2 John 1:1-3
The truth which remains in us
1The elder, to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not I only, but also all those who know the truth;
2for the truth’s sake, which remains in us, and it will be with us forever:
3Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
Love is qualified three times in as many verses as being in truth, and the truth is said to remain with us forever. The same verb the vine passage turns on, applied here to what is believed rather than to a person.
2 John 1:4-6
This is love, that we should walk according to his commandments
4I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, even as we have been commanded by the Father.
5Now I beg you, dear lady, not as though I wrote to you a new commandment, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
6This is love, that we should walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, even as you heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
Love is defined as walking rather than as feeling, and then the commandment is defined as the walking itself. The circle is deliberate: there is no content to the love that is not conduct, which is C12's proof test compressed into a single sentence.
2 John 1:7-9
Watch yourselves; remain in the teaching
7For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don’t confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist.
8Watch yourselves, that we don’t lose the things which we have accomplished, but that we receive a full reward.
9Whoever transgresses and doesn’t remain in the teaching of Christ, doesn’t have God. He who remains in the teaching, the same has both the Father and the Son.
Watch yourselves — not watch them — placed immediately after deceivers are named, so the vigilance is turned inward at exactly the moment it would naturally turn outward. Watchfulness applied to the danger of losing what has already been accomplished.
2 John 1:10-11
Don't receive him into your house
10If anyone comes to you, and doesn’t bring this teaching, don’t receive him into your house, and don’t welcome him,
11for he who welcomes him participates in his evil works.
Hospitality is refused to a travelling teacher who denies that Jesus came in the flesh, and the refusal extends to the greeting. The passage marks where the curriculum's openness stops — not at someone who has failed, but at someone arriving to teach against the foundation. See the boundary note on this book.
2 John 1:12-13
Not with paper and ink, but face to face
12Having many things to write to you, I don’t want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you, and to speak face to face, that our joy may be made full.
13The children of your chosen sister greet you. Amen.
A letter that stops short of what it could say, on the grounds that presence will do it better. Ordinary Faithfulness given a communications rule: some things wait for the room rather than being sent, and the joy is said to depend on it.