The Real Deal

"How happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded." 2 John


"What?!", I asked, not fully comprehending what I was hearing. "Israel." he repeated. "Do you want to go to the Holy Land, to Israel?" After some more back and forth, I finally understood that he was offering to pay my way to go on a nearly three week long adventure to the Holy Land. I would get to walk where Jesus walked. I would get to go to the places I've only read and dreamed about my whole life. I could hardly believe this was the real deal. I was still in a state of wondering if this was really happening all the way up to the plane taxiing down the runway and then speeding up for takeoff.

Truth and living in truth matters. Decades after Jesus ascended to heaven, his best friend John was still writing about him. He could see that there were people who were beginning to try to twist and change the truth about his friend and what he taught. Thankfully, he took the time to write down all that was real and true about Jesus to counter all the lies that were beginning to circulate. He wrote John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John and Revelation so we could be confident of who Jesus was and is. John knew that to not get the truth about Jesus was disastrous. Wandering from the truth about who Jesus is and what he taught throws into question whether a person even has a relationship with God.

False teachers and false teaching abound in our world today as well. We must be very careful to examine that which we are hearing. Unless we know what the truth is, we won't be positioned to evaluate what we're hearing or reading. John wanted them to know the truth, to live in the truth and to let the truth live in them. He even went so far to tell the leader(s) of this church that if they encourage anyone preaching falsehoods about Jesus, they would be just as guilty, a partner in their evil work. There are no shortages today of those making claims to being and/or promoting the real deal. Are we prepared to discern between that which is true and that which is false?   

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