Read with Me
2 John 4-6 (HCSB)
I was very glad to find some of your children walking in the truth, in keeping with a command we have received from the Father. So now I urge you, dear lady—not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk according to His commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: you must walk in love.
Listen with Me
John notes at the outset that some of the children of “the elect lady” are walking in the truth. Unfortunately, that indicates that some of them are not. This points out clearly that salvation and transformation are not a matter of heritage, but of decision. Just because a mother knows Jesus and lives in relationship with Him is no absolute guarantee that all her children will choose to follow in that same path.
John moves on to the key command of Jesus: to love one another with self-sacrificing agape love. This love is not an emotional love like some of the other Greek words typically translated as “love”. Instead, it is a constant care about the best interests and outcomes for the for the one that is loved, even if those best interests and outcomes result in a great cost to the lover. It is the same agape love that sent Jesus to the cross in order to provide the outcome of eternal life for all the people of the world.
John also ties this love for others tightly to a deep love for God Himself, who is the only source of agape love. And the demonstration that that kind of love for God really exists in a person’s heart is obedience to His commands. Anyone can profess to love God, but if they disobey His commandments, their profession is revealed as mere words. This is exactly what Jesus was saying to his followers in John 15:9-17.
This command to love God, to obey His commands, and then to love others with that same agape love is not a new command, but one as old as the law itself. In fact, these two commands are the very ones that Jesus identified as the greatest and second greatest commandments in the law (Matthew 22:34-40).
Pray with Me
Father, I think most Christians know, or at least recognize these two commandments. But obeying them as Jesus, and even as John, defines obedience is another matter entirely. We tend to want to love You without necessarily being diligent in our obedience, especially if that obedience would require us to step away from something that we cherish. And we want to love our neighbor, but we don’t want to have to sacrifice anything that we hold we hold dear in order to do it. In a very real sense, we want to love, but only on our own terms. But at the same time, we want Your presence and Your blessings in our lives. Unfortunately, we can’t have the blessings without the love, and we can’t have the love apart from a solid relationship with You, which can only come through laying down our own agendas, indeed laying down our whole lives, and following You. Lord, helped me to live whole-heartedly for You, so that I can experience Your agape love in every dimension of my life, and so that I can live it out each day. Amen.