Walking in truth

2 John and 3 John are the shortest letters in New Testament; but they are more than brief letters. They are admired as beautiful examples of the letter form used in the Graeco-Roman world. This one is also an outstanding example of how an older male Christian would write to a middle-aged, probably a widowed lady with continuing family responsibilities.

John had learned of the spiritual dangers the woman was facing as itinerant preachers arrived at her door, who did not teach what the apostles taught. Those men denied the Christ whom John and his fellow apostles presented. They did not confess that the eternal Son of God took a real body at His incarnation, and will come again in that same body, v. 7. Their intent was to undermine the fundamental doctrine of the New Testament, v. 9. Those false teachers were seeking to draw away disciples after them. Those who followed them would lose the joy of their salvation and blight their fruitfulness in Christ, for those false teachers were not walking in truth.

John had probably come to know about the woman’s dilemma through her children, v. 4. From their reports, he may have learned of her reluctance to refuse entry to those who claimed to serve her Lord. At the very time she was troubled by those who did not walk in truth, John was delighting in her children, as was the Father, whose commandment they were obeying. Living their lives, shaped and guided by truth, mattered to John and the Father.

Five times in the first four verses of this brief letter, John uses the noun ‘truth’. He also uses it twenty-five times in his Gospel, nine times in his First Epistle and six in the Third. Truth, as taught by Christ and His apostles, offers clarity of Christian motive - ‘love in the truth’, v. 1; forms a circle of Christian friends - ‘all that have known the truth’, v. 1; is the cause of Christian actions - what is done ‘for truth’s sake’, v. 2; lies at the core of Christian revelation -‘Grace . . . in truth and love’, v. 3. It also determines the conduct of Christian walk. What good news for a caring mother to receive; what joy for the Lord’s servant to give; what reward ahead for those children!