2 John 6 Radical

2 John 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

Grandkids are great fun. It is such a privilege to watch them grow up. They can certainly say some of the funniest things as they develop the use of language. The way they put things together in their little minds shows the creativeness of God.

When our son was perhaps two or three, I remember him standing at the screen door during a night time thunderstorm and asking “Who’s taking pictures?” Only a kid could come up with that observation. Flashes of light mean photography is taking place. He later learned the nature of lightening and dropped the photography explanation.

We have a tendency to see what we want and to label the rest in terms we understand or make up. So when an author speaks clearly, we have the tendency to move past it if we don’t like what is being said. Take our text as an example.

For the writer, three things go together: love, obedience and commands. Like Sesame Street used to say, “Which of these three is not like the other.” But all three are different from each other, and yet the author ties them together. Now that is weaving.

So let’s start with the first phrase. If we want the LORD’s love working in our lives, then we must obey His commands. This is a simple line of logic in his mind. If you love someone, you do what they say. As parents, this should ring so true for us. Parents want simple obedience from a toddler.

Walking in obedience to His commands sounds so simple, and yet it is very difficult at moments. The LORD’s commands are meant to rub us the wrong way. They are meant to get us to think about Him, about ourselves and about other people. They are designed to get us to be unsettled.

And when we are unsettled we must make the choice to draw closer to the very one who states the commands. We must trust the they have our best interest at heart, that they care about our wellbeing, not just about getting their way. And it is this rub, between what we want and what the LORD’s design intends for our good that heats up in us.

Obedience isn’t something that is a one and done. Obedience is a continual, non-ending direction in our lives. So the author tells us that if we love, then we will obey the LORD’s commands. But then the big twist comes.

The big twist is that the command we are to obey is to love. He isn’t saying that the only thing we must do is love, or he wouldn’t have included in this letter the teaching about deceivers and antichrists. If all we need to do is love, then those false teachers just need more love, not more correction.

So to put it all together the writer says this: Love entails walking in obedience to His love. His command is to walk in love, so walk in it and love will be evident. He frames this love not as a new command, but as one they had received from the beginning. Love is the LORD’s design for humanity.

But we don’t see much love on the world stage today, do we. We don’t see much in our national politics. We don’t see it where we live and work, and for far too many, we don’t see it in the home either.

The kind of love we are to be walking in is like Jesus’ love, a love that gives up itself for the sake of the other. It empties itself in service of the true needs of others. Unlike most charity work today, it brings dignity and worth. We need to walk in love, live it out moment by moment.

I hope this rubs you the wrong way. I pray it starts a fire that ignites your life to radical love.