Bible Journaling: 2 John

In this book of Second John, we find a very short letter written to a friend. The author is concerned about a church whom he loves and he sends them this letter as an encouragement and warning to keep walking in the truth of the Gospel. Have you ever encouraged a fellow believer in the faith? How do you understand the role that we play in other believers’ salvation?

For a broader view of this book of the Bible, we encourage you to watch this video:

Bible journaling tip: 

In some cases, our Bibles are over-edited. This does not mean that the literal words of authors were changed, but rather that so many other elements were added that their messages were disguised or confused. When we look at a page in our Bibles we see a lot of subtitles, chapter marker letters, verse marker letters, and even footnotes or in-text references. In our modern minds, we can assume this to mean that each chapter is like a different story happening on a different day - or even worse, we assume that each verse can stand alone. But, in the original text there were no headings or chapter breaks. See if you note a difference when you rewrite a page from your Bible as if it is one piece - with no numbers or headings inbetween.

LOOK UP (information): encounter God through the Scripture 

Author:

“The elder” who introduces himself in the first lines of this book is none other than the Apostle John - that is the same person as the beloved disciple of Jesus! He was the son of Zebedee and the younger brother of James. Jesus called John to be his disciple when he called Peter and Andrew to drop their fishing nets and follow him. See if you can remember any other places where John is mentioned in the Gospels? What do we know about him?

Audience:

It is interesting that this book was addressed to a woman and her children. Can you think of any other book in the Bible that was addressed to a woman? What does that tell us about the ancient world? Do you think God cares about all genders equally? 

History:

This book was likely written before the year 100. John was an evangelist who planted churches in many places and who made sharing the Good News of Jesus his ambition and goal in life. In that time, Christianity faced a lot of heavy persecution - and seeing it as a ‘religion’ was a fairly new concept which meant that a lot of people had twisted it around for their own benefit. In these letters we see a lot of glimpses into the different ways that people can misunderstand the truth of Jesus and be false teachers. Can you think of some of these ways that are identified throughout the New Testament?

Genre:

This letter is unique in that it is so very short. See if you can use the same form and word choices to write a similar letter to your own church or a fellow believer. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit if there is anybody who needs encouragement in the faith today. 

You can use the same style and write something like this: To the chosen child of God, who I really care for - and not only me but everyone who is in our faith family - because of the eternal truth of Jesus that lives in us. Grace, mercy, and peace be with us . . .

LOOK IN (revelation): contemplate/reflect on our own lives

Key verse:

2 John 5-6 NIV

And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. 

Inspiration:

How does this kind of love differ from what the world sees as love? What are the commands that they speak about? Can you find any other Scriptures defining love? 

How can you practically show the love of God to somebody this week? Make sure your goal is SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

LOOK OUT (transformation): respond with creative worship action  

Drawing prompt:

Read verse 9 again and then read John 15 about ‘Abiding in the vine’. See how many aspects of both Scriptures you can include into your picture. For example, if the verses say that we need to stay in the vine, you can draw a little home carved into the wood. Where else have you read about knowing people by their fruit? Do you remember what Jesus or Paul said about this? 

Bible Journey with HolyJot:

Here are some questions / prompts provided by the HolyJot community. 

• What blessings did John seek for them (v3)?
• How is love described in v6, and where else have we learned this?

Follow this link to dive into this book with an online Bible Study group.

Writing prompt:

The book of 2 John focuses on commands and watching ourselves so that we do not become impure - it is almost as if this book has a more Type A-personality bend. This can read as an instruction manual for some of us, and all the rules can make us feel like we are suffocating. Try to write down a list of all the ways that this book warns us to watch ourselves - and then infuse life into those rules. Under each rule of the list, write down something that you can do that will help you to enjoy following the command.

According to the Greek word for a rule we can understand that it should act like a trellis: it should just strengthen us and make place for more growth. Similarly, I’ve heard it said that we need to ‘let our pile of good things grow and it will take up the space of the bad’. 

For example: 

Command #1  
- “let truth remain in you” (v. 2)

Response  
- Instead of making your rule “I will not let anything ungodly into my life, NO Netflix, NO sports, NO music”, you can think of things that you can do that will infuse more of God’s truth into your life, like “I will watch more Bible shows (like The Chosen….), go on prayer walks, and discover some new Gospel music too”. Now, the time that you would have spent doing what you loved is not eliminated, it is illuminated (meaning light is shone on it). 

Prayer:

God, I want to thank you for the book of 2 John. Teach me how to walk in love, and carry your name like a banner over my life. I want people to see You when they look at my life. Help me to enjoy the journey. Let my response to this text be worship unto you!