2 John 1:1-3 (NKJV) — 1 The Elder, To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth, 2 because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: 3 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 love.

In verse 3, John didn’t say he hopes “grace, mercy, and peace” for us but that they “will be with” us! Using this passage as a background, Pastor Weston said, “the Christian walk is paved with the partnership of truth and love.” In this letter John is showing us the inseparable bond between truth and love. As Pastor Weston said on Sunday, “Truth and Love are necessarily dependent on one another, you can’t have one without the other.” 

What are grace, mercy, and peace and how are they vital to our understanding of truth and love?

How does the truth of Christ in you enable you to share the love of Christ with others?

2 John 1:7-9 (NKJV) — 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. 9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. 

John wants us to be secure in the truth of Jesus Christ in the midst of ever-present deception. Pastor Weston said, “Christianity is in the truth business!” To identify deception you must first know the truth. In past weeks we talked about the three voices of deception: the voice of our flesh, the voice of the world, and the voice of the devil. This week Pastor Weston told us how we can tell whether a voice is of deception or of truth by two criteria: is the messenger in alignment with Christ and is the message in alignment with Christ?

What is truth and how can you distinguish truth from deception?

How do we determine what doctrine is of God and what does it look like to abide in that doctrine?