Second John: 2 John 4-6-The Command to Love One Another

2 John 1 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 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love. 4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. (NIV)

2 John 4 reveals that because John heard of some believers from the church he was writing to in this epistle walking by means of the truth, this caused or prompted him to rejoice greatly.

John discovered through observation that some Christians from the church he was writing to in this epistle were conducting their lives by means of the truth implying that he had personal contact and experience with the Christians he is writing to in this epistle indicating he saw the interaction between members of this church.

“Your children” refers to the individual Christians who composed the house church the apostle John was addressing in this epistle and is used in a figurative sense for the spiritual children who composed the church which the apostle John is writing to in this epistle.

“Walking in truth” denotes that some of the Christians from the church he was addressing in this epistle were conducting their lives by means of the truth and specifically the command to love one another as indicated by John’s statements in verse 5 in which he mentions this command.

“Just as the Father commanded us” is making a comparison between some of John’s readers living by means of the truth and the Father’s command to do so.

The apostle John uses entolē (ἐντολή) refers to the command of the Father to walk by means of the truth which he defines explicitly as obeying the command of the Lord Jesus Christ to love one another as He loved.

The fact that John says he found “some” living by means of the truth does not imply that some were not doing so since there is nothing throughout this epistle which would indicate or imply that some were not conducting their lives by means of the truth.

The apostle is simply expressing the fact that he had personally come into contact with members of the church who were making it their habit of living by means of the truth.

2 John 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. (NIV)

In verse 5, he writes that the command he mentions in verse 4 is not a new command but rather a familiar one, which they received from the beginning of their Christian instruction, namely, to love one another.

Therefore, a comparison of verses 4 and 5 reveal a spiritual principle that to walk or live your life by means of truth is demonstrated by obeying the Lord’s command to love one another or in other words, to love one another is to live your life by means of God’s truth.

It also indicates that a Christian is not living their life by means of truth if they do not love their fellow Christian.

In 2 John 4, the apostle John is emphasizing with his readers the great importance he attaches to believers obeying the truth of God’s Word since failure to obey the truth revealed in God’s Word results in living one’s life according to the lies of Satan’s cosmic system which in turn results in ungodly conduct.

Godly conduct is the direct result of obeying the truth of God’s Word which is demonstrated by loving one’s fellow believer.

Therefore, in John’s thought, truth and love are inextricably tied to each other and they are inseparable.

John’s emphasis here in verse 5 is that he wants to define for his readers the references in verse 4 to walking by means of truth as well as the reference to the Father’s command rather than contrasting his readers past actions with the actions he wants them to take when reading this epistle.

“Lady” is the noun kuria (κυρία), which is used in a figurative sense for a particular house church which the apostle John was familiar with and had taught in the past.

“I am not writing you a new command” is expressing a comparison between John’s request he makes of the recipients of this letter that they love one another with that of this command being unfamiliar to them.

John is stating that he is by no means presenting to his readers an “unfamiliar” command meaning a command that they haven’t heard taught before but rather one they have heard from the beginning of their indoctrination to the Christian way of life, thus it is a familiar command in that sense.

John and his readers were regularly subjected to the command to love one another meaning that in the past they were repeatedly or habitually instructed in the past to love one another.

John is thus humbly and politely requesting that the recipients of this letter love one another so that they will be living by means of truth, which will protect them from the lies of the false teachers in Ephesus.

Therefore, in 2 John 4-5, the apostle John is linking truth and love in that the believer is walking by means of truth when they obey the command to love one another and which command is truth.

2 John 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. (NIV)

“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands” advances upon and intensifies John’s request in verse 5 that his readers love one another and teaches that living according to the Lord’s commands is equivalent to or corresponds exactly to obeying the Lord’s command to love one another.

When the noun entolē (ἐντολή) occurs for the first time in 2 John 6, it is in the plural and means “commands” referring to all the one another commands in the New Testament addressed to Christians which can be summarized by the command to love one another.

“As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love” denotes that to obey the command to love one another is equivalent to or corresponds exactly to the command John and his readers were taught from the beginning of their Christian instruction.

When the noun entolē occurs for the second time in verse 6, it is in the singular and means “command” referring to the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command recorded in John 13:34to love one another as He loved.

“As you have heard from the beginning” expresses a comparison between the command to love one another and John and his readers being taught from the beginning of their Christian instruction to live their lives by means of this command.

John is telling his readers that they “heard through instruction” from the beginning of their Christian instruction that they were to live their lives by means of obedience to the command to love one another.

In 2 John 6, the apostle John begins by presenting to his readers a spiritual axiom that obeying the Lord Jesus Christ’s command to love one another is living according to His commands.

He then reminds them that from the beginning of their Christian instruction they were taught to make it a habit of living their lives by means of obedience to the Lord’s command to love one another.

The apostle John is emphasizing with his readers that their conduct must be based upon obedience to the Lord’s command to love one another since this will not only distinguish them from the false teachers and those adhering to their false doctrine but also manifest that they are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 13:34-35).

John is emphasizing with his readers that to live by means of the command to love one another demands obedience since they cannot live according to the Lord’s commands without obedience to the command to love one another.

Obedience to this command will distinguish them from the false teachers and those adhering to their false doctrine.

Those involved in false doctrine were disobedient and as a result were not characterized by divine-love.

The reader must remember that when John emphasizes the command to love one another here in 2 John 5-6, he is not implying that the other one another commands directed toward the Christian are unimportant.

Rather, he emphasizes the love one another command because it sums up all the other one another commands of Scripture.

In other words, if the Christian obeys the one another commands of Scripture, they will love their fellow believer as Christ does.