TOPIC: LOVE AND TRUTH.
TEXT: 2 John 1:1-4 (CEV)
1 From the church leader. To a very special woman and her children. I truly love all of you, and so does everyone else who knows the truth.
2 We love you because the truth is now in our hearts, and it will be there forever.
3 I pray that God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son will be kind and merciful to us! May they give us peace and truth and love.
4 I was very glad to learn that some of your children are obeying the truth, as the Father told us to do.
The word "truth" is met with five times in this short Epistle of but thirteen verses, and forms its key-word.
I. The Foundation of Love. Truth. Most versions print truth with a capital "T," Truth. Certainly this is one of the Lord's Names, and He is the source of all true love.
II. The Genuineness of Love. That is, the nature of love commended here is true love, love that is no mere pretense or make-believe.
III. The Range of Love. Love cannot be confined to one. The Elder (John must have been about 90 years old when he wrote this Epistle) not only loved "The elect lady," but also "her children," and this pious family was not only loved by the aged apostle, but also by "all they that have known the truth."
IV. The Kind of Love. Gives "understand" for "known" in verse 1. This is to say, those who have realized truth and the love of God in Christ to themselves love others.
V. The Inwardness of Love. "Which dwelled in us," God's love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Is it truth or love that is meant here? Well, He is both Truth and Love, and as both dwells within us and with us.
