Back to 2 John: What is love? What is true love? 1 John 4:8 says that God is love. His nature is love. Since God's very nature is love then we can believe what John says about love in verse six of 2 John:
- 2 John 6a And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands.
Think about this for a moment: Could anything else possibly be love or loving other than walking in obedience to God? Our own nature is wicked and sinful, and the god of this world is Satan. Are there any other alternatives? You are either walking in obedience to God, obedience to your own sinful nature, or obedience to Satan, who is a thief and a liar.
John goes on to warn the lady to whom he is writing about false teachers. The false teachers in this place and time were denying that Jesus Christ actually came in bodily form. I don't know of many that say this today other than Jehovah's Witnesses regarding Christ's resurrection, but there are many other very dangerous false teachings that are very common. One such teaching is a perverted view of tolerance. John shows his intolerance for false teaching in his warning to his friend:
- 2 John 7-8a Many deceivers ... have gone out into the world. Any such person in the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out...
Such an act would be seen as the opposite of love in our world today. But a follower of God knows that identification and correction of sin and falsehood is at the center of loving a fallen world. We know it from our own experience. How loving would it have been for God not to tell us about our own fallen ways? To not warn us of negative consequences? To be silent on the prospect of eternal hell for those who do not believe in him? True love is shown in his grace of loving us while still sinners, not denying that we are sinners.
