“Second John (245 words) (Second John)” | 3/14/2021
Second John | 3/14/21 | Will DuVal
This morning is week 3 of our 5-week mini-series “Little Book, Big Message: a study through the single-chapter books of the Bible”. We’ve studied the little books of both OBADIAH - who pronounced God’s judgment on His enemies but deliverance for God’s children - and Philemon, and his big message that the ‘the gospel changes everything!
And now this morning we’re in Second John. Second John is the shortest book of the Bible by VERSES (it has only 13), but 3 John has it beat by WORD COUNT (2 John contains 245 words in the original Greek, compared to only 219 in 3 John). It’s one of FIVE books (along with 1 and 3 John, the GOSPEL of John, and the Book of Revelation) authored by the apostle John, the beloved disciple of Jesus.
But the “big message” of 2 John is very simple: “LOVE needs TRUTH.”
Love needs truth.
Listen to how the apostle Paul describes the process of sanctification elsewhere, in his letter to the Ephesians: “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Eph 4:15). Sanctification, “growing up in every way into Christ”, that is the goal of all of the Christian life. And Paul says we DO that by “speaking the truth in love”.
Now, we need to be honest enough this morning to admit that every single ONE of us here, in our sin, STRUGGLES MIGHTILY with “speaking the truth in love”, with holding truth and love together in that perfect, ideal, Christ-like balance:
90% of you are prone to “speaking half-truths in love”. When the truth is gonna be hard for you to say and/or hard for the other person to hear, you say something LESS than the truth instead. In the name of “love”.
And then 10% of us here are inclined to “speak the truth in hostility”. To us, if you even need the truth spoken to you, it’s gotta be because of your sin, and we’re not SUPPOSED to love sin; we’re supposed to HATE sin, KILL sin. So I’m going to aggressively speak the truth; I think of the scene in that movie Saved!, when Mandy Moore throws her Bible at Jenna Malone, for failing to listen to the truth.
Now, you “love” people will be happy to hear, spoiler alert, that the big message of THIRD John for NEXT Sunday is that “Truth needs LOVE”! But “truth” people - this is our week. 2 John is all about LOVE needing TRUTH.
And here is perhaps the most important thing of all, that we need to recognize right up front, though, about the relationship between the two: Truth and Love are NOT at odds with one another. We shouldn’t envision them as opposite ends of a spectrum, as if they are in tension with one another. Rather, we ought to envision truth and love as two sides of the same coin. Genuine love is ALWAYS truthful. Godly truth is ALWAYS loving.
But while love and truth are never opposed to one ANOTHER, the Bible’s portrayal of that symbiotic relationship between them is ITSELF diametrically opposed to the understanding adopted by the surrounding culture today. Our culture says “your ability to love others is directly proportional to your ability to be flexible with your notion of the truth.” To LOVE others is to validate them, to “affirm their truth”. So according to the world, the more rigid, and inflexible and absolute your idea of truth gets, the less capacity you have to love and approve of others.
But according to God’s WORD, your ability to love others depends DIRECTLY ON your willingness to be unwavering in your commitment to the Absolute truth of the word of God, both in written form (the Holy Scriptures) and incarnated (as Jesus, the Son of God). 1 Corinthians 13:6 says, “"Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth." (1 Corinthians 13:6). So love always aims at truth. It always supports truth. They are not and CANNOT be at odds.
And this morning as we dissect John’s second epistle together, he’s gonna give us 4 REASONS that love needs truth.
So would you stand with me... ENTIRE BOOK of 2 JOHN:
“1 The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, 2 because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:
3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love.
4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. 5 And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. 6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we[a] have worked for, but may win a full reward. 9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
12 Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
13 The children of your elect sister greet you.”
This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
-
Love needs Truth. For four reasons...
#1 - Truth is the foundation for love. (vv1-3)
Listen to how EVERY PART of John’s salutation here points to love’s foundation in the truth:
*Even the way he signs and addresses the letter; he opens: “The elder to the elect lady and her children”; he doesn’t say, “The apostle John, to the church of [we’re not sure which city he’s writing].” But why DOESN’T he?
My hypothesis is that he doesn’t identify himself as “John” because what is important here in context is not the personal nature of who’s writing; John’s not appealing to them on the basis of his personal connection, either to the church itself, or even to Jesus. He doesn’t say, “Listen to me because I’m your good buddy, John,” or even, “Listen up because I was one of Jesus’ closest friends”. Instead, he says, “I’m the ELDER.” And what does an elder do? Here’s why the apostle Paul instructed Titus to “appoint elders in every town…to give instruction in sound[g] doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” (Titus 1:5, 9) THAT’S why John is writing them.
And why doesn’t he just call them “the church at such-and-such city”? Because by referencing the church as “the elect lady” and its individual members as “her children”, he is subtly reminding them of 3 of the absolute CORE TRUTHS, doctrines of the Christian faith: 1) their ELECTION. God CHOSE them. Jesus said in John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you”. 2) Not only did Christ call us to himself, he has now united us WITH himself; we are his “lady”, his “BRIDE”, that’s the NT metaphor and picture of the church’s relationship with Jesus. And that makes us, #3) children of God. We are adopted sons and daughters of God Most High.
But in case the salutation was a little too subtle, John lays the truth on REALLY thick in the rest of his opening: “I love [you] in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, 2 because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever”
Translation: “I love you in truth” → in other words, the BASIS for the love that we share is our common commitment to the truth
“Also all who know the truth” → in other words, the basis for ALL Christian love is our common belief in the gospel
Then v2: “because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever” → what’s the truth that abides in us? That’s the HOLY SPIRIT. Jesus called him “the spirit of truth” (Jn 16:13). He is Jesus’ OWN spirit. “Behold, I will be with you ALWAYS,” Jesus said. Jesus is “the way, the TRUTH, and the life,” who now abides in us, forever. And it is only BECAUSE he does, that we are able to love one another.
And the Holy Spirit setting up shop in our hearts means that not ONLY is “truth now abiding in us”, empowering us to love one another in Christ, but v3: “Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us” too.
Now, let’s just pause to appreciate THOSE three core truths for a moment as well; there is a PROGRESSION of doctrinal truth John is communicating here:
1) GRACE: God’s undeserved gift of His son Jesus;
2) MERCY: Through Jesus, we receive forgiveness for our sins, which leads to…
3) PEACE: We have now been reconciled to God, by the substitutionary atoning death of Christ in our place on the cross, to satisfy the just wrath of a holy God against sin.
And brothers and sisters: Grace, Mercy, and Peace will now be with us FOREVER! Praise God! They are, v3: “from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son,”... and how are they now applied to US? They come to us, go figure: “in truth and love.”
Jesus faced the cold hard TRUTH of the reality of your sin and its rightful consequences on the cross, and he DID it in LOVE. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world… to be the propitiation for our sins.” To pay the price, for you, on the cross. (1 Jn 4:9-10)
So truth is the FOUNDATION for love, the BASIS; truth PRODUCES love. 1 Peter 1:22 exhorts us, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth… love one another earnestly from a pure heart”. God wants his children to love one another, but the only way we’re even ABLE to, is by having our souls purified by our obedience to the TRUTH. If you haven’t been born again as a result of your saving faith in the TRUTH of the gospel message, if you haven’t first been transformed by the truth of Christ’s love for YOU, you don’t even have a prayer of ever loving someone else well; “We love because he first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19).
#2 - Why does Love need Truth? Because Truth is the manifestation of love. (vv4-6)
V4: John says, “ I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father” → last time John was passing through town he was encouraged to see that SOME of these church members were “walking in the truth”. Now, in v7 in a moment, we’re gonna discover that not ALL of them were walking in the truth. Hence, the impetus behind John’s sending this letter.
But v5: “I ask you, dear lady [dear church] - not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning - [John says, “This commandment isn’t anything new that I made up; it’s not a Johannine original; it’s the same one the church was FOUNDED on; and it WAS new when JESUS delivered it: John 13:34 - “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another”. John is simply calling them, calling US back to love, once again. And specifically, he clarifies and defines “love” for us, in v6...
V6: “And this is love, that…
-we feel all the feels? Is love an emotion?
-that we affirm one another’s truths? Is love just some kind of relativistic validating of the other?
No, John says, “this is love: that we walk according to [God’s] commandments”.
1 John 5:2 “this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments”
Ours is a parent-child relationship, with God our heavenly Father. If I ask my daughter Ellery to please feed the dog, if she loves and respects me, what’s she gonna do?
She’s gonna feed the dog, right? Pretty straightforward.
God has given you and me a set of commands that reflect his priorities in our lives, and in our world. And yes, they do ultimately boil down to the 2 great ones: “love God and love neighbor”. But God goes to the trouble to actually spell that out for us in the rest of the NT; what does it MEAN to love God and others?” Let’s just take the SECOND greatest commandment: to love one another; God specificies what he means by that, with 44 “one another” statements in the NT: ““Honor one another”, ““…instruct one another”, ““Greet one another”, ““…Serve one another”, “bear with one another”, ““Be kind and compassionate to one another…”, ““…forgive each other…””, ““Submit to one another”, ““…admonish one another””, ““Encourage one another””, “”, ““…Pray for one another”, and the list goes on, but the most commonly repeated summary of them all is what?
“LOVE one another”.
Now, let’s pause for a moment and consider this: how can God COMMAND us to love one another? That goes against EVERYTHING that our society tells us about the way love works!
I want you to imagine a scenario with me. Imagine a couple walks into a therapist’s office for marriage counseling. And the counselor asks, “What brings you in to see me?” And the husband says, “We’ve been having issues for YEARS now. But I only recently realized what’s at the heart of the problem: I just don’t love her anymore. I loved her when we got married, when the kids came along. But somewhere along the way since then, it stopped. And I no longer love her.”
Now imagine the counselor looks at the wife, in tears, and then looks back at the husband and replies: “Well you’re in luck. I think I’ve got some advice that can save your marriage. Ready? LOVE her.”
And the husband looks at the counselor, confused; the wife’s wondering if this is some kind of sick JOKE.
But the counselor just repeats again, “Yep, my advice is definitely, actually you know what, scratch that; I COMMAND you, to LOVE her. That ought to fix the problem.”
Commentator Stephen Smalley explains (325): “Love can be ‘commanded inasfar as it is not simply an emotion, but the obedient response of a believer which belongs to the sphere of selfless action (cf 1 Jn 3:16-18).”
You remember how Jesus defined love? “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (Jn 15.13)
And John defined it this way in his first epistle: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” (1 Jn 3:16)
See, that’s the great thing about true love, BIBLICAL love, CHRIST-like love, is it doesn’t DEPEND on your feelings. Feelings come and go. If they are the basis for your marriage, your friendships, your decision-making, I fear for you.
You know how JESUS felt, the night before his crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane? He felt like he’d rather not be nailed to a cross for you. He prayed, “Father, let this cup pass from me. BUT, not my will, but yours be done” (Mt 26:39). And he DID it, even though he didn’t FEEL like it, because LOVE isn’t a feeling, it’s a choice. And if you and I truly love God, we will CHOOSE to walk in his commands. Because love is MANIFESTED in truth.
#3 - Love needs truth, because Truth is a requirement for love. (vv7-11)
This is the INVERSE of point #1; point 1 was that if we share truth in common, then we will also share love (because truth is the foundation for love); but point #3 here is that if we do NOT share truth in common, then we can NOT share love, at least not in the purest sense of a true, gospel community. In fact, John is gonna tells us in vv10 and 11 that the most LOVING thing you can do for someone who rejects the truth AND IS TEACHING OTHERS TO DO THE SAME, leading others astray; notice John is specifically discussing false TEACHERS in vv10 & 11 - but he says, “the most loving thing you can do is to refuse to associate with them. Don’t so much as GREET them.
Now, that seems HARSH to us. Because we’re used to driving by “churches” every day that proudly proclaim, “All Welcomed Here”, in big bold, rainbow letters out front. After re-reading 2 John, I thought, “You know, I may ask Thad to work on a banner for US out front that reads: “SOME are welcome; and then in fine print below: “see 2 John v10 to find out if you’re among them”.
Kidding aside: it’s simply not BIBLICAL, to welcome everyone at church. That sounds heretical to say, but I’m just reading God’s word to you, friends! “Do not receive him!” It’s ironic that I felt led to write that article on hospitality this past week, of all week’s. We Christians should be the most hospitable, friendly, welcoming people in the world, EXCEPT when it comes to 2 people: 1) Self-professing Christians living in unrepentant sin; that’s 1 Corinthians 5, where the church member is having an affair with his stepmom. And Paul says, “Kick him out! “Purge the evil person from among you.”” Do “not associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church[b] whom you are to judge?” (vv10-12)
So if you’re a member at West Hills and it comes to light that you’re cheating on your wife, or cheating on your taxes, or cheating on your church membership commitment to gather regularly with the church, by idolatrously worshipping at the altar of youth sports instead on Sundays… guilty of sexual immorality, greed, idolatry… as a church, we’re gonna come to you once, as Jesus instructs us to in Matthew 18, and “speak the truth in love” to you, “Hey, brother, sister, we love you too much to watch you stray from the TRUTH, and submit once again to a yoke of slavery to sin and darkness. Come back to the light.” And if you refuse, you will be put out of the church, and treated “as a Gentile and a tax collector.” We don’t hate Gentiles and tax collectors. We don’t condemn them; remember, Paul said we don’t judge them at ALL. Once you’re put out of the church, it’s GOD’S job to judge you. OUR job is to PRAY for you.
That doesn’t mean you gotta be perfect to join the church. It just means that if you SEE some imperfection in me, or I in you, and we lovingly confront the other about that sin because we care too much to let one another drift from intimacy with the Lord; that IN my sin, yeah, I may bristle at first. I may get defensive. But a true Christian, in time, will THANK you for helping her see her blind spots. That’s part of God’s design for us, in Christian community. “As Iron sharpens iron,
so one man sharpens another.” (Prov 27:17) Have you ever SEEN iron get sharpened? It’s a rather violent, abrasive process. Sparks might fly. But it’s good for us. True love is willing to confront in truth.
So, we do not welcome #1) Self-professing Christians living in unrepentant sin; and #2) Back in 2 John now… We do not welcome False teachers. He calls them “deceivers” (v7), “the antichrist” (v8). Commentator David Allen explains (Preaching the Word: 2 John, p262): “The word ‘antichrist’ means ‘against Christ’... John does not mean that any one of these false teachers is the personal Antichrist spoken of in [the Book of] Revelation as the final world ruler who opposes Christ just before his second coming. Rather, any and all false teachers partake of the character of the final antichrist. The spirit of Antichrist is already at work in the world.”
And who are these deceitful, Christ-opposing false teachers? John identifies them in v7 as “those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.” You know what every pseudo-Christian heresy, every counterfeit gospel, shares in common? They’re all just a LITTLE off in their Christology, their view of Christ. Their understanding of who Jesus was. Jesus is the CENTER of the Christian gospel. Every heresy that has ever been invented in church history shifts that center, even if it is ever so slightly.
The example in immediate context here in 2 John is the early heresy of GNOSTICISM. Gnosticism taught that the physical world is inherently evil, therefore Jesus only APPEARED to come in the flesh; his true mission was to liberate souls from their bondage in this fallen, material world, through the gnosis, or special, esoteric, revealed, spiritual knowledge. And evidently, SOME of these early Gnostics had discovered that when you have a monopoly on that special revealed knowledge, that is allegedly NECESSARY for salvation, for escaping this physical world and achieving this higher, spiritual plane of enlightenment, some folks are willing to pay TOP DOLLAR for that gnosis. That’s another thing heresies share in common: they all chase power and money.
This is what L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, discovered as well; Hubbard was a relatively unknown science fiction writer who came to recognize both the need in humans to make sense of our universe, but also our compulsion to EARN our own salvation; in most religions that means doing good works. In Scientology, it literally means PURCHASING access to deeper and deeper levels of the secret knowledge. Hubbard actually joked about it, off record, but was overheard saying, “Look, if you wanna get rich, don’t write sci-fi; just start a religion.” So that’s what he did…
John mocks that kind of “buy your way up through the ranks” thinking here, in v9, he writes: “Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ”. The Greek verb is “proagó”; it’s evidently the word the Gnostics used to hook and deceive these immature Christians in John’s churches; if they were still around today they’d be holding special $600 classes called “Propel” or “Advance”. John warns, “if you are advancing past the teaching of Jesus, then you’ve advanced right out of the faith.” You no longer “have God”. So John exhorts them in v8: “Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we[a] have worked for, but may win a full reward.” John’s not warning them that they might lose their own SALVATION; we know that biblically you can’t, any more than you can “WORK FOR” it in the first place - salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone, NOT by works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8. So what’s John referencing here? I think he’s exhorting the leaders of the church here, the “elect lady”, who have been working for the sake of their “children” (v1), the younger, more immature PERHAPS believers (time will tell!) who make for easier prey for the Gnostic false teachers because they don’t KNOW enough TRUTH yet, they aren’t firmly enough ROOTED yet in the truth of the gospel to smell a fake gospel when it comes along. And John’s warning the church leaders, “you’ve been working to minister to these spiritual newborns, and disciple them up, but if you LOSE them to the Gnostics, if they LEAVE the true faith, then you lose that reward, that jewel in your crown”. John had already addressed this in his FIRST letter to them: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come… They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.” (2:18-20) He says, “They don’t have any secret knowledge; it’s all smoke and mirrors; YOU have the knowledge you need. As 2 Peter 1:3 says, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to[c] his own glory and excellence”
So here’s what I want to do quickly in our remaining time: I want to warn you today - so that we can heed John’s exhortation in v8 to “watch ourselves” - I want to quickly get on your radar just 3 modern-day heresies, false teachings, that I see as being most threatening to the 21st c church. And because all heresies can be traced back to a wrong view of Jesus, I wanna highlight that for you as well.
The first heresy is Prosperity teaching. Prosperity teaching, the so-called “health and wealth” gospel, God’s deepest desire is to make you rich and happy in this life, it turns Jesus into “my errand boy”. He’s my personal genie. Only better. Because usually genies only give you THREE wishes, but with Jesus by my side (not me by HIS side, him by MY side), the blessings in this life are never-ending. The problem is that Jesus himself told would-be followers in his day, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” If you follow me, you’re gonna be homeless like me. A servant is not above his master. If they persecuted and killed me, they’ll persecute and hate you. How’s that for blessing, in this life?
The second false teaching is Progressive teaching. The so-called progressive church, who believe God’s self-revelation is progressing over time. “God is still speaking today”, is the slogan you’ll sometimes see on their banners; what they MEAN by that is that the Bible isn’t sufficient today, it was fine 2,000 years ago, but periodically God needs to make some updates, so he’s still speaking to us today, and occasionally he has to contradict himself, “I didn’t really mean that stuff about gender and sexuality”, you get the picture. For them, Jesus is their EXAMPLE. He can’t be their SAVIOR, because that would imply they need SAVING, which would imply there’s something WRONG with them, and that is anathema in the progressive movement. Remember: love = unqualified validation, affirmation. So Jesus gets reduced to merely an example to be imitated. The problem with Progressivism is that Romans 3:23 clearly states that “all have sinned”, and Romans 6.23 warns that “the wages of sin is death”. So you and I need more than an example, we really DO need a savior.
The third and most subtly deceptive and potentially DANGEROUS of all the deceptions, because of its sheer pervasiveness, is PRODUCTIONIST Christianity. This is when the church becomes a business, and those in attendance become CONSUMERS, and the product that I’m up here trying to sell you every Sunday is JESUS. Some countries export lumber. Some export coal. The church exports Jesus. So we begin to measure our success by the number of BUYERS, and the amount SPENT on him. “Cheeks in the seats and checks in the offering plates”. And let me tell you: it is EVERYWHERE in the American evangelical church today. And the problem with Productionist Christianity is that Jesus DOES sell… to an extent.
“God so loved the world, so loved ME...” - I’ll buy that.
“God hates your sin and calls you to leave it to follow Him” -Ehhhh
“Jesus wants to be my SAVIOR, from the penalty of my sin: death and Hell” - Buy! Buy! Buy!
“Jesus wants to be my LORD, and move in to every area of my heart to free me from the very presence of sin in my life?” -Ugggghhhhh… I dunno…
And so Productionist Christianity may start out aiming to preach the gospel in a way that appeals to the biggest crowds, but as it begins to realize that the gospel is a stumbling block and an offense, 1 Corinthians 1, it slowly over time begins to compromise the truth of the gospel in subtle but significant ways, to make it a product a little easier to sell.
But friends, Orthodox Christianity, or if you want to stay with the alliterations, the “PURE” GOSPEL, is this: Jesus isn’t your errand boy. He’s not just a good example. He’s not a product to export. He ought to be your EVERYTHING! He’s not interested in being your Savior if he can’t be your Lord as well. Like a good church, he loves you enough to accept you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to LEAVE you that way. Because love needs TRUTH. And the TRUTH, is that you and I are sinners in desperate need of saving and sanctifying grace. And praise God, he has freely SHOWN it to us in the gift of his Son JESUS, who lived the life we couldn’t live, died the death we deserved in our place, and then was RAISED from the dead in order to raise us to new life in him as well: THIS is the gospel!
Finally, #4 - Truth is the empowerment for love. (vv12-13)
Far from separating you from another true believer, telling them the truth, in love should draw you CLOSER together. So John concludes:
V12: “I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete.”
Oh and by the way, you’re not alone; in your fight to CLING to the truth, in a world full of lies: v13: “The children of your elect sister greet you.” The church I’m visiting THIS month, John says, “they greet you.” But next month I hope to come to you in person.
I couldn’t help but close by translating v12 into our modern-day context, for our brothers and sisters still at home joining us virtually: “I would rather not use video. Instead, I hope you’ll come to us and meet again face to face, so that our joy may be complete.” I’m encouraged - I made it about ⅓ of the way through our directory last week, calling those who still haven’t returned. MANY, (maybe even MOST) of you told me you’ve gotten your first vaccine shot now, and should be on track to return mid / late April. I do hope you’ll consider joining us for Easter outdoors. But regardless, church is not the same without you. And more importantly, YOU are not the same without the gathered church. You need this truth. It’s hard enough out there, living in THIS world 6 days of the week, but then to go without your weekly, Sunday course-corrective? To Re-center, on the TRUTH? You need it. And I thank God that I can remind those of you still at home of that truth, not in spite of my love for you, but BECAUSE of it.