I. Greetings (1-2)
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I. Greetings (1-2)
1 The letters of 2–3 John are like brief postcards that the apostle John sent to believers until he was able to personally visit with them again. He addresses his letter to the elect lady and her children. John is using the term lady metaphorically. He’s not writing to a woman but to a church. New Testament writers speak of the church using female terminology because the church is “the bride” of Christ (Rev 22:17; see also 2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:22-33). Thus, John is writing to a congregation and its members, “her children.”
John says this church is one whom he loves in the truth. Here two great biblical realities are combined: love and truth. They must be tied together because they balance each other and really cannot be separated. Truth without love is cold orthodoxy; love without truth is empty sentimentalism. Love is truth in action.
2 Truth is incredibly important to John. He mentions it five times in the first four verses. Though truth has fallen on hard times today, it is non-negotiable for the Christian. Many people say that truth is relative, but one plus one still equals two. Truth is that which corresponds to reality, and it finds its roots in God. He is the absolute standard against which truth is measured. In fact, truth is what God says about a matter. The revealed Word of God speaks truth about life and death, heaven and hell, money and parenting, marriage and sex, and every other topic relevant to life’s big questions. Therefore, we don’t have to wallow in a sea of relativity. On the contrary, we must stand for truth.