Monday, March 30, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 2 John 1
Key Verse
2 John 1:7 — “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”
Devotional Thought
Second John is a letter written by “the elder”—the aged apostle John—to “the elect lady and her children,” likely a local congregation and its members, whom he loves “in the truth.” This short letter asks something of us that our age finds nearly impossible: to hold truth and love together, refusing to trade one for the other. We tend to split them apart. Some of us guard doctrine so tightly that we grow cold and unkind. Others speak of love so loosely that truth dissolves into whatever we prefer. John will have neither. He rejoices that these children are “walking in truth,” and in the very next breath he begs them to “love one another.” For John, these are not rival commands but one path walked with both feet.
Notice how he defines love: “this is love, that we walk after his commandments.” Love, in Scripture, is not a feeling that floats free of God’s word; it is obedience in motion. And the commandment they heard “from the beginning” is the same one we have received—to love one another as Christ has loved us. That is concrete. It looks like patience with the difficult coworker, honesty in the hidden places, kindness spoken to the family member who tries our temper. Love that never costs us anything is not yet the love John means.
Then the letter turns sober. “Many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.” In John’s day these were early false teachers who denied that the eternal Christ had truly taken on human flesh. The apostle calls them “antichrist” and warns, “Look to yourselves.” He even tells the lady not to welcome such a teacher into her house or wish him well on his way, lest she share in his error. This is not petty intolerance; it is the tenderness of a shepherd who knows that what we welcome into our homes and hearts shapes what we believe.
We read this in the shadow of the cross and the empty tomb, in the weeks when the church remembers how love and truth met in one Person. Jesus did not merely feel compassion; He bore our sins in His body and rose again. That is truth we cannot soften, and it is love we cannot exhaust. So this day asks us to walk in both—grounded in the doctrine of Christ, gentle toward one another, watchful over our own souls, “that we receive a full reward.”
Reflection
- Where in your life have you been tempted to set truth and love against each other—choosing either cold correctness or warm compromise—and what would it look like this week to hold both together?
- John warns, “Look to yourselves.” What teaching or influence are you currently welcoming into your home, your habits, or your attention that quietly denies who Jesus Christ truly is?
Prayer
Father, we thank You for the truth that dwells in us and shall be with us forever—that Jesus Christ, Your Son, came in the flesh, died for our sins, and rose again. Keep us walking in that truth, and teach us to love one another as You have commanded, not in word only but in deed. Guard us from deceivers and from our own wandering hearts. Grant us grace, mercy, and peace from You and from the Lord Jesus, that our joy may be full and our reward complete, to the glory of Your name. Amen.