The Sort of Love John Commanded

2 John 1:5-6 KJV

And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.

And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.

We are so given to assumption. We have particular views and we often inject those views into our understanding of the Word of God without considering the views of the one writing that portion of the Word of God. We do the same in conversations with others, hearing what they said, but interpreting it according to our own background and beliefs and not that of the speaker. By doing so we are likely to completely miss the point the speaker wanted to make. Such presumptions do great damage to genuine Bible study because we make the Bible say what we want it to say rather than what it in fact says. 

Here is a case in point. John says the commandment he has for them is to love one another. But people are very likely to read into the commandment things that John did not intend. 

• Some would say that love means to never be confrontational
• Some would say that love means to approve of things whether they are biblically right or not
• Some would say that love means to disregard doctrinal purity in lieu of cross-denominational peace

A person may become very defensive and hateful of someone who doesn't interpret loving one another the same way as they do. Our country now calls preaching against homosexuality a hate crime. They accuse the Christian who believes the Bible of being hateful when in fact we are merely obedient to the Word of the Lord. 

John saw this problem and corrected it by defining love as walking after God's commandments. Love has the specific quality that it is obedient to and lives consistent with[1] the teachings of the Bible. No true love may be demonstrated unless there is obedience to God's Word.

The love John commands then is a polar opposite to what would be the general interpretation derived from a human background and belief. It is a love that can only be understood by putting aside our own ideas and actually hearing what God has given in His Word.

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[1] The passage says walking after His commandments rather than obedience to His commandments. It is possible to be obedient to the commandments of the Bible but to do so with a wrong heart. The Pharisees were guilty of this. Obedience to God is rather like a life instinct than a forced lifestyle.