1-3 John - 2nd John 1:1-4 Salutation

Well, today we start on a new part of this class's first, second, and third John. So we're going to start on the middle part, second John, which I actually have not really studied much. So this is going to be good for me. Actually, second and third John are kind of interesting. Some people have called them, you know, you have the epistles. And some people call this a personal epistle because it's addressed to a lady, as we'll see. And then we'll see in 3 John, it's addressed to Gaius. So it's interesting as we go through here. It's rather short. So with that in mind, let's go ahead and actually, I'd like to read, it isn't that long, it's 13 verses in 2 John. So okay, is someone to read all 13 verses in 2 John?

The elders are the chosen lady and her children whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

Out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, this is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you don't lose what we have accomplished. but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and don't give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. Though I have many things to write to you, I don't want to do so with paper or ink.

But I hope to come to you and speak face to face so that your joy may be full. The children of your chosen sister greet you. Thanks, Jessica. OK, so we're going to look at the first four verses, which I've entitled Salutation. It's interesting that it starts off, let's just kind of get into it here. Before I start, just look at these first four verses here. What do you think the focus of these first four verses? Is there a particular word or series of words that kind of catches your eye? What kind of hits you by looking at these first four verses that he's trying to address here? Later on he's going to address a problem. He's going to address it. There's those who would deny who Christ is. But in the first part, he's going to talk about one particular... What's that?

Truth. Good, good. Excellent. It wasn't hard. So truth, he's going to talk about truth. And so that's kind of neat. So we're going to see the word truth used in quite a few different ways here. So let's look at the first verse here, it says, the elder to the chosen lady and her children. So that's the first clause or phrase here. So it starts off with this word elder, Presbyteros, or actually some pronounce it Presbyteros. It's the elder of a Christian church's who was committed to the direction of the church. There's a bunch of different verses here.

Actually, you can cross out 1 Timothy 5.2. Let's just go to 1 Timothy for a second.

You know, it's used in talking about the requirements for an elder, in talking about the kind of person he is to be, and some of the rewards of being an elder. And also it's used again in 3 John. But in 1 Timothy 5, it says, starting in verse 17, it says, let the elder who rules be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. And you go down to 19, it says, do not receive accusations against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. So it's use of the leader of a body of believers, So one of the questions is, in this context, and this shouldn't be a hard question, who is the elder in this context? John. Right, exactly. And actually I was reading about how they decided upon the authorship of the books and stuff, and the style of this certainly is all about John.

In looking at it, it seems like Paul was called an apostle. But John seems to consider himself an elder in the sense that he was giving counsel to these group of believers. And he talks about this lady, and he talks about Gaius later on. So it seems like he was performing the role of an elder, even though he wasn't physically with them. He was writing to them. He would travel around. But he was an elder as far as they would regard him.

So in this context, the elder is writing to this chosen lady. And lady here is kyria, which is actually the female form of a familiar word in the Greek, kyrios, lord or master. And it's used down in, we read it, Jessica read it in verse five. And he talks about the lady again. So the question is, and that talks about, it says, to the chosen lady and her children. Who is this chosen lady and who are her children?

And this is not quite as easy a question. In fact, in looking at it, there's some differences of opinion about this. Go ahead. What was the name of that sister? Elizabeth. I was thinking of... Maybe the relation is off. You sure? You mean Martha? Martha and Mary? I don't know.

That's interesting to look at. That too is interesting. Okay. Alright. He's being a detective. That's good. Okay. Fair enough. Some people have gone along that line and I think that's a good line. Others, I'll tell you another train of thought. Some see this, the lady, as being a personification of a body of believers.

One of the verses they use is, let's look in 1 Peter chapter 5. where, actually I didn't see this quite, 1 Peter chapter 5, and it's in verse 13, it says, could someone read, I have an American Standard, does someone have a different translation than that, like King James or whatever? Could they read verse 13, chapter 5? This 1 Peter? Yeah, this is 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 13.

She who is in Babylon, he left together with you. OK, well, it says some manuscripts read, the church. So she was used as the church. The church who is in Babylon, chosen together, sends you greetings. And so does my son Mark. So some have taken this, that as you go through here, the lady is referring to, it's a title for a group of believers. But I kind of like what our amateur detective said here. And I'll tell you. That's what he called himself.

Interestingly enough, the word Kyria actually has the idea of being a mistress, like a mistress of a house. Think about it, you have the feminine and the masculine. The masculine form is lord, lord And so the feminine form is Kyria. So it has mistress, and it turns out that the name Martha, from what I understand, is Chaldean, which could be translated mistress as well.

So some have taken that connection and said, well, and then using the verse in verse 13, they said, well, this looks like this could be referring to Martha and her children. It could be our physical children. to be our spiritual children. But if you go down to the last verse, verse 13, it says, let's read that, verse 13, in 2 John. He says, it seems like that John is referring that he knows the children of her sister. So there's a little bit of detective work here. Roger?

Yeah, go ahead. A footnote here in the numeric says the children of your, I'm sorry, either another local church or another Christian woman. So they gave you the option. Right. And that's what you'll find. They kind of either camp with the body of believers, what the lady referred to, or it could be a Christian woman. In this case, it says, the children of your chosen sister greet you.

So it's kind of interesting to think, you know, Mark and Mary are pretty well known in Scripture. We have quite a few verses about them. So it's interesting. But what I found is that While this is all interesting, what's being said about love and their interaction to love, it doesn't, in my mind, didn't influence me one way or the other. Those are wonderful statements we're going to find about whom I love in truth and they know the truth and they walk in the truth.

All those statements could be true of a Martha or Mary or her children, physical children. They're all talking about believers. This is a chosen lady that's elect, the word elect. It seemed like it didn't you know, so I wasn't a little upset going one way or the other but it was interesting that this kind of this little path that you go through with the names kind of Connected up and it could possibly be Martha. That was kind of interesting. So If you guys have other thoughts and you know other, you know, I'm open to that. That's that's fine.

So Okay So I think in here we're going to see what it says The lady and her children it could be it could be her her her physical children, but they're going to be believers. Or it could be her spiritual children that came to the Lord as a result of her. So either way, we're going to find out some things about the lady. And John's going to commend her. He's going to make note of her and the fact of her faith and the truth that is evident in their lives.

OK, so let's go on. So he goes on to say, he says, whom I love in the truth. And he says this more than one time. He says it in 3 John. And actually we talked about it back in other verses here. So let's look at some of that. In 3 John 1.1. Can someone read that? The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius I love in the truth. Right, okay. And then in 1 John, can someone read 5.2?

1 John 5.2? By this we know that we love the children of God, and we love God and observe His commandments. Okay.

Not quite the same phraseology. So the question is, what does it mean to love in truth? There's one observation that And looking at the Greek texts, some would render it, even though the definite article's not there, sometimes, and this is where I'm kind of weak in my Greek, sounds like, not strange, phraseology. They would render that, you could render that love in the truth, even though the definite article's not there. I'm not quite sure the conditions for that, but that kind of made it interesting too. So what do you think? What does it mean to love in truth? The elders, the chosen lady and her children whom I love in the truth. And a couple of ways that I found you could go in this and maybe you'll catch on to that. I don't know.

Well, I do. It's saying that she knows she's a member of the body of Christ and in that fact, he loves her. Right. Yeah, I thought that way too. All believers, as members of Christ's body, we love them because we have something in common. We have a common nature among believers. And I think that's right on. But what occurred to me, and there are a couple of ways you could think about, well, I'm going to look at characteristics of a Christian.

But it all comes back to who we are in Christ. So if you think about it, go to John 14. I am the way, the truth, and the life. He is the definition of truth. He is the singular truth. But Christ is even more than that. In Ephesians 4.21, if indeed you have heard him, Christ, and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus. So he's the definition of truth, and truth is in him. So when John says here, whom I love in truth, he loves the lady and her children in truth, I think you could actually say it, we may say it like this, whom I love in the Lord. I love Vern in the Lord. I love all you guys in the Lord.

Because we have a common ancestor. We have a common nature. So I love you in that. So that's kind of what I took from this introductory section. To the chosen lady and her children whom I love in the Lord. But he's not going to keep going. So I love them in the Lord. I love them in truth. So that's kind of where I went in this. It's a matter of family. Exactly, exactly. And it's an agape love. Exactly. And that's one thing that in this passage, this is all agape love.

Some commentators made note of that. They said it would have been quite a bit different if he had said phileo love is the other word that's used in scripture sometimes for brotherly love. It's quite a bit different. He's saying, I love them, God's love. And that raises the bar even higher. So you think, this has got to be something that's connected to who we are in Christ.

Just a couple of thoughts there on the truth. We've talked about, I think Brian uses the term, truthing in love, how love is never at the expense of truth and truth is never at the expense of love. And it's interesting that his love here is being described in the context of truth. And so we think of that as the teaching, the doctrine that we share, and that you don't have fellowship with one another, and love with one another, and disagree radically on doctrine. Love exists in an environment and a context of truth. And he goes on to deal with that. To say that you love someone in truth is really to say that you understand Christian love, because that's the only way it exists.

Ephesians 4.15 talks about that whole truth and love stuff too. Now that's good. I agree. That sounds great. Okay, so let's go on.

He says, not only I, but also all who know the truth. So he kind of broadens the field here. He says, I know this chosen lady and the children, and I love them in truth. And he says, but this is even bigger than that. Their life, who they are, is evident to all who know the truth.

So I thought that was kind of interesting. Some of the questions I got carried away here. The I obviously is John here. And all is, I'm gonna answer my own questions in this case here. All is, you know. That's good answering. Thank you. That's why I decided to answer a ton of these silly questions. Anyway.

And all here, I think it refers to a body of believers that knew the lady and her children, that her life was evident. So let's see, what I wanted to kind of point out here is that this no here is the word gnosko, the no of experience. And it's also in the perfect tense. So it's saying that this is something that was ongoing in her life. The perfect tense is past action with abiding results.

Weiss has it kind of rendered. But also, all who have come to know her experientially, experience the truth, and at the present time, possess it. People who know the truth, or know the source of truth, which is the Lord Jesus, would recognize the truth in another person. Just like here in the body of believers, as we share about our Savior, we see the truth about Him coming from each one of us. We share that truth is evident among us. And so when one of you makes an observation, I say, wow, that's really good. I see some aspect of the truth better because you shared that. So I think that's what's being mentioned here, that he's saying, not only do I observe this, but all who know the truth observe that. So would that be whether you actually knew the lady or not? That's actually a description of the body of Christ? Well, actually, that's a good point.

But in the context here, Well, and actually I was thinking more, but you're right. I mean, in the context of the body of believers, as we speak the truth, speak the truth in love, as we speak the truth in God's Word, that is evident. We agree with that because it is the truth. And because we have the truth living in us, and we speak that truth. Is that what you're kind of pointing out? That's what I was wondering.

And there's a verse that, and then actually in 1 John 2.21 it says, I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it.

And John, all through this book, is talking about, he uses know, both the experiential version and then the other one, absolute knowledge. He uses it a variety of times. And he's very focused on that we know what we believe. and that we operate out of that principle. So he's saying to all who know the truth and in 221 it says he's writing to us to reinforce the knowledge that we already have.

So the sentence keeps going. For the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. So this is going to describe what believers are about. So the preposition here could be because of the truth which abides in us. So, I was going to ask this. How could you... Let me get this door fixed here before I... There we go. Okay. A little repair. Alright, a little repair. So how would you state, it says, he's saying, for the sake or because of the truth which abides in us. How could you state that differently? The truth which abides in us. First in you, the hope of the Lord, and in me too.

Okay, okay. So you could convey an equivalent meaning by other scriptures that talk about that. Now, it's kind of going down this path. And also, this is in the present tense. It's continually abiding in us. So it speaks of the life. It speaks of the life we have in our Savior.

So if you turn to 1 John 3.9, Can someone read that for us? Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. So I saw here, he says, the truth which abides in us, because his seed, we have the very life of Christ abiding in us. So what I'm kind of doing, I'm looking for a parallel way of saying the same information, passing on the same information. If truth abides in us, and the truth is in our Savior, then we can say it in a variety of ways.

If you go over to 1 John 4.12, it says, No one has beheld God at any time.

If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. So we see that quite a few times in 1 John, we saw where we abide in Him and God abides in us. So that's another way of saying God is abiding in us. And then down in verse 16 it says, And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. So I think an equivalent statement for the truth abiding in us is saying, since the truth is the very definition of our Savior, it's God abiding in us.

So he's basically saying that it's evident for the sake of the truth which abides in us, and he's going to go on to say, The truth will be with us forever. So I put the verses in there that we kind of talked about. So this truth, this very life that we have from our Savior will be with us forever. And I had a few verses that kind of talk about that. Let's look at the Ephesians passage.

Ephesians 1.13. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed you were marked in him with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit. So basically what I was looking for there, that we were sealed. We were sealed in him.

There's no question about our future and our Savior, the truth. So, you know, John is very much about, you know, he comes back to topics again and again. He comes back to who we are in Christ, what we've done. And then we're going to move on from this and he's going to talk about our condition. These first two verses here, the greeting introduction is much about our position, who we are.

He saw the lady and her children and he said, you know, I see the life of Christ in you, is basically what he's saying. And he's using the word truth to convey that. So I tried to kind of match up that phraseology with Paul and other people that talk about that. Bob?

You know, the amazing thing to me is In the Gospel of John, Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And then in 1 John, you see truth, salt and pepper throughout 1 John. But then in 2 John, it's mentioned five times in the first five verses. And in 3 John, it's mentioned seven times within these short we talk about faith, love, and hope.

But isn't truth the bottom line? Isn't that the foundation of faith, what the truth is? And I was kind of sharing, earlier in the verse he talks about, back in verse 1 there, he talks about the fact that we're to, what does it mean? To love in truth?

And that's basically, I was kind of sharing that, loving in the Lord. Truth is the Lord, as you mentioned. He is the truth and He has truth. He's the very definition of truth. So truth really focuses right back to the Savior, but right back to who we are in Him.

So now, this verse, we're going to find that this one's a pretty... Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. So he's gonna basically, this is an introduction that occurs in what they call the Pastoral Epistles. So let's look at that. This occurs three times, actually it occurs in Titus, but minus one of the words. So let's look at 1 Timothy for a second. 1 Timothy. I'd like to read the first two verses, 1 Timothy 1, verses 1 and 2.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope. Through Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father. Christ Jesus our Lord. So this tends to be a pretty familiar way of greeting people. Grace, mercy and peace be with us.

But what I kind of notice is, and we're going to look at the other one too in 2 Timothy and also in Titus. If you look at verse 1 in 1 Timothy, he talks about Things will be added in the greeting talking about in terms of some aspects of our Savior. He says, and of Christ Jesus who is our hope. And then down in verse 2 it says to Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. So he mentions that he's our Lord, but we'll see In this one, he's going to say he's the son of the Father.

So there'll be little things that are added either in the text, and these aren't great earth-shaking things, but just kind of interesting how in the introduction they'll add in other aspects of things about the Savior. And John's going to focus on that he's the son of the Father, and it's in truth and love, whereas other ones focus on the fact that he's our hope, he's our Lord.

So if you go over to 2 Timothy, you'll see that in 2 Timothy, And I'll go ahead and read that one. 2 Timothy verses 1 and 2. It says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, Christ Jesus our Lord so in this one he talks about in verse 1 according to the promise of life so it seems like in the greeting they kind of give a hint to what they're going to focus on and as Bob mentioned he's focusing on truth and he's not connected with love truth and love are going to be his his focus in this little short epistle.

Whereas other epistles are going to focus on some other aspects. So I kind of, interesting in the green, you kind of get a little idea of what's going on. And then actually in Titus, you don't have quite the same, it's a slight bit different. In Titus, could someone read Titus chapter one, verses one to four?

Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Christ Jesus, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to Godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifested even his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted, according to the commandment of God our Savior, to Titus, my true child, in a common faith, So in this one, he doesn't have mercy in there. I thought about it for a while, and Vern's talked a little bit about grace and mercy, contrasting those, and I chose not to go into it and look up and try to go through a whole... people have different opinions about why certain words are first or second, and I didn't really take the... to go through and kind of study that out. But grace, mercy and peace, in this case he doesn't have mercy in there.

You know in mine it does. Well actually, supposedly that's not in one of these things. So you have King James? Yeah. Apparently it's not, there's a note here that says it's not in the manuscript thing again. So anyway, I took the, you know, that the manuscripts, the notes of the manuscripts are correct. So, you know, sorry, I hadn't noticed. I saw that note there. I thought, well, maybe people. OK, so. So if you notice in here, a little bit different focus in here.

Like I'm trying to point out that he talks about he's our savior. Salvation seems to be a promise of eternal life. So the introduction to each of these different things, and actually 2 John is is the other place. So actually there's approximately four occurrences, if you count Titus in that list too, of grace, mercy, and peace. And it's from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father. And if you look in Revelation, we don't have to turn there, it talks about Jesus Christ the faithful witness. So once again, in the intro they'll put in little things that will emphasize what's being talked about. And then let's go down here and in truth and love.

So I kind of, actually, that verse I put down there, I'm not sure, I was kind of, the verse I put down is Ephesians 4.15, it says, speaking the truth in love, and that certainly is true. But what I thought, after thinking about that this morning a little bit more, is that what's being said here, this is kind of like a story here, or a flow here.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father in truth and love. This is talking about an attribute of God in truth and love. We are to speak the truth and love, but the fact that it's truth and love I think is significant. The truth is in Him. It's in the very person of Christ. And love is this agape love, which is God's love.

What's interesting here is that none of the apostles tries to copyright their phrase. It's all from the Lord. Good. All right. Amen to that. Okay. I'll go along with that. So what I saw here was that it comes down that this truth and love, this is a statement in the greeting to this lady and her children. He talks about the grace, mercy, and peace being with them. And it's from God, the Father, and his Son. And the whole sphere of what's being talked about is in truth and love. That's the sphere that God operates in. He cannot operate otherwise. He operates as the singular truth and His love is agape love which only can come with God as the source.

So I kind of rethought that and said, this is not focused so much on us doing that, it's more a statement about who God is and what he's done. So I kind of changed my mind a little bit. So I apologize for something like that. The verse is okay, it's speaking the truth and love, which we're supposed to do in Christ. We're supposed to do that. Hey Roger, just a quick thought about just the environment that this audience is in still.

They are still being nailed with this Antichrist content. And so it specifically talks about Jesus Christ as Son of the Father. We know from the previous book that that was what they were denying. And so they may have wanted to continue to be present with them, and we know that this book, 2 John, is going to nail not even allowing certain things to take place with these guys. So it's just interesting that These antichrists, these teachers, the ones that had gone out from them, could potentially have wanted to continue, let's just love. But John's saying, no, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and we love in truth. And that is the defining difference between your kind of love and what God's kind of love, in the context of the church, is supposed to exist.

So just interesting to remember that they were being challenged by these folks. Exactly. And that's going to come along just in verse 7. I agree. Other thoughts? Well, and I was thinking along with that too, location. You know, Christ Jesus is in Christ. Right, exactly. So all the identification kicks in there too. Exactly.

What's interesting is, as Bob was pointing out, he's going to talk in the sphere of truth. We can say in him, which is obviously right. He's going to say in truth, which is kind of neat. In truth and love. And I think that's good about... Pushes away the ones that would that would try to deny who Christ is he is the singular truth All right good, thank you So now he's now we come to the part where he's going to commend the lady and her children And he says I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth just as we have received commandment to do so from the father and So this phrase, I was very glad. Actually, the very glad or glad is actually the idea of rejoicing. Cairo, glad surprise.

So he says this again in I'm sorry. Actually, he said it previously. Let's look at that for a second. Oh, I know what the problem is. Actually, there's a typo here. Please change that to 3 John. 3 John 1 3. I apologize. So there's a typo. So he says the same thing in 3 John 3. And let's look at that for a second. 3 John 1 3. He says, for I was very glad. I'm very similar to that.

I was very glad, brethren, For I was very glad when brethren came and bore witness to the truth, that is how you are walking in the truth. So he's going to talk about their walk, their condition, their lifestyle. Not only did they know the truth, but they were walking in the truth. They were walking in the Lord Jesus.

And then for the Flippings 118, that's basically rejoicing. We can rejoice again. I say rejoice. So the verb here is to find. He found them, or to find. And it's in the perfect tense. So this is interesting. He had found them in the past, and they continued on walking up into the present, on into the future. So that's kind of cool. He had found this thing in a lady and her children, and it was something that that a past completed action is bind up in the present on the future. So that was kind of cool. That's the word Eureka. Yeah, is that right? Yeah, Eureka? Yeah, I found it. I found it. You're right. Thank you. Thank you. That's good. Yeah, I came across that. All right, that's good. Some of your children walking in truth.

Okay, so let's just get down to the bottom line here. So what are you thinking? So what I'm trying to do here again is John has his own way, and we've mentioned this, he expresses things in kind of a unique way. So what's an equivalent statement? And this is not hard, again.

What's an equivalent statement to walking in the truth? Knowing the truth. Okay, okay. Really, really knowing it. Well, I'm looking for John talks about knowing the truth, but then this is the action that results from that. Can you say abiding? Okay, that's good. Can you think of something that John said in 1 John that would be a similar statement? If you said you're walking in the truth, what would be a parallel statement to that? It means you're walking with the Lord, you're in fellowship with Him, you're abiding with Him. Walking in the light, maybe. Exactly.

So if you look at 1 John 1.7, but if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship and so on. So I saw this statement here as being, he's focused on truth here, and he's saying walking in the truth. He's saying you're walking in the truth of who God is. And he's excited about that. And he's going to talk about, we received We receive this commandment to do so from the Father. I find that a little bit more challenging, but it all kind of hangs together because I think that we're talking about a life that is focused on the Savior.

You're walking in His life. Some of the verses in Colossians, it says, for as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. It says walk in Ephesians 5.8, walk as children of light. So the idea of walking and conducting your life, walking is a synonym or a word that talks about our lifestyle. What's our lifestyle about? We're walking or abiding with the Savior. So walking in the truth, he's excited about that. They're walking in who Christ is.

Right. Well, if we stay focused on the verses you mentioned, that Christ is the singular truth, all this hangs together well. If you go away from that and try to get attributes, well, we do the truth sometimes and maybe we might do the truth, it kind of all falls apart, I think. If you stay focused on the fact that Christ is the singular truth and everything fits, it all seems to fit. All right, so let's go on. as we have received commandment to do so from the Father. Receive is this word, Lambano, to either take or receive. In 1 John 16 it says, for we have all received grace upon grace. This is an example.

So this is a commandment from the Father. you can this verse I'm not too happy with what what I thought here was that and after thinking about it again here I didn't find I couldn't find it should say and I looked through you can do all kinds of searches and computers are great you can search so many different ways well you just don't really find a direct statement talking about the commandment tied to walking in the truth.

But what you do find is, some of the verses we mentioned, some of the admonitions, you know, walk in Him, so walk in Him. As you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. And that's in the first part of Ephesians is the positional part and the conditional part. So that's a commandment in a sense. What I found was that you could find the sense of this walking in the truth, not in that exact phraseology, but in other parallel statements that talk about walking with Him. And you can consider that a commandment, in the sense of under grace.

So, it was a little bit, you know, I found it a little bit challenging. Well, okay, where's the commandment that says walk in the truth? Well, it isn't stated that way. It's kind of why I came to the conclusion. It's stated in the parallel ways, walking in Him, walking in the light, It stayed that way.

So that's basically the introduction to 2 John. It's short. And actually, I was reading some things about the fact that these particular epistles, because they were so small, weren't passed around or weren't as well read as some of the other ones. But when you start reading it, you see this is John. I mean, it's just so characteristic of how he writes. And that's how they identify.

Even though John isn't mentioned in this epistle, or in 3 John, his writing is so characteristic that they felt that it had to be John that wrote this epistle. So other thoughts about 2 John? Can we possibly go back and just identify elect lady and children again, just because there's going to be some verses next week that are going to hinge on it. I just want to make sure we're on the same page.

Sure. Let me see here. Let's go back even one more. OK. OK. So. The chosen lady and her children. Right. So. Yeah. I lost. We started talking about that detective stuff and I kind of got lost. I'd like to go back. Here's what I found. I'll tell you what I found.

Like I said, some people have taken the lady could be taking the plate, could be representing a church, a body of believers. And so that's pretty straightforward. The other route that some took was that the word curia, the feminine form of curios, could be, there's a translation, let's see do I have that, could be translated mistress. And mistress is also a translation of Martha's name, which is Chaldean, is also translated mistress. So basically, Weiss went down that path. He tied it, and he said, why? He believed that you could tie the lady, Correa, to mistress, and that kind of focused back to Martha. That was that path. And, you know, we took the Babylonian bunny trail.

So at the very least, we're saying that this is a specific woman of some prominence and she has children who are believers and they are walking. the truth, unlike the antichrists that were... Unlike, and as we get to verse 7, he's going to make an exception, there are some that are not doing that.

And he was really happy to find... He was happy to find them. But what I thought was, he really didn't even have to... The fact that he found believers, children, it didn't, in my mind, it didn't hinge on the fact that she had to be Martha, for example. No, it doesn't. It doesn't. So I felt, so there was no...

It's a prominent woman. Right. and he's writing specifically to her. At the very least, we can say that. Thanks for pointing that out. Sure, sure. And actually, I'll send you guys the notes for, the rest of the notes for the second part, John. I have that. Other thoughts or comments? Do you think she could have been a widow? Is that why he's writing to the woman? It just sounds like the end of the chapter sounds a little more protective. Watch out who you let into your house, kind of. Yeah, right.

He's warning the church, he doesn't, well, many times they had home churches. If I understand it, they didn't have like this, they had a home church. And so they were concerned about, you know, don't even let them in the house. Don't even put them in the door. So that's kind of, I mean, when they have churches, they were, they could be a home church.

And at the last, he talks about his sister and her children. And he had some contact with them, possibly. OK. Well, thanks. Let's close. We thank you, Father. We thank you so much for this day. Lord, we thank you for the blessings we have, Father. Thank you for your word. We thank you that we can study it. And we just praise you for the marvelous truths we have. In Christ's name, amen.