Winning a Full Reward (2 John)

John's second epistle was written to the “elect lady,” which was probably one of the local house churches that this elder (John?*) was overseeing (v. 1). An elder (presbuteros, overseer or ruler) originally designated an older person. Respect for the elderly made it easy to look to them for wisdom and guidance, thus it became a term for rank and office. This pattern was used for the Jewish Sanhedrin who chose their rulers from older and more mature men. The early church also chose elders as their leaders (1 Tim. 3:1–7; 5:1, 17–25; Titus 1:5–9).

John’s concern for this assembly was very similar to that of I John, warning of false “brethren”—deceivers, who did not confess that Jesus Christ was God come in the flesh (v. 7). The best defense against such error is truth—“the truth that abides” (v. 2). The one new focus, carried into III John also, was to caution the saints about their hospitality because loving others necessarily involves that. Welcoming and providing for the needs of strangers was a clear expression of Christ’s “new” commandment (v. 5; John 13:34). Feel-good religious acts appeal to the flesh, but it is not obedience if discernment is absent. Satan banks on those who would rather let their feelings rather than truth dictate their behavior. Such people enable false teachers to bring in destructive heresies. Therefore, John cautions these saints to ascertain first whether these “brethren” hold to right doctrine before extending their welcome (vv. 10, 11). If those extending hospitality are not careful and discerning, they are complicit.

However, before this caution, John warns them, “Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what you have worked for, but may win a full reward” (v. 8). Read that verse again very carefully because it sounds so foreign to many. We strongly defend the doctrines of grace—that no one can earn his way to salvation, which is by grace alone. We believe that we get to heaven only by Christ’s righteousness and not by anything that we do. Obviously, works are important, so, what role do they play? What do the Scriptures say (Phil. 1:6 cf. 1:9–11; see also 2:12–18)?

What was John saying to these saints in verse 8? Our redeemed but imperfect life is to be filled with means (obedience) toward God-planned ends (Eph. 2:10). John assumes that these saints have worked for something for which they hope to win a reward (Matt. 10:41, 42; 1 Cor. 3:14; Col. 3:24; Heb. 10:35). However, their careless inattention to false brethren placed that reward in jeopardy. So, how does one reconcile grace alone with the expectation that saints “work out [their] own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12)? John Piper rightly concludes, “God is just as sovereign over means as He is over ends.” The doctrine of perseverance assumes that the grace that saves you will also sanctify you and take you to your reward and to glory (Phil. 2:13).

*It is the consensus of scholarship that John is the author, although John is not named.