THE
PULPIT CO M~IEN'f ARY! EDITJrn BY THE
VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D. D., DEAN OF GWUOEBTER;
4NO BY 1'HE
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
I I. JOHN. @xposftfon BY REV. A. PLUMMER, M.A., D.D., II ABTBB 01' Uli'IY &IISITY OOLLEGE, DlJBBAll.
1t1omf12tfcs BY REV. C. CLEMANCE, B.A., D.D.
~omflfes b11 1:Tarious ~utbors. REV. W. JONES. REY. B. FINLAYSON, B.A.
NEW EDITION.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1907 TI-IE SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN. EXPOSITION, Tms letter is not rightly c!lllecl "general." pany of believers of which he is the eldei:, It is not !lddresscd to the whole Church, It is futile to ask who this 1"dy is. TberE1 but either to some particular Christian com- have been various conjectnres, some of them absurd; but we know no more than the munity, or (more probably) to an individual. letter itself tells ns. Evidently the lady The letter bas an address and greeting, as and her children were not among the great is the case with most of the Catholic Epistles ones of the earth; they have matle no name and the Epistles of St. Paul. This address in the world. And herein lies one of the occupies the first three verses, chief lessons of the Epistle. Those men- tioned in it were ordinary people, such as Vers. 1--4.-1. INTRODUCTION. Address any Church in any generation might pro- and occasion. duce. Bnt because they were faithful, and Ver. 1.-Tbe elder. Not an unlikely endeavoured to live up to their calling-, the appellation to have been given to the last apostle loved them, and all true Christians surviving apostle. Other apostles had been loved them, and be de.red to assure them called elders ; their successors also were that " grace, mercy, and peace from God called elders; but St. John was "the elder." the Fa.tiler and from JesllS Christ the Son of That there was a second John at Ephesus, the Father" should be their portion. Any who was known as "the elder," to distin- Christian minister may give the same as- guish him from the apostle and evangelist, surance to faithful Christians, however is e. theory of Eusebius, based upon a doubt- humble and inconspicuous, still. They ful interpretation of an awkwardly worded may win no place in the history of the passage in Pe.pie.s. But it is by no means world that is passing away; bnt they have certain that any such person ever existed. a place in the heart of him who abideth for Irenrous, who bad 1·ead Pe.piae, ancl been ever. Note the cbaraoteristio repetition of intim11,te with Polycarp, the disciple of St. the characteristic word "trntb," which John, seems to know nothing of any such occurs five times in the first four verses. All person. Even if he existed, there is little words respecting truth and bearing witness reason for attributing this Epistle to him ; to it are characteristic of St. John. In two it is too like the First Epistle to be by a of the five cases "truth" bas the article; different author. Unto the eleot lady. This "all they that know the truth; for the truth's rentlel'ing of iKA<K-rii Kvpl<f should be re- sake which e.bideth in us." It is not im- tained: <KA<K-r-1, cannot be a proper name, possible that "the truth" here means him on account of ver. 13 ; Kvpla. ,,eed not be who is the WRy, the Truth and the Life. one. We commit ourselves to nothing that Christ is the Ikvel11tion of Divine truth t.o is disputable if we render Kvpia. "lady;" mlln. All who know him love all faithful wbere2.s if we render it " Kyria" it is open Chriatians for his sake. To the apostle to any one to object that perhaps the lady's trnth WIL8 not a mere notion, "or a set of 11ame was not Kyria, and tb11,t perh!lps she notions, however large and accurate; it was is not an individual at all, but a Churc!.t. no theory about God, but God himself, antl She is eleot, !IS being chosen out of the God manifest in the flesh in order that we dominion of the evil one (1 John v. 19) into might know him and partake his life." the Christian fllmily. 8he is thus reminded Ver. 3.-In truth and love. Love, as we at the outset of the relationship between have seen in the First Epistle, is another them; she is II member of that elect oom- of the words which is characterutio of St.. n. ,ro~, JI 2 'l'HE SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN. [l-13,