Keeping Christ in Christmas (2 John)

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Today marks the first Sunday of Advent, the season of four Sundays prior to Christmas in which Christians reflect on the first coming of Christ into the world, and spiritually prepare ourselves for His second coming. And this being the weekend after Thanksgiving, we find that the thoughts of most of those we know have turned toward the most prominent winter holiday. Most of those whom we know have already put an evergreen tree up in their home, and many have even decked the lawn with twinkling lights and assorted decorations. Friends have begun sending greeting cards and shopping for gifts that they will give to their loved ones. Many radio stations have interrupted their normal programming in exchange for a ‘round the clock fare of seasonal music. The airwaves are filled with songs like, “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,” “Let it Snow,” “Jingle Bells,” “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” On television, we find holiday favorites like “Miracle on 34th Street,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Christmas Story” (the movie about the Red Rider BB Gun), and various adaptations of the Nutcracker. And all of this has how much to do with the miracle of God becoming flesh in the person of Jesus Christ? Precisely zero percent.

In recent years, there has been an outcry of Christians against the widespread practice of taking Christ out of Christmas. Well meaning Christians have organized boycotts against stores which train their workers to say, “Happy Holidays” or display signs that say, “Seasons’ Greetings,” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Yet in our own lives, we continue to engage in meaningless traditions that are every bit as devoid of Christ as those comparatively mundane gestures. This runs parallel to a similar trend among Christians who lobby to have the Ten Commandments displayed in classrooms and courthouses, when we do not even display them in Christian churches and homes. We are right to seek to keep Christ in Christmas, but we fail to be consistent in even our own practices. If we expect the culture to have a Christ-centered, Christ-saturated winter celebration, then we who are Christ’s followers must lead by example and keep Christ at the center of our Christmas celebrations as well. Does this mean that we should all have life-sized light up nativity scenes in our yards, give gifts of Bibles and cross-necklaces, and wear “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” pins on our lapels all season long? No, I believe that keeping Christ in Christmas is simpler than that.

In Second John, this tiny epistle to which we turn our attention today, the Apostle John gives us two specific admonitions for keeping Christ in Christmas. You see, the de-emphasizing of the Christmas miracle is not a new phenomenon. Within the first century of the Church’s history, a conflict arose within the church against those who sought to deny the miracle of the incarnation. The doctrine of the incarnation is crucial to the Christian faith, for in it we set forth our belief that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, and that He came into the world through the miracle of the virgin birth to save us from our sins. If He was not fully God and fully man, He could not atone for sin in His death on the cross. Apart from the miracle of the incarnation, there is no redemption for humanity, no hope for humanity beyond the grave, no Christianity and no Christmas. But some in the early church began to be influenced by the various philosophies of the surrounding culture and abandoned this belief that God became a man in the person of Jesus. It is these heretics whom John confronts in the letters of First and Second John, calling out their errors and strengthening the church against their false teachings.

Here in 2 John, the Apostle is writing the members of a church in a nearby area. He refers to the church as “The Chosen Lady,” and to the church’s members as “her children.” In keeping with this imagery, he concludes by passing along greetings from “the children of your chosen sister,” that is, members of the church where John is serving as “the elder,” or pastor. We know that John spent many years as the elder of a church in Ephesus. It was likely there that the conflict with these false teachers first arose, and now fearing that they will begin traveling far and wide teaching the same heresies, he writes to warn this neighboring congregation about it. In doing so, he gives two admonitions for continuing to walk in faithfulness to Christ. I believe that in our day, when it seems that the culture wants a Christmas without a Christ, and when so many of our own traditions have so little to do with the person of Jesus, that these admonitions will go far in helping us to keep Christ in Christmas. And they don’t cost a dime and are relatively stress free. Now there’s a Christmas present for us all.

I. Keeping Christ in Christmas Involves Watching Out For Subtle Deceptions (v7)

John reminds the church to which he is writing that there are many who do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Now it is interesting to me that he does not say that these have “come in,” as if to suggest that they have attacked the church from the outside. Rather, he says they have “gone out into the world.” As 1 John indicated, these false teachers were originally a part of the church, but they mixed the pure message of Christ with the impurities of worldly philosophies. After causing disruption in the church and leading astray some of the faithful, they departed from the church to spread their errors elsewhere. In 1 John 2:19, he wrote, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”

And then notice that he also says of them that they are deceivers. In teaching this false message that denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, they seek to lead people away from the truth. In so doing, they become agents of him who was the first deceiver, Satan. In the form of the serpent, Satan deceived Eve in the garden, luring her into first doubting, and then disobeying God’s word. Here, John likens them to the ultimate deceiver and even refers to them as “Antichrist.” While we typically reserve that term for the end-time world ruler who will step onto the stage before the second coming of Christ, John has already declared that the spirit of the antichrist is already at work in the world. Before his statement about their going out from us in 1 Jn 2:19, he wrote in 1 Jn 2:18, “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared.” And John went on to write just a few verses later, “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” And then in 1 Jn 4, the apostle exhorts the believers, saying, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” And the litmus test that John gives to those Christians as they faced the heresies of their day was this: “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” So, by denying that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, these deceivers have put themselves in league with Satan, and have become forerunners to the antichrist who will come to deceive the nations at the end of time.

Now, think for a moment about this false teaching that these people were spreading. John says that they were denying that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh. Today we find ourselves 20 centuries removed from the life and times of Jesus and one will not find anyone who denies that a person named Jesus of Nazareth ever lived. Much more impossible than that would it have been to find someone who denied His existence who lived within the lifetime of eyewitnesses. But it was not that they denied that Jesus lived. They denied that He was God incarnate. It appears that in John’s day there were various groups and individuals who had combined Christian doctrine with Greek paganism and invented new theories about the nature of Jesus. One of the central tenets of Greek Gnosticism and its forerunners was the belief that all matter is inherently evil. Therefore, in the minds of those who held these teachings it was unthinkable that God could take upon Himself literal human flesh. Some, who would become known as the Docetics, believed that Jesus only appeared to be human, but really wasn’t. He did not leave footprints in the sand where He walked, and if someone were to strike him, their hand would pass right through him. One of the most popular views of that day was the teaching of a man named Cerinthus. He taught that Jesus was not born of a virgin, but born in the normal biological way to Joseph and Mary. He was just a man. However, they taught that when Jesus was baptized by John, an emanation of God whom they spoke of as The Christ descended upon Him and gave Jesus divine power throughout His life. Then when Jesus’ sufferings began, the Christ departed from Jesus. Thus, there was the divine being, the Christ, who temporarily indwelled the sinful human being, Jesus, without ever commingling the two natures. This was a blatant and heretical denial of the central truth of Christianity that God became a man in the person of Jesus who was fully God and fully human.

John warns that anyone who was deceived by this error was in danger. He says in v8, “Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.” John and the other apostles and early missionaries have worked to establish worshiping communities of faithful followers of Christ, built upon the rock-solid teaching of who He is and what He has done for humanity. If they are led astray into these false teachings, all that they have worked for and accomplished will be destroyed. Those who have genuinely been saved will not lose their salvation, but will lose the fullness of the reward that they might otherwise receive for their faithful perseverance in the truth when they stand before Christ. Of course, the reality is also that many who are deceived by these false doctrines were never saved in the first place. Therefore John warns in v9 that anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ in all actuality does not have God. Right doctrine is a mark of the true believer. According to John, The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. Those who resist the false teachings and endure in their allegiance to the truth about Jesus demonstrate themselves to be true children of God and followers of Christ.

So serious an issue is this that John goes on to say in v10-11, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in evil things.” Of course, John is not saying here that we should have no contact with unbelievers, neither give them hospitality or even speak to them. Rather, the ones of which he speaks are those who claim to be coming in the name of Jesus and teaching truth about Jesus, but who in reality have abandoned Jesus in heresy. This is similar to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5. There Paul says, “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually , I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.” It is not possible to live in this world apart from unbelieving and immoral people, and in the Great Commission, Christ has called us to take the good news of salvation to them. But both John and Paul discourage us from associating with those who call themselves believers but who deny the truth and who live in open sin. By withdrawing fellowship from these, we make it clear to them and to others that we do not endorse their sin or their heresies, and we do so in hopes that they will come to repentance and return to right faith and right practice and be restored into Christian fellowship.

One of the leaders of the Church in the second century was a man named Irenaeus. He was a disciple of Polycarp, who had been a direct disciple of the apostle John who wrote these words. Irenaeus tells a story about John that illustrates this principle; a story which he claims he learned from Polycarp, who may have been an eyewitness of the event. John was going to a public bath one day in Ephesus when it was reported to him that Cerinthus, the one who had been teaching these false things about Jesus, was also there. And when John heard that Cerinthus was there, he did not say, “Well, let’s go have a cappuccino and share a conversation about our spiritual journeys.” John, the beloved apostle, exclaimed, “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.” So it seems on this matter, John practiced what he preached.

Now as we seek to apply this to our lives and particularly to this theme of keeping Christ in Christmas, there are few points I want to make. First, Christmas is about the miracle of the incarnation in which God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. This is an undeniable biblical teaching. And we must beware of any attempt to remove Christ from the centrality He deserves in this seasonal celebration. As various Christmas traditions are emphasized that bear no connection to Christ, subtle but certain deceptive denials of this fundamental truth occur. And those deceptions are found in surprising places. Remember that the heresy John was confronting arose within the church. So we must be careful that we keep Christ central in our church practices (not only at Christmas, but throughout the year) and in our personal lives as well. Christless Christmas and Christless Christianity destroy the witness of the church that has been two millennia in the making. While we may want to soften our convictions so as to not offend our unbelieving friends and relatives during the Christmas season, we must be more concerned about offending the God who has called us to persevere in truth! Christmas offers us an opportunity not so easily found at other times during the year to present a clear and bold testimony for Christ to our lost friends and loved ones. And if they are lost, they are already condemned in their unbelief as Jesus says in John 3:18. They aren’t going to be more lost because they get offended at our attempt to make Christ central in Christmas. But if there are those who claim to be Christian, and who deny the truth about Christ, we must be careful that we do not embrace them as brothers and sisters, thereby sending a convoluted message to those who genuinely do not know the truth. We must make clear where we stand on the issue of Jesus, and entrust the fallout to Him.

Keeping Christ in Christmas is about more than the songs we sing, the decorations we use, and the vocabulary we employ in our holiday greetings. It involves watching out for subtle deceptions.

II. Keeping Christ in Christmas Involves Walking in Biblical Truth (vv4-6)

When John wrote to this church, he called attention to the consistent demonstration of their faith in Christ. He says in v4, “I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth.” And “walking in truth,” he says, means that they are living obediently to the Father’s commandments. And as John has expressed in his first epistle and reiterates here in v6, love for God demonstrates itself in obedience to Him. No one can say that they love God if they disobey His commandments. There are many commandments of God found in the Scriptures, but Jesus said that all of them can be distilled into two: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. As we love God, we obey Him. We prove our love by our obedience, and our loving obedience to Him leads to loving one another. This is really the crux of the matter that John is pointing out here. In v5, he emphasizes that we in the church of Jesus Christ should love one another. So, “walking in truth,” is not merely about having correct knowledge, but also about living that truth out in a demonstration of love for God and for one another.

When people see these characteristics in the life of a Christian, they see the affect that Christ has on our lives, and they notice the difference. They don’t always understand the difference, and that is why we must always be prepared to give a verbal witness as well. As it is written in 1 Peter 3:15, “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.” According to Peter, godly living will cause people to notice a difference in your life, and they will want to know about that difference. But, a verbal witness alone, without being accompanied by a godly life under the Lordship of Christ, will not persuade anyone. They will only see a difference in your vocabulary, not your lifestyle. But when they see a life characterized by love for God and love for one another, they will take notice, and the door is opened for a verbal witness for Christ.

If you are a Christian, it will be no surprise to most people that you desire to emphasize Jesus at Christmastime. But what many of them may not expect to see is how you desire to keep Christ preeminent in your life throughout the year. If you want people to take you serious when you talk about Jesus at Christmas, they must know that you are serious about Jesus on the other 364 days of the year as well. After all, a Christianity that only expresses itself once a year in our lives is not very attractive to the world. They say that the Christmas shopping season began last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. That may be, but Christmas living is a year ‘round season. If you want to keep Christ in Christmas, walk in His truth year ‘round.

It all comes down to this: Christmas is be a celebration of the greatest miracle of all –God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ to live and die for us. By His death on the cross, our sins are forgiven. By His righteous life, we are made righteous in Him. He is the greatest gift ever given, God’s gift of love and grace to undeserving people such as we are. And when we walk in that truth throughout the year, being alert to the subtle deceptions that arise that would steer us away from that truth, Christ will be present in our Christmas, and throughout the year.