Marsha's Musings: Elect Lady and Her Children (1 John 1:2-4)

The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth,  and not only I, but also all who know the truth.... -2 John 1:1

Because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us  forever.... -2 John 1:2

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and  from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. -2 John 1:3

I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the  truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. -2 John 1:4

I don't know who this elect lady is that John writes to, but as elect of God, all born again, Christian, Jesus followers can read this as if it is directed at them.

With the women's "lip" movement trying to tell us that the Bible is antiquated and relegates women to the back seat, I find it interesting that God places enough importance on a woman to include a book of the Bible written and addressed to her!  If women weren't important, I don't think this letter would be here.

In verse 1 John also includes her children.  John states that he loves her and her children in the truth and so do all the others who know the truth.  Why? Because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.

This is why we are to love our fellow believers.  We are to love them because of the truth of God's Word and what it teaches us!  

Contrast this with what we see going on in the Middle East right now.  Isl*m*c Extremists are slaughtering even their own who are M*sl*ms because they do not hold to an extreme beliefe in the K*ran as they do. Apparently there is nothing in their holy book about loving others of their own religion, even.  Much less show tolerance for those of other faiths.  Love is completely absent.

But God commands us to love our fellow believers, because of the truth.  We can even love those believers in Jesus who might interpret some of the non-essential to salvation doctrines a little differently than we do, and those whose worship services look a little different than ours.  If our faith and thier faith is grounded in the truth, we can love them in the truth.

Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. This loaded.

Grace~God's Riches At Christ's Expense

Jesus did all the work to save us.  There is nothing that we can do to add to that.

Mercy~God's justice demands that we be cast into Hell for being a sinner, but God's mercy steps in to save us through the substitutionary death of His Son in our place, which brings us back to the definition of grace.

Peace~God's gives us peace in knowing that He did it all.  We do not have to work for our salvation and wonder if we have done enough or if what we have done is good enough to stay in favor with God and be allowed into heaven.

In Verse 4 John tells the elect lady that he is happy to see that some of her children are walking in the truth as God commanded. (not all Greek manuscripts say "some".  But since the majority of them do, many translations add that word, so I will go with that)  Note that he said "some". This indicates to me that not all of her children were walking in the truth.  He did not reprimand her for the fact that not all of her children were walking in the truth.  He commended her for those that were.  

This should be comforting to those who have wayward children.  It shows that we as parents can raise children in the truth but we have no control over whether they actually walk in the truth.  John did not chide her for not parenting her kids right. We need to show compassion toward those whose children are not walking in truth despite being brought up in it.

I pray for my children that they would continue to walk in the truth.  Nothing warms my heart more than to walk into their rooms and see them reading their Bibles and spending time with God!