The Second Letter from John

1:1 ¶ FROM the Officer of the Church, | TO a Christian Lady and her children, with his true love. It is not I alone who love you, but all those who know the Truth.

2 We love you for the sake of that Truth which is in possession of our hearts; yes, and it will be ours for ever.

3 | Blessing, mercy, and peace will be ours—the gift of God, the Father, and of Jesus Christ, the Father's Son—in a life of truth and love.

1:4 ¶ I am delighted to have found the lives of some of your children guided by the Truth, in obedience to the command which we received from the Father.

5 And now, dear Lady, I have no new command to write to you—it is only the Command which we have held from the first—I beg of you, Let us love one another.

6 The love I ask for involves living in obedience to the Father's commands. And the Command I am speaking of is, as you all learnt at the first, to live in a spirit of love.

7 I say this because there are many impostors in the world—men who do not acknowledge Jesus as the Christ who was to come in our nature. It is that which stamps a man as an impostor and an anti-Christ.

8 Take care that you do not lose the fruit of all our work; on the contrary, see that you reap the benefit of it in full.

9 All who go beyond the limits of the Teaching of the Christ have failed to find God; while those who keep to that Teaching are the men who have found both the Father and the Son.

10 If any one comes to you without this Teaching, do not receive him into your homes or wish him well;

11 for those who wish him well are sharing in his wicked work.

1:12 ¶ Though I have a great deal to say to you, I would rather not trust it to paper and ink, but I am hoping that I may come and see you, and that we may talk matters over together, so that your happiness may be complete.

13 The children of your Christian sister send you their good wishes.