The elder unto the elect lady.
Truth the bond of love
How much is implied very often by the phrase or style with which a letter is begun or ended! How different is the formal “Sir” from “My dear Sir”; and, again, how much does this differ from the intimacy which addresses by a Christian name! Those different styles mean a great deal; and as it is now, so it was in the Apostolic age. St. John calls himself by way of endearment “the Presbyter,” when writing to a family with which he has been long on terms of intimacy. Nothing is more welcome to persons of simple character who are in high office than an opportunity of laying its formalities aside; they like to address others and to be themselves addressed in their personal capacity, or by a title in which there is more affection than form. And he introduces himself to them by a description around which so much affection had gathered, and which seemed to have acquired a new appropriateness in his advanced age. To whom does he write? “The Presbyter to the elect lady and her children.” It may be that the word translated “lady” is really a proper name, “Kyria.” She was an elderly person, probably a widow, living with her grown-up children. When St. John says that she was loved by “all them that knew the truth,” he makes it plain that her name was at least well known in the Asiatic Churches, and that she was a person of real and high excellence. What Dorcas was to St. Peter; what Lydia of Philippi, and Phoebe of Cenchrea, and Priscilla, and many others were to St. Paul, such was this Christian lady to St. John.
I. The atmosphere of this friendship was sincerity. “Whom I love,” not in the truth (there is no article in the original), but “in truth.” Not “truly”: St. John would have used an adverb to say that. What he means is that truth--truth of thought, truth of feeling, truth of speech and intercourse--was the very air in which his affection for this Christian lady had grown up and maintained itself. And the word which he uses to describe this affection points to the same conclusion. It stands for that kind of affection which is based on a reasoned perception of excellence in its object; and thus it is the word which is invariably used to describe the love that man ought to have for God. But such a love as this between man and man grows up and is fostered in an atmosphere of truthfulness. It is grounded not on feeling or passion, but on a reciprocal conviction of simplicity of purpose; and, being true in its origin, it is true at every stage of its development. That the sense of a common integrity of purpose, a common anxiety to be true, and to recognise truth, is an atmosphere especially favourable to the growth of personal friendships, is observable at this moment in England among students of the natural sciences. The common investigation, prosecuted day by day, into natural facts and laws; the assurance of a common nobility of purpose, of a common liability to failure, of a common anxiety to pursue and proclaim fact--creates a feeling of brotherhood which traverses other differences, and is an enrichment of human life. St. John loved this lady and her children “in truth”; and therefore he did not hesitate, when occasion made it a duty, to put a strain on their affection. Those who love in truth, like St. John, can, when it is necessary to do so, carry out St. Paul’s precept about speaking the truth in love. St. John, as a great master of faith and charity, could be at once tender and uncompromising. It was necessary in these days at Ephesus. There were dangers to which the apostle could not close his eyes. His love was not a vague sentiment, unregulated by any principle; it was a love of all men, but it was pre-eminently a love of each man’s immortal soul. Therefore in proportion to its sincerity and intensity it was outspoken. It would be well if there was more of love in truth, as distinct from love by impulse, among us; among those of us, for instance, who are already bound to each other by ties of natural affection. Sincerity does not chill natural love; but it raises a mere passion to the rank of a moral power. How much trouble might parents not save their children in after years by a little plain speaking, dictated, not by the desire to assert authority, but by simple affection! Too often parents love their children, not in truth, but with a purely selfish love. They will not risk a passing misunderstanding, even for the sake of the child’s best interests hereafter.
II. What was the motive-power of St. John’s love? St. John replies, “For the Truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever.” He adds that all who knew the truth share in this affection. By the truth St. John here means a something the very existence of which appears improbable or impossible to some minds in our own day. He means a body of ascertained facts about God, about the soul, about the means of reaching God, and being blessed by Him, about the eternal future, about the true rule of man’s conduct, and the true secret of his happiness and well-being. Other knowledge which human beings possess is no doubt true; such, for instance, as that which enables us to make the most of the visible world in which God has placed us. But St. John calls this higher knowledge the truth; as being incomparably more important; as interesting man, not merely in his capacity of a creature of time, but in his capacity of a being destined for eternity. And this truth, as St. John conceived it, was not merely a set of propositions resting upon evidence. It was that: but it was more. It centred in a Person whom St. John had seen, heard, touched, handled; who had died in agony, and had risen in triumph from death, and had left the world with an assurance that He would return to judge it. To share this faith was to share a bond of common affection. To have the same ideal of conduct before the soul; the same view of the meaning of life; the same hopes and fears about that which will follow it; above all, the same devotion to a Person--the Incomparable Person of Jesus Christ--was to have a vast fund of common sympathy. To us it might have seemed that, with the Church expanding around him, St. John’s mind would have been wholly occupied with the larger interests of administration; and that he would have had no leisure to attend to the wants of individuals. And if St. John had been only a statesman, endeavouring to carry out a great policy, or only a philosopher intent upon diffusing his ideas, he would have contented himself, to use the modern phrase, with “acting upon the masses.” But as an apostle of Christ he had a very different work to do: he had to save souls. And souls are to be saved, not gregariously, but one by one. They who are brought out of darkness and error into a knowledge and love of God and His Blessed Son, generally are brought by the loving interest and care of some servant of Christ. No philosophy can thus create and combine. The philosophers of all ages, even if good friends among themselves, can only set up a fancied aristocracy of intellect for themselves, and are very jealous about admitting the people into the Olympus of their sympathies. No political scheme can do this: history is there to answer. But love, with sincerity for its sphere, and with Jesus Christ for its object, can do it. Love did it of old, love does it now. And, among the counteracting and restorative influences which carry the Church of Christ unharmed through the animated and sometimes passionate discussion of public questions, private friendships, formed and strengthened in the atmosphere of a fearless sincerity, and knit and banded together by a common share in the faith of ages, are, humanly speaking, among the strongest. One and all, we may at some time realise to the letter the language of St. John to this Christian mother. (Canon Liddon.)
The elect lady
I. What the apostle says as descriptive of her character.
1. John does not mean to represent her as faultless. He views her not as infallible and impeccable, not beyond the need of cautions and admonitions, which tie therefore administers.
2. Neither does he furnish us with a full delineation of her character, but gives us a few intimations which will enable us to estimate her worth.
(1) The foundation of all her excellencies washer personal and evangelical godliness.
(2) Her regard to the truth is expressed by her “walking in it.” Walking implies life, action, and progress; and she exemplified the influence of the principle by walking in the knowledge of the truth; in the practice of the truth; in the profession of the truth; and in the service of the truth; or, as the apostle expresses it, in being a “fellow-helper to the truth.”
(3) She seems to have been a woman of some rank and distinction.
(4) Again, we see that this excellent lady was in wedded life. Nothing, however, is said of her husband. This may be accounted for in two ways. First, he may not have been a Christian: and if so, and if when she married him she was herself a Christian, she disregarded the requisition to marry “only in the Lord“; and she had no reason to complain of any trials resulting from it. But she may have been herself converted after the union; while he remained in the same state as before. Or, secondly, her husband might have been dead: and, considering the representation given here of the state of her family, this appears to be much more probable than that he was a heathen or an infidel. Now, if this was true, she had been called to sustain the most painful of all bereavements, and was a widow; and a “widow indeed,” for she was a maternal widow. Her “children,” like herself, were “found walking in truth.”
(5) Finally, this “elect lady” had not only holy offspring, but pious connections and relatives. “The children of thine elect sister greet thee.” If you say this was no part of her character, yet it was, surely, no inconsiderable part of her happiness. And who can tell how far it was in answer to her prayers, and the result of her example, endeavours, and influence?
II. What the apostle does as expressive of his regard.
1. He writes her an epistle. How vain would many feel, if they could show a letter addressed to themselves from an extraordinary scholar, or genius, or statesman, or warrior--a Chatham, or a Wellington. What was it then to receive a letter thus indited and directed--“The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth.”
2. He honours her not only with a letter, but with a visit.
(1) We ought to be thankful for ink and paper. They identify information; they perpetuate intelligence; they annihilate distance; they enable us to talk without being heard. Still, however nimble the pen of a ready writer may be, it cannot utter a thousandth part of the overflowings of the tongue.
(2) We know not the place of the residence of this lady; and therefore we know not how far John had to travel: nor can we tell the mode of his conveyance; for he could hardly, at his age, travel on foot. He speaks of his intended journey with pleasure; yet he could not be insensible of the difficulties, dangers, and uncertainties of travelling; especially in those days, and under a weight of years. He, therefore, expresses himself concerning it dependently and piously; and says, “I trust to come unto you”; acknowledging the providence of God, and confiding for the issue in Him.
(3) But see the advantage which John desires and expects from the journey itself--“That our joy may be full.” They were to be blessings to each other; not only the apostle to the disciple, but the disciple to the apostle. There is no such thing as independence: all are needful, all are useful. We are not only “one body in Christ,” but “every one also members one of another.”
3. The power of the social principle; and the value, not only of friendship, but of actual intercourse.
(1) How pleasing is it to meet “face to face,” and commune, after long separation and absence; especially if, during that separation, we have experienced trying circumstances and perilous events.
(2) How pleasing to meet “face to face,” and commune, in the apartments and confinements of trouble.
(3) How pleasing to meet “face to face,” in the exercises of social devotion in the sanctuary.
(4) What will it be to meet “face to face” in heaven? Then our joy will be full. (W. Jay.)
The salutation
Present-day pressure has driven the good old style of epistolary writing out of the market. The Church of Christ has well-nigh forgotten the power of the pen. We intrust all teaching to the tongue and the press. Parents, ministers, and Sunday-school teachers may keep in touch with the hearts of their children and scholars by an occasional letter, brimful of holy thoughts and aspirations.
I. The person who salutes. “The elder.” Many of the best expositors have naturally inferred that the apostle used the term elder because it had become an appellative among the people owing to his old age. John was the only survivor of the wonderful Apostolic band.
II. The persons saluted. “The elect lady and her children.”
1. We know that she was a Christian. Elect in Christ Jesus is the full meaning, for the election of grace must not be separated from the means which bring it about. Salvation is not favouritism, but agreement. It is the effect that points to the cause, as the river reminds one of the source. This view of election is in harmony with human liberty and responsibility.
2. We know that she was a mother. With the cares of the household and anxiety about their children, mothers are often depressed. The truly pious mother is more anxious about the salvation of her children than about any other matter.
3. We know that she was a mother surrounded by her family.
III. The ground of mutual union. “Whom I love in truth.” Everything tends to show that the “elect lady” was possessed of many embellishments such as society delights to recognise, and the worth of which the Apostle John would be the last to undervalue, and yet love for the truth is the only ground of affection which he acknowledges. Christian love can only be excited by character built upon Divine truth.
IV. The devout invocation. “Grace, mercy, peace, shall be with us,” etc.
V. The source of all blessing. “From God the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father.”
VI. The final condition. “In truth and love.” (T. Davies, M. A.)
Honour of women in the old world
We are sometimes told by Christian apologists that women have acquired an honour since the preaching of the gospel, which was almost denied them in the old world; and that because the feminine type of character is commended to us by the example of Him who was emphatically the sufferer. I believe both assertions have a foundation of truth in them; but that they are not true, and therefore would not have been adopted or commended by the apostle. It is not true that women were not honoured in the old world. I might allude to the Jewish feeling about mothers. In that character the highest and Divinest promises rested upon them. But they do not only appear as mothers. Deborah is a judge and a prophetess of the people. Miriam leads the songs which celebrate the deliverance of the nation from Pharaoh. Greek history, again, pays high honour to women. The Trojan war, the subject of its earliest legends, of its noblest song, is undertaken in vindication of female honour and the sacredness of the marriage bond. In the Homeric poems, the freewoman is treated with reverence; even the captive taken in war is not without honour. The Roman State, which almost rests on the authority of fathers, was anything but neglectful of the mother and the wife. The traditional origin of the Republic is the retribution for the wrong done to Lucretia. One of the earliest stories, that of Coriolanus, illustrates the honour which even the proudest, most wilful son paid to her who had borne and nursed him. Some of the noblest recollections of the perishing commonwealth are connected with the name of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, and Portia, the wife of Brutus. It is dishonest to over look these facts; and being dishonest, it is unchristian. We do not honour Christ by disparaging that which took place before He dwelt on earth. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
Whom I love in the truth.
Christian friendship
“Whom I love in the truth.” It was not an ordinary kind of friendship. It did not rest on kindred, nor on neighbourhood, nor on business, nor on country, nor on common tastes and pursuits, nor even on services rendered and gratitude for these returned; it was a friendship shared by “all who knew the truth,” it was “for the truth’s sake which dwelleth in us and shall be with us for ever.” The Truth meant much for John and for such as he reckoned friends. It was a certain body of doctrine, no doubt, held by him and them very dogmatically indeed; but it was not abstract doctrine, it was doctrine subsisting in the personal, historical, living Christ. It is plain that friends who hold a common relation to the truth thus understood will be friends after a quite distinct and very lofty fashion. They have a birth and kinship not of this world (1 Peter 1:22-23). They live by virtue of a principle the world cannot understand, even “the truth which dwelleth in us.” And they are practically influenced in their daily conduct by the hope of sharing the “many mansions of the Father’s house.”
1. Those who love one another “in the truth” will love in truth; sincerity marks all friendship worthy to be called Christian.
2. This friendship is always fruitful. Ten thousand little things done or not done, and which the friend who benefits by them may not always know, are the habitual outcome of friendship for the truth’s sake. And there is one fruit which from its nature is least of all seen or talked about, which yet is both the commonest and the best that friendship can yield--prayer for one another.
3. Christian friendship may sometimes be severe. A friend, in proportion to the purity and spiritual intensity of his love, will discern faults and weaknesses and dangers which, for friendship’s sake, he must not wink at.
4. This friendship hallows and strengthens all the other ties that bind us to one another.
5. It is another distinguishing excellence of Christian friendship that it bears strain best. This love yields mutual gentleness and forbearance and tender-heartedness.
6. Christian friendship has the widest reach. It boasts of its comprehensiveness here--“And not I only, but also all they that have known the truth.”
7. The crowning distinction of this friendship is that it is not dissolved by death itself. (A. M. Symington, D.D.)
The permanent love of friendship
Some love for pleasure. Isaac loved Esau because venison was his delight. An adulterer loves an harlot for the satisfying of his filthy lust. Some love for profit: they love their friends as they do their cows, horses, and grounds--for the benefit they reap by them. Some love for beauty: so Shechem loved Dinah. Some love for honour and promotion, in hope to be preferred by such a great man. All these stand upon a tickle ground; pleasure vanisheth, and that quickly too, then love vanisheth together with it. When Amnon had gotten his pleasure of Tamar he hated her more than before he loved her. Riches betake themselves to their wings, as Solomon speaketh, and fly away, then love flies away too. If a rich man become a poor man we set not much by him. Honour is mutable: the nail that is now aloft is in the dirt, as it fell out with Haman, then he is little regarded of any of his followers. Beauty fades away like a flower, then love fades away too; love for the truth’s sake, for Christ’s sake, for the gospel’s sake, and that will be a permanent love. (W. Jones, D. D.)
Christ the inspiration of Christian love
The enthusiasm of humanity may be caught from the example and inspiration of Jesus Christ. The mill-wheel wilt cease to revolve when the waters of the rushing stream are cut off; the moving train will stop when the glowing heat cools within the hidden chamber, and charity in this world will degenerate into a professional schedule without inspiration and without power unless we keep Jesus as our example. (J. Mitchell.)