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. - 2 John 5 (ESV)
Second John is a letter from the apostle John to the early church. John is advanced in years and experience and writing to what appears to be a local church, although the content is clearly applicable to all believers who read it.
The Big Idea of 2 John
Here’s the Big Idea of 2 John as I have taught it: Love One Another. This is John’s focus. John reminds them that love is the commandment they have always had, but there are many deceivers who would lead them astray. John is concerned that his readers keep to the truth by loving one another. It is also concerned that they not prove themselves faithless but continue in the truth they have learned.
An Outline of 2 John
Truth Is Prior to Love
In verses 1-4, we see that truth is prior to love. John writes his greeting as “the elder” to the ‘elect lady and her children,” presumably the church, telling them how glad he is to find some of them “walking in the truth.” This is what they were commanded by the Father. John professes his love for them, but he modifies it by saying that he loves them “in truth.” He adds that all who know the truth love them in truth.
Truth is all over the place, mentioned five times in the first four verses. John treats truth as something in which people can be loved, something that can be known, something that can abide in believers, something that can describe the quality of other things like grace, mercy, and peace, and something in which people can walk. Truth, for John, should describe Christians from the inside out, from their intellect to their actions, and their relationships to God and man. If a good thing is not true, or is not done truly, then it is not what it should be at all, though everything else be theoretically good. It must be true for it to be truly good.
5-6: Love Is the Proper End of Truth
After establishing that truth is prior to love, John emphasizes the importance of love as the proper end of truth. John presents a reminder of the commandment to love one another almost as a request. Love is walking according to Christ’s commandments. Christ made this very clear. To that end, John reminds them that there are deceivers out in the world who are denying that Christ even came in the flesh. If they deny that Christ came in the flesh, what might they deny about His commandments? It would be easy for these deceivers, these false teachers, to make something else the goal, something else the primary driver and motivator of their behavior. John is having none of it.
7-13: Do Not Be Led Astray
John concludes his letter with an exhortation not to be led astray. He specifically admonishes them to watch themselves, to keep guard and be vigilant, so that they do not lose what they worked for but instead win a full reward. He further warns them if someone wanders from the path in Christ commanded them to walk, then believers can be sure that they do not have God at all. A person who refuses to obey the commandments of Christ cannot make claim to have a relationship with God.
John’s last instruction is to avoid people who do not bring the same teaching from Christ as John. These people should not be accepted as brothers and sisters in Christ but as dangers to their very souls. These people should not be given any sign of acceptance as fellow believers via greeting and hospitality because to do so is to set an example that they can be accepted by other believers as well.
This instruction may seem strange to us, and perhaps rather extreme. But we can understand what John is saying in light of the rest of Scripture as well, especially the New Testament. There is no shortage of interaction between believers and unbelievers in the churches, as evidenced by the epistles. But false teachers are seen as incredibly dangerous, deadly to individual believers and even entire churches. The false teachers in Second John are rejecting the very words of Christ. They reject the commandment to love one another. It is hard to find a rebellion more subversive than that.
As John closes the letter, he mentions that he has much more to say, only that he hopes to be able to say it face to face rather than by letter. This is so that his joy may be complete. As he rejoiced to hear that they are walking in the truth, the culmination of that joy would be to see them firsthand.
Benefits of 2 John
Second John may be short, but it is powerful. This letter packs a compact punch of doctrine and instruction condensed into what amounts to hardly a page, and yet it can guide the majority of the Christian life.
John’s letter reinforces the necessity of truth. There’s no way around it. If we do not have truth, then we cannot be confident in anything else, even our love. Truth is prior to love because truth is the distinction between right and wrong, reality and fiction, the authentic and fake.
Second John is also a helpful reminder of just what John writes it to be: that Christians should love one another. It is all too easy to neglect or ignore this command, but it is not an option. Love for one another is not an optional add-on to the Christian life; it is part of the warp and woof of the Christian life. John writes for them to do so because, clearly, they were not doing this consistently or clearly enough.
It is a strange thing that so many seem to think that mere assent to Christ’s work, and perhaps some begrudging worship of Him, is the “bare minimum” for their lives, and they are content with that. John's letter explodes this idea. Loving fellow believers is not optional; it is a question of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.