The Commandment of Love

2 John 4-6 ESV

4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. 5 And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. 6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

The definition of the word ‘rebellion’ is: “The action or process of resisting authority, control, or convention.” Quite simply, to be in rebellion means to be defiant and disobedient towards those in authority, specifically defiant and disobedient towards God.

And the world that we live in today not only approves of rebellion, but it rejoices in it. There is One Who all of humanity is answerable to, One Who all of creation is commanded to obey, love, and worship with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. But our world is in rebellion because not only does humanity naturally disobey God, but humanity in fact glories in disobeying God and rebelling against Him.

In the second half of the first chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Romans, he goes to the greatest lengths in describing the measure of depravity that all of humanity naturally possesses. And as the apostle describes this wicked depravity that we all inherit, the offences that he lists off that are associated with the natural progression of our depraved nature grows worse and worse, more and more deplorable in the sight of the Lord as he goes on listing the offences.

And the last thing that we read on Paul’s list of deplorables is found in Romans 1:32, when he says:

Romans 1:32 ESV

32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Thus, the worst aspect of human depravity is knowing that we are estranged from God due to our sinful nature and deserving of death because of that estrangement, and then encouraging others to commit the same sinful acts that we commit and are deserving of death for.

Now, the reason why that is so deplorable in the sight of God is because encouraging others to rebel against God is the opposite of love, and God, Who is love, justifiably, in fact, lovingly, abhors those things which are the opposite of love.

Thus, the greatest tragedy that there is in this world is that not only is it in rebellion against God, but that it even encourages others to rebel against God further, the polar opposite of what love truly is.

And because this is the overall nature of the world that we live in today, isn’t it like a breath of fresh air when we encounter other people who actually live out that which is pleasing to God? Who live out that which truly is of love?

As we continue through our series of messages here in John’s second epistle, we read of John experiencing this breath of fresh air when it comes to the recipients of his epistle in verse 4 of our reading, where he says:

2 John 4 ESV

4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.

Now, as we said in our message last week, we need to remember what John signifies when he uses the language that he uses here.

He speaks of sending this epistle to “the elect lady” or to “the dear lady”, and this lady that John refers to is not an actual woman, rather, it is an individual church. Oftentimes in the scriptures, the Church is referred to as a lady or a bride, so it makes sense that the “lady” that John is writing to is a church, rather than an individual person.

And whenever John speaks of the lady’s children, what he is referring to is not the children of a particular woman, but the individual members of this church which he is writing to.

And what John says here concerning these “children”, these individual church members is that he rejoiced when he discovered that they were walking in the truth. To say that someone is walking in the truth, especially in a biblical context, means that that person holds to the orthodox doctrines of the Christian faith. Furthermore, it means that that person is living out his Christian faith.

And John also gives the reason why the members of this church were living out their faith when he says that this is “just as we were commanded by the Father”.

In other words, because they were called to love God when He called them into the truth, so do they now lovingly submit to the commands of God, being made new by He Who calls them.

And as was said, John rejoiced in this. In a world where the vast majority are opposed to God, it really is like a breath of fresh air to find others who legitimately love God. Thus, he rejoices to find those who claim to follow Jesus actually following Jesus.

Seeing other faithful believers walking in the truth causes faithful believers to rejoice in it, if we love truth, we love to see people live in accordance with that truth.

And because these believers were obedient to the commands of God, John knows that they won’t have a problem obeying another command of God, a command that he speaks of in verse 5, when he tells them:

2 John 5 ESV

5 And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.

Knowing that the members of this church are walking in accordance with the truth, John tells this church that he is writing her a commandment. That commandment is to love one another.

But notice how John words this, he says, “not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning”.

So, in saying this, what John is establishing is that loving one another is something that this church should be familiar with, because this command precedes their own Christian experience.

Remember the command of Jesus in John 13:34-35?

John 13:34-35 ESV

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

But the command for believers to love one another goes back even further than the New Testament. In the Old Testament, Leviticus 19:18 reads:

Leviticus 19:18 ESV

18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

In the section of the Prophets, in Zechariah 7:9 we read:

Zecheriah 7:9 ESV

9 …Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another,

The command for believers to love fellow believers is a command that even goes back all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when we read the iconic words of Genesis 2:24, which say:

Genesis 2:24 ESV

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

The command even of Adam and Eve was that they love one another. This means that the command of God for us to love one another, especially as fellow believers is a command that is as old as the human race.

But though the command to love one another has always been expected of us, still now, we sometimes have a hard time understanding what exactly love for one another is. And because we have always had this misunderstanding of what love is, John defines it for us, when he says in the last verse of our reading for today, verse 6:

2 John 6 ESV

6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

Very plainly here, John describes for us what love is. John says that love is to walk according to, or obey and live in accordance to the commandments of God.

Very simply, if we are to love God, to love ourselves, to love others, that means that we must obey God.

It has been said before that the reason why God gave Moses two tablets of stone when He engraved the Ten Commandments on them was because commands 1-4 have to do with the love that we owe to God, and that was on one tablet, while commands 5-10 have to do with our love that we owe to other people, and therefore that was on the second tablet.

Jesus tells us that all of the Law and Prophets hang on the commands to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Love God, and love people, these are God-given commands to us as people that go back as far as time itself. And the Ten Commandments describe to us in detail how we can do just that, they describe how we can love God and love people.

Because if I am to love others, especially fellow believers, then I will not lie to you, because lying to you is the opposite of the command to love you. If I am to love others, especially fellow believers, then I will not steal from you, because stealing is the opposite of the command to love you. Neither will I commit adultery, or murder, or dishonor my parents, or covet what you have, for doing these things is the opposite of the command to love you.

Thus, I return to the point that I made at the beginning of this message. The reason why living in ways that are at complete variance to the commands of God and then encouraging others to do the same is most deplorable of all is because disobeying God and then encouraging others to live lives of disobedience is the opposite of love for God and love for other people.

How can I possibly claim that I love you if you tell me that you’re hungry and I feed you poison? I can claim that I love you all that I want, but if I feed you poison, then my actions show that my claim is false.

And if God commands us to love one another, we can say that we are doing just fine in that department, but if we are gossiping about one another, backbiting, slandering one another, wishing evil upon one another, how can we really claim that we love one another?

You see, the Christian Church should be a place like no other on earth. When a believer comes into a worship service, what that believer experiences should be the closest thing to heaven on earth.

When we gather on a weekly basis for the corporate worship of the living God of heaven and earth, we encounter the living God of heaven and earth…

Do you feel that? Do you feel that very real presence of God? That God calls you to love one another, and we love one another by obeying that God.

Beloved, let us love one another.

Amen?