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27 December. 2 John (also see 3 John, same day)
If John’s first letter was focussed on the need for love, this much shorter second one is about truth. He refers to his readers as those whom he and all who know the truth love in the truth, “because of the truth that abides in us” (1,2); likewise he professes himself delighted that some of his disciples “walk in the truth” (4). He says much the same in his third letter, addressed to one Gaius.
Pontius Pilate famously responded to Jesus’ statement “I came into the world, to testify to the truth” with the question “what is truth?” (John 18:37,38). But as soon as we get away from simple questions of scientific fact, truth becomes subjective. Religions often revolve around questions about the existence and nature of God, appropriate ways to worship God, and appropriate ways to behave to each other. It is easy to claim to “know the truth” in these matters, to know objectively what is right and wrong, either by claiming direct revelation or quoting from accepted holy texts and revered holy people. But the fact is that God is a mystery, bigger than all of us, and human life so complex that no one set of rules will ever suffice for all circumstances. So what does John mean by the truth?
In the third letter, John contrasts two men in one church congregation: Diotrephes, who opposes John and certain other people and even expels his opponents from the church (10), and Demetrius, about whom he writes “Everyone has testified favourably about Demetrius, and so has the truth itself.”
Truth in this context seems to mean something like “an attitude of humility and love that welcomes honesty, openness and differences”. Where Diotrephes wanders from the truth is in claiming to have the truth himself and opposing anyone who thinks differently. So the truth is not something fixed, one incontrovertible set of doctrines or rules. In fact, the more we think that we know the truth (and therefore someone else doesn’t), the further we are from this understanding of truth. It is more fluid than knowledge and rules, something that “abides in us” (going back to the start of the second letter), an internal guide. You may just call it conscience, but that is too impersonal. The Christian understanding of truth is inseparably connected to Jesus Christ himself who called himself “the Way, the Truth and the Life”. To have Jesus abiding in you is to have the truth within you – but so may someone else who disagrees with you on matters of religious belief, practice and morals.
John records something else important that Jesus said about truth: “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:31-32). Free, that is, from being too closely bound to rules and regulations. Free to live a life of love for the sake of other people. Free to make truth come true.