Welcome to the 10 Minute Bible Hour podcast. Right now, we're going through the entire Bible

to understand it is one big cohesive story. We're covering one book each day, and this

one is about Third John. Third John is a very personal letter written by the Apostle

John, almost surely the son of Zebedee and the guy who wrote the Gospel of John at

Revelation as well. Definitely whoever wrote this is the same guy who wrote first and second

John, because all three of these books pertain to the same situation, which is false teachers

who were trying to force Jesus into certain Greek philosophical categories, and it wasn't

working at all. The consequences were disastrous, and it undermined the teachings of Jesus and

the Apostles, and it sent the churches probably in Ephesus near where John was living into

chaos and confusion. So John counters that by equipping these confused Christians with a three-fold

test to determine who is indeed walking in the light, who is in Christ, and the three-fold test

is truth, obedience, and love. If you got all three of those things cooking, then probably what

undergirds it is Jesus, if you don't have one or more of those things cooking, then probably

what undergirds that is not Jesus. In first John, he lays out that test and cycles around it

and through it a few different ways to really gently take the reader by the hand and walk them

through this for their evaluation of themselves and the false teachers. In second John, we get a personal

letter that is saying, hey, you have my blessing not to offer hospitality to these false teachers,

they're not Christians, and if you offer them hospitality and help them and encourage them,

you're actually encouraging things that you know full well have done damage to the church.

That doesn't sound very nice, then second John might clang a little bit in that regard,

but when we look at the damage that had been done by these falsehoods and by these predatory

teachers, we understand why John came in like the Papa Bear and straighten things out, even though

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