This short letter from the apostle John is either to a certain lady or more likely the lady mentioned is a church (v1). The opening two verses highlight the two main themes of this letter, love and truth.

John’s joy is when he sees children walking in the truth (v4). That should be our passion both for ourselves and for those around us.

John then turns to his priority of seeing love among God’s people (v5). Love is one of the key marks of a believer and need to be evident in our lives.

John defines what love us, it is obedience to God’s commandments (v6). Love is not sentimental and unguided, it is rather something strong and directed by the truth of God. It is a love that resists false teaching (v7-9) and refuses to welcome false teachers (v10-11).

Love and truth must go hand in hand. Love without truth is not true love but mere sentimentality. Truth without love is not proper truth but unkind dogmatism. We need a right balance between truth and love and each of us will be tempted to swing more one way rather than the other. We must hold them both together.