Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
2 John 1:1

Clarke's Commentary

THE SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN.

Chronological Notes relative to this Epistle.

-Year of the Constantinopolitan era of the world, or that used by the Byzantine historians, and other eastern writers, 5593.

-Year of the Alexandrian era of the world, 5587.

-Year of the Antiochian era of the world, 5577.

-Year of the world, according to Archbishop Usher, 4089.

-Year of the world, according to Eusebius, in his Chronicon, 4311.

-Year of the minor Jewish era of the world, or that in common use, 3845.

-Year of the Greater Rabbinical era of the world, 4444.

-Year from the Flood, according to Archbishop Usher, and the English Bible, 2433.

-Year of the Cali yuga, or Indian era of the Deluge, 3187.

-Year of the era of Iphitus, or since the first commencement of the Olympic games, 1025.

-Year of the era of Nabonassar, king of Babylon, 834.

-Year of the CCXVIth Olympiad, 1.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, 832.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Frontinus, 836.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to the Fasti Capitolini, 837.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Varro, which was that most generally used, 838.

-Year of the era of the Seleucidae, 397.

-Year of the Caesarean era of Antioch, 133.

-Year of the Julian era, 130.

-Year of the Spanish era, 123.

-Year from the birth of Jesus Christ, according to Archbishop Usher, 89.

-Year of the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 85.

-Year of Artabanus IV., king of the Parthians, 4.

-Year of the Dionysian period, or Easter Cycle, 86.

-Year of the Grecian Cycle of nineteen years, or Common Golden Number, 10; or the year before the fourth embolismic.

-Year of the Jewish Cycle of nineteen years, 7; or the year before the third embolismic.

-Year of the Solar Cycle, 10.

-Dominical Letter, it being the first year after the Bissextile, or Leap Year, B.

-Day of the Jewish Passover, the twenty-seventh of March, which happened in this year on the Jewish Sabbath.

-Easter Sunday, the third of April.

-Epact, or age of the moon on the 22d of March, (the day of the earliest Easter Sunday possible,) 9.

-Epact, according to the present mode of computation, or the moon's age on New Year's day, or the Calends of January, 17.

-Monthly Epacts, or age of the moon on the Calends of each month respectively, (beginning with January,) 17, 19, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 24, 25, 27, 27.

-Number of Direction, or the number of days from the twenty-first of March to the Jewish Passover, 6.

-Year of the Emperor Flavius Domitianus Caesar, the last of those usually styled the Twelve Caesars, 5.

-Roman Consuls, Domitianus Augustus Caesar, the eleventh time, and T. Aurelius Fulvus or Fulvius.

-The years in which Domitian had been consul before were, A. D. 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 80, 82, 83, and 84.

It should be observed that the date of this epistle is very uncertain. The above is only upon the supposition that it was written about A. D. 85. See the preface.

II JOHN.

The apostle's address to a Christian matron and her children,

1-3.

He rejoices to find that certain of her family had received,

and continued to adorn, the truth; and he exhorts them to

continue to love one another according to the commandment of

Christ, 4-6,

And particularly cautions them against deceivers, and to so

watch, that they might not lose the benefit of what they had

received, 7, 8.

The necessity of abiding in the doctrine of Christ, 9.

He cautions them against receiving, or in any way forwarding,

those who did not bring the true doctrine of Christ, 10, 11.

Excuses himself from writing more largely, and purposes to pay

her and family a visit shortly, 12, 13.

NOTES ON II. JOHN.

Verse 2 John 1:1. The elder — John the apostle, who was now a very old man, generally supposed to be about ninety, and therefore he uses the term ο πρεσβυτερος, presbyter or elder, not as the name of an office, but as designating his advanced age. He is allowed to have been the oldest of all the apostles, and to have been the only one who died a natural death.

This title led some of the ancients to attribute this epistle to a person called John the Presbyter, a member of the Church at Ephesus; and not to John the apostle. But this is a groundless supposition.

The elect lady — εκλεκτη κυρια. As κυρια, kuria, may be the feminine of κυριος, kurios, lord, therefore it may signify lady; and so several, both ancients and moderns, have understood it. But others have considered it the proper name of a woman, Kyria; and that this is a very ancient opinion is evident from the Peshito Syriac, the oldest version we have, which uses it as a proper name [Syriac] koureea, as does also the Arabic [Arabic] kooreea.

Some have thought that Eclecta was the name of this matron, from the word εκλεκτη, which we translate elect, and which here signifies the same as excellent, eminent, honourable, or the like. Others think that a particular Church is intended, which some suppose to be the Church at Jerusalem, and that the elect sister, 2 John 1:13, means the Church at Ephesus; but these are conjectures which appear to me to have no good ground. I am satisfied that no metaphor is here intended; that the epistle was sent to some eminent Christian matron, not far from Ephesus, who was probably deaconess of the Church, who, it is likely, had a Church at her house, or at whose house the apostles and travelling evangelists frequently preached, and were entertained. This will appear more probable in the course of the notes.

Whom I love in the truth — Whom I love as the Christian religion requires us to love one another.

And not I only — She was well known in the Churches; many had witnessed or heard of her fidelity, and partook of her hospitality; so that she had a good report of all Christians in that quarter.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

CONTENTS OF THE LETTER

The ‘elect lady’ whom John mentions in his opening greeting could have been an individual known to John, but the expression seems more likely to refer to a church. If this is so, ‘her children’ would be the church members. Whoever they were, John addresses them in a way that shows the respect and love he has for them. They are united with John and with Christians everywhere through the truth of Christ that they hold in common and the love of Christ in which they all share. Truth and love are inseparable from the gospel by which they have been saved, and do not change to suit current trends and popular philosophies (1-3).
John is thankful that his readers have maintained their loyalty to the gospel, but he wants them to remember that they must also maintain their Christian love. Those who claim to live according to God’s truth will show it in their love for one another and in their obedience to God’s commands (4-6). In this way they will strengthen themselves and so will not be easily deceived by those who give wrong teaching concerning Christ. One error that some of the travelling preachers were spreading around was that Jesus Christ did not have a truly human body. John warns that if they are allowed to preach such things in the church, their erroneous ideas will soon destroy all the good work that the church has done (7-8).
The false teachers think that their teaching about Jesus is advanced, but actually it destroys all hope of salvation. By refusing to accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God who became a man, they are refusing God himself, for no one can have the Father without having the Son. Christians must not listen to such teaching nor give any encouragement or help to the teachers (9-11).
As John hopes to visit the believers soon, he will write no more at present. The group of Christians from which John writes (possibly the church in Ephesus) joins him in sending greetings (12-13).

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

CONTENTS OF THE LETTER

John is always glad to hear good news of Christians whom he has helped over the years. In particular, he is encouraged by the news he has heard about Gaius, namely, that he continues to grow in spiritual strength and remains faithful to the truth (1-4).
Besides being faithful to God in the things he believes and teaches, Gaius is helpful to the travelling preachers. He welcomes them to preach in the church and provides them with loving hospitality. This is true not just of those travellers who are his friends, but also of those who are strangers to him (5-6). By supporting such people, he is helping to preserve God’s truth in a time of widespread false teaching. Others in the church should follow his example (7-8).
By contrast Diotrephes acts only out of selfish ambition. He opposes the authority of John (who was an apostle as well as an elder), refuses to pass on John’s instruction to the church and makes false accusations against him. Harshly domineering and always self-assertive, he refuses to welcome the travelling preachers into the church and expels any who oppose him. If Gaius is unable to restore some harmony and order in the church, John himself may have to come and use his apostolic authority to punish Diotrephes (9-10).
John reminds Gaius of the need to stand firm for what is right and not to give in to wrongdoing merely for the sake of peace. He suggests that the respected Demetrius might be a reliable helper in this difficult time (11-12). John expects that he himself will visit Gaius soon, and this will give him the opportunity to talk over these and other matters at greater length. Meanwhile, he and his friends pass on their greetings to the church (13-15).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that know the truth;

The elder … The use of "elder" as an apostolic title is verified by the fact of the apostle Peter having used it (1 Peter 5:1). Peter used "fellow-elder" indicating that others besides himself in the apostolic group were still living. John's use of "elder" could indicate that he alone of the sacred Twelve still remained alive. The title of "elders" was used of all the apostles, and "they were referred to by Papias under this title."Robert Law, op. cit, p. 1718. Plummer commented on this that, "Elder was not an unlikely title; other apostles were called elders; but John was the elder,"A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 1. the last survivor of the Twelve.

Unto the elect lady and her children … As noted from the ASV margin, the Greek term for lady might also be translated as a proper name, Cyria; but this tendency to view this letter as being written to a prominent Christian woman of that era is rejected here. As Roberts pointed out, "It is also true that the word for elect could be translated as a proper name, Eclecte."J. W. Roberts, The Letters of John and Jude (Austin, Texas: R. B. Sweet Company, 1968), p. 150. However, as Roberts noted, the word for "elect" is used as an adjective by John in 2 John 1:13. There is absolutely no reason for assuming that any personal name is involved here. "The elect lady" is a metaphorical reference to the church, often spoken of in the New Testament under the figure of a bride, or a pure woman. Roberts agreed that, "The most likely possibility, however, is that the elect lady is not a person at all but a personification for a local church."Ibid., p. 149. This would seem to be a mandatory conclusion from the last clause of the verse.

And not I only, but also all they that know the truth … It is inconceivable that any prominent woman in the early church was known to "all who know the truth," i.e., every Christian on earth, although such an expression is understandable as a reference to a prominent congregation. John's purpose of shortly visiting the church (2 John 1:12) would indicate its prominence and importance.

Whom I love in the truth … Here, the author of this letter continues in the same vein of thought that is found in 1 John.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

The elder - See the introduction, Section 1, (2,d).

Unto the elect lady - The elect or chosen Kyria. See the introduction, Section 2. He addresses her as one chosen of God to salvation, in the use of a term often applied to Christians in the New Testament.

And her children - The word here rendered “children” (τέκνοις teknois) would include in itself both sons and daughters, but since the apostle immediately uses a masculine pronoun, τοις tois it would seem more probable that sons only were intended. At all events, the use of such a pronoun proves that some at least of her children were sons. Of their number and character we have no information, except that (the notes at 2 John 1:4) a part of them were Christians.

Whom I love in the truth - See the notes, John 3:18. The meaning here is, that he “truly” or “sincerely” loved them. The introduction of the article the here, which is not in the original, (ἐν ἀληθίᾳ en alēthia) somewhat obscures the sense, as if the meaning were that he loved them so far as they embraced the truth. The meaning however is, that he was sincerely attached to them. The word “whom” here, (οὓς hous,) embraces both the mother and her children, though the pronoun is in the masculine gender, in accordance with the usage of the Greek language. No mention is made of her husband, and it may thence be inferred that she was a widow. Had he been living, though he might not have been a Christian, it is to be presumed that some allusion would have been made to him as well as to the children, especially since there is reason to believe that only some of her children were pious. See the notes, 2 John 1:4.

And not I only, but also all they that have known the truth - That is, all those Christians who had had an opportunity of knowing them, were sincerely attached to them. It would seem, from a subsequent part of the Epistle 2 John 1:10, that this female was of a hospitable character, and was accustomed to entertain at her house the professed friends of religion, especially religious teachers, and it is probable that she was the more extensively known from this fact. The commendation of the apostle here shows that it is possible that a family shall be extensively known as one of order, peace, and religion, so that all who know it or hear of it shall regard it with interest, respect, and love.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Tonight, we want to look at 2 John and 3 John and the book of Jude, all short little one-chapter epistles. The epistles of 2 John and 3 John were of course, written by the apostle John. A situation existed in the early church of itinerant prophets. There were men who traveled and they would come to the various churches that have been established or founded. And they would exercise to the churches their gift of prophecy, speaking through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, in the edifying of the churches, in the comforting of the saints, building up the body of Christ.

Now there were those who would come to the church claiming this gift of prophecy, claiming to be speaking in the name of the Lord who were really false prophets, and they would be giving off with their false concepts under the guise of a prophet. If someone should come in here and say, I'm a prophet of God, you know, and I have a message for the church, we'd send them to Romaine to check out the message.

But in the early church, there would be these groups, itinerant prophets who would travel around, come to the church, minister to the church. Now there came to be abuses with this. There would come those that would claim to be a prophet speaking for God and they'd say, Thus saith the Lord, Prepare a great steak dinner, mashed potatoes and green beans, you know. Or, In the name of the Lord, you know, they would --they would say, Thus saith the Lord, you know, Take care of this man's needs. Give him money for his purse.

So it was necessary in the early church that they write some guidelines for these itinerant evangelists and prophets. And so there was a book known as the Dedike, which means the teachings of the apostles, the didactic. And this Dedike were instructions from the apostles to the various churches on how to judge a false prophet and basically, some of the rules by which they judge them. If they come in, if they came in and ministered, received them and all, accept them, and if they stayed more than three days, then they were false prophets. Started living off the people, you know.

And they did have a rule in the Dedike, it said, If they order a meal prepared in the name of the Lord, and if they eat of that meal, they're a false prophet. But if they order it prepared for the poor, and all, and don't partake, then they are to be accepted and honored. If they, in the name of the Lord, you know, order money to be given to them, they were false prophets. Now in the second epistle that John writes, he deals with the truth. Of course, both epistles are very interested in the truth. And in the first one, he deals with those false prophets and their false testimony concerning Jesus Christ.

In the third epistle, he deals with one of the men in the church who did not want any prophets coming in, would not accept or receive any of them because he himself was one of the preeminence. And to Gaius, who the third epistle was addressed to, he told them that he did well in accepting and giving hospitality to these itinerant prophets and evangelists and that there was one, Demetrius, who was coming and he encouraged him to receive him. He was a good man. So behind the two epistles lie these itinerant prophets and evangelists who just traveled around, sort of nomads in the early church. And of course, the theme of both of the epistles is truth.

So the first or the second epistle of John, he writes to the, he writes addressing himself as the elder. Now that word "elder" could mean aged or ancient. It also was a title within the churches. Each of the churches had their elders who were the overseers of the church, but the Greek word "presbyturos" was originally just used for an aged person. At this point when John is writing, he's probably over ninety years old, so he's very qualified to call himself the elder. Both of these epistles, if you'll notice, are quite short and in both of them, he mentions that there are a lot of things he wants to write about, but he will save that until he sees them face to face. He'd rather just talk to them about it than write to them about it.

Now in those days, they had a writing material, a parchment, that was 8 x 10 inches, which is close to the 8 1/2 x 11 notebook paper that you grew up in school with. And interestingly enough, each of these little epistles would fit very well on one of those little 8 x 10 pieces of paper. So that's probably what John originally wrote these on, just some of that original parchments that they had, 8 x 10 inches and he wrote out these little epistles.

But he calls himself the aged,

The elder unto the elect lady and her children ( 2 John 1:1 ),

Now there is, you know, question as to who the elect lady was, if it were actually a person, an individual, or if he was writing to a church. "The elect lady and her children." We don't know. But he said,

whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth ( 2 John 1:1 );

As I said, the truth is the theme of the epistle.

For the truth's sake, which dwells in us, and shall be with us for ever ( 2 John 1:2 ).

Jesus said my words are truth. He said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, my words shall not pass away" ( Matthew 24:35 ). The truth exists forever. And so I love in the truth. I love in truth. And all they that have known the truth, for the truth's sake.

Grace be with you, and mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love ( 2 John 1:3 ).

Grace, mercy and peace: these are common greetings in the New Testament epistles. Usually just grace and peace, some of them is added mercy. To Timothy and Titus was added grace, mercy and peace. The grace of God is God's unmerited favor to you. It's getting what you don't deserve, the goodness of God, the blessings of God which we don't deserve, yet God bestows upon them. That's grace. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve.

David when he prayed, prayed very wisely, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions" ( Psalms 51:1 ). And whenever I pray, I always pray, Have mercy upon me, O God. I never say, O God, I want justice. I'd be burning, mercy, Lord, not getting what I deserve. But God goes one step further, grace, hey; He gives me what I don't deserve, His love, His goodness, His kindness, His blessings. I don't deserve them but He bestows them upon me, the grace of God, the mercy of God and peace.

He said,

I rejoiced greatly that I found thy children walking in truth ( 2 John 1:4 ),

Boy, if you don't know that truth is the theme of the epistle, you ought to know it by now. He in each of the verses so far has mentioned it at least once, sometimes more than once. "I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth,"

as we have received a commandment from the Father. And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another ( 2 John 1:4-5 ).

This is really the essence of the New Testament and the commandments of Jesus. Jesus said, "A new commandment give I unto thee, That you love one another." Jesus said, "By this sign shall men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another" ( John 13:34-35 ). This is a sign to the world.

Now unfortunately, the church's witness to the world hasn't been that good. When churches get in squabbles with each other, when there is fighting and division in the body, it's a very poor witness to the world. It's no sign that we're His disciples. "We know," John said, "that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren" ( 1 John 3:14 ). How do I know that I've really passed from death unto life? God's love planted in my heart for the brethren. So the commandment that we have from the beginning is that we should love one another.

And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it ( 2 John 1:6 ).

So we should walk in love. Love one towards another. This is the agape love that's sacrificing, self-effacing, giving love.

Now he deals with,

Many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist ( 2 John 1:7 ).

Remember in his first epistle, he said, "Believe not every spirit but try the spirits to see if they be of God. And every spirit that testifieth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: But every spirit that testifies not that Jesus is come in the flesh is not of God: the spirit of antichrist, which is already at work in the world" ( 1 John 4:1-3 ). So now again he talks about "deceivers entered into the world, who confess that Jesus Christ, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh" ( 2 John 1:7 ).

Interestingly enough, though it looks identical to his first epistle, there is a very interesting difference in the Greek. That difference lies in the tense. And in the second epistle here that we are considering tonight, the word literally is "coming in the flesh." Now in the first epistle, it was that He had come in the flesh; that is, His first coming was in the flesh.

You see, there were the Gnostics who declared that Jesus was a phantom, an apparition. There appears to be a person but it wasn't really there. It's just an apparition. That everything of the material is evil, everything that is of material substance is inherently evil. Thus, had Jesus had a material body it would have been evil and He could not have been God; therefore, He did not have a material body because that's evil. All material is evil. And the Gnostics taught that Jesus was just a phantom and they had stories about when He would walk on the sand, you wouldn't see any footprints, you know, and they developed all kinds of things like this. Jesus was an apparition. He didn't really come in the flesh.

John said in the first epistle that whoever declares that was, you know, that's the way you test the spirits to see if they're really of God. Here the test is: Is He coming in the flesh? Now there is a very interesting point to be made here and that is, the Jehovah Witnesses deny that Jesus is coming in the flesh. His coming is a spiritual coming. He came in 1914, established the kingdom of God in the secret chambers. He's not really coming in the flesh. Now what does this then say of those who hold that doctrine? "Many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist."

Now look to yourselves [or be careful], that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God ( 2 John 1:8-9 ).

Though they claim to have the Father, Jehovah Witnesses, yet their denial of Christ is also denial of the Father.

He that abides in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you ( 2 John 1:9-10 ),

On Saturday morning.

and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him goodbye, God speed: for he that bids him God speed is a partaker of his evil deeds ( 2 John 1:10-11 ).

So when they leave, don't say, Well, God bless you, brother. Or God bless, you don't want God to bless their pernicious ways. They are denying the truth of God that Jesus Christ is God manifested in the flesh and that Jesus is coming in the flesh. They deny that. So don't bid them God bless you. You might say, God bring you to the truth. God bring you out of darkness into the glorious light of His Son, but not God bless you.

Having many things to write unto you, I would not write them with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full ( 2 John 1:12 ).

Fullness of joy, that's what the Lord wants for every child of God. The fullness of joy is mentioned by Jesus in John, the fifteenth chapter. It's related to abiding in Him. In the sixteenth chapter of the gospel of John, it's related to your prayer life. "Ask, that you might receive, that your joy may be full" ( John 16:24 ). In the first epistle of John, the fullness of joy is related to our fellowship with God. "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you might have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full" ( 1 John 1:3-4 ). Now the fullness of joy is related to just getting together with the body of Christ in fellowship.

Tomorrow we go out to Santa Cruz and we'll be meeting with a lot of the ministers from the Calvary Chapels in Northern California and Nevada, Southern Oregon. We'll be meeting with about, oh, couple hundred of the ministers and some of the staff from the various Calvary Chapels up there, and I'm looking forward to it. Last year when we were up there we had just a fabulous time. After the service in the evening on Monday night last year, we got together in Mike Macintosh's room and I guess we were up 'til 2Jo 1:30 , 2Jo 2:00 o'clock, just fellowshipping together, talking about what the Lord is doing and it's just the meeting face to face. You know, we can write letters to each other and share but there's just something about that personal meeting together and the time that we can share together.

So there's that fullness of joy as we relate to each other the things of Christ, as we talk about the Lord and about the ministry of the Holy Spirit within our hearts and through our lives. Fullness of joy. "I'd like to write other things to you but I'd rather wait until we see each other face to face, that our joy may be full."

The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen ( 2 John 1:13 ).

"

Contending for the Faith

The Elect Lady

The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth.

The elder: The word properly means an old man (Greek: presbuteros, elderly man). Vincent says, "The word is used originally of seniority in age.... Afterward as a term of rank or office" (391). Members of the Sanhedrin were called elders (Matthew 16:21; Acts 6:12). Then there are the official elders in the church (Acts 11:30; Acts 14:23; 1 Timothy 5:17; 1 Timothy 5:19). Is John using the term in the original sense or in the official sense? John could not have been calling himself "the elder" in the official sense because there was always a plurality of elders in a local church and they never occupied an official position in regard to other congregations.

John is writing with all of the authority of an apostle and exercising that power freely in this epistle. An elder does not have that authority. He would be contradicting the scriptural concept of an elder by acting officially as "the elder" in imposing himself on other congregations. Peter calls himself "an elder" but not "the elder." "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ..." (1 Peter 5:1). Peter exhorts elders from the official capacity of an apostle and notes that he also is an elder, officially. John, then, is using the term in its original sense. He writes as an old man instructing his beloved children in the gospel.

unto the elect lady and her children: "Elect" is eklektos and speaks of "one picked out, chosen." As noted in the introduction, John is writing to a local congregation using the figure of a woman and her children. God’s people are called His "elect," His chosen ones, who have been chosen for salvation (Matthew 24:22; Matthew 24:24; Matthew 24:31; Romans 8:33; Colossians 3:12; 2 Timothy 2:10; Titus 1:1). It is in complete harmony with these passages to refer to a congregation as "elect." Peter uses the word "elect" in reference to a church: "The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you" (1 Peter 5:13). Barclay says, " ’The Elect One at Babylon,’ and The Elect One is feminine" (153). Feminine qualities are attributed to the church, as the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33; Romans 7:4). She is a beautiful lady adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:2; Revelation 21:9). "Her children" are those who have been produced through a holy relationship with Jesus Christ. This is an unusual figure that must not be stretched beyond its ability to symbolize. The congregation as a whole is called "the elect lady"; as individuals they are called "children." Those who have a problem with this figure are probably trying to extend the illustration beyond its ability to illustrate.

whom I love in the truth: The love that John expresses for this congregation is agape love, the love of preciousness, the love that God and Christ have demonstrated in unmistakable ways to an ungodly and unloving world. It is a love that sets a value and then responds to it, a self-sacrificing, self-denying, and self-forgetting love. Paul describes this love in 1 Corinthians 13, in what we often call the "love chapter" of the Bible. It is peculiarly the love of Christians that can be exhibited only by Christians, for it has God as its source. The expression "in the truth," Wuest says, "is locative of sphere" (200). The article does not appear in the original text. John says that he loves this church in the sphere of truth; that is, because it subscribes to the truth of God’s word. God’s word promotes Christian love in no uncertain terms as we have learned repeatedly from John’s pen in 1 John. This term indicates that special love Christians have for one another. Wuest says, "He uses the pronoun in an intensive way, ’whom, as for myself, I love in the sphere of truth’" (200). Paul implies a special love that Christians have for one another in Galatians 6:10. We love all men but especially one another.

and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth: John widens the circle of this love when he says, "not I only." There are many others who have a special love for this congregation. They are "all they that have known the truth." "Known" is from the word that speaks of experiential knowledge, a knowledge Christians possess and that continues to grow and mature as long as they live. "Known" is in the perfect tense and thus speaks of knowledge gained by experience and retained at this time. Vincent says it should be rendered, "I have learned to know, therefore I know" (392). What knowledge have they gained and retained? It is the knowledge of "the truth," the truth of the gospel. There is a bond that exists between people who stand for the truth of God’s word. There are many Christians who have never seen these people to whom John is writing, but they love them with a special love because of this special bond. John wants these people to know, "You are loved." We all need this knowledge.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

As explained in the introduction section of these notes, the "elder" was evidently the Apostle John, the "chosen lady" a local church, and her "children" the believers in that church.

"It may well be that the address is deliberately unidentifiable. The letter was written at a time when persecution was a real possibility. If the letter were to fall into the wrong hands, there might well be trouble. And it may well be that the letter is addressed in such a way that to the insider its destination is quite clear, while to the outsider it would look like a personal letter from one friend to another. The address may in fact be a skilful attempt to baffle any hostile person into whose hands the letter might come; and, if that is so, our difficulty in identifying the person or Church to whom the letter is addressed is nothing other than a tribute to the skill of John." [Note: Barclay, p. 162.]

The church was "chosen" in that it consisted of elect individuals: Christians.

"We are hardly to think here of an elder in the sense which the word presbyteros usually bears in Christian contexts in the New Testament, that is, one who discharges the ministry of eldership in a local church. . . . The word appears in another specialized sense in second-century Christian literature, of church leaders in the generation after the apostles, particularly those who were disciples of apostles or of ’apostolic men,’ and were therefore guarantors of the ’tradition’ which they received from the apostles and delivered in turn to their own followers." [Note: F. F. Bruce, The Epistles of John, p. 135. See Irenaeus (ca. A.D. 130-202), Against Heresies, 5.5.1; 5.36.2; The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus, 3.39.]

John loved this church and so did other Christians who knew about it. The basis of this love was the truth the Christians there believed in common with one another. This "truth" refers to God’s revelation in Scripture. The importance of this truth is clear from the fact that John referred to it three times in these two verses.

"The Truth makes true love possible." [Note: B. F. Westcott, The Epistles of St. John, p. 225.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

I. INTRODUCTION VV. 1-3

John introduced himself, identified the recipients of this letter, greeted them, and mentioned the major subjects of his concern to prepare his readers for what follows.

Barclay's Daily Study Bible

Chapter 1

THE ELECT LADY ( 2 John 1:1-3 )

1:1-3 The Elder to the Elect Lady and to her children, whom I love in truth (it is not only I who love you and them, but so do all who love the truth) because of the truth which abides in us and which will be with us for ever. Grace, mercy and peace will be with you from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

The writer designates himself simply by the title of The Elder. Elder can have three different meanings.

(i) It can mean simply an older man, one who by reason of his years and experience is deserving of affection and of respect. There will be something of that meaning here. The letter is from an aged servant of Christ and the church.

(ii) In the New Testament the elders are the officials of the local churches. They were the first of all the church officials, and Paul ordained elders in his churches on his missionary journeys, as soon as it was possible to do so ( Acts 4:21-23). The word cannot be used in that sense here, because these elders were local officials, whose authority and duties were confined to their own congregation, whereas The Elder of this letter clearly has an authority which extends over a much wider area. He claims the right to advise congregations in places where he himself is not a resident.

(iii) Almost certainly this letter was written in Ephesus in the province of Asia. In the church there Elder was used in a special sense. The elders were men who had been direct disciples of the apostles; it is from these men that both Papias and Irenaeus, who lived and worked and wrote in Asia, tell us that they got their information. The elders were the direct links between the second generation of Christians and the followers of Christ in the flesh. It is undoubtedly in that sense that the word is used here. The writer of the letter is one of the last direct links with Jesus Christ; and therein lies his right to speak.

As we have already said in the introduction, The Elect Lady is something of a problem. There are two suggestions.

(i) There are those who hold that the letter is written to an individual person. In Greek the phrase is Eklekte ( G1588) Kuria ( G2959) . Kurios ( G2962) (the masculine form of the adjective) is a common form of respectful address and Eklekte ( G1588) could just possibly--though not probably--be a proper name, in which case the letter would be written to My Dear Eklekte. Kuria ( G2959) , besides being a title of respectful address, can be a proper name, in which case eklekte ( G1588) would be an adjective and the letter would be to The Elect Kuria. Just possibly both words are proper names, in which case the letter would be to a lady called Eklekte Kuria.

But, if this letter is written to an individual, it is much more likely that neither word is a proper name and that the Revised Standard Version is correct in translating the phrase The elect lady. There has been much speculation as to who The Elect Lady might be. We mention only two of the suggestions. (a) It has been suggested that The Elect Lady is Mary, the mother of our Lord. She was to be a mother to John and he was to be a son to her ( John 19:26-27), and a personal letter from John might well be a letter to her. (b) Kurios ( G2962) means Master; and Kuria ( G2959) as a proper name would mean Mistress. In Latin, Domina is the same name and in Aramaic, Martha; both meaning Mistress or Lady. It has, therefore, been suggested that the letter was written to Martha of Bethany.

(ii) It is much more likely that the letter is written to a church. It is far more likely that it is a church which all men love who know the truth ( 2 John 1:1). 2 John 1:4 says that some of the children are walking in the truth. In 2 John 1:4; 2 John 1:8; 2 John 1:10; 2 John 1:12 the word you is in the plural, which suggests a church. Peter uses almost exactly the same phrase when he sends greetings from The Elect One (the form is feminine) which is at Babylon ( 1 Peter 5:13).

It may well be that the address is deliberately unidentifiable. The letter was written at a time when persecution was a real possibility. If it were to fall into the wrong hands, there might well be trouble. And it may be that the letter is addressed in such a way that to the insider its destination is quite clear, while to the outsider it would look like a personal letter from one friend to another.

LOVE AND TRUTH ( 2 John 1:1-3 continued)

It is of great interest to note how in this passage love and truth are inseparably connected. It is in the truth that the elder loves the elect lady. It is because of the truth that he loves and writes to the church. In Christianity we learn two things about love.

(i) Christian truth tells us the way in which we ought to love. Agape ( G26) is the word for Christian love. Agape ( G26) is not passion with its ebb and flow, its flicker and its flame; nor is it an easy-going and indulgent sentimentalism. And it is not an easy thing to acquire or a light thing to exercise. Agape ( G26) is undefeatable goodwill; it is the attitude towards others which, no matter what they do, will never feel bitterness and will always seek their highest good. There is a love which seeks to possess; there is a love which softens and enervates; there is a love which withdraws a man from the battle; there is a love which shuts its eyes to faults and to ways which end in ruin. But Christian love will always seek the highest good of others and will accept all the difficulties, all the problems and all the toil which that search involves. It is of significance that John writes in love to warn.

(ii) Christian truth tells us the reason for the obligation of love. In his first letter, John clearly lays it down. He has talked of the suffering, sacrificing, incredibly generous love of God; and then he says, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" ( 1 John 4:11). The Christian must love because he iv loved. He cannot accept the love of God without showing love to the men God loves. Because God loves us, we must love others with the same generous and sacrificial love.

Before we leave this passage we must note one other thing. John begins this letter with a greeting, but it is a very unusual greeting. He says, "Grace, mercy and peace will be with us." In every other New Testament letter the greeting is in the form of a wish or a prayer. Paul usually says, "Grace be to you and peace." Peter says, "May grace and peace be multiplied to you" ( 1 Peter 1:2). Jude says, "May mercy, peace and love, be multiplied to you" (Jd 2 ). But here the greeting is a statement: "Grace, mercy and peace will be with us." John is so sure of the gifts of the grace of God in Jesus Christ that he does not pray that his friends should receive them; he assures them that they will receive them. Here is the faith which never doubts the promises of God in Jesus Christ.

TROUBLE AND CURE ( 2 John 1:4-6 )

1:4-6 It gave me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, as we have received commandment from the Father. And now, Lady, not as if I were writing a new commandment to you, but a commandment which we have had from the beginning, I beg you that we should love one another. And this is love, that we should walk according to his commandments; and this is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that we should walk in it.

In the church to which he is writing there are things to make John's heart glad and things to make it sad. It brings him joy to know that some of its members are walking in the truth; but that very statement implies that some are not. That is to say, within the church there is division, for there are those who have chosen to walk different roads. For all things John has one remedy and that is love. It is no new remedy and no new commandment; it is the word of Jesus himself: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" ( John 13:34-35). Only love can mend a situation in which personal relationships are broken. Rebuke and criticism are liable to awaken only resentment and hostility; argument and controversy are liable only to widen the breach; love is the one thing to heal the breach and restore the lost relationship.

But it is possible that those who, as John sees it, have gone the wrong way might say, "We do indeed love God." Immediately John's thoughts go to another saying of Jesus: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" ( John 14:15). Jesus' actual commandment was to love one another and, therefore, anyone who does not keep this commandment does not really love God, however much he may claim to do so. The only proof of our love for God is our love for the brethren. This is the commandment, says John, which we have heard from the beginning and in which we must walk.

As we go on we shall see that there is another side to this and that there is no soft sentimentality in John's attitude towards those who were seducing men from the truth; but it is significant that his first cure for all the troubles of the church is love.

THE THREATENING PERIL ( 2 John 1:7-9 )

1:7-9 There is all the more reason to speak like this because there have gone out into the world many deceivers, men who do not confess that Jesus is Christ, and his coming in the flesh. Such a man is the deceiver and the Antichrist. Look to yourselves that you do not ruin that which we have wrought, but see to it that you receive a full reward. Everyone who advances too far and who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not possess God; it is he who abides in that teaching who has both the Father and the Son.

Already, in John 4:2, John has dealt with the heretics who deny the reality of the incarnation. There is one difficulty. In 1 John 4:2 the Greek is that Jesus has come in the flesh. The idea is expressed in a participle and the participle is in the past tense. It is the fact that the incarnation has happened which is stressed. Here there is a change and the participle is in the present tense: the literal translation would be that Jesus comes or is coming in the flesh. As far as the language goes this could mean either of two things.

(i) It could mean that Jesus is always coming in the flesh, that there is a kind of permanence about the incarnation, that it was not one act which finished in the thirty years during which Jesus was in Palestine but is timeless. That would be a great thought and would mean that now and always Jesus Christ, and God through him, is entering into the human situation and into human life.

(ii) It could be a reference to the Second Coming; and it could mean that Jesus is coming again in the flesh. It may well be that there was a belief in the early church that there was to be a second coming of Jesus in the flesh, a kind of incarnation in glory to follow the incarnation of humiliation. That, too, would be a great thought.

But it may well be that C. H. Dodd is right when he says that in a late Greek writer like John, who did not know Greek as the great classical writers knew it, we cannot lay all this stress on tenses; and that we are better to take it that he means the same as he meant in 1 John 4:2. That is, these deceivers are denying the reality of the incarnation and therefore denying that God can fully enter into the life of man.

It is intensely significant to note how the great thinkers held on with both hands to the reality of the incarnation. In the second century, again and again Ignatius insists that Jesus was truly born, that he truly became man, that he truly suffered and that he truly died. Vincent Taylor, in his book on The Person of Christ, reminds us of two great statements of the incarnation. Martin Luther said of Jesus: "He ate, drank, slept, waked; was weary, sorrowful, rejoicing; he wept and he laughed; he knew hunger and thirst and sweat; he talked, he toiled, he prayed...so that there was no difference between him and other men, save only this, that he was God, and had no sin." Emil Brunner cites that passage, and then goes on to say, "The Son of God in whom we are able to believe must be such a One that it is possible to mistake him for an ordinary man."

If God could enter into life only as a disembodied phantom, the body stands for ever despised; then there can be no real communion between the divine and the human; then there can be no real salvation. He had to become what we are to make us what he is.

In 2 John 1:8-9 we hear beneath the words of John the claims of the false teachers.

It is their claim that they are developing Christianity discovering more truly what it means. John insists that they are destroying Christianity and wrecking the foundation which has been laid and on which everything must be built.

2 John 1:9 is interesting and significant. We have translated the first phrase everyone who goes too far. The Greek is proagon ( G4254) . The verb means to go on ahead. The false teachers claimed that they were the progressives, the advanced thinkers, the men of the open and adventurous mind. John himself was one of the most adventurous thinkers of the New Testament. But he insists that, however far a man may advance, he must abide in the teaching of Jesus Christ or he loses touch with God. Here, then, is the great truth. John is not condemning advanced thinking; but he is saying that Jesus Christ must be the touchstone of all thinking and that whatever is out of touch with him can never be right. John would say, "Think--but take your thinking to the touchstone of Jesus Christ and the New Testament picture of him." Christianity is not a nebulous, uncontrolled theosophy; it is anchored to the historical figure of Jesus Christ.

NO COMPROMISE ( 2 John 1:10-13 )

1:10-13 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not greet him on the street; for he who greets him becomes a partner in his evil deeds.

Here we see very clearly the danger which John saw in these false teachers. They are to be no hospitality; and the refusal of hospitality would be the most effective way of stopping their work. John goes further; they are not even to be given a greeting on the street. This would be to indicate that to some extent you had sympathy with them. It must be made quite clear to the world that the church has no tolerance for those whose teaching destroys the faith. This passage may seem on the face of it to run counter to Christian love; but C. H. Dodd has certain very wise things to say about it.

It is by no means without parallel. When the saintly Polycarp met the heretic Marcion, Marcion said: "Do you recognize me?" "I recognize Satan's first-born," answered Polycarp. It was John himself who fled from the public baths when Cerinthus, the heretic, entered them. "Let us hurry away lest the building collapse on us," he said, "because Cerinthus, the enemy of truth, is here."

We have to remember the situation. There was a time when it was touch and go whether the Christian faith would be destroyed by the speculations of pseudo-philosophic heretics. Its very existence was in peril. The church dared not even seem to compromise with this destructive corrosion of the faith.

This, as C. H. Dodd points out, is an emergency regulation and "emergency regulations make bad law." We may recognize the necessity of this way of action in the situation in which John and his people found themselves, without in the least holding that we must treat mistaken thinkers in the same way. And yet, to return to C. H. Dodd, a good-humoured tolerance can never be enough. "The problem is to find a way of living with those whose convictions differ from our own upon the most fundamental matters, without either breaking charity or being disloyal to the truth." It is there that love must find a way. The best way to destroy our enemies, as Abraham Lincoln said, is to make them our friends. We can never compromise with mistaken teachers but we are never free from the obligation of seeking to lead them into the truth.

So John comes to an end. He will not write any more for he hopes to come to see his friends and to speak to them face to face. Both Greek and Hebrew say, not face to face, but mouth to mouth. In the Old Testament God says of Moses: "With him I speak mouth to mouth" ( Numbers 12:8). John was wise and he knew that letters can often only bedevil a situation and that five minutes heart to heart talk can do what a whole file of letters is powerless to achieve. In many a church and in many a personal relationship, letters have merely succeeded in exacerbating a situation; for the most carefully written letter can be misinterpreted, when a little speech together might have mended matters. Cromwell never understood John Fox, the Quaker, and much disliked him. Then he met him, and after he had spoken to him, he said, "If you and I had but an hour together, we would be better friends than we are." Church courts and Christian people would do well to make a resolution never to write when they could speak.

The letter closes with greetings from John's church to the friends to whom he writes, greetings, as it were, from one sister's children to another's, for all Christians are members of one family in the faith.

-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)

FURTHER READING

John

J. N. S. Alexander, The Epistles of John (Tch; E)

A. E. Brooke, The Johannine Epistles (ICC; G)

C. H. Dodd, The Johannine Epistles (MC; E)

Abbreviations

ICC: International Critical Commentary

MC: Moffatt Commentary

Tch: Torch Commentary

E: English Text

G: Greek Text

-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)

Gann's Commentary on the Bible

Book Comment:

2 John 1:1

Walking Thru The Bible

Introduction to 2nd John

Introduction

Author: While John does not use his name in these two epistles it is generally accepted by the scholars that the writer is the same as the writer of the first epistle and the Gospel that bears his name. John refers to himself as "the elder" not in the sense in which that word is synonymous with bishop in a local church but in the primary sense of an older or aged person.

Second John

Recipient of 2nd John: There is a great diversity among the scholars as to whom the letter was really addressed, some think "the elect lady, and her children" meant a particular Christian woman and those who met in her house to worship God. Some believe that either "Electa" or "Lady" may have been her name. If so, this is then a more personal letter than the first epistle.

    Others believe this reference is simply to a local church and its members. To speak of a church under the figure of a "Lady and her Children" is in no sense unlikely. If the "chosen lady" is a figurative way of designating a particular church, then the "chosen sister" of v.13 would mean a different church, or "sister" congregation.

    Perhaps as one writer has put it, "the problem of the address is insoluble with our present knowledge."

Background of 2nd John: The false philosophy of Gnosticism and its teachers is still the major problem with which this epistles deals. This second epistle had more to do with the practical side of the right attitude to take toward Truth, false doctrine, false teachers and faithful brethren.

    John writes to warn this dear sister (or congregation) against having her hospitality taken advantage of by the false teachers circulating in the region (vs. 9-11).

Purpose and Contents of 2nd John:

    1)    John expresses joy in finding her "children" walking in the truth as they had been commanded of God. This was a cause of joy when so many were being led astray by false teachers. They had been taught to love the truth (2 Thess.2:10-12). That truth had to be discerned and they must continue to walk in it lest they lose those things already accomplished such as their forgiveness from sin and the hope of eternal life (vs.8-9) that their joy might be made full (v.12).

    2) John also exhorts to walk in love (v.5). Truth not only taught them to love God and His truth but that walking also required walking in love (v.6). Their love had to include loving one another because they loved God and His truth.

    3) John warns that many false teachers who loved only self had come into the world and had to be withstood and avoided lest they lose all they had wrought (vs. 7-8).

    4) Doctrine must be limited to the truth of Christ and we dare not go beyond for that would separated us from both God and Christ (v.9). The "doctrine of Christ" here is not the "doctrine about Christ" revealed in the Gospel (objective genitive) but the doctrine emanating from Him and belonging to him (subjective genitive) or the doctrine which we taught. To go beyond that forfeits all connection with both God and Christ (Gal. 1:6-12; 2 Cor.4:13; 1 Cor.4:6).

    5) Adherence to the truth revealed by Christ meant rejecting, refusing to fellowship by encouraging or supporting those teachers who teach any other doctrine. When we fellowship false teachers we become as guilty as they of disloyalty to the truth (vs. 10-11).

    6) John closes the epistle with the hope that he might again see them face to face to further teach and encourage them and with a salutation from other Christians in a sister congregation to them (v.12).

- - - - - - - -

Verse by Verse

Elder --

    1) Age - Luke 15:25; John 8:9;

    2) Forefathers of Israel - Hebrews 11:2; Matthew 15:2 "tradition" of.. ;

    3) Of rank and respect. Sept of Gentiles Genesis 50:7; Jewish national leaders of family and tribes - Numbers 11:16; Deuteronomy 27:1; Sanhedrin - Matthew 16:21, Matthew 26:47;

    4) Church - Acts 20:17, Acts 20:28, Titus 1:5, Titus 1:7, Acts 14:23, Philippians 1:1;

    5) 24 elders of the Revelation.

Elect Lady -- kyria κυρια

Love in truth -- His affection for her and her family is not merely personal, but inspired by her devotion to the cause shared by all Christians.

Truth -- In this context, the Gospel

.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

The elder unto the elect lady and her children,.... By the "elder" is meant the writer of this epistle, the Apostle John, who so calls himself either on account of his age, he being now near an hundred years of age, having outlived all the apostles: or on account of his office, being a bishop or overseer, not only of the church at Ephesus, but of all the Asiatic churches, which is the same with an elder; nor is this incompatible with his being an apostle; see 1 Peter 5:1, the elect lady is the person he writes unto; by whom is designed not the church of Christ, since such a way of speaking is unusual; and besides, he speaks of coming to see her face to face, and of the children of her elect sister: but some particular person, some rich, as well as gracious woman of John's acquaintance; and these words, "elect lady", are neither of them proper names of the person: some think that the word "Kyria", rendered "lady", was the name of the person, as "Domina" with the Romans, and answers to the Hebrew word "Martha"; for as מר, "Mar", signifies lord, so מרתא, "Martha, lady"; and then the inscription runs, "to the choice" or "excellent Martha"; and the Syriac and Arabic versions read, "to the elect Kyria": and others think that the word rendered elect is a proper name, and that this person's name was "Electa", as "Electus" d is a man's name; and then it must read thus, "to the lady Electa"; but her sister also is so called, and it can hardly be thought that two sisters should be both of a name; neither of them are proper names, but characters and titles of respect and honour: she is called a "lady", because she was a person of distinction and substance, which shows that God sometimes calls by his grace some that are rich and noble; and also that titles of respect and honour, where flattery is avoided, may be lawfully given to persons of dignity and wealth; so Nazianzen e calls his own mother by the same title; and it was usual to call women by this name from fourteen years of age f: and this person also is said to be "elect"; either because she was a choice, famous, and excellent person, not only for her birth, nobility, and riches, but for her virtue, grace, and good works; or because she was chosen unto eternal life and salvation; and which the apostle might know without a special and divine revelation, by the Gospel coming with power to her; by the grace that was wrought in her; by the faith of God's elect, which she appeared to have, seeing it worked by love; and which may be, and ought to be concluded in a judgment of charity, of everyone that professes faith in Christ, and walks according to it; and this also makes it appear that election is of particular persons, and not of nations, communities, and churches, as such; nor is it unusual to salute single persons under this character; see Romans 16:13, this epistle is inscribed not only to this lady, but also to "her children"; who were not infants, but grown up, and had made a profession of the truth, and walked in it, 2 John 1:4, and both the mother and the children the apostle represents as the objects of his love:

whom I love in the truth; either as being in the truth and faith of the Gospel; for though all men are to be loved as men, and to be done well to, yet they that are of the household of faith, or are in the faith, are in and especial manner to be loved and respected; see Galatians 6:10; or the sense is, that the apostle loved this lady and her children sincerely and heartily, without dissimulation; not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth, 1 John 3:18:

and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth; either the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the truth; not with a notional knowledge, but with the knowledge of approbation and affection; with a fiducial and appropriating one: or the Gospel, the word of truth; not with a speculative, but with a spiritual and experimental knowledge of it: and this is not to be understood of every individual person then living, which had such a knowledge of the truth; for it cannot be reasonably thought that every individual person should know this lady and her children; but of all such persons who had any knowledge of them; for such who are born again by the word of truth, love not only him that begot them, but all those who are begotten of him: this shows in what sense the word "all" is sometimes taken.

d Herodian. Hist. l. 1. c. 51, 52, 53, 54. e Epist. ad Basil. 4. p. 769. vol. 1. f Epictet. Enchirid. c. 62.

Light of Israel Bible Commentary

The elder, To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth – and not I only, but also all who know the truth – 2 John 1:1

The "elder" mentioned here was certainly someone well known to many in the early church. There were only a very few people so highly esteemed that they could address an epistle in this manner. John was one of those few people and he was actually the last survivor of that special group of Jesus' twelve disciples, so he had every right to use this title.

In ancient times, we know that the term "elder" (Gk. presbuteros) was used in several ways. It was originally used for older men and later it became a designation of rank or office. Thus the Jewish leaders came to be called elders, and that title was adopted in the Christian realm as well. We read in the New Testament that elders were ordained in all the churches as these groups were established (cf. Acts 14:23). The elder was primarily a local office. However, we see here that since John exercised authority over a wide circle of churches, and that he was acting as an elder in an unusual official capacity.<footnote>"It is generally agreed that the three epistles come from the same author and reflect a close relationship to the Gospel of John…" In These Last Days, II Peter, I, II, III John, and Jude in the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1954), p. 199. Culpepper adds, "[He was] perhaps the leader of a circle of various (Johannine) churches that acknowledged his authority." (Culpepper, p. 192).</footnote> It is probable that in 1 Peter 5:1, Peter was also considering himself an elder, or fellow-elder.

This verse not only presents us with the question of who the elder is, but it hands us a problem even more difficult. Who is the lady chosen by God and who are her children? This woman, whoever she is, is the addressee of this letter.

The Greek words describing this mysterious woman are eklekte kuria. Through the centuries Christian expositors have tried to make these terms describe a certain woman. The word eklekte is from the Greek word "chosen," and kuria is from the Greek word for "lady." Commentators have tried to describe her as a certain noble lady who is named Eklekte or Kuria. Although such a thing is linguistically possible, it is not probable for a number of reasons. The Baptist scholar, Bob Utley, in tracing this problem through history, has pointed out several reasons why such a thing is not likely. He notes that term "elect" refers to a body of people in the Greek Septuagint and in 1 Peter 2:9, he reminds us that the church is compared to a bride (Ephesians 5:25-32; Revelation 19:7-8; 21:2), and church members are called children (cf. 2 John v.13). He makes clear that this woman had a sister, who seems to be another local church; and that there is great play between the singular and plurals in this whole passage (cf. vs. 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 & 13). Finally he notes that the same term is used for the church in 1 Peter 5:13. <footnote>Dr. Bob Utley, Free Bible Commentary, 2 John, Introduction. http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/new_testament_studies/VOL04/VOL04_28.html</footnote>

We need to remember that this letter was written during the rule of Domitian (AD 81-96). There was a great deal of persecution of Christians during his regime and even John himself was imprisoned on the isle of Patmos for a time. It is most likely therefore that the elect lady is used in a metaphorical sense (cf. Ephesians 5:22-32 & Revelation 21:9), indicating a certain Christian church.<footnote>William Barclay, William Barclay's Daily Study Bible, Commentary on 2 John, 1956-1959, vs. 1-3. http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dsb/2-john-1.html</footnote> John likely did not name himself or the church because of this threat of persecution. <footnote>David Guzik, David Guzik Commentaries on the Bible, Commentary on 2 John, 1997-2003, vs. 1-2. https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/2-john-1/</footnote>

Of course, if the woman is used metaphorically indicating a church, then the children (Gk. teknois) would also be used metaphorically, indicating church members. The well- known pastor and Bible commentator, Warren Wiersbe comes up with a possible solution to the problems of this verse. He says, "Perhaps the solution is that a Christian assembly was meeting in this home, along with the family of the "elect lady," so that John had both the family and the congregation in mind." <footnote>Warren W. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, NT (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007), p. 1010.</footnote>

The 20th century commentator, James Burton Coffman, adds that the last verse (v.13) pretty much concludes that John is writing to a church and not to just a woman and her children. He says, "It is inconceivable that any prominent woman in the early church was known to 'all who know the truth.'" <footnote>James Burton Coffman, Coffman Commentaries on the Old and New Testament, Commentary on 2 John (Abilene, TX: Abilene Christian University Press, 1983-1999), v. 1.</footnote>

John affirms that he loves the church "in truth" and that all who know the truth do the same. Today, it is difficult for us to understand how truth (Gk. aletheia) was understood in the early church. They knew that truth was essentially expressed in the person of Jesus Christ (John 14:6). Therefore, truth was highly prized in those days, and truth was something that had eternal significance. Unfortunately, we live in a time when truth is cast to the ground and trampled under-foot (Daniel 8:12). Our postmodern philosophers have now all but convinced us that truth is relative and that it can change at the whims of humankind. Many proud folks today believe that they can have their very own "truth" and that they can do what feels right to them. All this is utter nonsense of course and cannot stand up to the tests of either logic or of reality.

So, we live in a time when truth is broken, fragmented and when there is actually very little true truth around. David Dockery in his book, The Challenge of Postmodernism, tells us that 72 percent of Americans now even deny the existence of any absolute truth.<footnote>David S. Dockery, ed., The Challenge of Postmodernism, An Evangelical Engagement (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995), p. 365.</footnote>

The twentieth-century founders of this post-modernistic thought are generally felt to be Michael Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Francois Lyotard and Richard Rorty. They have literally turned truth upside-down. The Christian philosophic writer Nancy Pearcey says, "The very meaning of the word true has been distorted. It no longer means that a statement matches what really exists in the world but only that it matches my inner experience." <footnote>Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo, A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2010), p. 30.</footnote> Pearcey goes on to advise us saying, "Christians must always lean against the predominate error of their age. And the most characteristic error today is the break-up of truth…." <footnote>Ibid., p. 36.</footnote> Robert Ringer in his book Restoring the American Dream, seems to encapsulate the thinking of many folks today. He says, "People say they love truth, but, instead, they try to make true that which they love." <footnote>Robert Ringer, Restoring the American Dream (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010), p. xxi.</footnote>

John says he can love the church in truth, "because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:" (1:2). It is truth that makes real love possible. As long as lying and deception are present, love can never flourish. As Christians, the truth (Jesus Christ) lives in each of us through the Holy Spirit. It is this Spirit of Truth who guides us into all truth (John 16:13). The commentators, Kenneth Barker and John Kohlenberger III state, "Love and truth originate in God. Like him, they endure without changing, and their splendor never fades." <footnote>Kenneth L. Barker & John R. Kohlenberger III, Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary, Vol. 2: New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), p. 1110.</footnote>

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;   2 For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever.   3 Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.   4 I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.

      Ancient epistles began, as here, with salutation and good wishes: religion consecrates, as far as may be, old forms, and turns compliments into real expressions of life and love. Here we have, as usually,

      I. The saluter, not expressed by name, but by a chosen character: The elder. The expression, and style, and love, intimate that the penman was the same with that of the foregoing epistle; he is now the elder, emphatically and eminently so; possibly the oldest apostle now living, the chief elder in the church of God. An elder in the ancient house of Israel was reverend, or to be reverenced, much more he who is so In the gospel Israel of God. An old disciple is honourable; and old apostle and leader of disciples is more so. He was now old in holy service and experience, had seen and tasted much of heaven, and was much nearer than when at first he believed.

      II. The saluted--a noble Christian matron, and her children: To the elect lady and her children. A lady, a person of eminent quality for birth, education, and estate. It is well that the gospel ha got among such. It is a pity but lords and ladies should be acquainted with the Lord Christ and his religion. They owe more to him than others do; though usually not many noble are called. Here is a pattern for persons of quality of the same sex. The elect lady; not only a choice one, but one chosen of God. It is lovely and beautiful to see ladies, by holy walking, demonstrate their election of God. And her children; probably the lady was a widow; she and her children then are the principal part of the family, and so this may be styled an economical epistle. Families may well be written to and encouraged, and further directed in their domestic love, and order, and duties. We see that children may well be taken notice of in Christian letters, and they should know it too; it may avail to their encouragement and caution. Those who love and commend them will be apt to enquire after them. This lady and her children are further notified by the respect paid them, and that, 1. By the apostle himself: Whom I love in the truth, or in truth, whom I sincerely and heartily love. He who was the beloved disciple had learnt the art or exercise of love; and he especially loved those who loved him, that Lord who loved him. 2. By all her Christian acquaintance, all the religious who knew her: And not I only, but also all those that have known the truth. virtue and goodness in an elevated sphere shine brightly. Truth demands acknowledgment, and those who see the evidences of pure religion should confess and attest them; it is a good sign and great duty to love and value religion in others. The ground of this love and respect thus paid to this lady and her children was their regard to the truth: For the truth's sake (or true religion's sake) which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever. Christian love is founded upon the appearance of vital religion. Likeness should beget affection. Those who love truth and piety in themselves should love it in others too, or love others upon the account of it. The apostle and the other Christians loved this lady, not so much for her honour as her holiness; not so much for her bounty as her serious Christianity. We should not be religious merely by fits and starts, in certain moods and moons; but religion should still dwell within us, in our minds and hearts, in our faith and love. It is to be hoped that where religion once truly dwells it will abide for ever. The Spirit of Christianity, we may suppose, will not be totally extinguished: Which shall be with us for ever.

      III. The salutation, which is indeed an apostolical benediction: Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love,2 John 1:3; 2 John 1:3. Sacred love pours out blessings upon this honourable Christian family; to those who have shall more be given. Observe,

      1. From whom these blessings are craved, (1.) From God the Father, the God of all grace. He is the fountain of blessedness, and of all the blessings that must bring us thither. (2.) From the Lord Jesus Christ. He is also author and communicator of these heavenly blessings, and he is distinguished by this emphatic character--the Son of the Father; such a Son as none else can be; such a Son as is the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person, who, with the Father, is also eternal life,1 John 1:2.

      2. What the apostle craves from these divine persons. (1.) Grace--divine favour and good-will, the spring of all good things: it is grace indeed that any spiritual blessing should be conferred on sinful mortals. (2.) Mercy--free pardon and forgiveness; those who are already rich in grace have need of continual forgiveness. (3.) Peace--tranquility of spirit and serenity of conscience, in an assured reconciliation with God, together with all safe and sanctified outward prosperity. And these are desired in truth and love, either by sincere and ardent affection in the saluter (in faith and love he prays them from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ), or as productive of continued truth and love in the saluted; these blessings will continually preserve true faith and love in the elect lady and her children; and may they do so!

      IV. The congratulation upon the prospect of the exemplary behaviour of other children of this excellent lady. Happy parent, who was blessed with such a numerous religious offspring! I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in the truth, as we have received commandment from the Father,2 John 1:4; 2 John 1:4. Possibly the lady's sons travelled abroad, either for accomplishment and acquaintance with the world, or on the account of their own business or the common affairs of the family, and in their travels might come to Ephesus, where the apostle is supposed to have now resided, and might there happily converse with him. See how good it is to be trained up to early religion! Though religion is not to be founded upon education, yet education may be and often is blessed, and is the way to fortify youth against irreligious infection. Hence too let young travellers learn to carry their religion along with them, and not either leave it at home or learn the ill customs of the countries where they come. It may be observed, also, that sometimes election runs in a direct line; here we have an elect lady, and her elect children; children may be beloved for their parents' sake, but both by virtue of free grace. From the apostle's joy herein we may observe that it is pleasant to see children treading in good parent's steps; and those who see this may well congratulate their parents thereupon, and that both to excite their thankfulness to God for, and to enlarge their comfort in, so great a blessing. How happy a lady was this, who had brought forth so many children for heaven and for God! And how great a joy must it be to her ladyship to hear so good an account of them from so good a judge! And we may further see that it is joyful to good old ministers, and accordingly to other good old disciples, to see a hopeful rising generation, who may serve God and support religion in the world when they are dead and gone. We see here also the rule of true walking: the commandment of the Father. Then is our walk true, our converse right, when it is managed by the word of God.

Kelly Commentary on Books of the Bible

There is this peculiarity about the second Epistle of John, that it alone of all the inspired communications is directly addressed to a woman, and not this only but also to her children. There are certainly good but special reasons for a course so exceptional. We know how much the word of God, not to speak of every spiritual instinct, would lead a Christian woman however gifted to seek a place of retirement and of unobtrusive service.

We feel how all that is blessed of God's grace, and I may add of God's gift, is only so much the more set off when woman, while thoroughly using whatever the grace of the Lord entrusts to her, understands nevertheless the place in which it has pleased Him to put her here below. Yet here we have one of the most stringent epistles the Holy Ghost ever wrote addressed to a woman the elect lady and to her children, as the immediate objects of it, not to an extraordinary apostolic commissioner, nor an elder, nor an assembly, still less an assembly with bishops and deacons. Why so? Because there was a question before the Holy Ghost of such unspeakable urgency and magnitude that all considerations must give way to it. God so ordered things that the Epistle should be sent to a woman originally, for the very purpose of showing that, whatever may be the ordinary ways of God in His church, there are occasions and seasons in which the very foundation of His grace and of His moral glory must be maintained at all cost. Wherever this ' is the case, no excuse can be tolerated on the score of sex or youth. Do not tell me that it is only a child or a woman. If Christ is in the question, all else must give way. Nor is this a sacrifice but real gain.

What has been remarked may serve to show us the all-absorbing consequence of what the Holy Ghost here takes in hand. Christ was undermined by those who held His name. It was a question of a true or of a false Christ. Sex was nothing now, youth not more to be considered all very important when things flow on regularly and in their ordinary channels. We all know how unbecoming it would be for either the one or the other to be put forward, still more to put themselves there; but the Holy Ghost addresses Himself to them here. And we shall see, as is always the case, that what might seem an anomaly in the word of God, when properly looked into, will prove to be full of grave instruction for all our souls. No other conceivable address would have been so appropriate for the second Epistle of John.

Had the present been written in general terms, like the first Epistle, much would have been lost; just as, on the other hand, I could scarcely, for my own part, imagine the first Epistle written to the elect lady and her children. All is precisely as it should be. There we find points of universal interest to the children of God, and it is a question of addressing all this family, fathers, young men, and babes. But here, where the tide of evil was now setting in strongly, where searching enquiries must be on foot, where not the ordinary evils only were increasing in an ever and rapidly accumulating volume, but the deepest peril for the basis of all our hopes, the warning is addressed fittingly both to the family and to individuals. Where the first Epistle noticed these things in a general way to all, here we come to greater precision in the evil, and here too we have to do with particular persons.

How often one has heard it urged that it is not for a woman to take upon herself to judge, and that no wise man can mean to say that these are questions for children that they are points of delicacy which most of all require deep theological knowledge and mature judgment; and would you expect the assembly of God to judge such matters? But the Holy Ghost here appeals to a woman and her children, and they are bound to judge; if they do not, Christ is set at nought for their own ease. It was now a question of Christ the Christ of God. We shall see all this more clearly as we proceed. I am only now endeavouring to show the beautiful appropriateness of that which to a superficial eye might. seem somewhat out of order in the address of this Epistle. "The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth."

This is another very characteristic point in the second Epistle of John. Indeed it runs all through John. In the Gospel, as we know, Christ Himself is set forth expressly as the truth; and then his Epistles, as we have seen and may yet see, abound in the same tenacity to what was revealed by and in Christ. Here we find it still. It is interwoven into the very salutation of the epistle "The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth." At once the issue is understood. What was at stake is here before the mind of those who read so remarkable an address. If Mary, about to become the mother of Jesus, might wonder at the singularity of the angel's salutation, assuredly this was meant to search the conscience and stir the souls of the elect lady and her children, when an inspired apostle addresses to them a communication of unwonted solemnity. How great the grace of Christ, and infinite the condescension, that shows how precious is every believer to Him! We find nothing like this in any of the preceding epistles, as to the Galatians or the Romans, the Corinthians or the Ephesians, yet I do affirm that this is precisely what was wanted here. It was a more fundamental question, and the error more fatal. It was no defence or assertion of justification by faith. John is not setting forth the proper order of the assembly of God; nor is he leading the saint into the heavenly privileges of the individual or the body. Christ was in question or nothing. Nothing, did I say? Worse than nothing. It was either the Christ of God in all His divine glory, or the greatest evil into which a man can possibly be plunged by the enemy. It was, in short, war to the knife the great controversy between Christ and antichrist. Solemn to think and say, the self-same crisis affects every soul now present!

I remember years ago reading a book by a celebrated character, who has now passed away from the scene, in which he dared to raise the question whether there was any particular sign in 2 or 3 John,* why they should be accepted as divinely inspired, more than such compositions as the pastoral letters of Ignatius. It was not that the writer took the place of being an infidel: in fact he was Rector of the English College at Rome, and since a Cardinal in this country. This dreadful feature of ecclesiasticism is not so uncommon to find; namely, an infidel argument under the cowl of a monk or in the lips of their most learned professors. Therefore one must not be surprised if one ever so eminent ecclesiastically gave the plainest evidence that he had no faith in the word of God, that he did not participate in its power. Thus the strongest form of the assertion of church authority may really betray under its robes no better than vulgar infidelity. He asked† how you would demonstrate from internal facts the inspiration of the second and third Epistles of St. John, finding in them neither a prophecy nor anything else which could not have been written by a very holy and pious magi, without any aid whatsoever from inspiration! The same poisonous argument taints in a still baser and more audacious form Dr. Milner's "End of Controversy:" indeed it pervades Romanism as a whole, and proves its essentially infidel character.

*"I would ask you, for instance, how you would demonstrate (I will not speak now of the books of the Old Testament; I will take that for granted, from the historical evidence, that our Saviour and His apostles received them as sufficient to satisfy you with regard to them; but Christians are more particularly interested in the New Testament) how you would demonstrate from internal facts the inspiration of the second and third Epistles of St. John, finding in them neither a prophecy nor any thing else that could not have been written by a very holy and pious man, without any aid from inspiration. In some, indeed, of the Epistles of St. Paul you will find it exceedingly difficult to discover passages so decidedly proving a divine assistance in him who wrote them as to satisfy you that they were inspired." Lectures (p. 28) on the Doctrines and Practices of the Roman Catholic Church, etc. By the Rev. Nicholas Wiseman, D.D., etc. London: Hodson, Fleet Street. 1836.

†In the corrected edition of this lecture I find, "What internal mark of inspiration can we discover in the third epistle of St. John to show that the inspiration sometimes must have been granted here? Is there anything in that epistle which a good and pious pastor of the primitive ages might not have written? anything superior (!) in sentiment or doctrine (!!) to what an Ignatius or a Polycarp might have indited?" (Lect. ii. p. 38, ed. 1836.) Truly "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God . . . neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

I think, my brethren, that our experience might supply ample ground for an answer, though probably not of such a character as would satisfy one who could make such an objection. There is a day coming when judgment will decide; but conscience, acted upon by the Holy Ghost, can form a conviction now not of course infallibly, for God alone is or can be infallible but adequately for the need of the soul. I do say, that the loss would have been immense if we had not had even these two Epistles, putting the matter on no higher ground than this. I need not say that I refuse to treat a question of scripture on a mere ground of utility. Still, we are certain that God has written nothing in vain; and if in a grave crisis of late any one scripture was needed and must have been missed, without which we might have found ourselves at a loss how to act firmly under as trying circumstances as ever befell any soul in this room, or any other, it would have been precisely the second Epistle of John.

The apostle then lets them know that he loved them all in the truth; for a believer, young or old, man, woman, or child, is best loved, just for the sake of the truth. He that departs from the truth, what is he? A rebel. But they that walk in the truth, even were they children or ever so lowly, are precious to God; and His Spirit waits on such, and writes to them, and lays on them to decide before God, in their own sphere of duty, this most grave question: "Is my soul in communion with God about His own Son? Whatever may be the reputation of others, whatever my own weakness and call to walk humbly, do I feel that the one thine, which is to determine all others for me is the truth, the truth of Christ Himself?" If it be so, all else will in the main be right. Hence John writes to this effect to the elect lady, whom he loved in truth, and to her children. Nor was this affection of a personal or circumstantial character: "Whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth." The revelation of God in Christ does, by the Holy Spirit, bind together in love all who know the truth. It was on account of the truth that he now wrote as it is said, "for the truth's sake."

How unweariedly he puts forward that which was now to test them severally! (verse 2.) "For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever. Grace be with you, mercy and peace." As has been often and truly remarked, where individuals are thus before the mind of the Spirit of God, the need of "mercy" is supposed and shown. "From God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love" an expression found, as far as I remember, nowhere else. It was just in its right place here. Satan was undermining the glory of "the Son of the Father." But if He be not this, how can I go to Him? How rest my soul, my all, on Him? How can God look to Him and His work for every soul that is brought to Himself?

Hence the apostle's source of joy. "I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father." 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 long wear the semblance of it. To walk thus was the effect of the truth itself known: they walked in truth, "according as we received commandment from the Father."

"And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another." It was the old, but ever new word: old, because it was manifested in Christ Himself; new, because it is true in us as in Him. Divine love flows from love, and reproduces itself in all who know Christ the truth. But what is love? "And this is love:" not independency of each other, not agreeing to differ, or any of those inventions of men which are not only a departure from the truth, but in point of fact morally evil and injurious. "This is love, that we walk after his commandments." You cannot separate it from Christ; you cannot separate it from obedience. It is love in exercise, and it is also love that is communicated by faith in Jesus. "This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it."

Now he gives the reason why he writes thus solemnly to this lady and her children. "For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist." "Many deceivers are entered into the world;" and therefore it is needful, yea imperative, to press the claims of the truth of God. "Who confess not Jesus Christ coming in the flesh." It is put here rather differently from its shape in the first Epistle. There the allusion was to the fact, but this as stamping a permanent character on Christ the Christ that came. Here it is not so much a question of His having come, but, as it seems to me, indicating if possible a deeper shade of infidelity. No doubt the same persons are referred to, but it would seem as having developed their infidelity rather more. For there is the rejection not only of the fact, but even of its possibility. They conceived the thought that in some way or another it was derogatory to Him. They denied, some His deity, some His humanity.

In commenting on 1 John 4:1-21, I have already remarked that "Jesus Christ come in the flesh" supposes neither His deity alone, nor His humanity only, but both, There is no propriety in the expression, it appears to me, unless it means both united in the same person. In point of fact it is the veering to one side or the other choosing a part of the truth of Christ so as to set aside the rest' that is so fruitful a source of error here and everywhere, though here most fatally. "This is the deceiver and the antichrist." It is far worse than bringing in division and offence, bad as these are; nay, it is far more serious than even the undermining of morality, ruinous as this must be. To sap or corrupt morality is no doubt to destroy oneself, and perhaps often others; but this is to defame and degrade Christ, the Son of the Father. This, then, is a bolder effort of Satan, and therefore John calls one guilty of it not only "the deceiver" (every false teacher is more or less a deceiver), but in this case also "the antichrist."

Hence he calls them to look at home diligently lest they should stray. For God alone keeps the soul, and this by and in the truth. "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought," (of which the apostles had been the instrument,) "but that we receive a full reward."

Then he lays down the great principle in verse 9: Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son." It is a larger principle than simply denying Christ coming in the flesh. No matter where it is, or how it is, if you overthrow the person of Christ, you transgress the doctrine of Christ. In the seventh verse we had a particular case; but from it the Spirit of God rises up to this statement of truth which meets every such cue. "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ" (that is, in the teaching which the Holy Ghost has given in His word about Christ, not about His work, but about His person), "hath not God" in any sense or measure, now that Christ is preached.

The greatest error about His work is not so directly fatal to the soul, because it does not so immediately assail the personal glory of the Lord Jesus. Here it is the doctrine of Christ Himself; and as one must beware of straying at first, let him also beware of not continuing in the doctrine of Christ. A man might have professed His name, and gone on some time with the assembly of God, accepted as a believer, or even a teacher; but if he does not abide in the truth of Christ, it does not signify what he may have been, it matters not in the least how much he may seemingly have been blessed, it is all over with him if he does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, and it becomes a necessity, not merely for the safety of oneself and others, but for God's glory, which is concerned here more sensitively than anywhere else. "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God."

It might be said that at any rate a man might have the truth of the Old Testament, as there were such before Christ was manifested in the world; and if the person fails to enter into all the truth that Christianity has told out, can he be worse off than those who lived and died before Jesus came? The answer is that such special pleading is all in vain; he is incomparably guiltier and worse off, because now the standard is not what God once gave, but what He is giving now in a Christ fully revealed. Therefore it will not do to talk of what others knew not. This is an important practical criterion; because, although not to the same extent, it does meet the difficulty which people constantly allege founded on what their forefathers did possibly excellent men two or three hundred years ago. What is that to the present moment? If God by His Spirit causes His truth to reach us in a form and power suited to this day, if God brings it home more clearly on this point or that, these are the things which put the soul under a fresh responsibility; and this seems indicated in the form in which the Spirit of God deals with the error here. "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God." It is not only that he lacks the blessedness of the Christian revelation, but he has not God he has no part nor lot with God at all. The Old Testament saints had God variously revealed. They received His word and rejoiced, according to the measure of their faith, in the truth as God then made it known to them. But now that Christ is come, now that the Holy Ghost has been sent down, now that the unfolding of Christ's personal glory, of His exaltation, and of the infinite grace of His work, has been proclaimed, it is altogether hopeless to seek a cover of present unbelief under the ignorance of past years. It is the present unfolding of God's mind that puts every soul to the test. Therefore not to accept it, and not to abide in it when it is received, to go back from it or to transgress, swerving to one side or the other, or abandoning it, comes to the same substantial sin and ruin.

On the other hand, here. is the comfort for the elect lady and her children, and for any one else who cleaves to the truth. "He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son." There is great blessedness in thus abiding, brethren; it is a grand thing not to be easily shaken, not to be moved to and fro by every wind of doctrine, more particularly in anything about Christ. Beware of this. Weigh seriously every thought, no matter from whom it may come any word that even seems to turn you away from what you have, and to weaken the assurance you have from God. Never allow yourself to be shaken from old truth, if indeed you have it and know it. At the same time always hold your soul open for more; and take care that you do not confound notions you have gathered (perhaps from tradition, possibly from your own mind) with the truth of Christ, lest, when the tradition is touched, you may begin to yield to the spirit of unbelief, and either give up truth you used (or seemed at least) to hold, or burst out against the truth of God in others who know it better than yourself.

In these things assuredly we need to have the promised guidance of the Holy Ghost. We cannot start or go on without it, nor would we do so even if we could. It is the very blessedness of our souls to be kept by so holy a guide and in safe companionship. But then, just as in our ordinary walk, if we live in the Spirit, we must walk in the Spirit; so also, if we have been taught of the Spirit, we must go forward and persevere in the Spirit. This does not in the smallest degree clash with "abiding." The only way to be kept is holding fast what God has really taught us, yet using this as the groundwork for making progress. Such is the true way to "abide." "He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son."

Now that the doctrine of Christ is fully brought out in the word of God, the more sure it is that there is nothing to add. Impossible to discover a truth of God that is not already in the Bible. But there is not a little to learn which, I am persuaded, is there already. We must not confound these two things. Who would assume that you and I know all that is in the Bible? If then a line of truth be pointed out anywhere in scripture, do not calumniously pretend that it is some further development, because you have been so dull as not to see it. It is the very point of faith to know that as God Himself is infinite, so His word contains boundless riches for us. There is that which may by the Holy Ghost be always apprehended more and more fully; and yet after all it is the same holy deposit as was given to the Christian from the beginning.

The apostle now comes to the practical consequence. He has laid down the principle in the ninth verse: now comes the practice. "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." Mark how it is put. It is not bring not the true humanity, or the proper Deity; because Satan might change the doctrine somewhat, so as to save appearances for the simple. Therefore it would not do merely to specify some one particular form of error, because then the devil would have only to evade that form, and there would be no resource. But here it stands firm yet comprehensive: if a man come to you, and does not bring this doctrine (that is, the doctrine of Christ do not you receive him. No matter what may be the particular manner in which the enemy has warped his soul, and through him dishonoured Christ; no matter what may be the peculiar nature of the false doctrine, if a man come to you, and bring not the divinely revealed doctrine, the Holy Ghost's teaching of Christ in the written word, "receive him not into your house, neither bid him greeting." That is to say, do not bid him a common salutation. There is nothing about "God speed" in the word ( χαίρειν ), though "good speed" might be tolerable. The stronger terms are merely put in by the English translators. It was the ordinary form of courteous greeting every day.

This is to my mind a serious thought. Do you think, my brethren, that we all follow this out as we ought? Are we not conscious of shrinking from the cost, and of a fear if not anxiety lest we should be counted uncourteous? I can speak for one certainly; and I doubt much whether in general we are sufficiently alive to the solemnity of what Satan is always pursuing. More particularly let me add, that we stand in a position, failure in which tends to expose all God's children to the efforts of the enemy. There are none, I presume, whom he would so much desire to drag into the mire, and thus defile the name of Jesus.

If then such an one come, of course without the doctrine, yet taking the ground of truth, you are to receive him not. Where? To the Lord's table? No; this could not have been said to the elect lady and her children. The exhortation is quite independent of public fellowship. The question of the Lord's table is not even raised. They are not even to receive him into their private house, nor to accost him with common greeting. Why this most severe and peremptory exclusion? "For he that biddeth him greeting" (not so much as receiving him into the house, but interchanging words of courtesy with such a man, knowingly, of course, and deliberately) "is a partaker of his evil deeds." You, as a confessor of Christ, put your sanction on this denier of Christ. You could not do worse except deny Christ yourself; indeed, in a certain sense you are more guilty than even if you were drawn for a time into the abominable thing yourself, because then you would be honestly acting out what you had been deceived by Satan into believing; but the more you hold the true Christ, if you tamper with those who do not, the more shameless you are in unfaithfulness to Christ.

To some this may seem strong; but who has written it? who urges it? Is it a man without God? Is it not the Spirit of God who charges us in the name of the Lord Jesus thus sensitively to feel for the truth of Christ? Let us not be deaf to such a claim from such a person. Let us not reserve our warm feelings for our friends, and leave only indifference for the name of Jesus. He that greets kindly the man that brings not the doctrine of Christ is a traitor to Christ.

Let me here repeat that it is not "God speed," for this might give a false idea. It sounds as if we were wishing him well in his work. This would be commonly inferred by one unaccustomed to read the language of the Holy Ghost. But it conveys nothing of the sort merely a Greek "good morning" what would pass in the current language of the day among one's fellows.

He then who has anything to say to the defamer of Christ which could be fairly interpreted as a sanction, let it be ever so small, becomes a partaker of his evil deeds. It is not a question of being a partner in his evil doctrine. The elect lady and her children were of course believed to hold sound doctrine; but they are here peremptorily called to refuse any measure of countenance to one who did not bring the doctrine of Christ not only not to receive him into the house, but not to salute him outside it. It was a part of the loyalty they owed to Christ.

John concludes thus: "Having many things to write to you, I would not with paper and ink: but I hope to come to you, and speak mouth to mouth, that your joy may be full. The children of thine elect sister greet thee." There was hearty love, but it was only in the truth, of which Christ alone is the test and obedience the effect.