I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children
Not all, but some of them; for good parents have not always good
children, or at least not all of them; Adam had a Cain, Abraham
an Ishmael, and Isaac an Esau: God is pleased to show his
discriminating grace in tribes and families, by taking some, and
leaving others: it is a great mercy when any are called by grace,
and instead of the fathers are the children: and this was the
case of some of the children of this elect lady, they were
walking in the truth:
in Christ, the truth, by faith, as they had received him; and in
the truth of the Gospel, as they had embraced and professed it;
they abode in it, and by it, and made a proficiency in the
knowledge of it, which may be signified by walking, that being a
progressive action: as also they walked according to it, and as
became it; and likewise they walked in the truth of Gospel
worship, discipline, and ordinances:
as we have received a commandment from the
Father;
and which has been made known by Jesus Christ, as his mind and
will. Now as it is matter of joy and gladness to godly parents
when their children walk in the paths of faith, truth, and
holiness, so it is also to ministers of the Gospel, as well as to
the angels in heaven; it gives them an inward pleasure and joy,
and which is not only expressed by them, to such children and
their parents, but is also abundant by many thanksgivings unto
God.