2 John 4-6: Walking in Truth and Love

Introduction

Scripture

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.

Outline

2 John 1-3 - Greetings

2 John 1a - Sender and Recipient

2 John 1b-2 - Love Grounded in Truth

2 John 3 - Benediction

2 John 4-6 - Walking in Truth and Love

2 John 4 - Walking in Truth

2 John 5 - An Old Commandment

2 John 6a - An Old Commandment Defined

2 John 6b - Walking in Truth

Purpose of 2 John

John warns the church about antichrists and encourages true Christian hospitality

Main Point

Love one another by obeying God

2 John 4 - Walking in Truth

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.

I rejoiced greatly

3 John 3–4 ESV

3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

To find some of your children walking in the truth,

Your - 2nd Person Singular

Children

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. τέκνον

ⓒ of the members of a congregation

Walking

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. περιπατέω

② to conduct one’s life, comport oneself, behave, live

Just as we were commanded by the Father.

Commanded

Entole - Commandment given by a divine source

Lambano - To receive

The Father

Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth Ab: Father

Father is an eternal name, indicating that there was never a time when the first person was not the Father of the second person, his only begotten Son. As the unbegotten Father, the first person of the Trinity is the eternal Prime Mover in all his relationships and works.

Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 1: Revelation and God Chapter 45: The Trinity, Part 1: Biblical Teaching

There is one God. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three persons. The Father is the Father of the Son. The Son is the Son of the Father. The Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the Son. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God. Though the full systematic theology of the Trinity contains more than these statements, they show us the simple and core truths of this fundamental church doctrine.

Though difficult to grasp and impossible to fully comprehend, the Trinity is central to Christian doctrine, worship, and life. Without the doctrine of the Trinity, we have no gospel.

Matthew 7:7–11 ESV

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Romans 8:26–33 ESV

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

2 John 5 - An Old Commandment

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.

And now I ask you, dear lady —

You - 2nd Person Singular

Not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning —

You - 2nd Person Singular

That we love one another.

Leviticus 19:17–18 ESV

17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 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.

John 13:31–35 ESV

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 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.”

John 15:12–17 ESV

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

1 John 2:7–11 ESV

7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

1 John 3:11–15 ESV

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Matthew 22:37–40 ESV

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

2 John 6a - Defining Love

2 John 6 (ESV)

6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments;

And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments;

Deuteronomy 11:1 ESV

1 “You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.

John 14:15–24 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

Exodus 20:4–6 ESV

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Daniel 9:4–5 ESV

4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.

2 John 6b - Walking in Truth

2 John 6 (ESV)

this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning,

You - 2nd Person Plural

So that you should walk in it.

You - 2nd Person Plural

1 John 5:1–5 ESV

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Main Point

Love one another by obeying God