All Episodes
Displaying 81 - 100 of 108 in total
Episode 80: The reason for writing
John is approaching the end of the letter we know as 1 John. Though the letter contains theology, it is not a theological treatise; it was written to give pastoral rea...
Episode 84: Safe from harm
The final verses of 1 John read a bit like an executive summary of what came before. But it’s not just for the purpose of conveying information more efficiently. The p...
Episode 82: Praying about sin
We may be used to sharing prayer requests with each other—but only rarely are those prayer requests about our struggle with sin. John seems to think that we should ind...
Episode 83: But what about Paul?
In a well-known phrase from Romans 6:23, the apostle Paul writes that “the wages of sin is death.” But as we’ve seen, John writes that “there is a sin that does not le...
Episode 85: Knowing the truth
As we’ve seen, the theological core of the conflict between the secessionists and the rest of John’s community was the truth about the identity of Jesus. As he begins ...
Episode 86: Drop the mic
Here is 1 John 5:21, the last sentence of the letter: “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” On a casual reading, it seems to come out of nowhere, as if John had...
Episode 87: Don’t give them a platform…
As we begin our study of 2 John, I want to take one episode to sketch the background to the letter. As we’ve seen, 1 John was written to the people who remained in his...
Episode 88: To the Chosen Lady, with love
Second John is a much shorter letter than 1 John, but the connections between the two letters are easy to see, even on a quick reading. Unlike 1 John, however, 2 John ...
Episode 89: True love versus loving in truth
“True love” is one of our favorite cultural tropes; it’s shorthand for our romantic hopes. But when John addresses the “chosen lady” at the beginning of 2 John, and do...
Episode 90: Encouraging obedience
John’s community had gone through much pain and confusion, and he wanted to spare other communities the same heartache. That’s the purpose of 2 John, and some of what ...
Episode 91: Walking in truth, walking in love
What does it mean to be a "Christian"? Is it about believing the right things? As we’ve seen already, it’s important to know and believe the truth about Jesus. But aut...
Episode 92: Watch yourselves!
When someone shouts “Watch out!” we’re immediately on the alert. Some danger is near, and we need to take immediate action. With the secessionists on the loose spreadi...
Episode 93: Going too far
Innovation is important. Many of the technologies we take for granted and use constantly are the result of someone thinking outside the box. But not every innovation i...
Episode 94: A hard line
In this episode, we come to one of the harshest statements in the letter, in which John advises his readers to not even let the secessionists into their homes. By this...
Episode 95: Strengthening the core
In the previous episode, I introduced the distinction between bounded and centered sets as they might apply to congregations. The ideas complement each other. Though t...
Episode 96: Face to face
There’s only so much that can be said in as short a letter as 2 John; at the end of the letter, the apostle expresses the desire to meet and talk with his readers in p...
Episode 97: Reading someone else’s mail?
Unlike 2 John, 3 John is addressed directly to an individual, a dear friend of John’s named Gaius. It’s the shortest book of the Bible, but also one of the most person...
Episode 98: Who was Gaius?
Second John was addressed, a bit mysterious, “to the lady chosen by God and to her children.” Third John, by contrast, is addressed concretely to a man named Gaius who...
Episode 99: This is NOT the prosperity gospel
Third John follows the ancient customs of letter writing more closely than 2 John, and much more closely than 1 John. Such customs included not only naming the recipie...
Episode 100: The virtue of hospitality
These days, hospitality is a profit-making industry, in which we pay good money for the right hotel or dining “experience.” But in John’s day, hospitality was a much n...