Doing the Truth in Love

God is true; and Jesus Christ is truth (Jn 14:6; Rom 3:4). God has spoken His Word through the prophets and through His Son (Heb 1:1–2), who is the Word of God incarnate (Jn 1:14). The Word of God has also been written. The Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of truth, has moved along the writers of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16), which gives the unique authorship of the Bible to both God and men (2 Pet 1:20–21).

The Word of God is truth (Jn 17:17). Christians are commanded by God’s Word to obey the commandments found therein. The born again are led by the Spirit into all truth (Ezek 36:27; Jn 3:1–8; 16:13). It is the truth that sets us free from slavery to sin (Rom 6:6), fear of judgment, and the fear of eternal punishment in the second death (Jn 8:32; Jude 7; Rev 20:11, 14–15).

It is the truth that liberates us to love in the manner with which Christ loved us. Thus, walking in the truth is to walk in love (2 Jn 4; 3 Jn 3–4), which is what Jesus Christ taught his disciples to do. Christians must abide in the teaching of Christ (2 Jn 9).

Love and truth must both be present and balanced in the Christian’s life. We walk in love (Eph 5:2); and we walk in truth. One without the other is an aberration. Truth without love leads to legalism. Love with truth leads to liberalism. Truth and love go together. God is love (1 Jn 4:8). Jesus Christ is truth (Jn 14:6). Jesus Christ is God (Jn 1:1; Titus 1:4; 2:13).

As it pertains to the Law of God, Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law through His meritorious obedience (Mt 5:17). He always did what was pleasing to the Father (Jn 8:29); and as with no one else, a voice from heaven resounded on different occasions, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Mt 3:17; 17:5; 2 Pet 1:17).

As followers of Christ, we share the same desire to be pleasing to God (2 Cor 5:9). Faith in Christ, the perfect Law-keeper, is what pleases God (Heb 11:6). The key is that we are “in Christ.” Faith is a gift of God and not of ourselves (Eph 2:8–9). It is granted to us by God’s grace (Phil 1:29), which is how we were transferred into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col 1:13).

Grace is a work of God. Mercy is a work of God. Peace is a work of the God of peace. These works of God position us in love and in truth, which we have seen are in the same location, “in Christ.” We are in Him (1 Cor 1:30); and He is in us, by His indwelling Spirit (Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9, 11). This is the mutual indwelling that is representative of our union with Christ, who is in union with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

The one who has both the Father and the Son has the anointing of the Spirit (1 Jn 2:27), which means he or she has the true teaching of Christ. This is the teaching about the true Messiah; but it is also the teaching from the Spirit of Christ (Jn 14:26). He who has the Son, Jesus Christ, has the Spirit of Christ permanently residing in him (Heb 13:5).

The false teachers of 2 John were those who denied the humanity of Jesus, the Son of God (2 Jn 7). The encroaching Gnostic heresy held that things of the spirit realm were “higher” and therefore better than the lowly flesh and dirty deeds of the body. They loathed the idea that the Son of God would incarnate to become the Son of Man.

Jesus, the Son of God, was fully God. He was eternally the second Person of the triune Godhead. He came to save His people from their sins. In order to do this, Jesus needed to become like them, yet without sin (Heb 4:15). Just as the federal head of humanity, Adam, was a man. So, the second Adam was enfleshed to represent God’s chosen people, as the federal head of a new, holy nation of royal priests (1 Pet 2:9).

The many deceivers that have gone out into the world are filled with the spirit of antichrist (1 Jn 4:3; 2 Jn 7). Their work of deception resembles the work of their father, the devil, who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning (Jn 8:44). They blind and distract the sons of Adam to prevent them from seeing the truth of the Gospel (Gal 2:5, 14), as it is in Jesus (Eph 4:21). It is an evil deed to hinder people from seeing and knowing the truth. There is no love in the heart of such practitioners (Jn 5:42).

To love one another requires that we know and love the truth. We must embrace Jesus Christ and the written Word that tells us what we know of Him, who is the image of the invisible God, and who is the Creator and sustainer of all things (Col 1:15–16; Heb 1:3). All things are from Him, flow through Him, and return to Him who is sovereign Lord of all (Ps 115:3; 135:6; Acts 10:42; Rom 11:36).

We must know our Bibles well enough to discern a true teacher of Christ from a false teacher of another gospel (Acts 17:11; 2 Cor 11:3–4). We are to receive, even show hospitality to the one who has God, who is true, living in his heart (Rom 12:13; 1 Tim 5:10; Heb 13:2; 1 Pet 4:9). We must not receive the false teacher into our local church fellowship, nor even give him a greeting (2 Jn 10).

The Apostle John demonstrated great pastoral care toward those he was separated from by imprisonment on the island of Patmos. Still, we can determine he was in contact with some who were with him and who had formed their own local church body (2 Jn 13). They were all together in these matters of unity and truth.

Elders, who pastor the flock of God as under-shepherds, are loved for being men of God who love the truth. They love to see Christ’s church thriving, that is, they love to see all believers walking in the truth. They happily share communion with those who walk by the Spirit of truth and who are earnest to keep the commands to love God and to love the brethren (Gal 5:16, 25). They also are keen to love their neighbors, even their enemies, as themselves. They do truth unto others in the same way they wish the truth to be done unto them.

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

December 15, 2023

2 John