1:13 The children of your elect sister greet you. 3
1:4 I rejoiced greatly because I have found some 4 of your children living according to the truth, 5 just as the Father commanded us. 6
1:12 Though I have many other 8 things to write to you, I do not want to do so with 9 paper and ink, 10 but I hope to come visit you and speak face to face, 11 so that our joy may be complete. 12
1:5 But now 13 I ask you, lady (not as if I were 14 writing a new commandment 15 to you, but the one 16 we have had from the beginning), 17 that 18 we love one another. 1:6 (Now this is love: that we walk 19 according to his commandments.) This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning; thus 20 you should walk in it. 21 1:7 For 22 many deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not confess Jesus as 23 Christ 24 coming in the flesh. 25 This person is the deceiver and the antichrist! 26
1 sn The things we have worked for probably refers to the pastoral and missionary efforts undertaken by the recipients of the letter in their own community and surrounding communities. This work would be “lost” if the opponents with their false teaching are allowed to proselytize unopposed.
2 sn The idea of a reward for Christians who serve faithfully is not common in the Johannine writings, but can be found in Rev 11:18 and 22:12.
3 tc The Byzantine text has ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”) at the conclusion of this letter. Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. Further, the particle is lacking in excellent, early, and diffuse witnesses (א A B P Ψ 33 81 323 1739 1881 al co), rendering its omission the strongly preferred reading.
5 tn “Some” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied because the prepositional phrase beginning with ἐκ (ek) has partitive force. The partitive force of the prepositional phrase here has been taken by some interpreters to mean that the author has found some of the elect lady’s children who are living according to the truth and some who are not. This is grammatically possible, but the author has merely stated that he knows of some Christians in the church addressed who are “walking in the truth.” He does not know for certain that all of them are, and concern over this is probably part of the motivation for writing the letter.
6 sn Living according to the truth (Grk “walking in [the] truth”). The use of the Greek verb περιπατέω (peripatew) to refer to conduct or lifestyle is common in the NT (see 1 John 1:6, 3 John 3-4, as well as numerous times in Paul. Here the phrase refers to conduct that results when a person has “truth” residing within, and possibly alludes to the indwelling Spirit of Truth (see 2 John 2). In the specific context of 2 John the phrase refers to true Christians who are holding fast to an apostolic Christology in the face of the secessionist opponents’ challenge to orthodoxy.
7 tn Grk “just as we received commandment from the Father.” The idiom “we received commandment from the Father” means the Father gave (a) commandment to them (the author plus the recipients).
7 sn Do not give him any greeting does not mean to insult the person. It means “do not greet the person as a fellow Christian” (which is impossible anyway since the opponents are not genuine believers in the author’s opinion).
9 tn “Other” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity in English.
10 tn Grk “by means of.”
11 sn Presumably the author means he would rather say the additional things he wants to say to the recipients in person rather than by letter (with paper and ink).
12 tn Grk “speak mouth to mouth,” an idiom for which the English equivalent is “speak face to face.”
13 tn Grk “be fulfilled.”
11 tn The introductory καὶ νῦν (kai nun) has some adversative (contrastive) force: The addressees are already “living according to the truth” (v. 4) but in the face of the threat posed by the opponents, the author has to stress obedience all the more.
12 tn The words “if I were” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied for clarity in English.
13 sn An allusion to John 13:34-35, 1 John 2:7-8.
14 tn “The one” is not in the Greek text. It is supplied for clarity in English.
15 sn See 1 John 2:7.
16 tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause indicates content.
13 tn Or “that we live.”
14 tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause indicates result, parallel to John 13:34 where the final ἵνα clause also indicates result.
15 tn Or “should live in obedience to it.”
15 tn Technically this ὅτι (Joti) clause is subordinate to the verb περιπατῆτε (peripathte) at the end of v. 6, giving the reason why the readers should walk in the commandment to love one another. But BDF §456.1 notes that subordination “is often very loose” in such cases and can be translated “for.” Thus the ὅτι assumes something of an inferential sense, drawing an inference based on what has preceded.
16 tn “As” is not in the Greek text. It is supplied for clarity in English, since (like in the same confession in 1 John 4:2) ᾿Ιησοῦν (Ihsoun) should be understood as object and Χριστόν (Criston) as complement of an object-complement double accusative construction.
17 tn Or “Messiah.”
18 tn This is the same confession as in 1 John 4:2 except the perfect participle used there is replaced by a present participle (ἐρχόμενον, ercomenon) here. It is not clear why the author changed from a perfect participle in 1 John 4:2 to a present participle here. The perfect participle suggests a reference to the incarnation (past). The present participle could suggest a reference to the (future) second advent, but based on the similarity to 1 John 4:2 it is probably best to take it as referring to the incarnation.
19 sn The statement This person is the Deceiver and the Antichrist! is a metaphor (metonymy). The author does not mean that each individual is to be identified as the Antichrist. The opponents are compared to the Deceiver (Satan) and the Antichrist since they are accomplishing Satan’s work and preparing the way for the Antichrist.