In contrast to John’s first epistle and indeed virtually every earlier chapter of the New Testament, there is nothing in John’s very short 2nd and 3rd letters that has direct relevance to the subject matter of my book and posts, being God’s broader benign providence. At least, there is nothing new. Whether the “chosen lady” of 2John that the apostle is addressing is a church or a particular female believer, the point is she is chosen or “elect” (Greek: Ἐκλεκτῇ). That is a key doctrine, taught throughout the New Testament that I have had to focus on a lot in the providential context.
Reconciling divine love with election
That is because the God whom this apostle had earlier defined as “love personified” (1Jn4:8) could not be such if election/predestination pertained to whom God has predetermined should be “sent to heaven or hell when they die”. Still more so given that the New Testament (not least via Jesus and Paul) is adamant that no one is innately capable of coming to gospel salvation unless divinely enabled to do so. That in turn impacts upon divine justice, free will and our Creator’s humanly comprehensible goodness that the psalmists in particular insist upon. All is resolved once the true nature of what the New Testament means by “being saved” and the trifold nature of the soteriological outcomes have been verified – which I trust they have been in earlier posts and more systematically in The Little Book of Providence.
The nature of salvation
In terms of the nature of gospel salvation, that is briefly alluded to in 3John, where the apostle writes with typical Johannine simplicity: “The one who does what is good is of God; the one who does what is evil has not seen God” (v11). Especially in the context of some of my former hero Martin Luther’s outrageous hyperbole, especially “If men only believe enough in Christ they can commit adultery and murder a thousand times a day without periling their salvation”, the Truth is we are to be judged by what we do and what we are, or rather have become – not exclusively by what we believe, nor even in Whom we place our trust or understand ourselves to be serving (Mt7:22-23). Again, this impinges on God’s equitable justice and intelligible goodness – essential qualities recognized by all the New Testament writers, not least our beloved John, the apostle of love.
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The Little Book of Providence 