And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
I beseech, х Erootoo (G2065)] - rather (cf. note, 1 John 5:16), 'I request thee,' implying some authority.
Not ... new commandment. It was old, in that Christians heard it from the first in the Gospel: new, in that love now rests on the new principle of filial imitation of God, who first loved us, and gave Jesus to die for us; and also in that love is now set forth with greater clearness than in the Old Testament. Love fulfils both tables of the Law, and is the end of Law and Gospel alike (cf. note, 1 John 2:7-8). That we. John already had love: he urges her to join him in the name grace. This verse, I think, decides that a church, not an individual lady, is meant. For a man to urge a woman ("THEE," not thee and thy children) that he and she should love one another, is hardly apostolic, however pure may be the love enjoined: all is clear 'if the lady' represent a church.