Consider the moral atmosphere which surrounded, and the motive power which created and sustained, that strong bond of affection which bound the heart of St. John to the Christian lady and her family.
I. The atmosphere of this friendship was sincerity: "Whom I love," not in the truth (there is no article in the original), but "in truth." Not "truly": St. John would have used an adverb to say that. What he means is that truth—truth of thought, truth of feeling, truth of speech and intercourse—was the very air in which his affection for this Christian lady had grown up and maintained itself. And the word which he uses to describe this affection points to the same conclusion. It does not mean instinctive personal affection—affection based on feeling and impulse, such as exists between near relations; still less does it denote that lower form of affection which has its roots and its energy in passion and sense. It stands for that kind of affection which is based on a reasoned perception of excellence in its object; and thus it is the word which is invariably used to describe the love that man ought to have for God. But such a love as this between man and man grows up and is fostered in an atmosphere of truthfulness. It is grounded not on feeling or passion, but on a reciprocal conviction of simplicity of purpose; and being true in its origin, it is true at every stage of its development. It is mortally wounded, this "love in truth," when once it is conscious of distinct insincerity. When once it has reason to doubt the worthiness of its object, when once it falters in its utterance of simple truth, from a secret fear that there is something which cannot be probed to the quick or which cannot bear the sunlight, then its life is gone, even though its forms and courtesies should survive. It may even be strengthened by a temporary misunderstanding when each friend is sincere. It dies when there is on either side a well-grounded suspicion of the taint of insincerity.
II. What was the motive power of St. John's love? St. John replies, "For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever." He adds that all who know the truth share in this affection. Here we have an article before "truth." "The truth" means here, not a habit or temper of mind, but a body of ascertained fact, which is fact whether acknowledged or not by the mind to be so. What is here called "the truth" by St. John, we should in modern language speak of as "the true faith." This was the combining link, as sincerity of purpose was the atmosphere, of the affection which existed between this Christian lady and St. John. Among the counteracting and restorative influences which carry the Church of Christ unharmed through the animated, and sometimes passionate, discussion of public questions, private friendships, formed and strengthened in the atmosphere of a fearless sincerity and knit and banded together by a common share in the faith of ages, are, humanly speaking, among the strongest. One and all, we may at some time realise to the letter the language of St. John to this Christian mother. Many of our brethren must realise it now. They have learnt to love in truth, not by impulse; they have learnt to bind and rivet their love by the strong bond of the common and unchanging faith. All who know anything of Jesus Christ know something of this affection for some of His servants; some of us, it may be, know much, much more than we can feel that we deserve. Such love is not like a human passion, which dies gradually away with the enfeeblement and the death of the nerves and of the brain. It is created and fed by the truth which "dwelleth" in the Christian soul, and which, as St. John adds, "shall be with us for ever." It is guaranteed to last, even as its eternal object lasts. It is born and is nurtured amid the things of time; but from the first it belongs to, and in the event it is incorporated with, the life of eternity.
H. P. Liddon, Easter Sermons, vol. ii., p. 195.
Reference: 2.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 299.
We have here a very unusual form of the apostolic salutation. "Grace, mercy, and peace" are put together in this fashion only in Paul's two epistles to Timothy and in this the present instance; and all reference to the Holy Spirit as an agent in the benediction is, as there, omitted. The three main words, "Grace, mercy, and peace," stand related to each other in a very interesting manner. The Apostle starts, as it were, from the fountain-head, and slowly traces the course of the blessing down to its lodgment in the heart of man. There is the fountain, and the stream, and, if I may so say, the great still lake in the soul into which its waters flow, and which the flowing waters make; there is the sun, and the beam, and the brightness grows deep in the heart of God: grace, referring solely to the Divine attitude and thought; mercy, the manifestation of grace in act, referring to the workings of that great Godhead in its relation to humanity; and peace, which is the issue in the soul of the fluttering down upon it of the mercy which is the activity of the grace. So these three come down, as it were, a great, solemn marble staircase from the heights of the Divine mind, one step at a time, to the level of earth; and blessings are shed along the earth. Such is the order. All begins with grace; and the end and purpose of grace, when it flashes into deed and becomes mercy, is to fill my soul with quiet repose, and shed across all the turbulent sea of human love a great calm, a beam of sunshine that gilds, and miraculously stills while it gilds, the waves.
I. The first thing, then, that strikes me in it is how the text exults in that great thought that there is no reason whatsoever for God's love except God's will. The very foundation and notion of the word "grace" is a free, undeserved, unsolicited, self-prompted, and altogether gratuitous bestowment, a love that is its own reason, as indeed the whole of the Divine acts are. Just as we say of Him that He draws His being from Himself, so the whole motive for His action and the whole reason for His heart of tenderness to us lies in Himself.
II. And then there lies in this great word, which in itself is a gospel, the preaching that God's love, though it be not turned away by, is made tender by, our sin. Grace is love extended to a person that might reasonably expect, because he deserves, something very different; and when there is laid as the foundation of everything "the grace of our Father and of the Son of the Father," it is but packing into one word that great truth which we all of us, saints and sinners, need—a sign that God's love is love that deals with our transgressions and shortcomings, flows forth perfectly conscious of them, and manifests itself in taking them away, both in their guilt, punishment, and peril. God's grace softens itself into mercy, and all His dealings with us men must be on the footing that we are not only sinful, but weak and wretched, and so fit subjects for a compassion which is the strangest paradox of a perfect and Divine heart. The mercy of God is the outcome of His grace.
III. And as is the fountain and the stream, so is the great lake into which it spreads itself when it is received into a human heart. Peace comes, the all-sufficient summing up of everything that God can give and that men can need, from His loving-kindness and from their needs. The world is too wide to be narrowed to any single aspect of the various discords and disharmonies which trouble men. Peace with God; peace in this anarchic kingdom within me, where conscience and will, hopes and fears, duty and passion, sorrows and joys, cares and confidence, are ever fighting one another, where we are torn asunder by conflicting aims and rival claims, and wherever any part of our nature asserting itself against another leads to intestine warfare, and troubles the poor soul. All that is harmonised, and quieted down, and made concordant and cooperative to one great end when the grace and the mercy have flowed silently into our spirits and harmonised aims and desires.
A. Maclaren, British Weekly Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 99.
Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.
2Jn 1:1. The elder, &c.- The word elder, whether considered as a name of office, or taken in its literal sense, as implying age, will very well suit the character of St. John, who was above 90 years old when this epistle was written, and had the direction and government of the Asiatic churches. There can hardly be stronger internal arguments, that the three epistles now commonly ascribed to St. John, were the production of the same author, than may be derived from that remarkable similarity of sentiment and phraseology which appears in them. Whom I love in the truth, means, "Whom I love truly and sincerely;-on those principles which the gospel, the great system of truth, requires, with respect to those who so remarkably support and adorn it."
2Jn 1:4. I rejoiced greatly, that I found of thy children, &c.- "In testimony of the sincerity of my love towards you, I can assure you that my soul was warmed with exceeding joy, (οτι, ) because upon good evidence, I was well satisfied that, of the children which God has graciously given you, there are some at least, who have received Christ and the truth of the gospel with faith and love to influence their hearts and lives; insomuch, that wherever they go, their conversation is answerable thereto, in obedience to the holy commandment, which we, the apostles of Christ, have received from God the Father, with a commission to declare it." It is probable, that on one occasion or other, some of her sons had travelled abroad, as the word περιπατουοι may signify; and that the apostle had met with them, and seen their excellent spirit and deportment to be as became the gospel of Christ; and therefore spoke of them as persons whom he had found walking in the truth.
2Jn 1:6. And this is love,- That is, "the love which God the Father, by Christ his eternal Son, has enjoined upon Christians one towards another," as appears from the connection. The exhortations to mutual love among Christians, and the use of that phrase from the beginning, are so common in St. John's first epistle, that we need not refer to particular places. However, the parity between this and the first epistle appears remarkably in these instances.
2Jn 1:7. For many deceivers- "I exhort you to walk in the truth, and keep the commandment which you have had from the beginning, because many deceivers are gone out into the world, who, by their novel doctrine, pervert the truth, and render the old commandment of none effect, &c." All the sentiments and phrases in this verse are found in the first epistle.
2Jn 1:8. Look to yourselves, &c.- "Beware therefore of them; look about you; stand upon your guard; and take heed that your own faith and practice be not corrupted by them; that so neither you yourselves, nor we, the ministers of Christ, may lose the good fruit of our ministry, which was instrumental in gaining you over to Christ, not only in profession, but, as we trust, in sincerity and truth: but, after all the attempts of deceivers to pervert you, hold that fast which ye have, that no man take your crown (Rev 3:11.), and that we, together with you, may reap the whole of the blessed reward, answerable to the utmost of our hopes and desires, which God, for Christ's sake, has graciously promised to his faithful servants that turn many to righteousness (Dan 12:3.), and to all them that love him (Jam 1:12.)"
2Jn 1:9. Whosoever transgresseth,- Instances of expressing the same thought, both negatively and positively, abound in the first epistle of St. John; (see ch. 2Jn 1:5.) and not only the sentiments, but many of the words of this verse are contained in the first epistle. The doctrine of Christ means the pure Christian doctrine mentioned, 2Jn 1:7.
2Jn 1:10. If there come any unto you,- If any one come unto you. Doddridge. Polycarp is said to have reported, that St. John, on going into the bath at Ephesus to washhimself,seeingCerinthusthere,he immediately hastened out of the bath; saying, "that he was afraid the bath should fall down, when Cerinthus, the enemy of truth, was there;"and Polycarp himself is reported to have treated Marcion with no more civility. Whence we may learn what caution the apostles made use of to avoid intercourse or commerce with those who adulterated the truth. The Jews were forbidden by their rabbis to say, "God speed" to, or to come within four cubits of, a heretic or excommunicated person. Our apostle, however, must not here be understood as excluding the common offices of humanity to such persons; for that is contrary to all the general precepts of benevolence found in the gospel: but, to have received a seducing teacher into their houses, and have given him suitable accommodations, would have been shewing him such regard, and affording him such countenance, as indeed in some measure would have made them answerable for the mischief he might do in the church; such favours being not merely offices of common humanity, but of patronage and friendship; and in the general, at least, a testimony of their approbation, as well as kindness. See 2Jn 1:11.
2Jn 1:12. Having many things to write- Perhaps this lady, or her children, might have several difficulties to propose to the apostle, which he could answer more directly and largely in conversation; or there might be several particulars with respect to the names, characters, behaviour, and doctrine of the false teachers, which St. John might not think proper to commit to writing. When he had said enough in this letter to guard against the present danger, he deferred saying more, till he had an opportunity to visit and converse with them.
2Jn 1:13. The children of thy elect sister greet thee.- Brother and sister very commonly, in the New Testament, mean fellow-christians; but in that sense the word sister would have been too general and indeterminate in this place, and therefore we must understand it of a sister by blood or relationship. The word elect, in this and the first verse, denotes, that these sisters were choice or excellent Christians.
Inferences.-Let us observe the delineation of a love truly Christian, given in this chapter; the love which the apostle, and all who knew the truth, are said to have had towards this excellent lady, for the truth's sake which dwelt in her. Adored be that grace, which preserved her in so high a rank of life, from temptations, which could not fail to surround her! that grace, which rendered her an example of wisdom and piety, great and eminent in proportion to her exalted situation!
Nor can we forbear reflecting, how happy, in consequence of this, she herself was, possessed of grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord, in truth and love! What were all the secular honours by which she was distinguished? What the possession of riches, which in their own nature, and unimproved to the pious and charitable purposes to which she improved them, are empty and unsatisfactory; what are these, when compared with such important blessings! We cannot but rejoice, at this distance of time, and ignorant as we are of the named situation, and history, of this worthy lady, that her children walked in the truth. It was a singular joy to St. John, and may be so in a degree to all; and may teach us to lift up our hearts to God in prayer, that all Christian parents, especially pious mothers, and more particularly those whose character in life is so eminently distinguished, may enjoy this happiness, and see the seed that they are, with such commendable industry, sowing in the minds of their tender offspring, growing up, and bringing forth much fruit.
We have, in the beloved apostle, an excellent pattern of a becoming care, to make a correspondence with our Christian friends useful; which we shall do, if, like him, we are exhorting them to the cultivation of mutual love, and to a constant uniform care in keeping the commandments of God; if we continue warning them against the prevailing sins and errors of the day, and urging them to a holy solicitude, that they may not lose what they have already attained; but may receive a full reward for every work of faith, and labour of love, in consequence of a course of resolute and persevering piety.
Persons of the most distinguished goodness have need to be cautioned against that excess of generosity and hospitality, which might sometimes make them partakers with seducers in their evil deeds, by giving them their audience, and wishing them good success, while, by their fair speeches, they impose upon the simplicity of open and upright hearts, who, because themselves are void of fraud, are often void of suspicion too. But there is a prudent caution to be observed upon this head; and it is the part of faithful friendship to suggest it; for many deceivers are come out into the world. For our security against them, let us be always upon our guard, and take care to continue in the doctrine of Christ: that so we may have the Father, and the Son; and if we are interested in their favour, we shall stand in need of nothing, and shall have nothing of which to be afraid. Amen.
REFLECTIONS.-1st, St. John opens his epistle,
1. With the inscription. The elder, John, now far advanced in age, and by office an older, as well as an apostle, unto the elect lady, whom I need not name, as her excellent Christian graces render her so gloriously distinguished; and to her children, heirs with her of the same promise; whom I love in the truth, unfeignedly, and for the sake of him whose image they bear; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth, and are personally acquainted with them, or have heard of their character in the churches, and cannot but respect and delight in those who adorn so eminently the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things; for the truth's sake which dwelleth in us, which renders the professor more respectable than all riches, birth, or titles; and shall be with us for ever; as if he had said to them, So deep is the truth, as it is in Jesus, grounded in your mind and heart, that I indulge a holy confidence that the relish of it will never be lost, be the remaining years of life ever so many, or the events of them ever so trying.
2. We have the apostolic benediction. Grace be with you, in all its happy fruits and effects, of pardon, strength, and consolation, with mercy and peace, and every blessing that we can ask, or the Lord hath promised to give, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we are indebted for all, and who is the Son of the Father,-may these graces animate you to walk in truth, and in universal love, according to the tenor of that glorious gospel with which the Lord has favoured you.
3. His congratulation. I rejoiced greatly, that, in some of those excursions which I made for the service of the gospel, I found of thy children walking in the truth, as it is in Jesus, and in their spirit and conduct, a credit to the holy profession which they make, guided by the oracles of God, as we have received a commandment from the Father. Note; (1.) It is a singular joy to ministers, to behold the rising generation ornaments to religion. (2.) We then walk in the truth, when we make God's word a constant rule of conduct.
4. His request and exhortation. And now I beseech thee, lady, as the chief design of my epistle, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another, out of a pure heart fervently, from the divine principle of faith which worketh by love. And this is love, the infallible test of true love to God and man, that we walk after his commandments, with universal and conscientious respect to all his holy will. This is the commandment, that, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it, under the influence of this great law of love. Note; Kind exhortations are in general preferable to authoritative commands, and usually much more available.
2nd, The apostle proceeds,
1. To warn and guard this honoured family against the wiles of seducers. For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, breaching the most fatal and heretical doctrines, as that Jesus Christ assumed not the real human nature, but lived and died in appearance only; or that he who was born at Nazareth, was not the true expected Messiah. This is a deceiver and an antichrist, an avowed enemy to the Redeemer's glory and gospel, and a destroyer of the souls of men. Therefore look to yourselves with holy jealousy and watchfulness, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, and be at last disappointed of our hope of you; while you come finally short of eternal salvation, and, after all the most promising appearances and experiences, be seduced by the error of the wicked; but hold fast the truth, and, whereunto ye have already attained, walk by the same rule, mind the same things, that we receive a full reward; that, you persevering and abounding in the grace of God, both we and you may receive the ample reward which, through divine grace, is laid up for us, if faithful unto death. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God, is not influenced by his Spirit, and hath now no part in his salvation: he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, with regard to his divine Person, real incarnation, mediatorial offices, and the complete salvation which he bestows upon all his faithful people, professing boldly his faith in defiance of all opposition, he hath both the Father and the Son, is admitted into a holy and happy communion with them, and has a most blessed interest in their love and favour.
2. They are enjoined not to give the least countenance to these seducers. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, nor afford him ought of that hospitable entertainment which you kindly give to the faithful ministers of Christ; neither bid him God speed, nor wish the least success to such ungodly attempts as the propagation of these poisonous errors: for he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds, and an abettor of his wickedness. Note; We need be very cautious, not only to keep from evil ourselves, but to avoid being partakers of other men's sins.
3. He concludes with informing the lady, that he hoped shortly to have a more full personal conference with her on this subject. Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink; but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, more at large; that our joy may be full, and we may be happy together in the experience of the true grace of God, and be preserved from all deceivers. The children of thy elect sister greet thee! How happy is it where grace thus diffuses itself through a whole family, and those who are united by the ties of blood are thus more nearly united in the bonds of God's love! Amen. Would to God that this were the case in every family!
*.* The Reader is referred to the different Authors mentioned often already.
