On casual reading, the Second and Third Epistles of John seem to be almost extraneous Bible letters. Few sermons are preached from these two one page epistles from John the Apostle. John’s Gospel, First John and The Revelation make up the reputation of John as an author for substance and length of treatise that do not appear in these truncated books of the Bible. Both epistles appear to have been written, somewhat like business letters, because they had to be written to meet John’s obligations to the persons addressed. If the reader takes the time to meditate on the meaning of these few sentences there emerges an understanding of early Christian and Church life not to be found quite so specifically elsewhere in Scripture. Even so, they seem current to us.
What is it to love in truth? For many persons love is emotional, gentle, perhaps syrupy and romantic, revealing itself in emotional gestures of warmth and intimacy. To love in truth may not reveal itself in the touch, the look, the warmth and passion of emotion or compulsion. Truth guides the degree and evidence of its registration. One who loves a wayward son senses in his mind that this son is wrong, may be prodigal, but the parent loves him nonetheless. His expressions of love are not joy, but tears. He is following the truth of the relationship, a situation far from his perception of what a son and family relationship ought to be. This kind of love is truthful, and guides the father as to what should be acknowledged to formulate life balance for himself and for the prodigal. We work around some of these problems by nicknames like tough love.
The Apostle John is saying not only that this person he refers to is loved, but, in truth, is worthy of his love in the image of God that is residual in him. He might have written that he loves the person, even if the person is unworthy. Such love is real but in some ways gratuitous, one sided, coming entirely from the loving nature of the lover. This love is real, but it does not have divine coupling that the object of love is becoming worthy of the love. This is, in analogy, exactly what mankind faces in relationship with God. We are unworthy, but God loves us nonetheless – all growing out of the nature of God, who can and does love the unlovely. Once human beings recognize love for the unlovely and unloving, offer forgiveness and acceptance, they begin the prodigal’s journey toward accepting life direction from the loving nature of God.
An important factor of the Christian life is the business of joining love and truth. The person actively works at approaching worthiness, for the divine love so freely granted. To say that one loves God and gain no improvement in love quotients, is to contradict what Scripture indicates about both Christianity and the truth of love. Love for another means the lover makes adaptation for the nature of the object loved. For the Christian the secret lies somewhere in righteousness. If I love God in truth, I am concerned to meet something that is important to him in my thought and conduct of life. That may be found in righteousness. We little realize how closely fidelity is tied to righteousness. Man is blessed when he learns that God is both loving and holy. He is further blessed when he couples that truth with love in righteousness. This modulates any fear of meeting God. It is interesting that there are masses of persons who do not believe in God, but have a fear of death because that may indicate a confrontation with God – if God is for real. This perception alone makes for considerable difference in the Christian’s and the humanist’s approach to death. In a circle of lay persons of differential convictions about death discussing life’s subsequent possibilities, the responses are both strong and tremulous. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020