2 John 1:6 · WEB
2 John 1:6
“This is love, that we should walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, even as you heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.”
Reflection
John writes a very short letter and still finds room for this definition, which has a circular quality that seems intentional. Love is walking according to his commandments; the commandment is that you walk in love. He isn't being evasive — he's binding the two together so tightly that neither can be practiced without the other. That closes two common exits. You can't claim to love God while ignoring what he asks, and you can't claim to obey rigorously while treating people badly. Notice the verb doing the work throughout: walk. Not feel, not believe, not intend. Walking is ordinary, repetitive, and physical — something done in steps, in a direction, over time. Love in John's letters is consistently something you do rather than something that happens to you, and the shortest of his letters makes the point as plainly as the longest.
Historical Context
A brief letter to a church, warning against deceivers while urging believers to continue in the love and truth they received from the beginning.
Application for Today
John defines love as something walked rather than felt. What would love look like today as an action rather than a sentiment? That's the whole question this verse asks.
A Prayer
God, I'd rather feel loving than act loving. Move me from one to the other. Show me the specific thing love requires of me today, and give me the will to walk it.
Related Verses
“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Leviticus 19:18
“He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Micah 6:8
“Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7