Read: Second John 1:1-3
Focus: Second John 1:1
Knowledge (What does the text say?)
Answer the following
questions from the text:
Who is this letter from?
Who is the letter to?
How does the elder love the recipients?
Who also loves them?
Understanding & Wisdom (What does the text mean and how does it apply?)
This week we dive into the first part of Second John, the greeting. Since this is basically John saying “hello” to the reader, it might be easy to think we can just cruise through these first three verses. After all, how much can we really learn from someone saying, “Hi, it’s me; I hope you’re doing well”?
But the thing of the short books is that there is no wasted space. To write short means to write precise and make the most of every single word. So though these first three verses might be “only” the greeting of this letter, John is already setting the foundation for what he will be talking about in the core of this letter.
An Affirmation of Love
So after identifying himself and his recipient, John first affirms his love for the recipients of this letter.
This love is the agape love (sometimes called unconditional love) which we frequently associate with God elsewhere in the New Testament. And contrary to how it is sometimes described, agape love is not a love devoid of warmth, affection, or emotions. It may in fact be the warmest of all love because it is the love which pours forth from its fullness and is therefore in no way dependent on the worthiness of the object. Such love can only be known through the actions it prompts and must then go beyond the realm of emotion into the realm of will and deed.
Such love is beyond us, of course. Left to ourselves, we would never be able to love in this way. We simply lack the fullness required for it. Our love is insufficient, no matter how much we might strive to love this way.
Thankfully, though God commands us to love one another, He doesn’t ask us to love one another with our love. As John notes in his first letter (1 John 4:19), God loved us first, and therefore we now have the capacity for such love; our love can—must—draw from the fullness of God’s love in order to love Him and others rightly.
So John declares his God-rooted love for the recipient, and because he does, they can know that whatever John writes will flow from a desire for their highest good. If John speaks praise, they can know it is not flattery or an attempt to earn favor, but that it is genuine affirmation and encouragement. If John speaks criticism, they will know it comes from an earnest wish to help them avoid danger, not from an attitude of superiority or from trying to make self look good.
Thus John first affirms his love for them.
Truth-Rooted Love
Second, John establishes that his love is rooted in truth. “In” is a general preposition denoting the sphere within which something is found. So John’s love could be literally said to be confined or restrained by truth.
Truth comes from a Greek root that means “to escape notice, to forget,” which then has the prefix added on that means “the opposite of.” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary, pg. 645) This leads to the meanings of “nonconcealment,” “hiding nothing,” and then “what is seen, indicated, expressed, or disclosed.” (Bauer’s Lexicon, pg. 42; Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged, pg. 37). Thus, truth is “the reality lying at the basis of an appearance; the manifested, veritable essence of a matter.” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary, pg. 645) The corresponding Hebrew word adds the dimension of “a reality that is firm, solid, binding, and hence true.” (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged, pg. 37-39).
Therefore, truth is more than a sticking to the facts. It is an awareness that sees beyond the surface, a revealing of an unchanging reality, a reliable integrity that doesn’t hide.
So when John says he loves in truth, he is announcing that his love is founded on an unchanging reality, so that the love itself will never change. John is assuring his readers that his love will operate with openness, integrity, and transparency. It will not conceal, hide or deceive.
Moreover, because John loves in truth, his love is not blind, but quite the opposite. It is aware, seeing past pretense and appearances to what really is. And because this truth-love sees, it eradicates the fear of what will happen if someone should find out “the truth,” because the truth is already known, yet the love remains.
Questions to ponder: What is “love in truth” not? What are some of the traits of “love in truth”?
Now this is all interesting because, John describes himself as “the Elder.” This likely indicates he is well advanced in age, older than his recipient, a position in that culture that demanded high respect. This description as “the Elder” also likely meant John held a special place in authority and position, probably due to being one of the original twelve disciples of Jesus. So John could have easily pulled rank and insisted that the lady and her children heed his instructions due to that position. Instead he reminds them that his love rooted in truth.
Question to ponder: What can we learn from John’s example in this?
Knowing the Truth
Now John does more than affirm his love for the chosen lady and her children. He also adds that they are also loved by “all who know the truth.”
First, knowing here is not a reference to head knowledge. It isn’t being familiar with the order of the books of the Bible. It isn’t the ability to list the facts. It isn’t the recitation of a creed or doctrine. Rather, this knowledge is comprehension and understanding.
Moreover, this knowledge isn’t passive, something we learn and shelve. It isn’t something gained by osmosis. Rather, this knowledge is active. It indicates a growing understanding and a pursuit of the thing that we desire to know.
Finally, this isn’t regurgitated or borrowed knowledge. That kind of knowledge is second-hand, with no real connection between the person spouting the information and the information itself. Rather, the knowing here indicates a relationship between the knower and the thing known, because the knower values or considers important the thing known. So there is a treasuring here.
Which brings us to what is known: The Truth.
Now sometimes we think of truth as something cold, hard, harsh, even divisive and angry. John’s words reveal that God’s Truth ought to have the opposite effect on His people: it is because of their knowledge of the truth that these other believers love the lady and her children.
So we see that truth should spark love. For it is God’s Truth that makes us aware of His love so that we can love others. It is God’s Truth that binds us together, despite our differences and diversity. It is God’s Truth that stirs our love for other believers, even those we don’t know and have never met.
Which emphasizes again that agape love is not blind nor does it love indiscriminately. Indeed, it has little resemblance to our culture’s version of tolerance, which is sometimes rewrapped by churches as love. Rather, agape love that binds us together is the love derived from the Truth.
This means that agape love flourishes in the presence of God’s Truth. The more we truly understand and embrace the Truth, the deeper our love should grow.
This also means, conversely, no Truth equals no agape love. An organization, a church, a family, any group of believers may claim to love, but if they lack God’s Truth, their love will be superficial at best and destructive at worst. Hardly the agape love we are told to show, and indeed, a lack of this love may be symptomatic of a loss of truth. For while God’s Truth might exist apart from love (see the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-7), agape love cannot exist apart from Truth any more than a fish can live apart from water.
So a solid foundation of God’s Truth is essential to agape love within the church and among individual believers, and it is what allows us to love others as commanded.
Question to ponder: How do we learn to love in the truth?
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