TUESDAY April 11th
2 John 1:1-3
‘The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever: Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.’
We turn today to the second of John’s epistles in which he introduces himself as ‘the elder’ and the recipients of the very short letter ‘to the elect lady and her children’. I wonder how often we may have turned to and read the second and third letters of John in comparison to how often we will have turned to his first. Myself, the answer would be probably infrequently, but because these two letters are literally just a chapter each it does not make them any less a part of Scripture than 1 John.
The first thing I did in turning to these opening verses was to try and find out who is meant by ‘the elect lady and her children’, and the most practical answer seems to be that ‘the elect lady’ is referring to a sister church and ‘her children’ to the local congregation in the sister church. There is no doubt that John as an elder (we know he was also an apostle) cared deeply for the churches and those who made up the congregation in the churches. It was to Peter that Jesus had given the instruction ‘to feed my sheep’ but John on hearing this instruction had evidently taken it on board as well, and in his letters he was seeking to fulfil that command.
As this letter is such a small letter we will only spend a few days looking at it, but a quick glance shows us that its theme is very similar to the first epistle in that John speaks of knowing the truth, loving one another and abiding in God. In other words each church needed to follow the same guidelines to truly be considered as a part of the body of Christ, the same godly characteristics and guiding principles should be evident wherever God’s people meet together, why, because we are united together under the one head who is Christ himself.
I have recently spoken on Sunday morning from Philippians 1:27-30 where Paul emphasized the importance of God’s children standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. In this letter John concludes why this unity is important, so that we will not be caught out by the deceivers (v7) and that we will win a full reward (v8).
His opening remarks show that to John, truth was important, he wrote to those he loved in truth, on behalf of those who know the truth because he knew that in coming to Christ, the truth is in us and will abide forever. This brings echoes of something that Jesus said in John17, that God’s word is truth, in John 14 that he himself is truth, and in John 8 that knowing the truth will set us free. In verse 3 of this chapter in 2 John he also tells us that ‘grace, mercy, and peace will be with us,’ (as God’s children) and that it comes from both ‘God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son’ emphasising the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that it comes ‘in truth and love’.