Grace, mercy, and peace
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. 2 John 1:3 CSB
What we have from the text is a familiar salutation combining some ancient Christian greetings, “grace, mercy and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father.” John is not known for using constantly the word “grace” in the gospel and in his epistles unlike Peter and Paul. It is the grace of God poured upon us at the cross that removes the guilt because of our sin. On our own, we are helpless because of the power of sin over us, yet God made it possible for us to obtain the salvation that He alone can provide. Without God forgiving us and cleansing us, we will be in the worst miserable condition. It is God’s “mercy” that removes our misery. Because of God’s grace and mercy, now we can experience the “peace that surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). Then John clearly articulated where these blessings come from: “From God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father.” John, in this passage, places Jesus Christ on the same level as God the Father. By doing this, John once again refutes the false teaching promoted by the Gnostics that Jesus is not equal with the Father and therefore not divine. John is direct in declaring that these blessings of grace, mercy, and peace “will be with us…in truth and love.” He is not just wishing or praying that the believers will be having grace, peace, and mercy, but he is definite that they have these because they are in the truth when they surrendered their lives to Christ and the love of God continues to flourish and flow in their lives. Truth is what helps us counter the falsehood and deception by the enemy of God. This stance of standing our ground against the attacks of the enemy is through God’s empowering when we put on “truth like a belt around your waist” (Ephesians 6:14). It is by immersing ourselves to the truth of God’s Word and living it out in our daily lives that we can ward-off the attacks of the devil. It is because of God’s love that He pours out all these virtues are in us.
Blessings,
Isaac De Guzman
