2 John

About 2 John

Second John is a one-page letter to a church, addressed as 'the chosen lady and her children,' urging believers to keep loving one another and to hold fast to the truth about Christ. Its practical concern is hospitality: traveling teachers who denied that Jesus came in the flesh should not be welcomed or supported. It shows the early church learning to keep its doors open in love and closed to deception at the same time.

Written by

The writer calls himself simply 'the elder'; church tradition identifies him as the apostle John, though some scholars think he was a different early leader known as John the Elder.

When

Like the other letters of John, it is usually dated around AD 85-95, near the end of the first century.

Themes

• Walking in truth
• Love as obedience
• Discernment about teachers
• Remaining in Christ's teaching

Key verses

• 2 John 1:5-6And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.
• 2 John 1:8-9Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.