2 John 1:5-6

Exhortation to Love and Obedience

5. And now As in 1 John 2:28 (see note there), this introduces a practical exhortation depending on what precedes. -It is my joy at the Christian life of some of thy children, and my anxiety about the others, that move me to exhort thee".

I beseech thee S. John uses the same verb (ἐρωτᾷν) as that used of making request about -sin unto death" (1 John 5:16). It perhaps indicates that he begs as an equal or superior rather than as an inferior. In both passages the Vulgate rightly has rogo, not peto. In classical Greek the verb = interrogo, -I ask a question", a meaning which it frequently has in N. T. S. Paul uses it very seldom, and always in the sense of -I request": his usual word is παρακαλῶ, which S. John never employs.

a new commandment See on 1 John 2:7.

from the beginning See on 1 John 2:7.

that we love one another -That" (ἵνα) introduces the purportof the command; but perhaps the notion of purposeis not wholly absent (see on 1 John 1:8 and comp. 1 John 3:23). It is doubtful whether -that we love" depends upon -commandment" or upon -I beseech thee".