"How to Walk in Truth and Love"

Samuel Seales

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The Bible is filled with themes on truth and love. John our writer of this brief letter reinforces the theme of truth and love.

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The New International Version 2 John

The elder,

To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth—because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.

It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.

I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings.

Introduction: The Bible is filled with themes on truth and love. John our writer of this brief letter reinforces the theme of truth and love. Following Jesus and our loyalty to Him will require a commitment to living in truth and love. If you and I are to walk in truth and love, we must know the biblical version or definition of truth and love. Let’s examine John’s brief letter to the elect lady and her children.

What is the motivation of Christian Truth and Love?

The solid facts about the future hope of Christians are a powerful motivation for constant faith and costly love in the present.

N. T. Wright

Christian love is by no means mere sentimentalism or humanistic compassion, but is motivated by a knowledge of the truth which has been revealed in Christ. Truth is the basis of love.

It is precisely this truth, on account of which the church is loved, that the church must be careful to guard. John says, the love that this community of believers had, arose because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever. When our motivation to love one another is based on what the word of God says, only then is it authentic. Is John’s heart on what he saw a reality of current issue in churches worldwide? What did John see? Through the elect lady’s too indiscriminate hospitality, some of her children have been seduced by the deceivers who have come to her bringing other doctrine than that of Christ. We cannot create a brand of love that is twisted with selfishness and partiality. The qualities of truth and love are to be maintained by Christian believers so that we can enjoy grace, mercy, and peace which comes from God the Father and Jesus Christ. Johns cautions this church (Elect Lady) to continue in truth and love because they are the foundation of a healthy relationship with God and one another.

How should we practice truth and love? (2 John 4-5)

There’s a kind of religious practice without any inward experience which is of no account in the sight of God. It is good for nothing.

Jonathan Edwards

God is the first object of our love: Its next office is to bear the defects of others. And we should begin the practice of this amid our own household.

John Wesley

To walk in the truth is to be obedient to the truth God has made known.

John wanted the whole church to do the same. John says: it give me great joy to find you walking in the truth. Nothing ought to excite a believer, a congregation of saints than to know that we are abiding by and in the word of God. We have so much to contend with in our society, our personal lives and in our culture. Our stability should come from what we believe about what’s true according to God’s Word. It is not that members of the church are all of the same religious ‘type’, or that they are naturally drawn to one another by a common interest, as in a secular club. Christian unity is grounded in the truth alone, and the truth alone can generate agapē (that distinctive self-giving love), since it is both an internal force and an eternal reality. The truth lives in us (literally, it ‘remains’ or ‘abides’) when we realize what it is, believe it and practise it. Satan is busy and he is constantly waging warfare with God’s elect. However when we rely on the truth of God’s word we are able to stand firm on His promises and protection that He assures us is ours if we are steadfast and continue in His way. John reminds them of a requirement that they have had from the beginning, because it is the perfect way to resist the antichrist and his deceitful innovations that are designed to lead us astray. Some things that we do, we do them because we always done. We fail to check to see it what we are doing is in line with the Word of God.

Why is it imperative to practice truth and Love? (2 John 7-9)

If we practice love without truth, it is hypocrisy. But if we try to have truth without love, it may be brutality.

Warren W. Wiersbe

Love is the fulfilment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.

Augustine of Hippo

The reason for John’s previous admonition is that,

“many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world.”

Because of the appearance of these deceivers, the readers needed to watch out for the disastrous spiritual effects which any compromise with their ideas could lead to. The danger is not loss of salvation, of course, but loss of reward. Our salvation is secure in Christ. But the reward for faithfulness is at stake here. Could it be, that some of our struggles that we often time bring on ourselves are God’s way of keeping us attached to the reward that He wants to give us if we remain true to Him. The antichrists were a threat to the work of the Lord in which he and they were mutually engaged. It should be noted that the phrase be rewarded fully shows that failure by the readers would not totally deprive them of reward. God would not forget what they had done for Him (cf. Heb. 6:10). But the fullness of their reward (cf. 1 Cor. 3:11–15) was threatened by the subversion of the antichrists. John’s message to us as believers is to continue in the teachings of Christ and don’t resist sound doctrine. Don’t deviate from the truth, because God is not with a person who defects from the truth. These are stressful times in which we live, our engaging in the Gospel message of the truth is what keeps us from falling prey to deception.

Closure:

Hold on to God’s unchanging hand build your hopes on things eternal and hold to his hand. Trust in Him who will not leave you, If to God you have been true, fair and bright your home in glory, your enraptured soul will view. The truth is He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He was born of the virgin Mary, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, He walked the dust roads of Jerusalem, heal the sick and raised the dead. Bore a roman cross on His shoulder. Marched up a hill call Calvary,...............................

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