The Mystery Woman Series

Some of the worlds great love letters were written to mystery

women. As a rising literary star Guy de Maupassant received a

charming and flattering letter from Marie, an admirer. He was

curious and wrote back, and they carried on a lengthy

correspondence. He tried hard to get her to reveal herself, but she

never did. All his love letters were written to a woman he never met.

That was more mystery than he desired.

Believe it or not, a similar thing happened to the great composer

Tchaikovsky, but he did know the identity of his lover. For 13 years

he and Nadejda van Meck carried on an intimate correspondence.

Their letters are filled with love, but they never met. He died at age 53

murmuring the Nadejda. She remained a mystery woman.

Beethoven, another musical genius, who never married, left

behind three short love letters he addressed to my Immortal

Beloved. In them he longs to fly into her arms and be at home. He

wrote, "Oh, God! Why is it necessary to part from one whom one so

loves." He urges her to be his true and only treasure, and laments

that words cannot convey all his heart longs to say. The mystery is,

nobody knows to whom he wrote these letters, for they were in his

cash box when he died. They had never been mailed. The lady he so

loved remains a mystery woman.

Now we come to this little letter in the Bible, and behold, we are

faced again with another mystery woman. The elect lady whom the

apostle John loved in the truth is a mystery woman. Nobody knows

just who this woman was. There are theories GALORE, but none of

them remove the veil of mystery. We will have to wait until heaven

to get full light on this, the only woman in all of history to have one

of her letters become a part of God's inspired Word for the guidance

of His people. There are women who have books of the Bible

written about them: Ruth and Esther, but she stands alone as the

only woman with a book of Scripture written to her.

Matthew Henry, the great commentator, wrote, "Here we find a

canonical Epistle not only to a single person, but to one also of the

softer sex. And why not one of that sex? In Gospel-redemption,

privilege and dignity, there is neither male nor female, they are both

one in Christ Jesus." But the fact is, she is unique, and stands alone.

No wonder scholars have racked their brain for centuries trying to

figure out who this lady was. We will look briefly at the guesses of

men on this mystery woman before we look at the message to her,

which is no mystery at all.

I. Some feel this mystery woman was none other than Mary the mother

of Jesus. John, you recall, took Mary from the cross to his

own home to care for her. In his travels it makes sense that John

would write back home to her. She would also be a very hospitable

person, like this mystery woman was, for she never forgot the

hospitality she needed the night Jesus was born.

The theory has appeal, but it is not likely, for John would hardly

have to warn Mary about being deceived by one who denies that

Christ has come in the flesh.

II. Some feel it is not, "elect lady," but "Lady Electe", Electe

being her name. This has been found to be a female name. The

problem is, the word is used again in verse 13 for her elect sister,

and it is not likely for two sisters to both be named Electe.

III. The most powerful arguments for the idea that she is not a

specific woman at all, but rather a church, and her children are the

members of the church. Her elect sister being a sister church, where

John is visiting. This theory is widely held, and there is no good

reason it could not be true.

IV. I chose to join the majority that I have read, and take it

simply as it seems to be-a personal letter to a lady friend of John,

just as third John is a personal letter to a male friend.

One thing is clear, she was a lady. It is very rare for a woman to

be called a lady in the Bible. The word is used only six times in the

entire Bible. Two of them are right here in this little letter. All four

of the others are in the Old Testament, and two of them refer to

groups of ladies, and the other two are used symbolically of a city,

and so the mystery lady of our text is the only the specific woman in