After identifying the recipients of his letter, John proceeded to describe his relationship with them. He was bonded to them with a sincere love that was grounded in their mutual participation in the truth of Jesus the Messiah and the fruit of His triumph.

All three of John's epistles speak powerfully to what it means to be a Christian and live the Christian life - to -walk in the truth.- But whereas First John addresses these issues more expansively, the other two epistles are succinct and pointed. This message introduces John's second epistle and considers the initial questions of authorship, recipients, occasion, purpose, etc.

John's final reassurance to his readers concerned their knowledge of God - knowledge that was grounded in their knowledge of Jesus. It consists of a four-fold affirmation --we know-- followed by an exhortation appropriate to it. John penned this epistle out of concern that his readers hold fast to the true God who has made Himself known in Jesus, the incarnate Son, and this closing passage provided a fitting exclamation point to that intent.

John closed his epistle with a series of reassurances that summarize and punctuate his instruction. His foundational reassurance concerns eternal life- the Father's children share in His life through union with His Son in His Spirit. And this life means that they have passed out of death, and so stand in the triumph of liberation from the enslaving power of sin, Satan, and the world he rules.

John drew his letter to a close by reassuring his readers of their Father's love and provision. He began with the most fundamental matter of reassurance, namely the children's possession of eternal life - the life that inheres in the triune God and is bestowed upon human beings through living union with God in Christ. This is the reason that eternal life grants the children assurance of answered prayer.

John told his readers that their faith is their victory over the world, but faith as the authentic embrace and ownership of the truthful witness to Jesus the Messiah. This witness is the witness of God Himself through the Spirit concerning the person and work of the Son- in John's words, there are three who bear truthful witness to Jesus- the water, the blood and the Spirit. This is the witness that must be embraced in faith, and this is the faith that overcomes the world.

John concluded his treatment of the children's likeness to the Father by considering their relationship with the world. His core premise was that the children's share in their Father's life and nature has set them in a new relation to the world as it continues in its alienation from Him. Once they were part of that world- now they are aliens in it and at odds with it. And yet, they have overcome that world, though not in the way so many Christians want to believe.