Adult Mentor: Called, Surrendered, Promise

By R.H. Boyd Publishing Corp.

The Adult Mentor is a topical Christian quarterly study guide is for the adult learner and is designed to increase Christian faith and biblical understanding using a variety of learning methods. It is a practical resource for every day Christian living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
• Release date: Jun 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781681679587

Book preview

Lesson 1

Steadfast Love

LEARNING SESSION

In this text, the aged Apostle John encourages the Christians to hold to their faith and to the convictions of their heart. As they were bombarded with the various threats from the Roman and Jewish authorities, and from other religions influences, John writes to pull them back to the day they first believed. It is also his message to us.

EXPOSITION:

I. A Thing or Three About Words

There are three words that demand our attention in these passages. Those words are: love (2 Thessalonians 3:5; 2 John 5, 6); steadfastness (2 Thessalonians 3:5); and faith/faithful/faith-fulness (2 Thessalonians 3:2–3). Since these words lie at the heart of what both Paul and John had to say to their readers, let us examine each word in turn.

The one word used in both 2 Thessalonians 3:5 and in 2 John verses 5 and 6, is the word Agape. This word means a sacrifice on the part of one who is loving. Agape can demand hard choices of us, especially when it comes to choosing obedience toward God in the face of the pressures of the world around us. Suppose you are offered a major promotion at work that would require you to be away from home nearly every week, but your son is having some behavioral problems and would benefit from having you around to guide him. Will you turn down the promotion that you worked hard to earn because your boy needs you, or will you, as so many do these days, simply demand that the teachers at school straighten him out so you can go for the big bucks? Agape means sacrificing what you want for yourself so God can have His way.

The second word to consider is steadfastness. What it does not mean is faultless. If a ship’s commander orders the helmsman to steer a steadfast course toward Hawaii, it does not mean that the helmsmen must keep the ship on an absolutely arrow–straight course. If an iceberg blocks the course, the helmsman will steer around it, but as soon as the ship is out of danger, the helmsman gets back on the course for Hawaii. Christians often stumble into sin without any deliberate intention to do so. But a steadfast Christian will not deliberately give him/ herself over to a prolonged pattern of sinful behavior. Steadfastness means stay on course toward the goal of salvation.

KEY VERSE:

And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. (2 John 6, KJV)

LESSON SCRIPTURES:

2 Thessalonians 3:1–5; 2 John 4–11

DISCUSSION POINTS

I. A Thing or Three About Words

II. Paul and John vs. the Deceivers

Finally, let us consider faith. Faith is the unseen conviction that God is real and that you will accept His will as your way of life. There are two ideas expressed here in this text. First, it underscores God is faithful. He strengthens those who trust in Him. Secondly, the confidence Paul alludes to in verse four is trust in God’s ability and willingness to protect and preserve believers. This trust leads to trust in God’s love for you and to adopt His purpose for your life. Simply put, you can believe God and accept what God allows to come your way because God is loyal.

Second, John continues this idea of divine faithfulness as the writer expresses joy to find Christians holding fast to their faith. They are following the Father’s commandment for them to hold to God’s unchanging hand.

Next, Paul wrote of perverse and evil men (2 Thessalonians 3:2) and John wrote of antichrist (2 John 7), the spirit that is the polar opposite of the Spirit of Christ. Each writer faced his own gallery of folks who perverted the truth of the Gospel. Each one saw the evil one who lurked in the shadows of the various deceptions. Each apostle warned his readers to be on guard against the deceptions and those who advocated for them, as well as against the spiritual power that lay behind them.

Paul does not identify the specific deception about which he wrote in 2 Thessalonians 3, most likely because there was more than one group involved. We know from other Scriptures that the Judaizers followed Paul from city to city attempting to convince Paul’s converts that they must still obey the Jewish law. However, he also faced civic leaders, who feared unrest caused by people who were abandoning the cultural customs of the cities (see Acts 17, especially verse 6).

• God’s commandments to live for Him contrasts with the lives of those who refuse to believe in Him.

• Believers are commanded to give themselves to the Christian cause and to uphold the faith.

GET SOCIAL Faith in God is the conviction that He is real and that we should live for Him. Share your views and tag us @rhboydco and use #rhboydco.

II. Paul and John vs. the Deceivers

The plain truth is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was then, and remains today, a radical call away from the way non–Christians live. To the Jews of Paul’s day, it was heretical to suggest that someone born and raised as a devout Jew could suddenly neglect the ceremonial and ritual laws of Judaism. Among Gentiles, rumors circulated that these Christ–followers practiced cannibalism, eating flesh, and drinking blood during their worship services. The pressure on converts to pick some easier way was intense and there was no shortage of deceivers willing to offer an easier compromise than full truth.

Paul prayed that God would strengthen and protect his converts (3:3). He was confident that his converts would do as he had commanded them (3:4) and that God would keep on guiding them toward the sacrifice and steadfastness that God demanded of those who would be His children.

It was much the same with John and those to whom he wrote. To the chosen lady (v. 1) and her spiritual children he wrote of gladness that some of them were walking in truth (v. 4). Obviously enough, some were not. Deceivers, John wrote, had gone out into the world (v. 7). That they had gone out begs the question from where had they gone out? The answer is that they had gone out as apostles of the deceiver. Just as Jesus’ apostles labored diligently to ensure that all they preached was an accurate representation