John rejoices to see genuine obedience in some within the church. He then urges the whole church to keep doing what they were taught from the beginning: love one another. Yet this love is not a vague feeling; it is a life shaped by obedience to God’s commands.

In verse 4, John says he rejoiced greatly because he found some of the lady’s children walking according to the truth. This is not empty praise. His joy rests on what he has actually seen in their lives. Their conduct matches the truth they have received. In this letter, truth does not mean mere sincerity or personal honesty. It refers to God’s revealed message, the apostolic teaching John has already affirmed. To walk in the truth is to live in a way that agrees with that revealed standard.

John adds that this walking is just as the Father commanded us. Their lives are being measured by God’s own command. Truth and obedience belong together. John is concerned with an ongoing pattern of life, not a single act. The repeated word walk points to a steady, continuing way of living.

The phrase some of your children also matters. John offers real encouragement, but he does not say that every member is walking faithfully in the same way. He is thankful for genuine faithfulness where he sees it, while still leaving room for needed exhortation.

In verse 5, John moves from joy to appeal: And now I ask you, lady, that we love one another. The address is to the lady, but the command reaches the whole believing community, since John says, that we love one another. The letter is best understood as addressing a church under the figure of a lady and her children, though some ambiguity remains. That corporate sense fits this paragraph as well as the later instructions about receiving teachers.

John is careful to say that he is not writing a new commandment. He is not introducing a fresh teaching, a spiritual upgrade, or a more advanced message. He is calling them back to what they have had from the beginning, meaning from the beginning of their reception of apostolic Christian teaching. The point is continuity. Faithfulness is not shown by chasing novelty, but by remaining in the message first received.

The command itself is that believers love one another. But this is not merely a general ideal or a warm feeling. In verse 6, John explains what he means: This is love, that we walk according to his commandments. He does not leave love undefined. He gives it moral content. Love is seen in obedient conduct shaped by God’s commands.

John is not replacing the command to love with some other command. Rather, he is showing that the command to love operates within the whole pattern of obedience God requires. Mutual love is the relational form that obedience takes in the life of the church. So love cannot be set against truth, and it cannot be used to excuse disobedience.

The second half of verse 6 restates the point for emphasis: This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. The singular wording likely gathers the paragraph into one main obligation heard from the beginning, especially the command to love one another, while still keeping that love connected to God’s commandments more broadly. In either case, the force is plain: they must continue living in this path.

These verses tightly join truth, love, commandment, and walk. John does not treat them as competing values. Truth provides the standard. Love describes the shared life believers owe one another. Commandment shows God’s authority over that life. Walking shows that all of this must appear in a continuing pattern of conduct.

This also prepares for the next part of the letter. John is about to warn about deceivers and false teaching. That warning is not a break from love. It grows out of love rightly understood. If love is defined by walking according to God’s commandments and remaining in the truth heard from the beginning, then love cannot mean partnership with teaching that departs from apostolic truth.

So this paragraph calls the church to a shared life of truth-shaped love. It encourages visible obedience, warns against spiritual novelty that abandons the original message, and insists that love must remain under God’s revealed commands.

Key Truths: - John’s joy is based on observed obedience, not flattering words. - Truth here means the revealed apostolic message, not mere sincerity. - The command to love one another is not new; it belongs to the church’s original instruction. - Love is defined by obedience to God’s commandments. - Truth and love must remain together. - The paragraph speaks to the church’s shared life, not only to private individual behavior. - These verses prepare for the doctrinal warning in verses 7–11, where love must not be separated from fidelity to the truth.