2 John 4-6-The Command to Love One Another
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday June 16, 2013
Second John: 2 John 4-6-The Command to Love One Another
Lesson # 3
Please turn in your Bibles to 2 John 1.
2 John 1 From the elder, to the elect lady, specifically, her children whom I myself divinely love by means of the truth. Indeed, not only I but also each and every one who knows the truth experientially. 2 Also, I myself divinely love her children because of the truth which, as an eternal spiritual truth does reside in each and every one of us throughout eternity. 3 Grace, compassion, peace originating from God the Father as well as originating from Jesus who is the Christ, who is the Father’s Son will be permitted to exist among each and every one of us by means of truth resulting in divine-love. (My translation)
2 John 4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. (NASB95)
The apostle John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is employing the figure of “asyndeton” in order to emphasize with the reader how important John considered that his readers obey the command to love one another, which is truth.
This verse 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.
This verse expresses the intensity of John’s joy upon hearing that some Christians from the church he was writing to in this epistle were conducting their lives by means of the truth.
John found or 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.
This implies that the apostle John 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 to 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 we have received commandment to do from the Father” is making a comparison between some of John’s readers living by means of the truth and the Father’s command to do so.
This clause denotes that John as well as his readers and all Christians have received from the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ the Spirit inspired command to live by means of truth.
The apostle John uses entolē, “commandment” in 2 John 4 for 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.
2 John 4 I was prompted to greatly rejoice because I found some of your children making it a habit of living by means of truth just as we received the command from the Father. (My translation)
The apostle John begins the body of this tiny letter by acknowledging to his readers that he was prompted to greatly rejoice because he found some of them making it a habit of living by means of the truth which he says was just as they received this command from the Father to do so.
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.
In 2 John 5, John equates this command to live by means of the truth in 2 John 4 as obeying the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command recorded in John 13:34 to love one another as He loved.
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.
Some expositors argue that the command here in 2 John 4 is not only a reference to the command to love one another but also the command to believe in Jesus which appears in 1 John 3:23.
However, the command to believe in Jesus would not apply to John’s readers since they are Christians and this command is addressed to the unbeliever, whereas the command to love one another is directed at the believer.
John’s readers have already obeyed the command to believe in Jesus.
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.
2 John 5 Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. (NASB95)
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.
“Now” emphasizes the circumstances of the recipients of this epistle when they read it indicating that John wants his readers to immediately take action upon his request that they love one another.
“Lady” is the noun kuria, 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.
The word is functioning as a vocative of simple address expressing the fact that John is making a deep, emotional request that his readers love one another since this will protect them from the lies of the false teachers in Ephesus.
“Not as though I were writing to you a new commandment” 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.
2 John 5 Specifically I now make a request of you lady-I am by no means communicating at this particular time in writing to you as it were an unfamiliar command but rather one which we were habitually subjected to from the beginning-that we make it our habit of divinely loving one another. (My translation)
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 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.
John inserts a parenthetical statement in the midst of this polite request.
He reminds his readers that this command to love one another is by no means an unfamiliar command but rather to the contrary, it was a command which they were habitually subjected to from the beginning of their Christian instruction.
2 John 6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. (NASB95)
“And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments” 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.
If the Christian is walking according to the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ, then they are obeying His command to love one another since love for one another is one of the commands He issued to His disciples in John 13:34.
In 2 John 6, the noun entolē 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.
The apostle John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is employing the figure of “asyndeton” at this point in verse 6 in order to emphasize with the reader that from the beginning of their Christian instruction, they heard through instruction that they were to live by means of obedience to the command to love one another.
“This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it” 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.
This time the noun entolē is in the singular and means “command” referring to the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command recorded in John 13:34 to love one another as He loved.
“Just 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.
“It” is the intensive personal pronoun autos which is referring to the command to love one another and is the object of the preposition en, which is functioning as a marker of means.
This is indicating that the recipients of this epistle were taught from the beginning of their Christian instruction to live “by means of” obedience to the command to love one another.
2 John 6 In fact, this is, as an eternal spiritual truth divine-love, namely that we are living according to His commands. This is the command, just as all of you heard through instruction from the beginning, namely that all of you make it your habit of living by means of it. (My translation)
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.
