The Little Letters - Day 23

4 How happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded.
The elder really begins this epistle with encouragement. As well, he gives a sense of personal joy for the “children” that are living in the truth, as God commanded. He seems to want to continue the warm feelings that he has engendered before he gets to the rebuke that is coming.

As my wife tells it, she didn’t get spanked very often as a child. Her parents were kind, and loving, and they had a great childhood growing up in Hawaii. But, of course, there were times when things didn’t go that well, and sometimes punishments were meted out.
 
My wife remembers that her dad would always pray before he commenced corporal punishment. She always found it a bit conflicting, for as soon as he said “amen,” the hand would come down. She came to dread the end of prayer due to its consequences.

I wonder if people see through the flowery speech and encouraging words before the rebuke comes to them in this letter. It is possible they became a bit jaded by the buttering up that was done by the elder.
 
However, there is no reason to think that he wasn’t personally encouraged by the way that many in the church were living their lives according to the love and the truth that they had been shown.

How John knew of their behavior and their actions are not made clear to us. The text does not tell us. He might have met some of them and discovered firsthand how they were following the truth they had been given. Given the encouraging words that he shares, the next rebuke seems almost unwarranted.
 
Were you ever in school and someone did something wrong, but you were all punished? That never sat better with me. I would typically get quite upset that I was being called out for something I didn’t do.

Perhaps those who were walking in truth were feeling that way too? We don’t know, but what we do know is that there were those who followed the commands of God to love one another, and there were some who did not. That is a pretty reasonable scenario for all of us who have been in church ever since!
 

1. Can you see through someone’s compliments to their ultimate rebuke? 
2. What do you think the Elder could have said that would have had the same impact? 
3. When you give a compliment, is it backhanded?