Read: Second John 1:1-3
Focus: Second John 1:2-3
Knowledge (What
does the text say?)
Answer the following
questions from the text:
v. 2 Why does the Elder and those who know the truth love the readers?
Where is the truth found?
How long will the truth be with us?
v. 3 What else will be with us? (Three answers)
Where do these come from? (Two answers)
How is Jesus described?
Where is that triplet gift found?
Understanding & Wisdom (What does the text mean and how does it apply?)
In the previous lesson we looked at John’s first presentation of love in truth, which is such a dominant theme in this letter.
First, we recognized John’s love as agape love, the divine, unconditional love with which God first loved us. This is important because agape love is not based on any external circumstances, but pours forth out of its own fullness, regardless of the worthiness of its recipient. We, being finite and cracked vessels, have no such boundless flow. Therefore, God continually pours His love from His limitless spring into us, which then allows us to pour that out to Him and others.
But John did not merely love his readers. He loved them in truth. Truth, generically, refers to that awareness that sees beyond the surface to the unchanging reality and thus produces transparent and reliable integrity. So when John says he loves in truth, he is assuring his readers (among other things) that he is not only acting for their best interest, but he is doing so in a way that is clear-eyed, open, and trustworthy.
Then John informs his readers that he was not alone in his love. The readers are also loved by all who know the Truth. That is, those people who have a growing comprehension of the Truth by which all true things are measured, the truth of Christ and His word. This showed us that truth, and specifically God’s Truth, are the waters in which agape love flourishes and binds us together as Christians, whether we know each other or not. Remove agape love from the pool of God’s Truth, and it will die like a fish removed from water.
Because of the Truth
All this brings us to verse 2, which provides us further insight into the Truth which provokes agape love.
First, we learn that our motive to love is the Truth. Love does not merely flow from the Truth. Truth is the cause to love’s effect. Like a fire requires a spark to be ignited, as a waterwheel requires flowing water to turn it, or yeast requires warm water and sugar to grow, so agape love requires Truth. You can’t choose one over the other.
Moreover, God’s Truth is the reason we bother loving at all. For the possible reasons for loving one another are plentiful:
We can love others because of our relationship to them, because they are family or friends or coworkers or fellow Christians. We can love others on the basis of the benefits they bring, because they can help us or provide us something or make us feel a certain way. We can love others because of their abilities or position, because they are powerful or rich or talented or famous. We can love others because of their character, because they are kind or gracious or generous or compassionate. We can love them because of their needs, because they are poor or needy or sick or broken or lost or hurting.
While some of these motives may be more selfless than others, at least on the surface, Second John makes it clear we have a motive that should rise above all that: We, who know the Truth, love because of that Truth.
Question to ponder: What is it about the Truth that should compel us to love?
Next John provides us some additional insight into the Truth, of why Truth is such a powerful motivator.
First, the Truth abides in us. Abides is a common Greek word for staying where one is placed. This is then coupled with a tense that tells us the abiding is a continuous state. So the Truth has been placed in us and will continually stay there. There is stability in that statement. The Truth won’t be in us one day and gone the next. We won’t misplace it or accidentally lose the Truth. It can’t be stolen. For the Truth has been planted in us (James 1:21), and it will remain with us because we’ve been given the Spirit of Truth (John 16:33). Therefore, the motive and the means to love each other are always available, never fluctuating, never changing, ever dependable.
Second, the Truth will be with us forever. Not only is the Truth in us, where no one can touch it or steal it away, but John also declares it will be with us. That is, Truth will accompany us wherever we go, for all time. No matter what we encounter, what predicaments we find ourselves, what places we travel to, what situations we face, the Truth will be right there alongside us, guiding us, helping us, enabling us to love with God’s love. Not just today. Not just tomorrow. Not just next week, next month, or next year, but throughout the age into eternity.
These two realities tell me that once we know the Truth, we can’t un-know it. Memory may fail, the mind may grow dim. But we need not worry about losing the Truth. The Truth—and the Spirit of truth—abides in a place that cannot be touched by disease or dementia or Alzheimer’s. Its presence cannot be amputated or surgically removed. Therefore, this makes the Truth a treasure worth pursuing as well as a spiritual essential necessary to fulfilling the greatest commands to love.
Question to ponder: In view of this, what questions can we ask ourselves to see if we’re handling the Truth—both Scripture and the Person—rightly?
Grace-Mercy-Peace
Next, in verse three, John proceeds to give a slightly unusual salutation.
The first thing that sets apart his salutation is its form; it is a statement of fact. In most of the other epistles, you’ll read, “Grace and peace to you,” or “May the grace of God be with you.” These are expressions of wishes—the articulation of an author’s desire for his readers. But there is no wishing here in John’s words. He states his salutation as an established fact. Grace, mercy and peace will be ours. There is no question, there is no doubt. We can expect to receive grace, mercy, and peace from God, to have them with us, to accompany us on our way.
The second oddity isn’t obvious in most English translations. First, in the Greek, no and separates mercy from peace. It simply reads, “grace, mercy, peace will be.” Second, the verb will be is singular, even though it has three subjects. Three subjects should have a plural verb, not a singular one. This tells me that John sees grace, mercy, and peace, not as three separate things, but as one complete package: The grace-mercy-peace gift will be with us. Each one will be found with the other two.
This is emphasized when we realize that the order of these three words is also intentional. When appearing in salutations in the New Testament, they always appear in the same order. Grace always is listed before mercy or peace. Mercy always follows grace and proceeds peace. Peace always follows grace or mercy or both. This order shows that each part of this gift enables the one that follows it.
So we start with grace, God’s generous, no-strings-attached favor which He pours out on us. Without this favor, God would have no reason to show us mercy, which is His pity and kindness expressed in His noticing and meeting our needs out of His abundant resources. And only once God has met our needs due to His mercy can we experience the wholeness, harmony, and well-being of peace.
Now the reason we can know that these gifts belong to us is because they flow directly from the presence of the Father and from the presence of His Son, Jesus Christ. There is no post office to lose them. There is no distributor to misplace them. There is no deliverer to break them or steal them. We can know with complete certainty that these will be ours.
Finally, John circles back around to his theme of truth and love. He concludes the third verse by telling us this grace-mercy-peace gift comes in a special wrapping—it’s packaged inside of truth and love. As if to emphasize his point of verse one, John places truth first, in the place of greatest importance and dominance.
So we see these five things come in concentric circles. Truth is in the outermost ring. Love resides in truth. Grace, mercy, and peace are found in truth and love. Grace must precede mercy. Mercy must precede grace.
What does all this mean for us?
First, truth is foundational. You remove truth, and everything crumples.
Second, these five things—truth, love, grace, mercy, and peace—are a gift. We don’t earn them. We don’t acquire them. We can’t buy them. They are a gift that God chooses of His own free will to bestow upon us, and apart from Him we have no way to gain them. And because God does choose to give them to us, they’re always available to us.
Third, God provides everything we need. He knows we can’t experience peace apart from His mercy. He knows we can’t receive His mercy until He gives us His grace. And He won’t show us the favor of grace unless He loves us, and agape love cannot exist apart from the Truth. So in Jesus, God gives us it all.
Question to ponder: In light of all this, how then should we live?
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