In this tiny little book of II John,  he has four themes.  The first was 'truth', which I discussed yesterday.

The second is love.  II John 5-6 "And now I beseech you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.  And this is love, that we walk after his commandments.  This is the commandment, That, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it."

John is the apostle that Jesus loved.  And John never forgot what that love meant.  He understood the power in loving people.  He referred to one of the only two commandments that Jesus gave.  Matt. 22: 37, 39b  "Jesus said unto him you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.   …You shall love your neighbor as yourself."   The first was to love the Lord our God.  The second was to love our neighbor.  Love.

And then John defined love as walking in Christ's commandments.  Love is not a feeling.  It is a behavior.  Walking in love involves an action.  Doing.  Don't tell me how you feel.  Show me what you are doing.  I know my husband loves me when he says, "Here, let me do that for you".

Jonn uses the word 'walk' twice.  Walking can only be done one step at a time.  You take one step before you can take the next.  And you don't finish.  You just put one foot in front of the other.  And keep on keeping on.  That's love.  It is never finished.

If you think you can change people by telling them what they ought to do, you have erred.  The only thing that changes someone is your love.  You just keep on loving them.  You don't have to agree with someone to love them.

Let's look at the second book of John..  It has only one chapter.  Only thirteen verses.  But when John wrote this letter, he was trying to say something very specific.  First, he wanted the lady to whom he was writing to be reminded that what she and her and her children had heard concerning Christ was true.  He uses the word 'truth' five times in four verses.

II John 1:1-4  "The elder (John) unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all those that have know the truth;  For the truth's sake, which dwells in us , and shall be with us for ever.  Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.  I rejoiced greatly that I found your children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father."

This woman is blessed.  Her children are living in the truth.  Whoever she is, in the apostle John's eyes, she has certainly been elevated to a position of honor because of the life she is living.  He tells her that he, and all those who know the truth, love her in the truth.  John gives her a special blessing of grace, mercy and peace.  Not only from him, but from God the Father and Jesus the Son.

Truth.  We all want to know the truth.  John knew what it was and was busy writing letters, visiting churches and living the rest of his life spreading the truth to anyone who would listen.
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In thirteen verses, John will sum up some important truths for your life, my life, and the life of the lady and her children.  All of us.  The truth never changes.

Like I said, I started chasing a rabbit.  We were in I Tim. 6: 12 and the discussion was about fighting the good fight of faith, laying hold on to eternal life… and then I got off on faith and what it meant to have faith, and about faith that produces fruit. And there was really no good place to stop.  So I will just go back to where we were in Timothy and chase that faith rabbit another day.

Timothy 6:17-19 "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they are not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may hold on to eternal life."   Let's break this up into pieces.

1.  If you are fed, clothed, housed and comfortable, you didn't get there on your own.  So don't get high-minded thinking you are "all that".
2.  It could all vanish in a heartbeat.  God is your supplier.
3.  Enjoy, but share (distribute), do good works.
4.  Communicate that your blessings are from God.  And that blessings are not necessarily "stuff".
5.  Lay up treasure in heaven.
6.  Be sure you have built on a strong foundation, because there is going to be a reckoning, a time to come. Your eternal life will not be based on how much money you made.

The Methodists have a song that they used to sing called "To the Work, to the work".  You are saved to serve.

So I am through looking at I Timothy.
 

So you have a seed:  The Word of God.  If planted by a source of water and in good soil, it will sprout.  And grow.  The Psalms says that we will be like a tree bearing fruit in our time.

Christ expands on this subject in John 15: 5  "I am the vine, you are the branches.  He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit:  for without me you can do nothing."  That's why you don't have to grunt and groan.  He does it all.  You're only responsibility is to abide in him.

Here Christ is talking not about a tree, but a vine.  In this case we are the branches.  Once again--fruit just happens.  Effortlessly.

Now when you have fruit, (love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance), it grows and ripens and drops to the ground.  And it is full of seeds:  God's Word, our testimony, the evidence of Christ in our lives.  And  an amazing thing happens.  New plants appear and grow and produce fruit.  And when it is working like God extended, the growth factor is exponential.  You get a church.

Dawson Trotman wrote a pamphlet called, "Born to Reproduce".  He contends that just exactly like we are physically born to reproduce, in the same way we are born spiritually to reproduce.

When I started this blog, I was in the book of Genesis and reminded you of the first words that God spoke to man:  "Be fruitful and multiply,...".  Now you get the full meaning of that command.  

Along that line, that is of being planted, a tree has a number of components that must work together to enable fruit to occur.  First, of course, there must be a seed.  Then you must have proper soil.  Then you must have water.  You must have light.  After that, we can make many analogies.

Remember in Matthew 13: 3, when the sower went forth scattering seed. 1.  Some fell by the wayside and the birds ate the seed.  2.  Some fell on stones and the plants sprang up.  But there was no depth of earth to help the plant endure, and when the sun came up they scorched.  3.  Some fell among thorns and were choked out.  4.  Some fell on good ground, took root and brought forth not only sustained growth, but fruit.  Lots of it.

In only one case was there no growth.  That was when the birds ate the seed.  God's word goes out with the good news (the seed) and it is sometimes destroyed before it gets to its intended purpose.  Vultures, blasphemers, liars,  lie in wait to distort  and ridicule it.  They eat it up.

In the other three cases, growth occurred.  In the first case, without the proper soil, some plants died.  We need to surround the new Christian with support, attention, encouragement, the Word of God and love so that they don't get scorched.

In the second case, some fell among thorns and were choked out.  New Christians sometimes fall among the wrong crowd and their new joy gets choked out.  They go back to their old way of living.  Evil lurks out there waiting to destroy them.

But finally, in the third case, the soil and the water were there, and fruit occurred.

I will get back to the rest of Timothy.  But I'm chasing a rabbit right now.

As long as we are talking about faith, and faith that produces fruit, let's look at another verse.

Gal. 5: 22-23a  "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,…"

Nine qualities that occur when you have the Spirit of God within.  You may not be a giant in all nine areas, but other people should be able to identify all of these qualities at work somewhere in your life.

My weakest area is long-suffering (patience).  I excel in the 'joy' category.  I am sure that you are pretty much the same.  Strong and weak.  But planted.  Fruit trees are planted!!

Psalms 1:1a, 3a "Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly…, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; …"

If you are planted, walking with those who are living godly lives, you will be like a fruit tree.

What kind of tree are you?  Apple, orange, pear, banana, or peach.  Whatever.  But the distinguishing characteristic necessary for Christian growth is being planted by rivers of water.   Christ says he is the living water.  In him we have the necessary ingredient for growth.  Water.  And producing fruit is an automatic result.

One thing is sure.  Fruit trees don't grunt and groan to produce fruit.  If planted in the right place with plenty of water, they will produce fruit naturally.  That's what people of faith, people filled with God's spirit do.  We don't grunt and groan to produce those nine "Fruits of the Spirit".   They are a natural product.  And on that subject, I have another scripture tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

  

Sorry.  The first half of the week I had the flu.  The last half of the week I had complications from an old surgery (arm) and ended up in the hospital three days.  The only bearable part was wall to wall windows that overlooked a virtual forest of trees that cascaded down a hillside.  And in the distance was a huge (HUGE) white cross that reached for the clouds.  On Easter the fog obscured everything but the cross.  It was beautiful.  So I didn't miss Easter.

My last blog was on fighting the good fight of faith.  Which reminds me of the scripture that discusses the "substance" of faith.  Heb. 11: 1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  One person I heard speak on this verse said that the word ' substance' would better be interpreted as 'title deed'.  Substance being something you can hold, that you can touch.  Something that in our physical world would be called evidence.

I always am amazed that the world looks at our faith as being unsubstantiated.  But the most substantial evidence of the reality of Christ is the evidence that we see in people of faith.  They live differently.  They are a peaceful people.  They are distinguishable from people who have no faith.  If you have been a member of a church for many years, you know what I am talking about.  Some of the people are truly people of faith.  Some aren't--they just go to church.

The Bible says "…by their fruit you shall know them…", and there is fruit, or there isn't.  People are bitter or they are sweet.  They are happy or they are miserable…etc.

Fruit inspectors know a piece of fruit when they see one.  It is not a judgment call.  Faith has substance.  There is evidence for it.