3 John pt.2

The Underdogs: A Study of Jude, Philemon, Obadiah, 2nd + 3rd John

Hosted by Micah Harrison + Matt Winter w/ Special Guest Kelly Brown

IN THIS EPISODE

• How are your New Year’s resolutions going? | 1:01
• Answers from last episode (what are “soul” and “the Name”?) | 6:30 
  
• Verses 9-10 – John rejects Diotrephes in defense of the truth | 11:00
  
• Verse 11 – How do we imitate good? How do we represent God? | 22:00
• Verse 12 – What is the truth? And how is character important? | 27:30
• Verses 13-14 – Greetings! | 41:20
• Final reflections on this season of the podcast | 46:10
• “How to Study the Bible”: Reading Scripture Multiple Times | 53:00

INSTANT TAKEAWAYS

1 | Jesus is the image of God. If you’ve seen Jesus, then you’ve seen God. And if you’ve seen Jesus, then you can imitate him

Our imitation of good stems from our understanding of and our relationship with God. Knowing God leads to following God. Character matters. You can look good and be spoken well of by people, but what really matters is actually following Jesus. Would Jesus speak well of you? His is the only opinion that matters. How are you pursuing Jesus and imitating him in your life?

2 | It’s about the big “C” Church

John’s emphasis on hospitality is really a way for believers to support those from other churches. It’s not just about our local congregation. We work for the Kingdom of God, not our local church. What are you or your church doing that reminds you that we are part of something larger: the Kingdom of God?

3 | Part of knowing Truth is calling out false doctrine and untruth

In this book, we see John calling out Diotrephes for his false doctrine and practices that are leading away fellow believers. Part of knowing truth is knowing when it’s okay to agree to disagree and alternately when to stand firm in defense of the truth. John stands firm and calls out Diotrephes because he is leading fellow believers astray from the truth of Jesus and the Gospel. What are some issues of belief and doctrine that we should defend at all costs, and where are we free to respectfully disagree?

4 | HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE: Reading Scripture Multiple Times

Hopefully you’ve been doing this the whole time, but make sure you are reading a text multiple times. Sometimes it takes a few readings just to get your bearings about the text. Let the reading take you into the context and focus you. Not only does it sometimes take a few readings just to understand what is going on, but you will also make different observations each time you read it. This is one of the most basic and one of the most useful tools for reading and understanding the Bible.

SHOW NOTES

In this episode, we discuss the ending of 3rd John and reflect on this past season of the Mission Hills Bible Study Podcast. We’ve spent 2 episodes on each of the 5 shortest books of the Bible. Our prayer is that you’ve seen that Scripture is so deep and rich that you could spend your whole life studying it, living it out, and never get to the bottom of it. We hope you’ve enjoyed this deep dive into Scripture and that you’ve learned a few news ways to study it yourself. Now…go become more like Jesus and join him on mission!