2 john 1

Read 2 John 1 at Bible Gateway.

2 Joh 1:1-13 reverse parallelism

1a) 2 Joh 1:1-3, The Elder to the elect lady and her children, grace, mercy, and peace;

1a) 2 Joh 1:1-2, The Elder, To the elect lady + her children, whom I love in truth/ also all those who have known the truth, because of the truth which abides in us + will be with us forever;
central axis) 2 Joh 1:3a, Grace, mercy, + peace will be with you from God the Father + from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father;
2a) 2 Joh 1:3b, In truth + love;

1b) 2 Joh 1:4a, I rejoiced greatly;

1c) 2 Joh 1:4b, That I have found some of your children;

1d) 2 Joh 1:4c, Walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father;

1e) 2 Joh 1:5a, I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning;

1f) 2 Joh 1:5b, That we love one another;

2f) 2 Joh 1:6a, This is love, that we walk according to His commandments;

2e) 2 Joh 1:6b, This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning;

2d) 2 Joh 1:6c, You should walk in it;

2c) 2 Joh 1:7-11, Not true children, but deceivers who do not confess Jesus Christ/ do not receive them;

1a) 2 Joh 1:7-8, For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward;
shm1b) 2 Joh 1:9a, Whoever transgresses + does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God;
shm2b) 2 Joh 1:9b, He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father + the Son;
2a) 2 Joh 1:10-11, If anyone comes to you + does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds;

2b) 2 Joh 1:12, I hope to come to you + speak face to face, that our joy may be full;

2a) 2 Joh 1:13, The children of your elect sister greet you. Amen.

Here John is reiterating that if we love one another, we will walk according to His commandments. His commandments define what love looks like, because His commandment says, Do not commit adultery (love your spouse); do not murder (love your neighbor and regard the sanctity of his life), and so on. It was a heresy in John’s day, those who said, Jesus only gave us one commandment, to love one another, and I am doing that and can ignore all the other commandments of the Old Testament which have passed away. It was Jesus who taught us that the commandments of the Old Testament define for us what constitutes “love,” so the man who rejects the commandment does not have love either.

In other words, love is not defined by an emotion, a feeling of goodwill in the heart toward another (for the heart is a unreliable barometer), although if the feeling is present, well and good. But rather, love is defined by actions (“walking”) of obedience or conformity to the commandments of God.

John, while placing first importance on obedience and right actions as the fruit of love, does not leave his short letter without mentioning right doctrine. There is a doctrine which is of the antichrist, and those who push the antichrist’s doctrine are not to be received into the fellowship of believers. John calls one who deceives, a worker of evil deeds (wrong actions). I think there are those who have been genuinely deceived about right doctrine. But the one who proclaims a false doctrine because he is genuinely mistaken or mistaught, who is a true child of God, will generally embrace right doctrine once he is shown the truth from the Scriptures, for everyone who is of the truth hears Yeshua’s voice. I would only refuse to receive someone who continues in false doctrine after they have been instructed in the truth.