1 John beautifully dwells upon the great truth of eternal life abiding in the believer, the life which is the very nature of God, and which has been manifested perfectly in the blessed Person of His Son. If we desire to rightly learn its characteristics, they shine radiantly in all the history of the Lord Jesus on earth. Two grand expressions summarize for us the blessedness of this divine nature: “God is light,” and “God is love.”
The development and proofs of this life is to be manifested in the believer.
2 John is the only epistle in Scripture addressed to a woman.
1 John has laid down the blessed principles of truth (or light) and of love revealed in the person of the Son of God. Now this epistle emphasizes the truth as necessary to be maintained faithfully, even by a gentle, tender-hearted woman. She was to refuse any one not bringing the doctrine of Christ.
3 John again has much to say about truth and love, but emphasizes love as being the necessary accompaniment of truth. For another type of evil had arisen: that of a man in
the assembly apparently claiming to be acting for the truth and yet casting others out—even refusing the apostle John.
Truth and love must stand together, as complements of one another, for in these is the very nature of God.
The author develops these themes in John’s Epistles in a very readable and concise style. Every believer will be helped through these heart-warming studies.