2 John 1:4 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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2 John 1:4

Comments

‘I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children.’ Where had he found them? John is most probably writing from Ephesus where he spent many of his last days. Maybe some children of the elect lady lived at Ephesus now, maybe he had come across them in his travels around the churches, and he found them shining in those churches, undertaking considerable things for the Lord. We do not have to read into the phrase ‘of thy children’ that only some of the elect lady’s children were converted. Possibly all of them were, it is simply that John had only come across some of them. Truth, ‘walking in truth’. It is going to be repeated in this epistle, and not only in this epistle but in 3 John, twice. It is an expression John uses in his first epistle.‘As we have received a commandment from the Father.’ Well, people ask what is the commandment? It occurs many times in Scripture. You go back to the Old Testament and you get one particular command which is repeated up to six times in Deuteronomy alone in slightly different words – ‘Ye shall walk in all the ways that the Lord your God hath commanded you.’ Of course, without salvation you cannot do that, but once saved, with a new nature and the Holy Spirit in you, you can obey that commandment. ‘Teach me thy way, O Lord,’ says the psalmist. ‘I will walk in thy truth,’ Psalm 86.

Application

When I was a very young Christian I went to a conference somewhere. I had a lift in a car and the car was pretty crowded with mostly undergraduates and on the way, it was a long road trip to this conference, the conversation was quite an eye-opener to me as a young Christian. All the others in that car, they were talking about what they might do in life, and their jobs and all the rest of it, and where their training might take them. And all their conversation was about what they could do to please the Lord, how they would find his will, what kind of work would enable them to be the greater witnesses. It was all very wholesome and challenging. Then on the way home after the conference, I was in a different car full of undergraduates, and the conversation was quite different. They were all professing believers just as the others, but it was about what occupation would you earn the most money? What would you most enjoy? What would most suit you, where it would get you, and what you could have? And it was startling also for a young believer. Same profession, same conference, all nice fellows, but quite different, the line of conversation. I think of that when I read these words – ‘I have found of thy children walking in truth.’ You can profess the truth, but walking in the truth is another matter, living for the truth is another matter.

This is about the whole course of your life, and there is a lot to it, many different aspects. Every now and then we need to examine our hearts about the whole of life’s course. Is it dedicated to the truth? What about my ambitions, are they for the truth? What can be done for Christ and the truth? What about my priorities? What do I give most time and enthusiasm to? Is it all in career and home? Other things can be immensely important, we have got to do justice to them and look after family, but what is our priority? What are my delights and enjoyments? Are they connected with the truth and the worship of God and the spreading of the Word and the reaching of people, or are they purely earthly pleasures that dominate?

There are some churches, many alas, where the Gospel is believed but nobody seems to live for it, or preach it, or make it known, or visit the community for it, or enlarge the Sunday school for it. Is the Gospel light a great priority? The authority of Scripture is essential for walking in the truth. Does it really dominate in our lives? Or is it quite incidental? Think about the commandments of God, holiness. Then devotion and daily prayer and never letting it slip, reading the Scriptures, not just in a technical manner. What doctrine is there here for me? What reproof is there here for me? What encouragement is there here for me? What view of Christ is there here for me? Faithfulness, that is walking in the truth, and witness at every opportunity, and stewardship. Thinking about Heaven, our eternal destiny, that is walking in the truth.

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2 John 1:4 Commentary and Bible Study