2 John 1

The elder writes to the chosen lady and her children. Wesley: elect—that is, Christian. Kuria is a proper name, not an imperial “lady”; the title would not have suited apostolic simplicity. He loves her and her children in the truth, with unfeigned and holy love; not he only, but all who have known the truth.

Do not turn a greeting into a predestination treatise. Wesley’s elect here is an honorific for a Christian woman (and her household), not a treatise on unconditional choice. Neither side disputes this: she is addressed as belonging to the people of God in the truth. The letter’s weight is truth and love, not a fight over the word elect in a salutation.

Calvin did not comment this verse; later Reformed readers have taken the phrase either as an honored Christian woman or as a local church under a household name. In either case it is a title of honor for those in the truth, not a cue to unload Romans 9 onto a greeting.

Wesley agrees: elect names the addressee as Christ’s, loved in truth by the elder and by all those who know the truth. If the notes part at all, it is only the later habit of hearing elect as God’s choosing; this verse itself does not argue conditional versus unconditional choosing. Leave the greeting a greeting.

Because of the truth’s sake, which remains in us, and it will be with us forever. Wesley: for the truth’s sake, which abides in us as a living principle of faith and holiness.

The ground of the love in v. 1 is not temperament but the truth that lives in the household and does not expire. Forever is the gospel’s duration, not a slogan. Those who know the truth love because that truth remains.

The truth abides in us, and it will be with us forever. Calvin on the Johannine letters: the word heard from the beginning is to remain, and remaining in it is remaining in the Son and the Father.

Abiding truth is Christ’s own, not a passing mood of the household. Forever matches the promise, not our grip. Love in the truth (v. 1) has this as its cause: the truth God has planted, which outlasts the letter.

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. Wesley: grace takes away guilt; mercy, misery; peace implies abiding in grace and mercy—the testimony of God’s Spirit that we are His children, a foretaste of heaven.

The blessing is Trinitarian in shape and already “with us,” not a maybe. Father’s Son guards the same Christ 1 John confessed. Truth and love are the atmosphere of the gift, matching the walk that follows.

The Son is named from the Father so that the greeting is already a small creed: the man Jesus is the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

These gifts come from God, not from the lady’s quality. “Will be with us” is promise, the God who keeps truth forever (v. 2). In truth and love locates the gifts where 1 John already located life: not speculation, but the Son known and loved.

He rejoice greatly that I have found some of her children walking in truth, as commanded by the Father. Wesley: probably found in their aunt’s house (v. 13); walking in the truth—in faith and love.

Match 1 John: knowing is proved by walking, not by a slogan. Some of the children walk: joy is true, and so is the implication that walking can be missing. The commandment is the Father’s. Truth is a path you are on, or you are not.

Joy at children walking in truth, as the Father commanded. Calvin: the knowledge of God derived from the gospel is not ineffectual; obedience proceeds from it. He that saith he abides in Him ought to walk as He walked.

Walking is fruit of the truth that abides (v. 2), not a ladder into it. “Some” of the children: the elder’s joy is evidence, not flattery. The Father’s commandment is the same old word 1 John called old and new. Wesley agrees: truth is walked.

He asks the dear lady—not a new commandment, but that which from the beginning—that we love one another. Wesley: from the beginning of our Lord’s ministry; indeed, in some sense from the beginning of the world. That we may love one another more abundantly.

Match 1 John 2:7–8: old as first hearing, new as always in force. Love is the request, not a novelty for a new crisis. The lady is asked as a household already in the truth, to keep the first word.

No new commandment, but the old one from the beginning: that we love one another. Calvin: he taught nothing respecting love but what had been heard by the faithful from the beginning and had by long usage become old. Novelty is disliked; this yoke is not unwonted.

Reformed match to 1 John 2:7: the gospel’s first elements, from Christ Himself. Love one another is not a late extra. The elder is not inventing a rule for this house; he is recalling the word they already had.

This is love, that we should walk according to his commandments. Wesley: this is the proof of true love, universal obedience built on the love of God. This love is the great commandment heard from the beginning of their preaching, that they should walk in it.

Match 1 John 5:3 and 2:3–6: love is not a slogan. It is walked commandment, the same word from the beginning. Arminian readers hear a path that can be walked in—or neglected. The proof is obedience on the ground of God’s love, not a feeling that never takes a step.

For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. Calvin: the love of God is not idle or inactive. Hearts devoted in willing reverence, then a life formed to the law. He confines to God’s children that the commandments are not grievous: it comes through the power of the Spirit that obeying God is not wearisome.

Reformed match to 1 John 5:3: love is keeping, and keeping is possible because the Spirit and paternal pardon sustain the children of God. Walking in the old commandment is fruit of abiding truth, not a self-made ladder. Shared with Wesley: This is love, that we should walk. The slight fork is whether the walk is proof a believer must not neglect, or the Spirit-wrought life of those born of God.