Greetings, dear listeners. Welcome to the 10th talk of our series on New Testament Survey. We continue from our last session which introduced the general epistles and highlighted Hebrews, James and 1 Peter. We shall now complete highlighting the remaining general epistles: 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John and Jude.

2 Peter is the second epistle written by the Apostle Peter. Although his authorship has been disputed by some, overall evidence still supports him as the author. In this letter, Peter exhorts believers to grow in Godliness and love. He attests to Scripture as being written by the Holy Spirit through human authors. He condemned false prophets and teachers and declared that they will face God’s stern judgement. As examples of this, he pointed to the judgement of the angels that fell from heaven, of the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, of those who self-righteously condemned those who are greater than themselves, of those seduced by Balaam into sin. He stressed the certainty of the Lord’s return and that any supposed delay is due to His seeking for more to be saved. He foretells the destruction of this heaven and this earth to be replaced by the new heaven and new earth. He recognised Paul’s writing as scripture.

Then, we come to 1 John. 1 John is a significant epistle written by the author of the Gospel of John, the Apostle John. It shares much similarity of style and vocabulary as the Gospel. John emphasised that the fellowship of believers is with the Father and the Son. This is a fellowship of light, such that those who walked in this fellowship reject living in sin. Those who do not reject a life of sin do not belong in this fellowship. It is likewise, a fellowship of truth, where the believers live by the truth taught by Christ and the Spirit, they are children of God. Those who are not in this fellowship are in the fellowship of sin with the devil as the father. This is a sharp contrast that John defines. There is no middle ground. Those who walk in this fellowship also love God and Christ, His Son, and love one another as fellow children of God. There is a need to test every spirit that speaks to be sure that we hear only the Spirit of God and not any other spirit. He warns that the anti-Christ is out to deceive and destroy. Those who have received Christ into their lives are saved, those who do not have Christ in their lives are not. Salvation comes by water, by blood and by faith - water points to being baptised into Christ, blood refers to Christ’s death for us, faith points to the need to respond to the Gospel in faith to believe who Christ is and what He has done for us. Only those who recognise that Christ was born as a man know the true Christ. This is the doctrine of the incarnation. Those who do not believe in this are not of the faith.

Now, 2 John is a very short epistle written by John that is addressed to an elect lady and her children. This may be either a church and its members or an actual woman and her children. In either case, John’s exhortation is to keep faith in Christ and walk in fellowship with the Father and the Son. We are to love one another as He loves us.

3 John is another very short epistle written by John to Gaius. He encouraged him to continue in his faithfulness and warn him of Diotrephes who exalted himself in the church. Diotrephes speaks evil falsehood against John and his coworkers. He refused to support fellow Christians from other churches and sought to expel those who want to help them. He commends Demetrius for his good testimony in the faith. He informed Gaius that he was about to visit him in person, to deal with these matters.

Then, the last general epistle is Jude. Jude is a short epistle written by another half-brother of Jesus, who had also come to faith after He had ascended. He calls for the churches to contend for the faith - once for all delivered. This is the Gospel of Christ. He warned against being like those in the Exodus who did not enter the promised land. He pointed out that even angels are judged. He reminded his readers of God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He warned against self-righteously speaking against the devil, for even Michael the archangel who claimed the body of Moses from the devil spoke against the devil in the name of the Lord and not by his own authority. He points to the sin of Cain in not offering an acceptable sacrifice and of Balaam who tempted Israel into sin. He declared that Enoch who was translated into Heaven prophesied that God will come in judgement with His angels. In this way, he counselled the church against all falsehoods and false teachers. Believers are to pray in the Spirit, stand in God’s love, look to the eternal life to come and reach out to those who are falling into sin to save them.

Now, there is a striking similarity in 2 Peter and Jude in the reference to Old Testament events and Jewish tradition. It is likely that they drew from a common body of literature that is well-known to their readers. In completing our highlight of each of these epistles, we can see the rich diversity and depth of each revelation that God gives us through them.

In our next talk, we look at the last New Testament book, the book of Revelation.

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