II John and III John

When I was in (a Christian) college, someone thought it was funny to post the signs “I John,” “II John” and “III John” on the bathroom stalls. 

I remember it as blasphemous at worst and distasteful at best. Why demean the canon? If there were four toilets, would they be Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?

In the words of a teenager, “Whatever. I can’t even.”

That’s my introduction to the next series of posts on II and III John. They are very short, clearly written by John, focused in specific church issues in a specific church, very personal, and somewhat mirror each other; well, perhaps more than somewhat.

How many sermons have you heard on these books? How much do we seasoned folks know about it other than it has verses that give us an excuse to be rude to Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons who come to our house?

Let me remind you of these verses:

III John 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

III John 5  Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers,

III John 13 I had many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink; but I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face. 

II John 5 and 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.