Today, Monday October 4
“This is Love”
2 John 1:1-6 “The Elder, To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth, because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father. And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.”
John made it clear to the “elect lady and her children” that he was writing this letter to, that he “loved them in truth”. (v.1) Then he also used the phrase, “in love and truth” (v.3). I believe what John is teaching here is there cannot be genuine love without truth and if there is truth present, it will be always be expressed in genuine love.
When I was a teenager a popular song that was going around had these words in it, “What the world needs now is love sweet love, it’s the only thing worth living for.” I am convinced that every human being is born with an innate desire to be loved and also a desire to love. But this thing we call love has been corrupted because of sin that entered the human race through Adam.
Human beings can express “phileo” love for one another which is a kind and affectionate and a brotherly love. But even most of it is probably motivated by a selfish desire to be recognized or to be loved back. Or sometimes this type of love is motivated by guilt for something we did that hurt someone and we are trying to make recompense or to do penance to get rid of our guilt.
The kind of love that John is speaking of here is “agape” love. This is love that can only come from God Himself. It cannot be experienced or even really be expressed unless a relationship with Truth has been established. And the Truth is a Person Who is Jesus Christ. When you experience His Truth personally as you trust Jesus for your eternal salvation, He comes to “abide in you and will be with you forever” (v. 2).
“Love in Truth” and “in truth and love”. You cannot have one without the other! And to make sure we understand this, John adds, “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments.” He must have remembered the Lord saying this in John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."
Because we love Him we will want to obey His Word and do those things that please Him! This means that we will love one another as He loves us! And this will take place because we will have “a hope that will not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
(Romans 5:5)
Today, it is my prayer that you are walking in His truth and experiencing and expressing His love!
God bless!