Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
2 John 1:5

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 2 John 1:5. That which we had from the beginning — The commandment to love one another was what they had heard from the first publication of Christianity, and what he wishes this excellent woman to inculcate on all those under her care. The mode of address here shows that it was a person, not a Church, to which the apostle wrote.

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

And now I beseech three, lady, not as though I wrote to thee a new commandment, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.

The full sentiments of this verse were commented on in 1 John 2:7-8.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

And now I beseech thee, lady - Dr, “And now I entreat thee, Kyria,” (κυρία kuria.) See the introduction, Section 2. If this was her proper name, there is no impropriety in supposing that he would address her in this familiar style. John was probably then a very old man; the female to whom the Epistle was addressed was doubtless much younger.

Not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee - John presumed that the command to love one another was understood as far as the gospel was known; and he might well presume it, for true Christianity never prevails anywhere without prompting to the observance of this law. See the notes at 1 Thessalonians 4:9.

But that which we had from the beginning - From the time when the gospel was first made known to us. See the notes at 1 John 2:7; 1 John 3:11.

That we love one another - That is, that there be among the disciples of Christ mutual love; or that in all circumstances and relations they should love one another, John 15:12, John 15:17. This general command, addressed to all the disciples of the Saviour, John doubtless means to say was as applicable to him and to the pious female to whom he wrote as to any others, and ought to be exercised by them toward all true Christians; and he exhorts her, as he did all Christians, to exercise it. It was a command upon which, in his old age, he loved to dwell; and he had little more to say to her than this, to exhort her to obey this injunction of the Saviour.

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

Love One Another

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.

And now I beseech thee, lady: "And now," Woods says, means "on the basis of what has just been written by the apostle" (343) Haas suggests, "as things stand" (73). It seems that he is saying, "Having said this, I beseech thee." "Beseech" is erotao, meaning "to request, entreat, beg" (Wuest, II John 203). John has just reminded the church of the Lord’s commandment to walk in truth, but he does not approach them with authority; he, rather, confronts them with exhortation, saying, "I beg of you, please." In addressing the church as "lady," he makes his appeal to the whole congregation.

not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning: This statement is almost identical to the one in 1 John 2:7 : "Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning." In the next clause, John expresses this old commandment; but his readers know it already. This commandment was new when Jesus gave it to His disciples because the love it required was entirely new in quality; however, it is not new to John’s readers, for it has been around "from the beginning." "From the beginning" of their Christian experience, they have heard this commandment expressed over and over. So, John says, I am begging you to keep on loving one another just as this old commandment requires.

that we love one another: This is the commandment given many years before by our Lord when he commanded "that ye love one another...as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). The admonition "that we love one another" is further proof that John is writing to a congregation of Christians rather than to an individual lady. This mutual love is to be spread throughout the church, not just between John and a "lady." John would not say to a lady, "I love you, and now I beg you, lady, that we love one another?" "One another" is a pronoun of reciprocity, showing that the members of this church and the apostle John should love and return love one to the other.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

A. Practicing the Truth vv. 4-6

John wrote this epistle to urge his readers to continue to be obedient to God by responding positively to the truth of His revelation. He also wanted them to resist the inroads of false teachers who sought to distort this truth. He dealt with the first purpose in 2 John 1:4-6.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

II. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRUTH VV. 4-11

"In the central section of 2 John [2 John 1:4-11] . . . we have a brief summary of the great contrasts between truth and error, love and hatred, the Church and the world, which are dealt with at greater length in 1 John." [Note: Stephen S. Smalley, 1, 2, 3 John, p. 322. Cf. John R. W. Stott, The Epistles of John, p. 205.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

John’s message for this church was not some new revelation. It was a reminder to keep on walking in obedience to God’s truth by continuing to love one another (cf. 1 John 2:3-9; 1 John 3:14-18; 1 John 3:23; 1 John 4:7; 1 John 4:11; 1 John 4:20-21). This was important since false teachers were encouraging the readers to depart from the truth they were hearing (2 John 1:6).

"It is not that love precedes truth or belief but that love offers the clearest test of the truthfulness of the confession and the sincerity of the obedience given to God’s commands. Belief may be feigned and confession only of the lips, but love is harder to counterfeit." [Note: Glenn W. Barker, "2 John," in Hebrews-Revelation, vol. 12 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, p. 363.]

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

Lady -- Kyria, is this possibly her name?

New commandment -- Is is new with John? No.

From the beginning -- of our Christian life.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And now I beseech thee, lady,.... Or "Kyria", which word the Syriac and Arabic versions retain, as if it was a proper name: the apostle having finished the inscription, salutation, and congratulation in the preceding verses, passes to an exhortation and entreaty to observe the commandment of love to one another, which is not a new commandment, but what was from the beginning:

not as though I wrote a new commandment, &c. :- and :-.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      5 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.   6 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.

      We come now more into the design and substance of the epistle; and here we have,

      I. The apostle's request: Now, I beseech thee, lady. Considering what it is that he entreats, the way of address is very remarkable; it is not any particular boon or bounty to himself, but common duty and observance of divine command. Here he might command or charge; but harsher measures are worse than needless where milder will prevail; and the apostolical spirit is, of all other, the most tender and endearing. Whether out of deference to her ladyship, or apostolical meekness, or both, he condescends to beseech: And now I beseech thee, lady. He may be supposed speaking as another apostle does to a certain master to whom he writes: Wherefore, though I might be very bold in Christ (and according to the power with which Christ hath entrusted me) to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet, for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such a one as the aged, the elder. Love will avail where authority will not; and we may often see that the more authority is urged the more it is slighted. The apostolical minister will love and beseech his friends into their duty.

      II. The thing requested of the lady and her children--Christian sacred love: That we love one another,2 John 1:5; 2 John 1:5. Those that are eminent in any Christian virtue have yet room to grow therein. But, as touching brotherly love, you need not that I write unto you; for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. But we beseech you, brethren (and sisters), that you increase more and more,1 Thessalonians 4:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:10.

      1. This love is recommended, (1.) From the obligation thereto--the commandment. Divine command should sway our mind and heart. (2.) From the antiquity of the obligation: Not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning,2 John 1:5; 2 John 1:5. This commandment of mutual Christian love may be said to be a new one in respect of its new enaction and sanction by the Lord Christ; but yet, as to the matter of it (mutual holy love), it is as old as natural, Jewish, or Christian religion. This commandment must every where attend Christianity, that the disciples of it must love one another.

      2. Then this love is illustrated from the fruitful nature of it: And this is love, that we walk after his commandments,2 John 1:5; 2 John 1:5. This is the test of our love to God, our obedience to him. This is love to ourselves, to our own souls, that we walk in obedience to divine commands. In keeping them there is great reward. This is love to one another, to engage one another to walk in holiness; and this is the evidence of our sincere, mutual, Christian love--that we (in other things) walk after God's commands. There may be mutual love that is not religious and Christian; but we know ours to be so, by our attendance to all other commands besides that of mutual love. Universal obedience is the proof of the goodness and sincerity of Christian virtues; and those that aim at all Christian obedience will be sure to attend to Christian love. This is a fundamental duty in the gospel-charter: This is the commandment, that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it (2 John 1:6; 2 John 1:6), that is, walk in this love. The foresight of the decay of this love, as well as of other apostasy, might engage the apostle to inculcate this duty, and this primordial command, the more frequently, the more earnestly.