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Walking in Truth and Love
Walking in Truth and Love
2 John 4-6
Last week we began our look at 2 John. And we talked at length about what truth is. We looked at the fact that in verse 2 John tells us that the truth abides in us and is with us forever and I noted that the only thing or person who that can possibly describe is God. I noted that all truth comes from God and is of God. That is a general look at what truth is but I do want to point out as I did last week that John is writing this letter to correct a false teaching that Jesus did not come in the flesh, He wasn’t really here and therefore could not and did not die to atone for the sin of all who would believe. Like I said the truth John is talking about generally is the truth of God but the specific truth that John is speaking of is the truth of what God says and what Jesus says about Who He is and what He came to do. Jesus, fully God and fully man, came in the form of an obedient servant, in the flesh, to take upon Himself the judgment we deserve, to be our atonement, our substitution. That is the truth that John says the church knows. The reason I wanted to go back and say this is because I was going back over the sermon from last week and noticed that I may not have made that clear and I believe that my greatest responsibility is to make sure you know the truth because if you do not know the truth you cannot walk in the truth. We are going to look today at how truth and love work together. We are going to take a close look at verses 4-6 of 2 John but like last week we are going to go ahead and read the entire letter since it is so short. Let’s pray then we will read our passage.
Let’s read 1 The Elder, To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth, 2 because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. 4 I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received a commandment from the Father. 5 And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. 6 This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. 9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; 11 for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.12 Having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.13 The children of your elect sister greet you. Amen.[1]
The elect lady and her children is a church and its members that the Elder or John the Apostle has responsibility over. Here he expresses joy in the fact that he found some of the members walking in the truth of God that is revealed in Jesus the Christ; that Christ is obviously in them and with them forever because it is borne out in their lives. John was somewhat of a spiritual father to these believers and nothing makes joy explode more in a parent than to see his or her children living the life that has been instilled in them. We could put this in a family setting if so desired. How many parents get all excited when their children do what they have been taught to do and do it when no one is looking? When I hear many of you tell me what is going on in your lives and the way you are dealing with struggles or the acts of service or kindness that you are showing to others in the course of you “walking in the truth” causes great joy in my life, so I understand where John is coming from and you can too. Being the realist that I am though I can’t help but believe that he also saw some that were not walking in the truth. I have no doubt that that did not cause joy. But John does not dwell on that because he is going to deal with that, not by calling out those who are not walking in truth, but by instructing or reminding these children of the elect lady, the members of the church, how they are walk in the truth by loving one another and being obedient.
Before we get into the rest of this passage I want to stop and talk a little bit about truth and love. Eddie Cantor the old radio comedian said that truth and tact do not go together; you cannot be truthful and kind at the same time. A famous counselor from the early 20th century Alfred Adler said this about truth: “Truth is a terrible weapon of aggression; it is possible to lie and even murder for the truth.” If you stop and think about it for a moment you can see that there appears to be a tension between love and truth and some people consider the two to be completely incompatible. I have family members that consider me to be an unloving person because when the truth is right there staring at them and I point it out they see no compassion. My personality is such that I find telling someone the truth even if it hurts them to be the most loving thing I can do. Other people’s personalities are composed in such a way that they see the need of compassion and understanding to be paramount in helping people. And just to be truthful you can see that tension borne out in many marriages especially where children are present. I’ll let you sort out which one is “rub some dirt on it” person and which one is the “kiss the boo boo” person in the marriage. Churches also take on these personalities. Some churches are devoted to doctrine and presenting the truth of God above all else and other churches are devoted to relieving suffering with counseling programs, recovery programs and soup kitchens. The one has truth but seems to be devoid of love and the other loves greatly but suffers in keeping proper doctrine. But we have to understand that both of those extremes are perversions. Not only is truth and love compatible they are necessary in the life of the believer and in the life of the church. John says in verse 4 that he rejoices that the children walk in the truth as they were commanded by God and in verse 5 he writes that the commandment that was received in the beginning was to love one another. The church and the individual believer will both walk in the truth and love one another.
There are three things we see in this passage about loving one another; it is a commandment from God, it is personified in the Elder and it is characterized by obedience. In verse 4 it says that we received a commandment to walk in truth, and that is everything revealed from God in the person of Jesus Christ, and one thing that truth revealed is that we are to love one another. John 13:34-35 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”[2]Notice that this isn’t just any kind of love, this love is like the love Jesus loves us with (as I have loved you). How did and does Jesus love us? He gave Himself for us on the cross and is at work even now, in love, interceding on our behalf. If that is not enough of a command look at John 15:12-13 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.[3] Obviously we are not talking about warm fuzzy feelings for one another, we are talking about a sacrificial love; a love that inspires one to lay down his life for the beloved. In verse 5 John says that this is the commandment that you heard from the very beginning, it is a part of the Gospel that changed your life. We will come back to that thought later. 1 John 3:11, 23 11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,[4]…23And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.[5]. I can go on, there are many more places that we are commanded to believe the truth and to love as Christ loved but let me make sure this is very clear before we move on to anything else because this is a basic. To be a Christian is to believe in Christ and love one another. You cannot separate them apart from one another. Faith and love, along with obedience to the commands, are signs of the new birth. Let me show you the absurdity of trying to separate these out. “I trust Christ to forgive my sin and to cleanse me but I just don’t want to go to the trouble of doing what is required of me to love others.” “I trust Him enough to save me but I’m not going to love anyone else like that.” “I’m not going to set aside my good for their good, but I’ll trust Christ to do that for me.” Love, people of God, is a command and it has been since the beginning, even back in Leviticus, love your neighbor as yourself. This is not a command from John or me it is a command from God.
The second thing we see about this love is that command to love one another is personified in the Elder or John. Look at verse 5: John begins with: And now I plead with you lady (church): and ends the verse with: that we love one another. There are two things here. First look at how John the Elder put himself in the same position as the people of the church he was writing to; “that we love one another.” John is making it clear that he has the same responsibility to love as does every other believer; it is not a command for thee but not for me. The second thing we see in this is that we need to remember who it is that is writing this: John is most likely the only living Apostle at this time in history; he is one who walked and talked with Jesus. He was on the Mount of Transfiguration, he was at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ mother, and He was the first Apostle to get to the tomb after the resurrection even though he did not go in. He met with Jesus on the sea shore and later watched Him ascend into heaven on a cloud of glory. If anyone had the authority to make a demand of a church it was John, it was the Elder. But instead he pleads with the church; he makes an urgent request that they love one another. He is so gentle with this church that is most likely struggling with loving one another because of the false teachers that had come in leading people away. He is a great example of love to this church. I could learn a lot from this Elder. My tendency is to stand up before you and just give you the truth. “Here it is, I’ve told you this truth before and I’m telling you again, now do it.” I’ve never actually said that but I know that sometimes I come across that way but John has the authority as an Apostle to do it and instead he personifies love. I can learn a lot from him, but so can we all. Romans 13:8 8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.[6]When we over speak we tend to raise the temperature in the situation but when we speak softly, kindly out of love it tends to soften or lower the temperature or tension. Proverbs 15:1 says that a kind answer, a soft answer, a loving answer turns away wrath. The Elder’s life personified the love we are commanded to have for one another and our lives should personify that love as well.
The third thing we see about loving one another is that it is obedience to God’s command. His command is to love one another and when we love one another we walk in His command. When we walk in His command to love one another we do indeed walk in the truth. As our love for one another and obedience to His command grows so does our trust in the truth. This is how John described it in 1 John 5:2-3 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.[7]I know that almost sounds like circular reasoning or at the very least a cycle but it is not as much a cycle as it is a building project. With each action of obedience to love by serving others, even if it is at our own expense, we add another brick to this spiritual building called the church, and the more our love is demonstrated in obedience the more the image of Christ is revealed in us. Let me make this clear. This is not simply cold obedience to a command from God because it is a command from God. We are talking about a warm glow, a deep desire that inspires us, moves us forward to seek the good of one another just as Jesus sought our good on the cross.
I told you a few minutes ago that we would come back to this and here we are. I want to look at a phrase that is found in verses 5 and 6. Let’s go ahead and read our key passage again. Verses 4-6 4 I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received a commandment from the Father. 5 And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. 6 This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. “from the beginning” is used twice in these three verses we are looking at so I have to assume that John was concerned with the reader knowing or remembering something that was important. In Matthew 22 Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was and He responded with what the Jews call the Shema. He shortened it to ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Then Jesus added the second greatest commandment which he quoted from Leviticus 19:18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We have all heard that verse many times and you may have even remembered that Jesus was quoting from Leviticus or at least the Old Testament but do you recall what God was doing or teaching as He said this to Moses to write down for His people? First God gives them some commands about idols but then He tells them in verse 9 not to harvest the corners of the grain fields and not to go back over the field and glean what was missed. Then He told them that when they harvested the grapes not to go back and re-pick what they missed the first time through because they were to leave that for the poor and the destitute. Then He tells them not to be dishonest to one another and to pay the wages that are due to the workers on a timely basis and to not take advantage of one another. He names a lot of other things to do and not do to your neighbor then He says in verse 18: 18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.[8] Remember these people, the Children of God, are still at the base of Mt. Sinai when they get these commandments, they still have 40 years to wander around in the wilderness. They don’t have grain fields or vineyards to harvest but from the very beginning God tells His people to take care of one another to love one another as you love yourself. That was what His people were to do. Then He demonstrated that kind of love by sending His only Son and as soon as He began calling His disciples He began demonstrating that kind of love. “Cast your net on the other side of the boat for a catch.” He was demonstrating His ability to provide for His people because He loved them. Later He fed multitudes, healed many and raised some people from the dead, all of this demonstrating how to love “one another”. Then He washed their feet and told them to do the same thing for one another. If those demonstrations from the beginning was not sufficient He told them that everyone would know that they were His disciples because of their love for one another. From the very beginning of the nation of Israel, from the very beginning of Jesus ministry, from the very beginning of the Gospel message we have the command to love one another, it is an integral part of the Gospel.
Let me sum all of this up in a couple of sentences then we will go. Loving one another is a command given to us from the Father and from the Son. It was personified in the Elder because it was demonstrated by Christ and it should be demonstrated in our lives as well. It is a command from the beginning that requires obedience. When we obey the command to love one another we are building the church and the more our love is demonstrated in obedience the more the image of Christ is revealed in us. Let’s pray.
[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (2 Jn 1–13). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[2] The New King James Version. (1982). (Jn 13:34–35). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[3] The New King James Version. (1982). (Jn 15:12–13). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[4] The New King James Version. (1982). (1 Jn 3:11). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[5] The New King James Version. (1982). (1 Jn 3:23). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[6] The New King James Version. (1982). (Ro 13:8). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[7] The New King James Version. (1982). (1 Jn 5:2–3). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[8] The New King James Version. (1982). (Le 19:18). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.