2 John 1

1. THE elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, 2 but also all they that have known the truth; for the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and 3 shall be with us for ever. Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and 4 from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth, and love. I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from 5 the Father. And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment 6 unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have 7 heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an 8 antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but 9 that we receive a full reward. 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 10 and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not 11 into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker 12 of his evil deeds. 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. 13 The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen.

THE comprehensive summary of a noble and upright life is “to walk in truth.” There is nothing grander, purer, higher. And there is nothing so exactly descriptive of the complete and perfect character. To walk in truth is not only to be what we seem; not only to scorn masks; not only to shun the hollowness of all that the dying man pronounces unreal; not only to withdraw from the path hung about with shows and pageants and shadows, but to walk as God’s child, to live as the heir of heaven, to be true at once to truth, to conscience, and to God. No doubt all this was included in the idea of the apostle. It was unquestionably his summary of a Christian life. His highest idea of the truth was, as Paul expresses it, “the truth as it is in Jesus.” To him the highest truth, the sum of all truth, the sum itself of truth, of which all science and philosophy were but darkling rays, was Christ the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. To accept him as the great teacher, the great example, the great atoning sacrifice; to be found in him, not having his own righteousness; to be able to say, “for me to live is Christ,” “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,” and to walk in his steps, the steps of incarnate truth itself—this, beyond question, was what the apostle meant by his expressive phrase, walking in truth. E. H. G.

THIS is not only a private letter, but one addressed to a Christian lady. It is a tribute to the position of respect to which woman is raised by the influence of our holy religion. Apart from Christian ideas and usages, how little is woman accounted of even at this day, in the lands of the Bible; how little regard is paid to her mental and moral capacity! An oriental is astonished to find that, of the canonical books which form our Bible, two, viz., Ruth and Esther, actually bear the names of women. This circumstance of itself has suggested quite a new estimate of woman’s position toward God and his Word. But still more significant of that position is this Second Epistle of John, a canonical book of Scripture, consisting of nothing else but the letter of an apostle to a Christian lady and her children. No one knows the lady’s name. The letter was doubtless sent by a private messenger, and the writer inserted neither his correspondent’s name nor his own. It was enough to describe himself as by emphasis “the presbyter,” and to address his friend as “elect lady,” one who was manifestly chosen of God, and was for her gracious qualities beloved by all around her who “knew the truth.” The matters most prominent in the Epistle are John’s appreciation of female piety, his joy over young Christians, and his very decided resistance to all who propagated antichristian error. D. F.

1. Love in the truth.** The love he thinks of is not sentimentalism, is not a mere emotional good nature, but is an intelligent benevolence, which seeks for all men the good that is seen to be the highest and best possible; which intelligently sees a perfect God at the head of the universe, and,

giving him the supreme love of the heart, loves all his creatures for his sake, following his high example, obeying his perfect will. Thus love in creatures, being at once intelligent and moral, rests on the basis of truth. H. C.