Biblical Theology LIX: 2 John

The letter is written “from the elder” and addressed to “the elect lady and her children.” The Johannine language of the letter indicates that it is likely the Apostle John who writes it. The chosen lady is likely a local congregation, and not a woman who owns or is head of a household where the church meets. John also ends the letter by saying, “The children of your elect sister greet you,” which is likely a reference to the local church from which he is writing. The metaphor of the church being a woman is also very Johannine. The letter, essentially, summarizes the message of 1 John that theology and ethics are evidences of knowing, or not knowing, God. John shows that not walking in love for fellow Christians is connected to following a false Christ.

Theology: John argues that many deceivers have gone out into the world, paralleling his statement in his first epistle that many false prophets have gone out into the world. He, however, changes the Docetic denial of Christ’s physical humanity from the incarnation to the second coming by changing the participle from the perfect aspect in 1 John, i.e., “has come” (denying that He was physically incarnate when He came into the world) to the present (future-referring) aspect, i.e., “is coming” in v. 7 (denying that He will physically come again into the world). As he stated in his first epistle, all who deny the apostolic teaching concerning Christ that comes from their eyewitness testimony have replaced Christ with their own ideas, and are, therefore, antichrist. 

John implies that those who reject this have rejected the apostolic witness and will lose their reward, i.e.., salvation, if they are not careful to pay close attention to follow what the apostles have taught them (v. 8). Such people do not “have God.” Only those who remain in the teaching of the apostles have both the Father and the Son (v. 9).

As such, anyone who does not teach what the apostles teach is not to be allowed in the church/household where church meetings are held. He is to receive nothing from the church, even a greeting, lest those who give him even a greeting will participate in his evil work of proclaiming a false Christianity to the damnation of those who accept it (vv. 10-11).

Ethics: Those who reside in the truth love one another because they also stand in the truth (vv. 1-2), both in terms of believing the theology taught by the apostles and the way of living that is consistent with it (v. 4). Believing the same things creates a love for those who believe like us. The common idea that the same deep love can be fostered apart from a love of God through His revealed, apostolic truth is foreign to John. It is because of the unifying truths that are taught that connects us together and causes us to love one another.

Furthermore, it is through this truth and love together, never separated, that the grace, mercy, and shalom of God the Father and Jesus Christ are given to His people, and not apart from it. This is directly opposed to modern Americanity’s idea that love can be divorced from believing and living in the truth. John writes that “we are to love one another.“ (v. 5). And then defines love for us so that we know what he is talking about. “Now this is love: that we live according to his commandments” (v. 6). Obedience to what God has commanded is what love looks like, and Christians are to love one another by being obedient to what God has commanded.  Apart from this, “love” is a meaningless word if one seeks to obey this command, as John is very specific in what he means by the term and if one exercises any other kind of love, and not this one, he is not actually doing what is commanded. 

The command, of course, is not that Christians are to love, making the command generic, but that they are to love "one another," referring to their fellow disciples who believe and live in the truth that the apostles taught, and do not go beyond it so as to end up denying it.