Tiny But Mighty Second John: Lesson 5 - Love One Another

Read 2 John 1:4-6.

Focus on 2 John 1:5-6.

 

Knowledge

Answer the following questions from the text:

v. 5 Of whom does John make a request?

What does he ask of her?

What is this request not?

Rather, how long have we had this?

v. 6 What is love?

Therefore, what is the commandment? (Combine info from v. 5-6)

When was the command heard?  

Why was the command given?

 

Understanding & Wisdom

In verse four, John expresses his joy that some of the lady’s children are walking in truth. Such behavior is in accordance with the Father’s commandment, and therefore gladdens the old apostle’s heart. But not all of the lady’s children are living in this way, and perhaps that concern is what prompts John’s request in verse 5.

John’s Request

First, John says he is making a request of the lady. There are many words John could have used here, but the one he chose implies familiarity and equality, that he does not see the lady as either superior or inferior to himself, as he easily could have.

Second, John insists that what he is writing is nothing new. This doesn’t refer primarily to time (there’s another Greek word for that), but more significantly, this newness is different in nature or quality from the “old.” This is important because during this period, a group of false teachers (possibly the Gnostics) were justifying their teaching in part by claiming that it was “new and improved,” and therefore superior to previous teaching.

Rather, John insists what he is asking for is the same as has been properly taught from the beginning. Many see this as a reference to Jesus’ words in John 13:34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” While this teaching may have been circulated verbally, the gospel of John, according to many scholars, would not have been written by this time, and so it may or may not have been known to the readers. 

So the Upper Room discourse may have been in John’s mind, but I wonder if his mind didn’t go even further back. After all, he was Jewish, schooled in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). He would have known that the command for God’s people to love each other had existed from the very beginning of God setting aside a people for Himself, and that the very first commands God gave the new nation of Israel included “love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18)

For God has not changed His expectations for His people. He expected them to love each other when He first set Israel apart at Mt. Sinai, and that did not change with the advent of Jesus or the rise of the church. Indeed, what made Jesus’ command new in John 13 was not the command itself, but the depth of our understanding of the command’s meaning because we have Jesus’ example to follow.

Therefore, John says his request is rooted in a command that existed from the beginning, rebutting a common element of false teachers, that they claim their teaching isn’t false; it’s merely new, progressive, more enlightened.

This problem didn’t end with the first century but carried on through to us in the 21^st century. The most obvious manifestation of this is the “new revelation” that creates cults. But even in our regular churches this attitude can infiltrate in other, more insidious ways, so we must always be on the guard against this.

Question to ponder: What are some of the ways that our churches end up ditching the old for the new, theologically speaking?

Finally, we reach the commandment and John’s request: That we love one another.

The love commanded here is the agape love that we discussed earlier. This love is specifically said to be expressed for “one another.” Again, love for each other has always been God’s intention for His people, in both the Old and the New Testament. It was always one of the major ways His people were to be distinguished from all other people. As Jesus noted, this love for God’s people was one of the dominate ways people will know we are His disciples (John 13:35). So while we are to love the non-Christian, it is not our love for the outsider that sets us apart. It is how we love other Christians that sets us apart, that marks us as Christ’s followers.   

Question to Ponder: Why is it our love for other Christians, not non-Christian, that sets us apart?

Love & Commands

John must have also known that some—perhaps even those children who were not walking in truth—would claim that they were loving each other as commanded. The problem, however, was that they were apparently loving as they wanted to love.

So how are we to love each other? This is often a point of great contention, and this command to love each other has been used as justification for many actions—and the argument against many others.

In the midst of these debates, we often forget it’s not up to us to define love. We don’t get to choose how to apply this command. That’s God’s job, and He hasn’t left us in the dark about His expectations. He doesn’t leave it to us determine what it means. Rather, He has clearly made known exactly what He means when He commanded, “Love one another.” Which brings us to verse 6, where John wastes no time clearly and precisely defining love: It is walking—that is, conducting our lives—according to God’s commands. No more. No less.

So true love cannot exist apart from obedience to God’s commandments. A life characterized by disobedience cannot be loving. Agape love cannot coexist with a lifestyle of sin.

Positively, this means we have been given precise instructions on how to love one another. For yes, the two greatest commandments sum up the Law and the Prophets. What we forget is that Jesus’ statement about the greatest commands goes two ways.

For the two greatest commandments don’t eradicate the other commandments found in the Law and the Prophets, leaving us to define how we do/express those two things. The greatest commandments summarize all the others. Everything in the Law and the Prophets exist as an explanation of how we’re to love God with our whole self and how we love our neighbor as ourselves. For every command in Scripture explains either 1) how to love God or 2) how to love people. Which means all commands are important, and to ignore them is to fail to love.

Question to ponder: What are some of the commands which are expressions of loving one another? 

This means obedience is not one expression of love among many. It is not merely one aspect or attribute of love. We’re told here that obedience is love. You cannot separate love and obedience. Therefore, our ability to love is directly tied to our willingness to obey. This is why God can command us to love, since obedience is an act of the will.

This applies equally to us as a collective church as it does to us individually. A church conducting itself in defiance of God’s commandments cannot love each other as we have been commanded. And if it is not loving in this way, it will lose its distinctiveness as God’s people.

This connection between love and obedience is also why we saw with verse one that agape love cannot exist apart from Truth. Love is to obey God’s command. God’s commandments are found in Truth alone.

So are you unsure how we are to love one another? Many people must be, for I once received a catalogue, whose cover advertised a book entitled, Loving People Who Are Hard To Love. I don’t know what answers the book provides to that question, but John provides the basic answer here. We don’t have to drum up feelings of compassion or warmth, pity or affection. We don’t have to like how a person is living or even the person himself. We don’t have to please them or make them like us or cause them to feel good about themselves. Rather, God has left us a complete instruction manual explaining exactly how to we are to love each other. All we have to do is obey what God has already written. And at least for me, that is immensely relieving when dealing with difficult people.

So sometimes people ask if we must love everyone. Let me ask this in return: Are we obligated to obey God’s commands? Are we obligated to obey those commands no matter with whom we’re dealing? Then yes, we must love everybody in this way.

Questions to ponder: In view of all this, what is loving one another not? If we are truly loving our fellow-Christian according to God’s commands on a consistent basis, and this is what makes us distinct, what should characterize our fellowship?

Finally, John ends verse six by reiterating again what he has already said:

• It is a command, not a suggestion or a recommendation or something God merely desires of us. It something we are obligated to obey.
• This command is not new, but what we’ve had from the beginning—God has not changed His rules mid-stream.
• The purpose of the command is not that we might analyze it or consider its benefits, but that we might live in it—that is, this command forms the boundaries within which we are to live, work and dwell, day in and day out.

So to summarize John’s point in verses 5-6, the commandment is we are to love one another by living according to God’s commands. This is what was taught by Moses at Mt. Sinai to the people of Israel. This is what Jesus taught His disciples while He walked the earth. This is what the apostles taught the early church. Therefore, this should define all our behavior, how we conduct ourselves on a consistent basis.