2 John

Walking in Truth and Love

Second John has only thirteen verses, the fewest of any book in the New Testament. It would have fit on a single sheet of papyrus. But in that small space, John holds together two things the church has always found hard to keep in balance: truth and love. He uses the word “truth” five times in the first four verses. Then he tells this household to love one another. And then he tells them to shut the door on anyone who comes teaching a false Christ.

Love without truth becomes sentimental and easily fooled. Truth without love becomes harsh and cold. John, the apostle of love, shows that real love guards the truth, and real truth is spoken in love. “I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth” (v. 4).

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Authorship & Setting

The writer calls himself simply “The elder” (v. 1). Early Christian writers, and the style and vocabulary of the letter, point to the same author as 1 John and the Gospel of John. Papias mentions a “John the Elder,” and some have wondered whether he was a different man from the apostle, but the long tradition of the church identifies the elder as the apostle John in his old age, writing from Ephesus around AD 85–95.

He writes to “the elect lady and her children” (v. 1), and closes with greetings from “the children of thy elect sister” (v. 13). This may be a real woman and her family, or it may be John’s way of addressing a local church as a lady and its members as her children, with the “sister” being John’s own congregation. Either reading works, and the message is the same.

In the first century, traveling teachers moved from town to town and depended on believers to house and feed them. That open-door hospitality was a strength of the early church, but it also gave false teachers an easy way in. An early Christian manual called the Didache, written around the same time, gives simple tests: a true traveling prophet does not stay more than two days, and if he asks for money, he is a false prophet. John gives a deeper test, about what a teacher believes about Christ.

Key Figures

• The elder — John, writing with fatherly affection and apostolic authority.
• The elect lady — a woman and her household, or a church and its members, whom John loves “in the truth” (v. 1).
• Her children — some of whom John had found walking in truth (v. 4).
• The deceivers — “who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” (v. 7).
• The elect sister’s children — believers in John’s own congregation, who send their greetings (v. 13).

Greek Word Study

ἀλήθεια · alētheia

“Truth.” It appears five times in the first four verses. John loves the elect lady “in the truth”; all who know the truth love her; the truth dwells in us and “shall be with us for ever” (v. 2); grace, mercy, and peace come “in truth and love” (v. 3). For John, truth is not just correct information. It is a reality that lives in believers, because Christ who is the Truth lives in them.

κυρία · kyria

“Lady” (vv. 1, 5), the feminine form of kyrios, “lord.” It was a title of respect for a woman, much like “ma’am” or “madam.” Whether a single woman or a church, John addresses her with honor.

πλάνος · planos

“Deceiver,” literally one who leads others to wander. It is related to our word “planet,” because the ancients called planets “wandering stars.” “For many deceivers are entered into the world” (v. 7). A deceiver does not usually drag people away. He leads them off the path one step at a time.

προάγω · proagō

“To go ahead,” “to run on ahead.” The KJV of verse 9 reads “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.” The oldest manuscripts use proagō here, describing the person who “goes too far” or “runs ahead.” False teachers often present themselves as more advanced, more enlightened, beyond the basics. John says anyone who goes ahead of the teaching of Christ has left God behind.

Eight-Movement Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

The Elder to the Elect Lady (vv. 1–2)

“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; For the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever” (vv. 1–2). Their love for each other is grounded in a shared truth that will never leave them.

MOVEMENT TWO

Grace, Mercy, and Peace (v. 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” (v. 3). John does not say “may grace be with you.” He says it will be. And he calls Jesus “the Son of the Father,”laying the foundation for the warning to come.

MOVEMENT THREE

Walking in Truth (v. 4)

“I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father” (v. 4). Notice “of thy children,” some of them. John rejoices in those who are walking faithfully, which may also hint that not all were.

MOVEMENT FOUR

Love One Another (v. 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” (v. 5). It is the oldest command of the new covenant, the one Jesus gave in the upper room. John is not adding anything new. He is calling them back to the beginning.

MOVEMENT FIVE

This Is Love (v. 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” (v. 6). John defines love by obedience, and obedience by love. They are two sides of one walk.

MOVEMENT SIX

Many Deceivers (v. 7)

“For 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” (v. 7). The deceivers denied that the Son of God truly became a man of flesh and blood. That denial strikes at the heart of the gospel. If He did not truly come in the flesh, He did not truly die, and He did not truly rise.

MOVEMENT SEVEN

Look to Yourselves (vv. 8–11)

“Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward” (v. 8). Whoever runs ahead and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. “He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son” (v. 9). Then John gives a hard command: “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” (vv. 10–11). John is not forbidding kindness to unbelievers. He is forbidding believers from hosting, funding, and endorsing teachers who are spreading a false Christ.

MOVEMENT EIGHT

Face to Face (vv. 12–13)

“Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full” (v. 12). John had more to say, but some things are better said in person. “The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen” (v. 13).

Christ Typology

God With Us in the Flesh. Isaiah promised, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14), God with us. The deceivers of John’s day could accept a spiritual Christ who only seemed to be human. John insists on the Christ who came in the flesh, the One he had seen and touched. Every promise from Genesis 3:15 forward depended on the Seed coming as a real man, born of a woman.

The Door of the Sheepfold. Jesus said, “He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber” and “I am the door” (John 10:1, 9). John tells the elect lady not to open her door to false teachers. The household door is guarded because the Door of the sheepfold is Christ. Anyone who does not come in through Him and His true teaching is a thief, no matter how friendly he seems.

Walk Humbly with Thy God. Enoch walked with God. Noah walked with God. Micah summed up what God requires: “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8). John says the children were walking in truth, and Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). To walk in truth is to walk with Christ, step by step, the way the patriarchs walked with God.

Face to Face. God “spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Exodus 33:11). Yet even Moses could not see God’s full glory and live. In Christ, God has shown us “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). John longed to see his friends face to face. One day all of God’s people will see their Lord that way.

Personal Application

Hold truth and love together. Some believers are strong on doctrine and short on love. Others are full of warmth and weak on truth. John refuses to choose. Love the brethren, and guard the truth. Each one without the other ends up damaging both.

Love looks like obedience. We tend to think of love as a feeling. John defines it as walking in God’s commandments. If you want to know whether you love God, look at your walk, not just your emotions.

Be careful whom you give a platform to. John does not tell believers to be rude to anyone. He tells them not to host or support teachers who deny the true Christ, because supporting them makes you a partner in their work. Before you give your money, your endorsement, or your living room to a ministry, know what it teaches about Jesus.

Don’t run ahead. Be suspicious of any teaching that claims to have moved beyond the basics of Christ: His true humanity, His true deity, His death and resurrection. There is depth to explore in the gospel, but no one ever graduates from it. Abide in the doctrine of Christ, and you have both the Father and the Son.

Value face to face. Letters, posts, and messages have their place. John wrote two of them. But he knew joy is made full in person. Make time to sit with other believers and talk about the things of God, face to face.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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