will then be content and by blessing others, we in return will be blessed.

this world is full of hurting, lost people. i can pray for them and bless them with my words and that is good, but true love is putting action to my words. i do not show that i love them until i physically help them. and in showing physical love to them, i am showing my love for God. Because i am loved i should love others. Christ laid down his life for me, even when i had nothing to give in return to him. i am called to lay down my life and my rights for others, even when i have nothing to gain by doing so.

It is incredible how humanity continues to go through the same issues and struggles over time. It is wonderful how the Bible truly is timeless truth because humanity still will always need a loving savior in order for us to understand how to truly love. There were a lot of very skewed views happening in the early church when the Bible was written just as there are today. We have to be so careful not to allow non-truths to creep into our every day and lie to us, making us think they are truth. We have to know that this going to come at us. Strange views, non-truths that oppose the gospel, crept into the lives of the early church just as it does today. So many people abuse the Bible today, making it say whatever they want it to mean so they can feel better about living the way they want to live.

We are to love people and this is a selfless act. 1 John 3:11 “You have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” In Mark 12:28-31 a scribe asks which commandment is first of all, Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second is you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”

How is the church today doing with loving people? It makes me sad to think of how many people in our own country, around the corner from church buildings are in desperate need of help and people come and go through the church doors oblivious to the need and the call on their life to love these people. 1 John 3:18-19 “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. By this we will know that we are from the truth.” How can we as Christians say we love someone and not take action to help them? 1 John 3:17 “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?” It is challenging to think about. Love is not just giving a smile and saying the words but it is much more than that. It is action. This action starts in the heart. We know love because Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down ours for one another (1 John 3:16). Loving God and loving others goes hand in hand. The love of God was first in us and it compels us to love others. 1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.” If we do not love others, we do not love God. 1 John 4:20 “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars…”

What a challenging conviction. What kind of reaction are we to have from this? Offended? Guilty? Unconcerned? These are not the reactions that God desires for us. He wants us affected by it so that change happens. Lets have a repentant heart so we can move on and put some change and action into this. We are forgiven now lets go put love into action.

John nails the false prophets to the wall!!! To know Christ is to love Christ, to love Christ is to obey him, to obey him is to truly live. John showed how these three are linked together, if you have one without the other, you’re not walking in the light, not really knowing Christ. John challenges them to stand against the false teachers and have discernment…Christ is the bar or the standard so if they don’t measure up to him, they are not true…false.
to live is to die and to die is to gain( louie giglio…sort of a quote)

We have eternal life in Christ Jesus. I am thankful for the truth in my life. I pray my love for others would lead them to repentance and eternal life with Christ Jesus. I want to throw off all the gods and idols and lies I believe and cling to the true Truth of Christ. I will choose to love others even when I don’t want to. Also in God’s love for me I am grateful that He is in control of my heart. He can make it not self-condemning, which I am thankful for. I want to recognize God’s love for me in such abundance that it pours out through me. That the evidence of my faith is God’s love in me; that is the only way I am capable of loving others. Yah, I don’t want a condemning heart either because I think being selfish in the flesh would use that heart to draw away from others to my inward self and not love as I am called to do.

I can change my life through the book of 1 John through realizing the root of unbelief is that lack of believing God’s love. If others and I could just a little bit wrap our brains around God’s love then we could imagine the Gospel for us. The love from God will change us to love people. Our faith will be proclaimed in love and the cycle of Love bringing people to Jesus will continue over and over. I can change by being near to God who has shown me love and will continue to do so. then God will be glorified in all his creation having eternal life through faith and being reconciled with him in eternity forever. 

Thank you Lord for the book of 1 John. I am thankful you chose to send Jesus to die on the Cross for my sins. I am thankful that all the days of my life I can rest in abiding in you. That you are the only the Truth. That you first loved me. I love you so much. I pray you can show me ways to love Kevin. And ways to love those around me. I need you. I need your help. Help all this head knowledge be heart knowledge. Thank you for choosing me. I want to choose you all the days of my life. Thank you for loving and setting me free. Thank you for sins forgiven and life reconciled with you. Please love and bless me family and friends. Bless them and keep them. I love you. In Jesus name, Amen.

Those who obey the commandments of God, which is those who love Him, must also love their brothers and sisters to truly know Him.(1 John 2:3,4:21)
It is contrary to God’s nature to live selfishly or self-protectively.(1 John 4:7-21)

I want to learn how to truly love people from this book. I want to not protect myself after people have hurt me over and over again. I want to love unconditionally. I have started doing this by not giving up on someone who I had written off as too hard to love. The funny thing is that God had to give me the grace to humble myself and be able to reconcile the relationship with this person. I am glad He did, because I feel so much better now. I think the truth is that we are to be in relationships with one another that are not perfect and argument free, but that are ruled by love. What does this mean? That people apologize and admit that they are wrong and give out lots of bear hugs afterwards.(smile:)
I am going to have a perfect opportunity to show agape love because I am going home for Thanksgiving. I pray that God will give me the love that shows, that is an action. Love that will do the dishes, feed the animals, let others have thier way. I want to emanate the agape love that Christ has shown me.

A perfect High Priest is the only one that can call us into perfection (4:14) 

Hebrews is amazing. A God this mighty has offered redemption for the sins that I have committed to day and tomorrow and in the future. I kept seeing the biggest problem for the church in Rome being subtle apostasy that stems from an inappropriate view of Christ and his kingdom. They are undergoing social persecution and in the face of this persecution they are choosing to seek the comfort of their old system. The problem, the old system is dead. They are serving man made gods that cannot help them or change them. The problem with this earthly tabernacle is that in all of Israel’s history they looked at the building and forgot the God it represented. They chose to not live a life of obedience lived out of their belief in God. This is evident in Hophni and Phinehas brining the ark to battle against the Philistines they wanted the benefits of God with out the worship of a committed life. The readers of this epistle is in the same place, they desire a God that will not challenge them but will always help them when they are in need. The reason they needed a new covenant was because their lives could not be fixed. Righteousness had to come through Christ.   

I desire to serve a God that challenges me. One that is the perfect high priest, but I am struggling with trust. I noticed today when I went to the pizza restaurant in town when the conversation went south, I continued. I was more afraid of not fitting in than I was about offending God. Lord I fear a God that is perfect and that challenges me, but I want this so bad.

There is no more offering sacrifices or working to try to earn salvation, the way was made perfect in Christ. My acceptance with the Father and eternal salvation was finished with Jesus, and it does not continue with me. It is finished, complete and perfect! God loves me, and he did not want me to stay in the way of the law, even in my sin he wanted to make a way out for me. He created a better covenant with better promises for me to be brought out of sin and out of working day after day to try and atone for my sins. By Jesus single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for my way back to God. As High Priest, he made a single sacrifice for sins and that was it! God has shown his kind and pursuing love for me in this; In making a better covenant with better promises! He made this elaborate perfect plan, for me. For a sinner, who without love or pursuit of him, was pursued and given a way to eternal salvation. God willed to me the promise of his Son, when I was still a sinner. Jesus became my perfect sacrifice; I have nothing else outside of him and what he has done for me. And I need nothing else outside of him and what he has done for me. “The days are coming when I will set up a new plan, this new plan isn’t going to be written on paper or stone. This time I will write it in them, carving it on their hearts. I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people. They’ll get to know me first hand. They’ll get to know me by being kindly forgiven and with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

 *Timeless truth: (10:25) The whole world can benefit from being in the habit of encouraging one another daily.

            * I want to be encouraging. The scriptures say that one should do to others what they would want others to do to them. I love being encouraged. It makes me feel better to encourage someone else too. I think that in the depravity of the flesh we need to the Spirit to come along side us and tell us good things God has done, is doing, and will do in our lives. This encouragement can speak volumes to those in need. I want to change my life by seeking the Lord minute by minute and letting His outcry through my heart and life be encouragement to others. 

            * I can carry out these changes by speaking things I see about other people. I can encourage the in love to be the people God wants them to be. I can stay encouraged myself by staying very near to the Lord. I want to provoke others and myself to love and good deeds always for the Lord. I think blessing others could really change the world. And my perspective of the whole world could change since I am called to daily encourage all. My brothers and sisters and even more.