March 31: 1 John 2–Jude

By Darrell Pursiful

When someone who tends to see the world in black and white stakes out the middle ground, I take notice. The author of the Johannine letters was such a person. His letters are filled with light and darkness, truth and falsehood. When 2 and 3 John are set side by side, they create a tension that should not be easily resolved. The message of 2 John is to have nothing to do with heretical teachers. The message of 3 John is to have nothing to do with those who, in their zeal to avoid heresy, reject authentic teachers with the highest credentials.

The congregations of the primitive church were linked together by an ad hoc network of traveling prophets and teachers, pastoral correspondence, and the occasional apostolic visit. It was a situation prone to abuse. Heresy could creep in, so in 2 John the Elder warned “the elect lady” to be careful whom the church accepts. On the other hand, isolation could breed parochialism, so in 3 John he warned Gaius to be careful whom the church rejects.

A church leader named Diotrephes was turning away the Elder’s hand-picked messengers. Perhaps he did so in the name of “doctrinal purity,” but the Elder knew that for Diotrephes heresy was just a handy pretext. His real motivation was that he loved “to be first.” His appropriate authority to guard the church from harm had gone to his head.