Verse 5 is boiling down Jesus’ teachings into the basics:
So now, dear lady, I am asking you
to live by the command that we love one another. I’m not writing to you some
new commandment; it’s one we received in the beginning from our Lord.
If you consider all the other commandments, this one is the
basis for all the others and if obeyed the others would not be needed. God
developed the perfect law in the Ten Commandments, but it was all rooted in
love. If you love your neighbor, you would not covet his stuff, sleep with his
wife or murder him. So consider love first before you act.
Verse 7 caught my eye for the use of “Christ” in the actual
text:
The corrupt world
is filled with liars and frauds who deny the reality that Jesus the Anointed
has come into the world as a man of flesh and blood. These
people are deceivers and anti-Christs.
It caught my eye because of the use of Christ since that is
one of those words that have not been used in the actual text in this
translation. But it works here since there is not a real good English
translation. Also, note it’s plural. Revelations implies there is ONE
anti-Christ but also implies that leading up to the end there will be many “deceivers”
who are “anti-Christs” leading into the end times. We must understand that this
idea is validated in scriptures here.
Verse 10 clarifies this idea:
If any person comes to you with a
teaching that does not align with the true message of Jesus, do not
welcome that person into your house or greet him as you would a true
brother.
We need to be on-guard for false teachers (AKA
anti-Christs) and know what is in the Bible. Hence why we need to study outside
the Sunday service! Today we can be tricked into thinking something is from
Jesus yet it is not, like “money being the root of all evil” or “all things
work together for good”. Notice the subtitle differences between these and the
actual verses. This is what you need to be aware of since one could easily
drift when things go south or they are in the poor house because they were not
wise with their money. Know scripture and find a teacher who is true to it!!