2 John is a short book. When they added the verses to it, it only got 13 verses. And yet, in such a short letter, John manages to make it all about the theme that has captivated his life:
“I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning.” (v. 5)
Nothing new, John says, just the same commandment that we have always built our lives around: love one another.
The interesting thing is that he proceeds to connect this command to a heresy (false teaching) that is cropping up throughout the church: the teaching that Jesus did not really come in a real body. The people who were saying this had a negative view of the body and the earth, they were all about the spiritual realm. The body is inherently evil, they argued, therefore, how could Jesus have had one?
And John says, this is a false teaching. Jesus did have a body; John walked with him and talked with him. And besides this, without bodies we cannot fulfill the central command to love each other.
Love is not a matter of good feelings or emotions, but of actually using your strength to meet the needs of others.
Jesus had a body, and in his body he loved us to the full.
Let us use our bodies, our strength, our hands, our feet to love well today. Amen.
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