![]() ![]() Apart from God’s truth and love, we can never really have grace, mercy, and peace. The grace, mercy, and peace God has for us are all given in truth and love. In truth and love: John can hardly write a verse without mentioning these two of his favorite topics. He didn’t just wish these for his readers he confidently bestowed them by saying they will be with you from God the Father.ī. Grace, mercy, and peace: John presents a slightly expanded version of the standard greeting in New Testament letters. 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.Ī. ( 2 John 1:3) John’s salutation to his readers. Many people today think that the truth changes from age to age and from generation to generation, but the Bible knows that the truth will be with us forever.Ģ. The truth will be true forever, and we will have the truth forever in eternity. Will be with us forever: The truth does not change. This is why truth is important to Christians.ĭ. ![]() What binds us together is a common truth. This shows that what binds Christians together is not social compatibility or political compatibility or class compatibility. He used the word truth some thirty-seven times in his New Testament writings. ![]() We see John quite focused on the idea of truth, as he was in all of his writings. If we know and love the truth, we will love those who also know and love the truth - the truth which abides in us also lives in others who know the truth. Whom I love in truth, and not only I: Whomever the elect lady was, she was loved by all who have known the truth. If the letter was intercepted and the authorities knew who it was written to by name, it might mean death for those persons.Ĭ. Perhaps John didn’t want to implicate anyone by name in a written letter. John probably did not name himself, the elect lady or her children by name because this was written during a time of persecution. “This appears to have been some noted person, whom both her singular piety, and rank in the world, made eminent, and capable of having great influence for the support of the Christian interest.” (Poole) “The phrase is, however, more likely to be a personification than a person - not the church at large but some local church over which the elder’s jurisdiction was recognized, her children being the church’s individual members.” (Stott) Or, the term might be a symbolic way of addressing this particular congregation. To the elect lady and her children: Perhaps this was an individual Christian woman John wanted to warn and encourage by this letter. He is allowed to have been the oldest of all the apostles, and to have been the only one who died a natural death.” (Clarke)ī. “John the apostle, who was now a very old man, generally supposed to be about ninety, and therefore uses the term presbyter or elder, not as the name of an office, but as designating his advanced age. Presumably, his first readers knew exactly who he was, and from the earliest times, Christians have understood this was the Apostle John writing. The Elder: The writer of this book identifies himself as the Elder. 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, because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever.Ī. ( 2 John 1:1-2) To the elect lady and her children. It contains scarcely anything that is not found in the preceding and out of the thirteen verses there are at least eight which are found, either in so many words or in sentiment, precisely the same with those of the first epistle.” (Adam Clarke)ġ. “This epistle is more remarkable for the spirit of Christian love which it breathes than for anything else. ![]()
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