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THE TRUTH IN LOVE

2 John chapter 1:1 to 6

In this second letter John calls himself elder or presbyter, and this word in Greek has a twofold meaning: a senior citizen, referring to age, or an overseer in the church. He was both, being probably in his nineties but his position as a leader in the church was more likely to be the credential he was referring to, different from his mission of witnessing as an apostle.

It was written to the elect lady and her children. The words elect lady are just one word in the Greek, electa, which can mean a woman believer, and so elected by God to be His daughter (Ephesians 1:5), or group of people forming a church, therefore elected by God to be His children (1 Peter 5:13).

As a universal letter, which it no doubt is now, being part of the Bible, it is now applicable to the total body of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and her children should be interpreted as the spiritual children of the church.

It has been relevant for the church down through the centuries, and it still is today. Since our contemporary church has such an emphasis on love, we need this little letter to cause us to pay attention and get a correct perspective of what love is.

The word truth is emphasised in this letter, and is its key word. Christian love can only be expressed in the bounds of the family of God, those who have the truth, that is, the Word of God and the One who is revealed in the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Loving in truth means:

• that the object of the love is another genuine believer in Christ,
• that the assertion is genuine: it is not just a pious platitude.

The rest of the body of believers love this local church because of its outstanding testimony.

We need to stand for the truth of God and for the Word of God. Many preachers and teachers today have adopted a sophisticated and superficial attitude in an attempt to be clever in what they teach and preach. They will not be clear and tell it just as it is in Scripture, but they toy around with words and build up some clever alliteration. The truth needs to be stated clearly. Sometimes they do not believe what the Bible says and are afraid to admit it, so they try to cover it up.

The truth dwells in us, and will be with us for ever. In this day when we can't believe politicians, or college professors, or even scientists, it is good to have someone in whom we can believe: the Lord Jesus Christ. The indwelling Spirit of God makes these things real to us, and the truth is unchangeable.

There are three words in the greeting in verse 3 that need to be clearly understood: love, mercy, and grace. They seem to apply to the same thing, yet there is a difference in their meaning. The three words are found in Ephesians 2:4-5: But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). God is rich in mercy, and because of His great love for us, He saves us by grace. The difference between these words can be explained as follows:

• love: it is an attribute of God, for God is love. Before anything was created so He might exercise mercy or grace, God was love. Love is the nature of God, but the love of God never saved a sinner. It caused Him to exercise mercy and grace.

• Mercy: is refraining from inflicting punishment or pain on an offender or enemy who is in one's power. Because God is love, He showed His mercy by refraining from punishing the sinner. But mercy didn't save man except by grace.

• Grace: is granting something as a favour, by goodwill, not as a right. God is free to act in grace because He has satisfied all the demands of righteousness on the cross of Calvary. No sinner can acquire for himself the right to avoid righteous punishment for his sins. But God, because He is love, can show His mercy to the sinner by allowing him, through faith in the Lord Jesus, to accept that He gave His life upon the cross as propitiation for his sins. This is His grace: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Salvation stems from the love of God, who shows mercy to the sinner, and by grace saves him from punishment if he has faith in the Lord Jesus, who has paid the price of his sin. The Bible says, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life…" (John 3:16). Salvation is not only the expression of the love of God, but it is also an expression of the justice and righteousness of God: He did not save all the world because of His love, but He saves whoever believes in His only begotten Son, by grace through his faith. Because God is just and righteous, in His mercy because He loves us He provided a Saviour. He cannot simply open the back door of heaven and slip everybody in under cover of darkness.

Therefore, John could now write, Grace be with you: that is the way God saves us, Mercy be with you: mercy provided the Saviour, and Peace be with you: when we have all this, then the peace of God that passes all understanding is going to keep our heart. These great truths are not something which God is going to change. God doesn't change, so we can have peace of mind as to the future.

God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, are mentioned together as the providers of grace, mercy and peace: the Lord Jesus is the One who died for us and is now with the Father.

Love must be exercised in the context of truth. So truth and love are also mentioned together. John writes that he rejoiced greatly that he found her children walking in truth. Walking in truth refers to their manner of life, behaving in obedience to the commandments from the Father. The commandment is that we walk in the light as He is in the light, that we order our lives by the Word of God.

John again refers to the teaching that the Lord Jesus gave from the beginning of His ministry: "If you love Me, keep My commandments" and "By this all will know that you are My disciples," not because you go to church and perform all its rites but "if you have love for one another." (John 14:15, 13:35). Here we have the balance which we must always keep: walking in truth and loving fellow believers. Unless a church does this, it will become lopsided.

We can become over sentimental in the church and pay insufficient regard to walking in the light; or we might be very punctilious in obeying every instruction in the New Testament yet fall short of supporting our brothers and sisters in love. All the apostles emphasised that we are to walk in love. It is wonderful to be a fundamentalist, but unless we are walking in love to one another we are not really fundamentalists at all. But we cannot put love above truth, because when we do, then we sacrifice truth.

Love is to walk after His commandments. This is another way of saying the same thing. The Lord's commandments are more than the Ten Commandments: the believer is called to a higher plane where he is to produce in his life, by the Spirit (it is the fruit of the Spirit), love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22,23). If these things are in us and abide in us, we are walking after His commandments. If they are not in us, we are not walking after His commandments.

 

R David Jones

 

 

 

 

 

1 The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I but also all who know the truth,

2 because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us for ever:

3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love.

4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children following the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father.

5 And now I beg you, 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 follow his commandments; this is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you follow love.