Plain English Translation: Plain English Translation

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2 John

Chapter 1

1 Dear Woman who has been chosen by God, and to your children. [1]

Greetings from me, the elder of the church.

I love each of you according to the true teaching that we’ve received from God! [2] I'm not the only one, but everyone who already knows the true teaching also loves you. 2 That happens because the true teaching is in our hearts and will be with us forever.

3 Because we love each other and live according to the true teaching, God the Father and His Son, our Lord Christ Jesus, will always be kind to us, have compassion on us and watch over us so that our lives stay calm under God’s protection!

4 I really rejoice because I’ve met some of your children who live according to the true teaching, just like the Father commanded us. 5 And now I’m telling you, Woman, that we should all love each other. This isn’t a new command that I’m writing to you. We’ve had this command from the beginning. 6 And what’s meant by loving is that we must live according to God’s commands. And this is His command which I emphasize: we should live in love, just like we’ve heard from the beginning.

7 For many false teachers have now appeared in the whole world. They don’t acknowledge that Christ Jesus has come into this world as a human in a normal body. Whoever doesn’t acknowledge this is a false teacher and a follower of the antichrist. [3] 8 For that reason we should each guard ourselves. Don’t let there be anyone that doesn’t receive the victory reward which we're struggling for, and may your reward not decreased. 9 For if you follow misleading teaching and don’t obey the true teaching about Christ, then you’ve abandoned God. But if you keep following the true teaching, you continue to have a close relationship with God the Father and His Son. 10 If someone comes bringing a different teaching about Christ, don’t receive him into your house, don’t even greet him. 11 For if you receive him, you’ve become a helper in his evil work.

12 There are still many things that I want to tell you but it seems better not to write them. Instead I hope to come to visit you and we can talk. That way we’ll really rejoice. 13 The children of your sister in the faith [4] who’ve also been chosen by God send you greetings.

1:1 [1] By writing to a ‘woman’, John was probably meaning a church. And by writing to ‘your children’, John meant the members of that church. At the time John wrote this letter the Roman government had begun to persecute believers. So John probably made the recipients of this letter unclear on purpose,so that if this letter were read by the enemies of the church of Christ’s followers, they couldn’t use this letter to increase the persecution of that church.
1:1 [2] These words translate “the truth.” Its meaning is the true teaching, or the Good News about Christ Jesus that unifies all believers.
1:7 [3] The king of wickedness who will oppose God and Christ. See 2 Thes. 1-12.
1:13 [4] The sister of ‘the Woman’ who is mentioned in verse 1 probably means another church.