The Ancient Path: Truth, Love, and Obedience Text: 2 John 1:4-6
Introduction: The Three-Legged Stool
In our modern evangelical moment, we have a great love for what is new, what is innovative, what is fresh. We are constantly chasing after the latest conference speaker, the newest worship song, the most revolutionary church growth strategy. But the apostle John, writing here as "the elder," a man who has seen it all, calls us back to the ancient things. He grounds us not in novelty, but in what has been "from the beginning."
In these three short verses, John lays out for this "elect lady" and her children, likely a local church and its members, the three essential legs of the Christian life. These are truth, love, and obedience. You can think of them as a three-legged stool. If you try to remove any one of those legs, the whole thing comes crashing down. Some Christians want truth without love; they become harsh, clanging gongs, doctrinal purists with sour spirits. Others want love without truth; they become sentimental, squishy universalists who will affirm anything and stand for nothing. And a great many want to claim both truth and love while jettisoning obedience, as though it were some optional add-on for the "super-Christian."
But John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, weaves these three together so tightly that they are inseparable. He shows us that they are not in tension, but are in fact different facets of the same diamond. To walk in truth is to love. To love is to obey. To obey is to walk in the truth. This is the integrated Christian life. This is the path we have been commanded to walk from the beginning. And in a world drowning in deceit and awash in hatred, there is nothing more relevant or more revolutionary than this ancient path.
The Text
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we received commandment from the Father. Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
(2 John 1:4-6 LSB)
A Pastor's Joy (v. 4)
We begin with verse 4, where John expresses his pastoral delight.
"I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we received commandment from the Father." (2 John 1:4)
The first thing to notice is the source of John's joy. It is not in their numbers, their budget, or their slick programs. He rejoices "greatly" because he has found some of her children "walking in truth." The Christian life is not a stationary affair. It is a walk, a pilgrimage, a steady progression. And the path we are to walk on is the truth. Truth here is not an abstract concept; it is the apostolic doctrine, the truth about who God is, who Christ is, and what He has done. It is objective, propositional reality revealed in Scripture.
To "walk in truth" means your life is governed by, shaped by, and consistent with the truth you profess. It means you don't just give mental assent to a doctrinal statement; you live it out. Your business dealings, your family life, your use of social media, all of it is brought under the authority of God's revealed truth. This is what brings a pastor, or in this case an apostle, true joy. It is not flattery or compliments, but seeing the flock actually living out the faith.
But notice the qualifier: "some of your children." John is a realist. He knows that in any given church, there will be a mixture. Not everyone who professes faith is walking faithfully. This is not a cause for despair, but for pastoral encouragement and exhortation. He rejoices in the faithful remnant, and he writes this letter to encourage them to continue and to call the others to join them on the path.
And where does this path come from? It is not something they invented. It is a "commandment from the Father." We do not get to define our own reality or chart our own course. The path of truth is a command, an obligation laid upon us by our Creator. We are not autonomous. To be a Christian is to joyfully submit to the Father's commands, the first of which is to believe and walk in the truth of the gospel.
The Old, New Commandment (v. 5)
From the commandment to walk in truth, John seamlessly transitions to the commandment to love.
"Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another." (2 John 1:5)
John is careful to frame this command to love. He says it is not a "new commandment." In one sense, this is obvious. The command to love your neighbor as yourself is right there in Leviticus (Lev. 19:18). This has always been part of God's law. John is grounding his instruction in the bedrock of Scripture, in what has been true "from the beginning." He is not some innovator with a new brand of Christianity.
However, in his Gospel, John records Jesus saying, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another" (John 13:34). How can it be both old and new? It is old in that the requirement to love has always been central to God's law. But it is new in two crucial ways. First, it is new in its standard: "as I have loved you." The benchmark for our love is no longer simply our love for ourselves, but the sacrificial, self-giving, cross-shaped love of Jesus Christ. Second, it is new in its power. We are not left to muster up this love on our own. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, poured into our hearts because of the new covenant secured by Christ's blood.
So John is reminding this church of a foundational, basic, kindergarten-level Christian duty. But he knows how easily we can forget it or redefine it. The command is simple and direct: "that we love one another." This love is not a sentimental feeling or a vague sense of goodwill. It is a rugged, covenantal commitment to seek the good of our brothers and sisters in Christ, even at great personal cost. It is practical, it is active, and as we are about to see, it has a very specific definition.
The Definition of Love (v. 6)
Here John provides the divine definition of love, and in doing so, he slams the door on all our sentimental, worldly counterfeits.
"And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it." (2 John 1:6)
Our culture defines love as unconditional affirmation. To love someone, in the modern sense, is to approve of everything they do, feel, and identify as. To suggest that someone's behavior is sinful or contrary to God's will is considered the most unloving thing you can do. But God's Word flatly contradicts this. John says, "And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments."
Biblical love is not lawless. Biblical love is law-full. It is defined by, shaped by, and expressed through obedience to God's commands. To love God is to keep His commandments (1 John 5:3). And to love our neighbor is to keep the commandments that relate to our neighbor, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, and so on. As Paul says, "love is the fulfillment of the law" (Romans 13:10). Love is not the abolition of the law; it is the motive and the goal of the law.
Think about it. Is it loving to watch your brother walk toward a cliff and say nothing because you don't want to "judge" his journey? No, love warns. Is it loving to affirm a man in his sin that is destroying his soul? No, love calls to repentance. True love desires God's best for a person, and God's best is always found on the path of obedience to His commands. To separate love from God's commandments is to create a monstrous idol, a form of "love" that is actually hatred for God and for the person you claim to love, because it encourages them in their rebellion against their Creator.
John then brings it full circle. "This is the commandment... that you should walk in it." What is "it"? It is the life of loving obedience. The central command is to live a life characterized by obedience, which is the very definition of love. He is saying that the fundamental command we have had from the beginning is to live inside the framework of God's other commands. The meta-commandment is to obey the commandments.
Conclusion: Walking the Ancient Path
So, what does this mean for us? It means we must reject the false dichotomies of our age. We cannot be a "truth church" that is cold and loveless. We cannot be a "love church" that is untethered from the truth of God's Word. And we cannot be a church that pays lip service to both while ignoring the hard, practical demands of obedience.
The Christian life is an integrated whole. We are called to walk. The path we walk on is truth. The way we walk on that path is in love. And the definition of that love is obedience to the commandments. Truth provides the direction, love provides the character of our walk, and obedience provides the concrete action.
This is the ancient path. It is not complicated, but it is not easy. It requires that we submit our intellects to God's truth, our affections to God's command to love, and our wills to God's law. When we find a church, when we find a family, when we find individual Christians who are walking this way, we should rejoice greatly. And we should commit ourselves, by the grace of God, to join them on that same path, the one we have been commanded from the beginning.