Bible Commentaries

2 John 1:5

Let our one unceasing care be to better the love that we offer our fellow-creatures. One cup of this love that is drawn from the spring on the mountains is worth a hundred taken from the stagnant wells of ordinary charity.

—Maeterlinck.

2 John 1:8

"We are all taught by interest," says Stevenson in his first essay on John Knox. "And if the interest be not merely selfish, there is no wiser preceptor under heaven, and perhaps no sterner."

References.—I:6.—T. Arnold, The Interpretation of Scripture, p293. I:7 , 9.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p292. I:8.—T. Binney, King's Weigh-House Chapel Sermons, p240.

The Man Who Loses His Past

2 John 1:8; 1 Kings 16:34

The rebuilding of Jericho is the first step, historically, towards the destruction of Jerusalem. The taking of it had been the key to the conquest of Joshua The raising again of its ruined towers was the sign of national decay and approaching death. Like the pointer on the barometer, nothing in itself, it signified everything.

It is another Israel than followed Joshua. Omri and Ahab occupy the thrones of David and Solomon. Religion is decaying. Idolatry is advancing. The memory of Jericho is faint and far away. "In these days did Hiel, the Bethelite, build Jericho."

But if faint in memory, the curse of Joshua has not lost power. As soon as the foundation is laid, it shows its power. The eldest son of the founder dies. We can fancy the neighbours recalling the old curse, and dissuading the rash man from his work. But all in vain. He perseveres. The gates are set up. Once more the prophecy is fulfilled. The youngest child dies amid the inauguration of the new city.

But the loss was not Hiel's only. It was national. A victory had been lost. The old towers of Jericho once more lifted their heads, a witness to national decay. The record of faith had been destroyed. The defeated enemy had returned.

I. This is the thought I wish to dwell upon, "the man who has lost his past". "Look to yourselves," says the Apostle in our other text, "that ye lose not the things ye have wrought, but that every man receive a full reward". Every 2 John 1:10

Choose your companions with care, for there are people just as contagious as a disease. At first you cannot tell them even when you see them; he looks to be a man like everybody else, and, suddenly, without being aware of it yourself, you will start to imitate him in life. You look around—and you find you have contracted his scabs.

—Maxim Gorky.

2 John 1:12

"If it be the least pleasure," Pope wrote to Swift, "I will write once a week most gladly; but can you abstract the letters from the person who writes them, so far as not to feel more vexation in the thought of our separation than satisfaction in the nothings he can express."

2 John 1:12

I do indeed look back with much wonder and thankfulness to the intercourse with you which inaugurated this year for me. There is so much in the interchange of conviction, even if we receive nothing fresh.

—F. D. Maurice, to Erskine of Linlathen.

To become a pleasure-yielding person is a social duty.

—Spencer.