I value consistency. I return to a restaurant knowing that the dish I’ve been craving will be prepared just as before. I like getting into a vehicle that starts. I want the furnace to work in the winter and the lights to turn on every time I flip the switch.

John remained consistent in his teaching. He wrote to a friend, And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 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.

In an earlier letter John wrote, God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. In his gospel John penned the most famous verse in the Bible: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John echoed the voice of Jesus who answered a question about rules in this way: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

John’s emphasis on love remains consistent with the teachings of Jesus, as well as the other disciples, the Law, the prophets, and indeed all the Bible. Our love of God will manifest as love for the Scriptures, love for God, and love for our neighbor. Since all this is beyond our natural capabilities, God gave us his Holy Spirit to help us love.

John’s teachings finds unsteady footing in my life. But my lack of consistency fails to negate his message. As a follower of Jesus I’m commanded to love, and thankfully I have God’s help to do so.

2 John 5 in Through the Bible in 2024

Photo by Isabella Fischer