Investment For the Past

“Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.” (2Jo 1:8 AV)

 

John is speaking to a prominent lady of a church.  We don’t know her identity.  In the first few verses of this letter, our beloved Apostle is extolling the character of this elect lady because she has brought up her children to love the LORD.  She has been very successful in leading her family in spiritual matters.  We don’t know the marital status of this elect lady.  Some suppose she is either married to a lost spouse or widowed.  It appears by the letter she has taken spiritual leadership of her home and has done so successfully.  Now, in the above verse, John is encouraging this elect lady to continue to look to the spiritual needs of the family lest John and those who have wrought with her lose some portion of a potential reward.  To what I think John is referring is continued salvation for the household of this elect lady going into grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and beyond.  In other words, our beloved Apostle is encouraging those whom he has won and discipled to do the same so that he and those who have wrought with him might receive a full reward.  This puts an entirely different perspective on service.

While attending High School my father-in-law played sports.  He played baseball.  He knows his way around a diamond.  He is also a very good hunter.  And he loves the LORD and values spiritual service to our King.  All three of my sons exhibit abilities that identify with their grandpa.  My oldest is a book worm.  He loves to study and has earned a doctorate in Bible Doctrine which he, one day, wishes to use for the LORD.  My middle son is an avid hunter.  The youngest played baseball through his freshman year of college.  Each son carries with him a part of their grandfather.  My wife is definitely her father’s daughter.  She reminds me of him almost every day.  When she was growing up, her father and mother trained her to love the LORD with all her heart.  A lesson she learned well.  It is one thing for a son to please his father.  Something else entirely that they please their grandfather.  I am sure when my in-laws reared my wife, their expectations went far beyond her.  Their prayer was for her to meet someone whom the LORD would eventually call into full-time service.  She surrendered to the call of a missionary or pastor’s wife as a young teenager at a summer camp.  The expectation grew.  Almost a century ago, My father-in-law’s mother prayed earnestly for her son, his wife, and their two children.  From Grandma Shirly to my own grandchildren, fruit continues to grow.  This is God’s doing.  But this is also the wish of everyone who rears children, physical or spiritual, that their labor would continue into future generations.

When we begin to consider how our faithfulness or lack thereof affects past generations, this should give us pause.  Grandma Shirley is home with the LORD.  But her labor lives on.  My in-laws will not last forever, but their love for God and other people is a testimony that should endure to future generations.  When I stop and consider my faithlessness might affect the rewards do those who have come before me, it should humble me and motivate me to a deeper commitment to Christ.  After all, no matter how far removed we are from a failed generation, it will always go back on a former one.  This is how mankind works.  He will look at a generation that knows not the LORD and wonder what happened in the past to cause the present generation to walk away.  John knows this.  The elect lady started out very well.  She and her children love the LORD.  But John wants that same dedication to continuing to the next generation.  And the next generation.  And the generation after that.  Each generation is responsible to pass on a faith worth emulating.  If they do not emulate the faith of the previous generation, then we have not passed on something worth continuing.