4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. (NIV)
“Walking” in 2 John verse 4 is the way we conduct our lives. How do we live according to the truth? By remembering that truth and being faithful to it. The truth, of course, is the truth of the Gospel: that our sins, no matter how grotesque, how misshapen, how horrifying, are covered, paid for, and gone. We live our lives in thanks, not in dread.
Basic values lay a groundwork for how we behave, how we talk to people, how we treat people—how we walk in the truth. When I find myself in a disagreement, am I filled with rage and hate for this person who may not see everything exactly the way I do, or do I see this person as a forgiven child of God—a person Jesus died for? We must remember, Jesus died for everyone, not just believers. Ask yourself: Does the way I talk to this person drive them away from Jesus, or bring them closer? Even the Publican (even the telemarketer) needs to hear the Gospel.
Our own children must learn their values from someplace. We’re not born with them—we’re born sinful. Children learn by looking at their parents. How I speak, how I act, how I pray, how I react to stress, how I treat my spouse in private and in public—all these things will affect how my children behave when I’m not around: In school, on a playground or a playing field, in a store, on a street, on a date, and on the job.
The foundation of Christian conduct is Love. It is love for my Savior Jesus, and out of that love flows love for everyone Jesus died to save. We have talked about love for enemies, friends and children. What about love for strangers? The basics of Christian behavior lie in the Ten Commandments. This isn’t because we keep them in order to get into heaven. We’ve broken them all, and can’t achieve eternal life through them. But Jesus kept them perfectly for us, and he washed us from our sins in his own blood. Now the commandments have a new use in our lives: as a guide for how we behave and conduct our lives. Stating them positively, we are reminded lovingly by God to:
We are creatures of God, and we are creatures of habit. We tend to do what we have done before. When we establish good patterns—and no, they may not be easy to begin—and as we lay out a groundwork based on God’s Word and flowing out of thanks to God, we establish values which not only last our own lifetime, but into the lives of our children and our children’s children.
5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command, but one that we received from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. (NIV)
John talks about a “new command” several times in his writings—in both his Gospel and his epistles. All of these references may hearken back to something Jesus said on the night we call Maundy Thursday, when Jesus said, “A new command I give to you: Love one another.” Believers had always had that command from God, ever since Moses wrote Leviticus 19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD your God.” In that one command God gives us both what he expects of us (love each other) and the motivation (I am the LORD, the one who always loves you) and the perfect example—since the LORD loved us so much he gave his only Son to die for us.
At the same time, this was a new command because of what Jesus was creating: His believers would no longer be contained within a single nation, Israel, but would be found wherever his Word is found. The True Israel is not located in Palestine around the vicinity of the Dead Sea any longer. It is within us, within our living hearts that believe in Jesus Christ—Jesus, who kept the commandments that Moses smashed, that Israel broke and that we keep on grinding into powder.
Like our destroyed bodies, which may virtually be non-existent by the time Judgment Day comes but which God will resurrect intact and perfect, Jesus took every command we have smashed and pulverized and laid every single one of them out perfectly in his life as something he did for us and in our place. His love and sacrifice on our behalf naturally produces a response in us, a “thank you” to our Jesus that we live day by day in lives honestly dedicated to our Savior, who loved us first.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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