Turn on the stove and turn off the phone . . .

 

READ 2 and 3 John

My mother was gifted in hospitality. Farm life often meant people dropping in at lunch time and she gladly fed them. She’s could cook a frozen roast on the top of the stove and it was always tender and tasty.

While today’s reading warns against false teaching, it also focuses on Christian hospitality. The original readers didn’t need to be told to practice it, but they did need to be warned about false teachers who used kindness to worm their way into their unsuspecting hearts, oblivious to the danger of deception. Mom was alert to people who seemed to be in need, but not their motivation for expressing it.

Even today, Christian congregations can be naïve about sneaky people attempting to sway their beliefs. In a previous church, a new couple gave generously and the wife invited other women to her home. When it was my turn, I listened without talking and eventually discovered their goal was to split the church. I told the pastor and don’t know what he did, but they never came back. Another former church warned its members that cult people were attending and looking for unsuspecting people they could indoctrinate. We needed to be aware of such destructive intentions.

In both these letters, readers are told to hold fast to truth, love and obedience, but realize that only agreement on sound doctrine yields meaningful fellowship. John wrote

I rejoiced 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 and the antichrist. (2 John 4–7)

While some might be tempted to invite these people into their homes with a desire to change their minds, John was not advising his readers to do that:

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, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. (9–11)

Third John applauds one Christian for living out the teachings of the apostles because he welcomed traveling missionaries into his home, but he condemned another church leader for refusing to help these godly teachers. Not only that, this contrary leader also slandered and opposed those who disagreed with him. While false teachers can bring division, so can pride. How many churches have divided because certain factions have decided they are right and everyone else is wrong!

We need to be loving, but not without discernment. Love in this context is showing hospitality:

Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. (3 John 5–8)

God’s love also disciplines. Liken it to raising children. A girl in grade nine told me: “I envy you because your parents love you enough to tell you when you do wrong.” In John’s case, he had good reason to discipline a self-centered man who was not loving others:

I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. (9–10)

John prayed too: “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (2–4)

I chuckled at the end of this letter. Today, it might read like this: “I had much to write to you, but I would rather not send a text or an email. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.” (13–14) In other words, love and hospitality are seldom conveyed well through technology. Instead, it is better to be with people to share God’s love — and put away my phone!