2 John 3-5
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
3 Grace, mercy, and peace[a] will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son in truth and love.
4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children[b] walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the Father.(A) 5 But now, Lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing a new commandment but the one we have had from the beginning: let us love one another.(B)
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- 3 Grace, mercy, and peace: like 1 Timothy; 2 Timothy this letter adds mercy to the terms used frequently in a salutation to describe Christian blessing; it appears only here in the Johannine writings. The author also puts the blessing in relation to truth and love, the watchwords of the Johannine teaching. The Father’s Son: the title that affirms the close relationship of Christ to God; similar variations of this title occur elsewhere (Jn 1:14; 3:35), but the precise wording is not found elsewhere in the New Testament.
- 4 Some of your children: this refers to those whom the Presbyter has recently encountered, but it may also indicate the presence of false doctrine in the community: the Presbyter encourages those who have remained faithful. Walking in the truth: an expression used in the Johannine writings to describe a way of living in which the Christian faith is visibly expressed; cf. 1 Jn 1:6–7; 2:6, 11; 3 Jn 3.
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