1"The elder to the elect lady and her children." The author gives no name and calls himself the elder, a title that suited the senior voice among the churches of Asia Minor. Most interpreters take the elect lady as a picture of a local congregation and her children as its members, and the letter closes with greetings from the children of an elect sister, another church. The NIV Application Commentary says that original context is everything for this letter. Traveling teachers who denied the incarnation were moving from house to house looking for a hearing, and the elder writes in the middle of a war. Yet the greeting is tender.
The first thing the reader notices is one word. Truth appears five times in the first four verses. The Greek word, *aletheia*, anchors everything. John loves this church 1"in truth," and the love is bounded and defined by the truth, which is kept from going cold by love. The NIV Application Commentary calls love and truth the twin stars by which the Johannine church navigated, and neither is allowed to sail alone. John also says that the truth 2"abides in us and will be with us forever." It is a permanent resident, and no wave of clever teaching will carry it away.
The greeting follows ordinary letter form and fills it with Trinitarian content. It mentions the Father and the Son, and it locates all three gifts 3"in truth and love," the same two words that govern the rest of the letter. Already John has told his readers where he stands on the question that will occupy the second half. Jesus Christ is the Father's Son.
Then comes the joy. The word some is honest. John does not say all. He has found some of the children living truthfully, and he rejoices at that. A pastor or a parent understands the feeling of watching for years over a flock and taking delight in every sign that the walk is being kept. The phrase walking in the truth repeats the language of 1 John, where walking describes the whole direction of a life. John wants to see the faith walked.
5"The one we have had from the beginning." John uses a phrase that governs all three of his letters. He proposes nothing new. The command to love is as old as their first hearing of Jesus, and anything that claims to improve on it deserves suspicion. The request is gentle, and what he asks for is love.
6"This is love, that we walk according to his commandments." Love is defined in a way that surprises many modern readers. It is a walk according to God's commands. The NIV Application Commentary says that love in John's thought is never sentiment set loose from obedience, and obedience is the substance of love. The sentence curls back on itself, since love is walking in the commandments, and the commandment is to walk in love. Each is the other's form.
Ask whether there is truth in the love you show, and love in the truth you hold.
Prayer
Father, we thank you for the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever. Grant us grace, mercy, and peace from you and from Jesus Christ, your Son, in truth and love. Teach us to love one another by walking according to your commandments, and let us rejoice in every child of yours who walks in the truth. In Jesus' name, amen.