II John 1 · The Lantern

The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not I only, but also all they that know the truth;

The second Epistle of John, which is written to Virgins, is very simple. It was written to a Babylonian lady, by name Electa, and indicates the election of the holy Church. He establishes in this Epistle that the following out of the faith is not without charity, and so that no one divide Jesus Christ; but only to believe that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

Some have thought that this Epistle and the one that follows are not from John the Beloved, but from another who had the same name: because in these he writes of himself as an elder, and to a lady, and to another Gaius, and he writes of one just as he does of the lady; which does not happen in a Catholic Epistle.

Some thought that the present epistle, as well as the one following it, belonged not to John — the beloved disciple of the Lord, but to another person of the same name; because in both epistles the writer calls himself a presbyter, and one epistle is written to a certain woman, and the other to Gaius, again to a single person, which does not befit an epistle called catholic; mo…

for the truth’s sake which abideth in us, and it shall be with us for ever:

Grace, mercy, peace shall be with us, from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

Again, after these things, he adds: "Grace and mercy will be with us:" designating the goods that arise from perfect love. Speaking of God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, John adds, "the Son of the Father:" for only here is He properly the Father. Therefore, Paul also says, "From whom," he says, "every family in heaven and on earth is named."(Eph.

May grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father be with you, etc. Since the heretics of that time, namely Marcian and Cerinthus, denied that our Lord Jesus Christ was truly the Son of God and attributed his beginning to human birth, John rightly recalls him as the Son of God the Father to refute these blasphemers.

To the words: "from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ," he added also: "the Son of the Father." For God alone is Father of the Son in the proper sense. Therefore Paul also says: "from Whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named" (Eph. 3:15). In truth and love.

I rejoice greatly that I have found certain of thy children walking in truth, even as we received commandment from the Father.

And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote to thee a new commandment, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.

John said: "not as writing a new commandment to you," and this he firmly states to those who are mentioned in the preceding epistle, simultaneously demonstrating that it shows what they themselves had experienced by acting according to it, and not from difficult and foreign matters, affecting them with sorrow by approaching the unfamiliar.

And now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing a new commandment to you, etc. By this word, he reproaches the heretics, who were attempting to introduce new doctrines, leaving behind what they had heard from the apostles, and thereby disrupting the bonds of brotherly charity.

"Not as a new commandment." And this is in agreement with what is said in the first epistle (1 John 2:7). He also adds the requirement of the commandment: "that we love one another." And he explains concerning love that its essence consists in walking according to it, and the commandment concerning it is a commandment from the beginning, and was given for nothing other than tha…

And this is love, that we should walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, even as ye heard from the beginning, that ye should walk in it.

For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

"For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist;" and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there is neither a resurrection nor a judgment, he is the first-born of Satan.

Nor for any other reason was it given from the beginning, John says, except that you might walk in it, revolving and turning the same things in the higher and lower realms: and indeed by love urging them towards inseparability, and that they should not be led away by seducers, who were already walking in the world and rejecting the coming of the Lord in the flesh: but by this t…

He constantly speaks about the same thing. By the commandment of love he urges toward unity, so that they would not go over to the deceivers. Who already walk about in the world and deny the coming of the Lord in the flesh.

Look to yourselves, that ye lose not the things which we have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward.

Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son.

If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting:

But as many as separate from the Church, and give heed to such old wives' fables as these, are truly self-condemned; and these men Paul commands us, "after a first and second admonition, to avoid." And John, the disciple of the Lord, has intensified their condemnation, when he desires us not even to address to them the salutation of "good-speed;" for, says he, "He that bids the…

Since it is written that we should avoid such people, how can we not assume that someone who associates with Arians is also an exponent of their heresy?

The apostle warns those to whom he writes the epistle that they should not only not receive under their roof anyone who comes to them without confessing the teaching of Christ, but should not even greet him, because a greeting from us should be given only to those who are of the same character and the same faith as us.

for he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works.

It is obvious that those who make friends of people who speak falsely aboutout God and who even eat with them do not love the Lord who made them and who feeds them. Instead of being content with that food they are led away into blasphemy against the one who feeds them.

Anyone who dwells in the doctrine of the gospel and who acts according to its teaching will separate himself from those who think and act differently.

Having many things to write unto you, I would not write them with paper and ink: but I hope to come unto you, and to speak face to face, that your joy may be made full.

The children of thine elect sister salute thee.

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