Commentary on 2 John
COMMENTARY ON 2 JOHN
1 f • \HE ELDER to the elect lady and her children I whom I love in the truth. Certain persons thinks that this and the following Letter are not by the apostle John but by a certain presbyter [named] John whose tomb is pointed out even today at Ephesus. Papias, someone who heard the apostles and was bishop of Hierapolis, even makes mention of him often in his writings. But nowadays the general consensus of the Church holds that the apostle
John wrote these Letters, too, because in truth they show a great likeness in words and faith with his first Letter and condemn heretics with a like zeal. John calls himself an elder, however, either because he was already advanced in age or because the name of elder, that is, a presbyter, is also fitting for a bishop, on account of the maturity o f his wisdom and his seriousness. Hence Peter also says, There fore I, a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, entreat the elders among you.
The elder, he says, to the elect lady and her children whom I love in the truth, that is, whom I love with a true love, one, namely, which is accord ing to God, or at least whom I love because I regard them as persevering in the truth. And not only I but also all who perceive the truth. Because he is beginning to write against heretics who have fallen away from the truth, he properly recalls that there is but one love among the saints for all who have come to know the truth, so that by their unanimity together with the large number of Catholics he may startle those who have separated themselves from their company,
1.1 P 5:1
Commentary on 2 John 1—5 since they are few. For in truth all Catholics throughout the world follow one canon of truth, but not all heretics and unbelievers are in unanimous agreement about their error but they impugn each other no less than they do the very way of truth.
2 On account of the truth which abides in us and will be with us for ever. We love you and yours, he says, for no other reason than the truth of the faith which lasts perma nently in us and is always unassailable, because namely we have ascertained that you also guard the same faith invin cibly.
3 May grace and mercy and peace be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and charity. Since the heretics of that time, Marcion and Cerinthus, were denying that our Lord Jesus Christ was the true Son of God but were tracing his beginning from his human birth, John, to refute the blasphemers, properly recalls that he is the Son of God the Father. He also bears witness that grace and mercy and peace are to be given to believers by him as by God the Father, so that he may point out that he is equal and coeternal with the Father whose gifts he designates as being the same as those of the Father.
In the same way the Lord himself, speaking of his consubstantiality with the Father, says, For whatever the Father does, the Son in like manner also does.
5 And now I ask you, lady, not as if I were writing a new commandment but what we have heard from the beginning, that we love one another. By this word he censures the heretics who were trying to bring in new teachings, abandon ing those which they had heard from the apostles, and in this way breaking the covenant of fraternal charity. He says
2.Jn5:19
Commentary on 2 John 5—11
therefore that he is writing a commandment which is not at all new but only giving this encouragement that the ancient faith and undiminished charity may abide in all.
Since many deceivers have gone forth into the world who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.
This can be understood both of the heretics, who indeed confess, but in some part o f their faith in him do not pro perly understand that Jesus Christ was incarnate, denying either that his flesh was real or his soul real or his divinity real or that God was his real Father or that his Holy Spirit was the real, omnipotent God, or something else which the true faith confesses. And this can also be taken as applying to the Jews, who deny utterly that Jesus is the Christ, who swear solemnly that the Christ has not yet come in the flesh for the salvation o f the world but wait for the antichrist who is going to come to their destruction.
Everyone who strikes out ahead and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God; the one who remains in [this] teaching has both the Son and the Father.
Note the distinction of words and embrace the truth of faith.
He says that the one who does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God, but he says that the one who remains in his teaching has both the Son and the Father, so that he may show that the Father and the Son are the one true God and convict those of lying who maintain that the Son is either not God or posterior to or less than the Father.
10-11 If anyone comes to you and does not bring forward this teaching, do not receive him in the house or speak a greeting to him; for the one who speaks a greeting to him shares in his malicious works. John put into practice also through his actions these things that he taught in words about abominable schismatics and heretics. For someone who heard him, the most holy and brave martyr Polycarp,
Commentary on 2 John 11—14 bishop of the people o f Smyrna, tells that at one time
When he entered the baths at Ephesus to wash and saw Cerinthus there, he immediately leapt up and departed without washing, saying, 'Let us flee from here, lest the very baths in which Cerinthus, the enemy o f truth, is washing fall down.'
When the same Polycarp had also on one occasion chanced to meet Marcion, who said to him, 'Acknowledge me', he answered, 'I acknowledge [you], I acknowledge the first born of satan.'
4 The apostles and their disciples then used such great caution in religion that they would not allow anyone to have even the contact of a word with any o f those who turned aside from the truth, just as Paul also says,
Avoid the heretical person after the first and second reproof knowing that such a one is wrong and commits sin, since he is self-condemned.
14 The children of your elect sister greet you. Just as he forbids greeting the opponents o f truth, so on the contrary does he greet the elect in the person of the elect, both that unbelievers may be abominated by all the good, if perhaps they may thus wish to be corrected, and that the peace and charity o f believers towards one another may always increase.
3. Eusebius/Rufinus, Hist eccl. 3. 28;GCS 9:335,1/4 4. Jer., Vir. ill 17; TU 14:18,26/28 5. Tt 3:10-11