The elder to [the] elect lady and her children, whom *I* love in truth, and not *I* only but also all who have known the truth,
No other letter in the New Testament is like this one. It goes to a woman and her family, from a man who signs himself only "the elder." That opening line raises three questions. Who was this lady? Why does the writer choose such a modest title? And why is love here bound to truth?
Her name never appears in the letter. One writer sees kindness in that silence.
Every careful reader of Scripture should find it remarkable that we have an apostolic letter openly addressed to a lady and her children. In the Third Epistle John names the man he writes to. But in the Second Epistle before us he speaks of the lady simply as such, without any mention of her name. In this we may see a delicate fitness. The letter no doubt met her need, yet it spared her needless pain and publicity. Yet the letter itself is inspired and of the greatest value, for God's people then and at all times.
No name appears, so readers have long guessed. One writer lists the main options and rejects the most popular one.
The Second Epistle of John is addressed to "the elect lady" (Greek eklekte kyria). There has been much speculation over this greeting. Was it the simple greeting of a Christian widow, or of a lady with an unbelieving husband, or was it simply her name? Or was it, as various researchers have assumed — probably incorrectly — the greeting of a local church?
The writer had every right to open with his apostolic title. He chose the lower one.
"The elder," says the apostle. So he steps down from the first place in the church of God, a place he had every right to fill. But love naturally takes the more excellent way, and here the Holy Spirit inspired it for the special need.
He does not address her by rank or wealth. His one word points to God's own choice.
He does not slight her position, but what both of them valued was the title of divine grace, not what she owed to providence. She was elect of God, one chosen in Christ by and for God Himself. God had chosen her out of all her natural connections, and the apostle delights to see that God brought her, even on earth, into new and divine ones.
The phrase "whom I love in truth" is not a warm flourish. It names both the source of the affection and its boundary.
The truth formed the love John had for this godly saint and her children, and the truth set its limits — if we can speak of limits when the subject is infinite. That truth is the revelation of God in Christ. Outside this blessed circle the apostle's heart did not, and could not, flow, so far as the Holy Spirit controlled him. We see this at once when John adds, "but also all who know the truth." Every heart that cherishes the truth must love those who are also under its power.
One writer compares these words with how John greets Gaius, the man he writes to in his next letter.
Notice the moral fitness of the words chosen here. In writing to a lady, John does not use the words "well beloved" and "beloved" as he does to Gaius. It is certainly not that he loved her less, but John is careful to give no one any occasion for wrong impressions. Yet she is "the elect lady" whom he says he loves "in truth." Her being chosen by God is the reason for his love toward her, a love shared by all those who have known the truth.
This letter to a mother and her children matters far beyond one home. It matters because of what that home was doing when others gave way.
Very early in the church's history the citadel had fallen to the enemy, and the flag of truth had been hauled down and laid in the dust. Had it? Perhaps that was true of the majority, who had yielded to some other authority than the Lord's and had compromised the truth. But this lady and her children had not given in to the adversary. They were keeping the flag flying. When the church failed, the Christian household stepped into the breach. Its answer to the enemy was "No surrender!" and it held the fort for the Lord and the truth.
- Elder, not apostle — John sets aside the highest title in the church. Love takes the lower path when a special need calls for it.
- Elect, not named — John leaves her name out to spare her publicity. The title he gives her points to God's choice, not her social standing.
- Chosen out, brought in — God chose her out of her natural connections and placed her, even on earth, in new and divine ones.
- Loved in truth — the truth shapes this love and sets its bounds — the revelation of God in Christ. Everyone who knows that truth shares it.
- Holding the truth — commentators differ over who this lady was. They agree on what her household did: it refused to surrender the truth when many around it had.
for the truth's sake which abides in us and shall be with us to eternity.
John gives the reason for the love he has just spoken of. It rests on truth that lives inside believers and never leaves them. So what does it mean for truth to dwell in a person, and what does that do to our love?
The word "truth" carries this short letter. Even Christian affection rests on it.
In verses 1 and 2 John puts the strongest possible emphasis on truth. The letter itself tells us what we must do to defend the truth. The first thing we find is that truth is the foundation of every Christian relationship and affection, and truth is to govern them. The love that belongs to Christians is "in the truth", because it grows as the fruit of our having been born of God.
The phrase "because of the truth" names a cause, and a cause can be checked.
And this is how we judge it: "because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever." The apostle loved the lady and her children, but he loved them because of the truth. Where that was absent, there could be no divine love.
The truth that shapes this love also sets its limits.
John's love for this godly woman and her children was both formed and limited by the truth — by the revelation of God in Christ. Every heart that treasures the truth must love those who are also under its power. That love will show itself "because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever." Human affection springs from our favourites and preferences, and people often mistake it for divine love. A scripture like this gives the test and the correction we need.
Loving because of the truth cuts in two directions, and this letter takes up the sharper one.
That points in two directions. The love must be sincere, free from the favouritism that is so natural to the flesh. It must also refuse to tolerate evil, since truth and error can never agree. This letter states the second of these two points. The third letter deals with the first.
The verse says the truth is inside us and stays with us forever. Commentators tie the first half to the Spirit and the second to Christ Himself.
The Spirit who lives in us is the Spirit of truth, and so the truth lives in us. Forever we shall be with Christ, who is the Truth, and so the truth shall be with us forever. This truth lives in us because we have the Spirit of truth. It is meant to mark our character and find proper expression in us. Others should be able to see it, and to testify to it if that is needed.
The words "abides" and "forever" promise more than a long stay.
It is precious to see here that the truth dwells or abides in believers. It is not just an occasional visitor. And it abides with us forever. It is living and permanent, and there is no possibility of a child of God losing it.
There is a second kind of permanence here: not only in our hold on the truth, but in the truth itself.
The Spirit of truth will abide in us forever. His truth is not subject to the changing moods of time. It is unchangeable and unalterable. There is no development. It is not subject to an evolutionary process. The truth is "the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). This indwelling truth within the believer is the great preservative against error.
An indwelling truth is not a private possession. It shapes conduct.
Here we find another principle of life... that which dwells in us characterizes our walk. If Satan's lie lives in us, we are bound to walk in falsehood and crookedness in our dealings with God. When the Spirit of God puts truth in us (as we saw in 2 John 2), we shall walk in the truth, even while we walk in the middle of this crooked world. The walk of a Christian is to be light in the middle of darkness, and truth in the middle of error.
- Cause. Love here is not a mood but a response. John loved the lady and her children because of the truth. Where that cause is missing, there is no divine love.
- Indwelling. The truth dwells in believers by the Spirit of truth. It stays forever, because Christ, who is the Truth, is theirs forever.
- Permanent. Truth is a resident, not a visitor. It never changes, and a child of God cannot lose it.
- Test. Truth is the cause of love, so truth also tests it. It corrects affection built on personal favourites, and it keeps real love from tolerating evil.
- Visible. What lives inside shapes the walk outside. Truth in us gives light in the dark, and others can see it and testify to it.
Grace shall be with you, mercy, peace from God [the] Father, and from [the] Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
I rejoiced greatly that I have found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received commandment from the Father.
This short letter goes to a woman and her household. It opens with John's joy: he had found some of her children living in the truth. Three questions follow. Why some of the children and not all? What does it mean to walk in truth? And why does that walk go back to a command from the Father?
The wording is careful. It reports what was found, and it does not claim more than that.
"I rejoiced greatly," he continues, "to find some of your children." He says some, not all. Why? Because there may have been one or more of them who had not yet confessed the Saviour and Lord. Possibly one or more might have slipped under the bad influence of the misleaders. For some good reason he goes only so far as to say "some of your children walking in the truth." This is the main point, and there is a necessary limit even here. It is not merely knowing the truth but walking in it — or as the same apostle says in the Gospel, "whoever does what is true" (John 3:21).
Even a partial report is worth rejoicing over.
Now John records his great joy: he found some of this sister's children walking in truth. He does not say "walking in love," for at this time he had to emphasise the truth. He could not say it of all her children, yet of some it was true, and for each one we may well rejoice. This was according to the Father's commandment — not the legal commandments of the law of God, but the commandments that belong to a Father's living relationship with His children.
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Walking is the simplest thing a person does, so it stands for the whole of life.
We may call walking the simplest and most basic activity of the human race. So it naturally stands for activity. To walk in truth is to have all one's activities — one's thinking, speaking, going, doing, every movement of mind or body — governed by one whole world of reality, and in keeping with it. That reality has its centre in God Himself revealed in the Lord Jesus, and its outer edge in the furthest reaches of His will and word. This is a high standard, truly, yet not too high, and not out of reach. We may walk through a world of unrealities governed by realities which are divine.
The order matters. The walk is an effect, and something must come first to produce it.
Walking in truth is the result of having the truth. The truth produces truthfulness. The man who has not got the truth cannot possibly walk in truth, and will not keep up the appearance of it for long. Walking like this was the effect of knowing the truth itself: they walked in truth, "just as we were commanded by the Father."
The verse does not leave the walk to personal preference. It anchors it in something received.
In the next verse, again, we have "from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love." "I rejoiced greatly that I found of your children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father." Now he brings in obedience: it is a commandment from the Father. He will have the Son honoured, even as Himself.
Authority and love are not rivals. But in our own experience, authority comes first.
Now we thankfully receive a commandment of the Father. Is there anything good that is not based upon divine authority? And the blotting out of divine authority would be an unspeakable loss. No doubt there is more than authority; there is divine love. Love was always in God, and He showed it to us while we were godless and evil. Yet when we are converted we always begin with divine authority and a submissive heart, horrified at our old rebellious spirit.
The praise falls on one household, which says something about a mother's first responsibility.
The positive appreciation of the walk of the children of "the elect lady": they walked in truth (v.4). This seems to confirm that the primary responsibility for a believing mother is the walk of her own children. What joy it is for a mother to see her children walk with and according to the Lord!
- Truth received. The walk is never the starting point. Someone who does not have the truth cannot walk in it, and the imitation will not last long.
- Truth walked. To walk in truth is to let one reality govern everything: thinking, speaking, going, doing. God has revealed that reality in the Lord Jesus.
- Truth commanded. The walk rests on a commandment from the Father. It is not the law, but a Father's word to His children, received with thanks.
- Truth partial. John says some of the children, not all. Some may never have confessed Christ, or may have followed those who misled them. Yet every child who walks in truth is worth rejoicing over.
- Truth rejoiced in. A household walking this way brought John joy. It is the joy every believing mother longs to see in her own children.
And now I beseech thee, lady, not as writing to thee a new commandment, but that which we have had from [the] beginning, that we should love one another.
John is writing to a woman he calls the elect lady. He turns from his joy over her children to one thing he asks of her, and he is careful to say it is nothing new. Why did the best known instruction in Christianity need repeating at all? And why does John press it as something already old?
John says he is not writing a new commandment. Its age and its freshness come from two different facts.
It is the old and new commandment. It was old because it was manifested in Christ Himself; new because it is just as true in us as in Him. Divine love flows from love, and reproduces itself in all who know the truth, that is, who know Christ.
In John's usage the phrase points to one particular time, and to words spoken then.
In John's usage, "from the beginning" points to the time when Christ was here on earth. So it may be an allusion to His words, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12.) And notice that, as to the spiritual life, this is the only instruction John sends to the elect lady. How much, however, is involved in it! No one could show love to God's people without the divine nature, "for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7). Wherever love shows itself in this way, it is the divine nature at work. So we may say that if believers are to love one another, they must enjoy God's love, and therefore the Spirit must not be grieved. Love for one another is love in communion with the heart of God. As Paul teaches, it is the spring of holiness in walk and conduct. (1 Thess. 3:12-13.)
John repeats the phrase a line later, and not by accident.
John attaches the words "heard from the beginning" with care. They remind everyone, then and now, that the instruction dates from the time when Christ appeared here.
John does not issue orders. He asks. One writer draws attention to the tone of the appeal and to what it rests on.
He speaks in the language of grace, not of law. He begs her to be consistent with the commandment known from the beginning of Christianity in the world. That commandment is the Lord Jesus' own, so it was not new when John wrote. It is simply that "we love one another." This is true consistency with the divine life planted in every believing heart.
The letter goes on to warn this woman against welcoming certain teachers. That warning sits right beside the call to love.
Here John warns this lady against receiving certain people who did not bring the truth. He had pressed the walk of love very strongly in the first Epistle. He presses it here too. Then he takes these two guards of true love: one is the truth and the other is obedience — just what Christ was when He was in the world. He was love come into the world, the witness and testimony of love. He was the truth, and He was the obedient man.
Kelly then names what love is not.
But what is love? It is not independence of each other. It is not agreeing to differ. Such human inventions are not just a departure from the truth; they are in fact morally evil and harmful. "This is love, that we walk according to His commandments." You cannot separate it from Christ; you cannot separate it from obedience.
Deceivers are in view a few lines later. Knowing the right doctrine, on its own, will not keep anyone safe from them.
We can resist false teachers only when we are grounded in truth and love, and walk accordingly... To escape error and refuse deceivers, knowing the truth will not be enough. We must also practise the truth, following the commandment we have received from the Father. The first Epistle tells us what the Father's commandment is: "that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another" (1 John 3:23).
- Old — the commandment is not a new invention; Christ Himself displayed it while He was here on earth.
- New — it stays new because the same love is now true in believers as it was in Him.
- Given — John does not impose it as law; he begs, appealing to the divine life already planted in the heart.
- Guarded — truth and obedience protect real love, and Christ showed all three together.
- Practised — knowing the truth is not enough; love lived out is what keeps a household safe from deceivers.
And this is love, that we should walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, according as ye have heard from the beginning, that ye might walk in it.
John writes this short letter to a woman and her children. He urges the old command to love one another, then says plainly what that love is: a walk marked out by God's commandments, on a path unchanged since the start.
John does not leave love to each reader's taste. He asks what love is, and his answer rules out the popular substitutes.
But what is love? "And this is love:" it is not being independent of each other. It is not agreeing to differ. It is none of those human inventions, which are not only a departure from the truth but are in fact morally evil and harmful. "This is love, that we walk according to his commandments." You cannot separate it from Christ. You cannot separate it from obedience.
Christ Himself is the pattern. He kept His Father's commandments because He loved Him.
"And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments." Just as Christ walked according to the commandments of God because He loved Him. As He said (John 14:31), "I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father." So it is with those who follow Him.
The same writer points to two guards John sets around love. Christ Himself was both of them.
Then he takes these two guards of true love: one is the truth and the other is obedience — exactly what Christ was when He was in the world. He came into the world as love, the witness and testimony of love. He was the truth. He was the obedient man. He showed His love for His Father by obeying Him in all things.
Love that comes from God can only move in God's own channels. His commandments mark out those channels.
Love which is of God can only flow out according to the nature of God, and so in divine channels. The commandments of God express His nature, what He is, and in this way they reveal Him to us in and through the living Word. So we have sure directions for the love John speaks of. If we neglect them, confusion follows among the people of God, to their spiritual loss and damage. Love builds up, but only when we show it according to God.
So what about love that seems warm but ignores what Christ commanded?
We must not forget that the paths of love and obedience are not two paths, but one. "And this is love," said one who lived very near the heart of Jesus, speaking by the Holy Spirit, "that we walk according to His commandments." You may meet with love on paths of disobedience. But that is not the holy love which has its spring in God, the love Jesus commands His people to have.
The verse ties the commandment to what the readers heard at the beginning. For the Christian, that beginning is not Adam but Christ.
Adam was the beginning of the human race on earth. But Christ is the beginning for the Christian. With Christ came grace and truth, and the source of Christian obedience and mutual love… When the Son of God appeared in flesh as foretold, grace and truth came in Him. The light judged everything that did not match God's nature, and the truth showed every person and thing as it really is.
The verse uses the word "walk" twice. Love proves itself by obeying, and that obedience must keep going on the path known from the start.
But love shows itself in practice by obeying the will of God. There may be love on the lips without obedience in the life. But love in the heart must produce obedience in the life. And the commandment of love is this: we should walk, and keep on walking, in all that God has made known to us in Christ from the start. The danger then threatening was that, under various excuses, some would be drawn away to follow and obey ideas foreign to what had been from the beginning.
- Defined — John does not leave love to personal taste. He defines it as walking by God's commandments. You cannot cut it off from Christ or from obedience.
- Displayed — Christ obeyed the Father because He loved Him. In Him love, truth and obedience were one, and they stay one in those who follow Him.
- Directed — God's commandments express what He is. They are the channels His love flows through, and love builds others up only when it keeps to them.
- Distinguished — Love found on a path of disobedience is not the love that springs from God. The road of love and the road of obedience are one road.
- Durable — What they heard "from the beginning" is Christ, made known here on earth. Keep walking in it, and refuse ideas foreign to it.