It was not my plan to give a message on 2 John, but Daryl brought up the possibility last Sunday as he did the third of the three exegetical messages on the book of 2 John. Our pastoral students, three of them have taken a message each, which left two verses at the end, the conclusion of the letter. And I was asked if I would grade the messages as well so after the service they can pick up their I do not feel like I am a homiletics teacher, but I do have some understanding of the major kinds of messages and what needs to be in them to put them together. It is very interesting what a difference you see when you're grading these than when you're listening to them. You know, I may have told you about this. There was a young preacher. He was preaching for the first time. And he said, you know, a teacher that teaches preaching is called a homiletics teacher. And after he preached, his wife said, well, it must have been a really good message. Did you see that guy crying in the front seat? And he said, yeah, that was my homiletics teacher. I don't feel myself qualified to to greater responsibility, larger than you can get anywhere else. It is an incredible responsibility to preach the Word of God and to communicate. And may God bless these men May he use them for his glory and the things that they have learned. Well, after Daryl's suggestion, I thought, well, I'll be spending a lot of time grading these messages, and I've listened to them. I've never really studied 1 John that much myself. I think I'll take on this challenge to do the message for the closing. So here's what I plan to do in this message. I want to give an overview of the book. Then I want to make some observations that I made as I listened to their messages and went over their notes. No, I'm not grading them here. That's in the packets here. Then I want to give the conclusion of this letter in verses 12 through 13. And in our classes we spent a lot of time doing the grammatical work required to do exegetical preaching. I take exception with many expository preaching teachers as to what expository preaching is. I believe expository preaching is based on grammatical studies. And in exegetical preaching, which I would call expository preaching, you set out the biblical words you will be preaching on in grammatical form, in which you have to give account for the function of every word. Conjunctions or prepositions, doesn't matter. Then from that you determine the major sections of your chosen material or book. Then you subject everything to those major points by showing how those sections modify the main points. From that, you then develop an outline. Once that is done, then you come to word studies and commentary studies, historical studies, and so on. So in the first point this morning, I want to give you an overview of what we found. So we'll go to the overview. Look at verses 1 through 3. You can easily see that this is an introduction to the letter. the elder to the elect lady and her children whom I love in the truth and not only I but also all those who have known the truth because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever grace mercy and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Father in truth and in love and you can easily tell that is an introduction to the letter It is the nice stuff that introduces a letter, and Trent did a good job of covering the words elder, and lady, and children, and then grace, and mercy, and so on. And my conclusion on these were as his were. So as we outlined the book in class, verses 4 through 11 form the body of the letter. We won't read it now, we'll be going over that. So the outline of the book thus far is first in verses 1 through 3 we have the introduction. The second part is the main part of the letter and that is verses 4 through 11. The third part and the last part is verses 12 through 13. Let me read that you'll easily see this is the conclusion. the letter having many things to write to you I did not wish to do so with paper and ink but I hope to come to you and speak face to face that our joy may be full the children of your elect sister greet you amen Those then are the main points, or the main parts, but the body of the letter, being the main part, has two larger sections. Joe took the first part of that, which is verses 4 through 6, and Daryl took the second part, which is verses 7 through 11. And as I see the subject content, verses 4 through 6 deal with John's main concern. and give his instruction to whomever he is writing. I see this instruction the great concern John had that couldn't wait and I think this morning you'll understand his concern. Verses 7 through 11 give us the issue that was threatened or that was threatening the continued love in that church. As I see the letter John has written because of an urgent concern. He had planned to visit the recipients of the letter, whoever they were, but what concerned him could not wait until he came. I suspect someone from where John was, was going there, or going to those people he was writing to, or he sent someone, and he gets this letter on the way with this urgent concern. so to soften the blow of his concern he starts with the positive it is like saying now son you did a very good job of that but now comes the but so look at verse four I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth as we receive commandment from the father and I'll look at the next words and now I plead with you some of you are doing well but But, so having first built them up enough so they can handle what he is concerned about, we find in verses four through six what he has. So look at verses four through six now. I rejoice greatly that I found some of your children walking in truth as we received commandment from the Father. And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. Note especially verse 5, Now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And here is, as I see it, the central reason why John wrote this letter. The love among the members of this church was being threatened. You see, things can happen in a congregation that threaten the love between members. Am I right? We've seen some of that, and that is the case here. Since the man did a good job of covering the word love, we'll leave that. So there was something that threatened the love in the church, and we find that in verses 7 through 11. Daryl noted for us the connection between verses 7 through 11 by the little preposition for. If this word for was not here, this book would be much more difficult to interpret. So verse 7 begins with the word for. and in my outline I call this second section verses 7 through 11 the reason for this instruction in the verses before he gave instruction love one another now he gives the reason why they should love one another and here John warns them about being deceived and about receiving deceivers into their homes and Daryl gave fair warning here about the present danger of dialogue This is a word to remember in our time. Dialogue between Catholics and evangelicals or evangelicals and Mormons. Dialogue, the danger of the devil. As we noted in verses 12 through 13, he then gave the conclusion to the letter like this, having many things to write to you. I did not wish to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to face that our joy may be full. The children of your elect sister greet you. Amen. So what we have is an introduction to the letter, the main body made up of two parts, and the conclusion. Now let me make a few observations from what has already been covered in the previous three messages. In the introductory verses, Trent mentioned the lady of verse one. I have often wondered why the church is called the church. It'd really be nice to give an assignment here. Why is the church called the church? It's never found in the Bible. You see the word church comes from the word kuriakos. That word is never used for the church in the New Testament. The word kuriakos is an adjective which comes from the word Lord. the word Lord is kurios for example when we say Jesus is Lord the word Lord is kurios and the adjective kuriakos is used twice in the New Testament and neither refers to the church now the one to whom this letter is addressed is called kuria that is feminine for kurios the church is feminine is it possible that Christians got the idea of the word church from this word. It's worth thinking through. I don't know, but I don't know of anything that comes closer to explaining why the church is called the church. If we took the more biblical description, the church is called the ecclesia in the Greek New Testament, which means, anybody know? Talked about it before. The called out ones. The called out ones are the elect. Good for you. The elect. The most biblical name for that which we call the church in my understanding would be the elect. Can you imagine what our present day of tolerance would say to that? We are the elect. We know it as well that the word truth is found five times in verses, first four verses. John rejoiced that he found some, and I believe as Trent concluded from his studies, that John is speaking to a church, and he found some walking in truth. Think about that. He rejoices that some are walking in the truth. How many professing believers in churches do not walk in truth? John rejoiced to find some walking in the truth. This is worth noting. The danger of this church was deceivers and deceivers cause people to walk in untruth. Let me make another observation in verse 3. John says grace, mercy and peace will be with you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in truth and love. Trent mentioned that having grace, mercy and peace abiding in us is conditional. It is conditioned on walking in truth and in love. That's a very important point. Now look at verses 5 through 6. And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. These two verses, as I see the book, give the reason why John could not wait with sharing the concern he had for whomever he was writing to until he was there. The whole reason is in these words, that we should love one another. It was pointed out in earlier messages that what we take as love today generally is not what this word agape love, which our text uses, is all about. So note carefully how carefully John defines what he means by agape love. What does he mean? What does he mean? What is love? Verse six, look at it. This is love that we walk according to his commandments. Is that a little different than what we understand it normally? What is love? Biblical love? Walking in the Lord's commandments. Not commandment, commandments. Listen, this includes such things as reproving one another. We don't do that, do we? When that is in order, of course. It includes such things as excommunication. That's in the commandments. when that is in order. Those are the commandments of the Lord. You see, when a professing Christian lives in sin, that sin is to be dealt with. And what does that do? It wants to tear the love relationship between believers. But when we obey the scriptures, we preserve the main group by doing that. Now, let's note what it was that threatened the love relationships within the church. Note it now, beginning in verse 7. It says, 4. Many deceivers have gone out into the world. See, the word 4, there is the critical word. He will give them the reason, and the reason is that there are deceivers that have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. The danger that threatened the love relationship between the believers in this church was false teaching regarding the person of Christ. From what I have said, the danger of the first three centuries of the church was Gnosticism. or from what I have read, I should say. It was a teaching as nasty as the New Age movement. Contemplative prayer in the modern church has some of the flavor of Gnosticism. The emergent church has the flavors within it. Well, what affects the love between Christians in a church has always had a vast array of things that threaten it. Anything false is a threat to the love between Christians in a church. The central thought of this little letter has direct application to us. Let me refer to our own experience just a short time ago. Multiple lies were told. Lying is no minor problem to be overlooked or to be forborn. It is in the major sin list. It is contrary to major commandments. How can you walk in love in a group when lies are present? How can you? If one does, one becomes a hypocrite. Secondly, there was strife in our own situation. You know, James 4.16 says, For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. Both were present in our group. Now the word translated self-seeking is the word erathia. The online Bible says it has the idea, listen, of electioneering or intriguing for office. Then it says, apparently in the New Testament, according distinction, according, in the New Testament, according distinction, a desire to put oneself forward, a partisan and fractious spirit which does not disdain low arts. That is, they'll do anything to get this thing done. Low arts were certainly there. The idea is when people in a group go to others within the group and form a division against the whole. Does this sound familiar? It is referred to in the online Bible as a means of politicking. Now you cannot walk in true love when that is present, can you? Those are enemies of church, love in the church. Then there were absolute clear violations of agreements made in written form. Can you walk in love in a group when that is there? If you do, that must needs involve hypocrisy. You see, the writer of this little book is so concerned about this, that he sent the letter as early as possible. It couldn't wait until he came. He saw this danger for the church. Now we get some idea of his grave concern. Now four times the word love occurs in this letter. Those were in Trent and Joe's sections and they did a good job of covering the word love. They mentioned that the word agape does not mean what we normally take it to mean. And as I look more and more and see what's happening in the churches abroad, this unconditional love has led us straight so very far. Certainly all thought of sensual love as is so common in modern courses and expressions is a thought that is very far away from this word in the Bible. But consider this well. Listen now. A church cannot walk together in love, true love, if their fellowship is not based in truth. Are there any amens? A church cannot walk together in love, biblical love, if their fellowship is not based on truth. A church can walk in unity without truth, but they cannot walk in true love unless it is based on truth. This little letter is loaded with this thought, truth and love. In our own situation we ended up leaving a property and the buildings paid for, paid for to a large percentage by people who are here. This unity was created by offended people who had not stood for truth as they ought to have and were reproved. This unity was created by lies. I have in my lifetime not seen more blatant sin in a church. Now let me ask you, can you see this letter this little letter talks about this this is the issue at heart let me ask you can you walk in love in a church when you have lies and offenses because of reproof on that which was needed to be reproved and violations in written agreements can you walk in love it is not possible it must be hypocrisy if you do If one puts on an act of walking in love, love meaning get alongism, as someone in our congregation has mentioned it is, when in a situation like that, that is not love, that is hypocrisy. Oh, how this little book speaks to such situations and how many, many churches. If you would go outside and ask, you will find this happening in churches all over our land. Let me just mention one other matter while we are at it here. That thought, a thought that has a lot of truth to it, but when it is abused, creates huge hypocrisy in a church. It is this saying, it is worth noting, jotting in your mind, unity in diversity. I want to see how many have heard of this. Okay, I have a few. Unity in diversity. Now I won't expand much. Let me say this, so that when you come across this, you will already be warned to watch that teaching with utmost care. By the way, it has brought all kinds of error into the church. Under this thing, unity in diversity. There is a unity to be maintained in the midst of diversity that is good and right. But there is a unity in diversity that is dangerous and even deadly, and one must not get involved with it. And Daryl mentioned the danger of dialogue with those of a diverse view such as evangelicals and Catholics and Mormons, et cetera. So the main focus of this little book is that the love between the members of whom John was writing to is under threat. The threat in this case was false teaching regarding the person of Christ. And when you maintain unity to avoid trouble at the expense of truth, I wanna read again. When you maintain unity to avoid trouble at the expense of truth, hypocrisy will rule the camp. Mark it down. It will always happen. We come then to the conclusion of this little letter in verses 12 through 13. Look at it once more. Having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to face that our joy may be full. The children of your elect sister greet you. Amen. In this conclusion, he indicates first of all that he has a desire, and secondly, he sends greetings to the elect lady from her elect sister. So we begin with John's desire, note in verse 12, let's read verse 12 again, having many things to write to you I did not wish to do so with paper and ink but I hope to come to you and speak face to face that our joy may be full. Let me sum it up like this. He had many things he wanted to communicate to them, but he did not wish to do so by pen and ink, but he wanted to do this face to face. This tells me that his instruction to them to love one another and to not let sin enter to destroy the possibility of love to continue was a very large concern to him. It could not wait. But there were things that could wait, and these he left so that he could communicate that in person when he got there. So note now the context in which he expresses his desire. He says, having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink. Like a typical preacher, he never runs out of things he wanted to communicate. You know, this John had a lot of stories to tell. History says he was dipped in hot oil for torture. John was Jesus' favorite apostle. You know, Jesus had an inner circle of three friends, close friends. The closest was John. At the end of John, they got the idea that Jesus said, this guy's never going to die. You can read about that. But he was a favorite disciple of Jesus. And by the time John wrote this book, he is an aged man, and no doubt what he has to say would not soon run out. And seeing the dangers the recipients of the letter are in, he has great concerns for them, as well as wanting to communicate important spiritual truths to them. And so these words form the context in which he expresses his desires, having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so, with paper and ink. We looked then at the content of his desire, and first negatively. He said, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink. He wanted to communicate with them, but he did not want to do so with paper and ink. Have you ever thought of how incredible communication with paper and ink is? We could preach a message on this. It's incredible, absolutely incredible. Think of John. I don't know where he was when he wrote the letter, but wherever he was, he was not within range of being able to communicate his concern with these people. He was concerned about other than by writing. Now you see, he did not really have paper. Does anybody know where we get the word paper? Papyrus. What is papyrus? Papyrus was a plant found in the Nile Delta. Thin strips from the center pith of the papyrus stalk were cut and laid side by side with another series of strips laid perpendicular to the lower strips. They were glued together. Usually the sheets were, you know, this is several thousand years ago. You know what size their pages were? Usually six by nine, six by nine or 12 by 15. And we're right in between with ours. These sheets were pasted together into rolls of 20 sheets. Papyrus was used long before the time of Christ and was used up until the third century after Christ. A roll was called a biblos. You can guess which word we get from that, right? What word? Bible. You see, this role was a byblos, which came to mean a book, which came to mean the Bible, which is THE book of books. Papyrus was not nearly as durable as leather, called parchment, but I would suppose less work to make and cheaper. Also the writing on them was not nearly as good as the writing on leather. Many of the old manuscripts of the New Testament are papyrus manuscripts or pieces of such. And they were not as let me just mention something sometimes you have notes in your Bible They may have a P with a number after it or so on in some that talks about a papyrus number so-and-so All the papyri are numbered. And if you get a Greek critical New Testament text, the pages are full of the P so and so, et cetera, et cetera. Parchment, then the leather, vellum, and so on. All these were things that were written on, scripture was written on. Now, John said he didn't wish to write with paper and ink, but what of a pen? Or what did he write with? Well, look at Sir John. Third John. Verse 13. I had many things to write, but I did not wish to write to you with pen and ink. Now we have the word pen. They had two kinds of instruments, a reed pen and a quill pen. The quill pen was made of a feather, and I wanna see how many have seen a picture of a quill pen, a feather. It's a very common thing even in our day. The reed pen was made of a reed or stalk with a brush attached to the end. I don't have to ask you how many of you have seen those. Not very many have. It's not so popular. The word for it is calamus. And from that we know that he wrote with a reed pen. That's the word used in the text. The brush was dipped in ink. Now I want to see how many of you have seen these old school desks that have a little hole in the front of the top? How many have seen those? Somebody tell me what is the little hole for? Oh, ink hole. What did they put in there? Anybody here seen what they put in there? They had a little bottle. It had a rim on top. And you would stick it in this hole, and that rim would keep it from falling through. And you'd open the lid, and you'd dip in there, and you'd write, and you'd dip, and you'd write. Now, you may not believe this, but when I started school, that is what we used. You too. All right. I feel better already. And when you get too much, you know, if you dip in here and all of a sudden you drip a drip here or you're already on your paper and you get too much on, can you tell me what did they do with that? Did you have something for that? You know, blotter paper. In our school, the teacher had blotter papers on her desk. You had to ask for a blotter paper. It was kind of a felt thing. And you would just dip it or touch it with this blotter and it would just draw up all this extra ink. Well, John says, I did not wish to write with paper and ink. All of this is a forerunner to what we do today on computers and cell phones. Nothing has changed except the manner. That's all. You can go back as far as you want. Nothing has changed except what we write with or what we write on. I wonder what John would have said if he had had a vision and seen one of these cell phone things. And you press the button, it says send. Oh, it's gone. But you see, all of that has changed. A lot of that hasn't changed in Earth's history, but the methods have changed. John probably would have wished if he could type something in with this urgent concern and press send and it's gone. He had to send somebody else to run over there. But note how he expresses his wish positively. Having many things to write you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to face. Now it is simply amazing how different it can be to speak face to face when communicating than when it is by letter or by text or so on. There are times when a letter is better. In a letter, especially if you keep a copy, it cannot be argued what was said. There are times when that is best. There are times in hindsight when I should have recorded what was said in my office. It could have spared my ministry. In our last church problem, a man expressed himself in such dishonorable ways to me, he should have been excommunicated. Instead, things were made so miserable that I left, and what did that church do? Put him in as pastor. It is hard to believe this could happen. Here's a word to those who will be in ministry. Never take for granted that you will be believed. Never counsel a lady alone. A few untrue words can ruin you even when there is no truth to them. Never sit with an angry man and talk without someone to verify what was said. I didn't know about this. His talk can ruin you, though whatever he says may be a lie. Furthermore, there are times when communicating face-to-face is better. When you need to repent to someone, you know, the best thing is not to send a text. Go there if you can. When you can't do it otherwise, text is okay. But let me make another note about writing. Consider this for a moment. In a message soon, I want to talk about this some more. God could not do what John wished to do here. God cannot speak to us face to face. Do you know why? There is a reason. We'll talk about that in another message. But for God to save man, he needed to communicate some divine truths that man would have to have in order to be saved. We have to have some truths to be saved. He could not do it face to face. Have you ever considered what he did use and what he might have used? Harold Wilmington, a teacher my wife and I took many correspondence courses from, suggested that God could have used, He could have used angels. Why doesn't He do that? Or visions. Or dreams. Why not speak to people in dreams, individually? Think about that. What if God spoke to each person by angels or visions or dreams? or he might have used the Urim and Thummim of the Old Testament, or say, the moral law written on the heart, along with all other instructions, or the conscience, or an audible voice, you hear a voice whenever, or prophets, could still be sending prophets. Why did he use what he used? Ever thought about that? He chose a method, the method we still use in one form or another, and has been used right from the very beginning. A method that will never change. He chose a method of signs, letters, put together to form words, put together to form sentences, put together to form paragraphs, put together to form chapters, put together to form books, put together to form a Bible. You have to ponder this. It is most incredible. God communicated to us in the most reliable manner possible. What if you said, well, you know, the angel told me. Oh, the angel told me. Oh, my Urim and Thummim said this. Oh, my Urim and Thummim. He chose this method. And do you know what this method ensured? It ensured the precision of what God communicated. It is so incredible. You can't argue. It's precise. Then it provided the most reliable way of accurate propagation of God's word. Doesn't matter how you do it. You can write it on a paper. You can send it on email. You can do anything you want. You can send the words. They're still the words. And then it provided the most reliable way of preserving God's message. Now consider what we have today, because God communicated on pink paper by having holy men of God put on some writing material His words with pen and ink. So having looked at the context and the content of John's desire, consider the purpose. John says, having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to face that our joy may be full. Now consider this. By way of communicating verbally, one person can cause joy in another person. And then there is mutual joy. Have you ever thought about that? Now joy multiplies. It's incredible. and God has given us speech. And to those who will be preachers, you will never get over the wonder of the word if you are careful with the word. I can't tell you how many times I have thought, I wonder why God said it like this. It doesn't make sense. And later I said, I'm so glad he didn't say the way I thought it would make sense. Listen, preachers, you can communicate thousands of messages, and when you have done that, you will have multiplied thousands more. You never lose some by giving some. You gain, you always gain by giving. You do your work carefully. That's what I encouraged our pastoral students. For instance, Jewel spent a lot of time studying Gnosticism. If he will continue to preach the word, he won't have to study that much on Gnosticism anymore, although he will add to it. Now he will add to Gnosticism this, and this, and this, and you know what happens? It multiplies. It multiplies. I have been encouraged by each of these young men in their messages on this little book. I rejoice in one thing more than all others. I did not fear that they had not done their own thinking. You can't know what that means to me. I have taught a few. When I got their assignments, I got very uneasy feelings that they were copying somebody, at least in parts of their message, and not giving credit to it. It is extremely hard to catch one who plagiarizes. But let me say this, plagiarism is a huge sin for a preacher. Young men, note that down. Do not pass off as your own that which you got from another. Only when their thinking becomes your own thinking are you allowed to do that. It is a sin so huge, I don't know how God lets us get away with it. It's stealing. Stealing thoughts from one person and passing them off as your own. Well, that brings us to John's closing greetings in the letter. John closes like this. The children of your elect sister greet you. Amen. You see, he wrote to the elect lady and to her children. If referring to a church by calling her elect lady is a way of hiding the identity of the church, in case the letter gets into the wrong hands then in the same way saying the children of your Alexis to greet you is a way of hiding the church that sends her greetings as well that may give one clue as to the date of the writing of the book turn to revelation chapter 22 It is sometimes viewed that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John were written after the book of Revelation, and we have no way of knowing for certain. The Mormons use that, listen, the Mormons use that to show that Revelation 22, 18 through 19 apply only to the book of Revelation. Look at it. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to these things, God will add to them the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the book of life, and from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." Now you know what happens to Mormons. They come to this Christian family's door, They have the Book of Mormon, and they say, this is also part of the Bible, and what does the Christian do? He goes to Revelation chapter 22, and he says, well look at this, you're adding to the Bible. You're going to be condemned because you are adding to the Bible. They say, Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You got that all wrong. Listen, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John were written after the book of Revelation. God still added. If this just applies to the book of Revelation, it doesn't apply to other books, so our books are equally valid. Well, there are Christians as well that hold that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John were written after the book of Revelation. Though I would disagree with that. At any rate, I think the epistles of John were written before the book of Revelation. There were nine Roman rulers in the Flavian dynasty. The first four were bad, and the last five were good. The last bad one was Domitian, who ruled from 81 to 96. So that gets you in range of where you were, Derek Trent, 81 to 96. If John addressed a church as the elect lady and he speaks of the elect lady's sister and her children sending to her greetings, it would be an indication it is still a time under persecution, which would indicate that these books were probably written before the book of Revelation. Well, the last word of this little book is amen. Somebody know what does amen mean? What's that? The end? Agreed, so be it. Okay, agreed, so be it. In Deuteronomy 27, a number of words, a number of verses end with the word Amen. For example, verse 16 says, Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt. Young children, children, young people, are you listening? Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt, for flucht. And all the people shall say, Amen. Amen. Do you know what that means? It's like saying, that's true. I agree. So be it. That's the way it should be. Amen. And John closes his letter with this affirmation of truth. And so we've looked at the three sections of 2 John, the introduction in verses 1-3, the main body of the letter in verses 4-11, and the conclusion in verses 12-13. The main point of the letter is to seek to keep the love in the church intact. And the threat to this love is false teaching in this letter. Now that was the particular threat in that church. Everything false, sin, sin allowed in the church is a threat to the love within the church. I cannot see how love between members can continue when sin of any size enters the church and it is not dealt with. I know that there is such a thing as forbearance. Not every little matter should become a communication matter. But when sin enters to any size and it is not dealt with, what continues in that church is not love. And if there is unity, it is a sign of total infection in the church. And when sin enters and one knows it, and one practices get-alongism, hypocrisy reigns. May I say this to this church, to each member, guard your life. Sin does not live alone. No man lives to himself and no man dies to himself. And I wish I would have preached some years ago this truth on this word, this word that talks about politicking within the church. Never, listen, never when you are discontent with your leadership, never go and form a group Within the group and go against this that is a that is a sin in the major sin camp Those who practice this will not inherit the kingdom of God. That's what the Bible says very serious well May the Lord bless second John