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Walking in Truth

In verse 3 John goes on to say, "For I rejoiced greatly at the brothers coming and testifying to your truth, even as you walk in truth." The truth concerning the Person of Christ is the basic and central element of John's mending ministry. When he found that his children were walking in truth (v. 4), he rejoiced greatly. To walk in truth means that the Triune God becomes our enjoyment in reality. Therefore, our daily walk is the walk in truth, which is the reality of the Triune God enjoyed by us.

In verse 3 John speaks of "your truth." "Your truth" is the truth concerning Christ, especially His deity, by the revelation of which the recipient's way of life is determined and to which the recipient holds as his fundamental belief. The thought here is deep. John's thought is that the objective truth becomes ours. Hence, the truth becomes subjective to us in our daily walk. This truth is the reality of Christ's deity. Our life is determined and shaped by the revelation of this truth. This means that we live, walk, and behave in the divine reality of the Triune God, who is our enjoyment. This enjoyment shapes our walk, our way of life. This indicates that our way of life is determined, shaped, molded by what we believe concerning the Person of Christ and by what we have seen and enjoyed of this reality. This truth is actually the Triune God becoming our enjoyment.

We believe that the Triune God became a man and lived on earth, died on the cross for our redemption, and in resurrection became a life-giving Spirit. Now this life giving Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. This Spirit is the consummation of all that the Father is and of all that the Son is as a person possessing divinity and humanity. Christ the Son is the very God and also a real man, who has accomplished redemption and is now the Life-giver, the life-imparting Spirit. We believe this, and this belief now shapes, determines, molds, our way of life. This is what it means to walk in truth.

The philosophy a person holds will determine his way of life. What a person believes will always shape his living. We Christians walk in the divine truth. This means that our way of life is determined, shaped, molded, by the divine reality—the Triune God Himself—which we enjoy.

In verse 3 John says to Gaius, "Even as you walk in truth." The one who receives this word not only holds to the truth, but also walks and lives in the truth. The truth concerning the Person of Christ should not only be our belief, but should also be our living, a living that testifies to our belief. The truth in which we walk, therefore, becomes our truth in our daily life.

In verse 4 John continues, "I have no greater joy than these things, that I hear that my children are walking in the truth." As in 2 John 4, "truth" here is the divine reality, especially concerning the Person of Christ as revealed in John's Gospel and first Epistle, that is, that Christ is both God and man, having both deity and humanity, possessing both the divine nature and the human nature, to express God in human life and to accomplish redemption with divine power in human flesh for fallen human beings so that He may impart the divine life into them and bring them into an organic union with God. The second and third Epistles of John emphasize this truth. The second warns the faithful believers against receiving those who do not abide in this truth, and the third encourages the believers to receive and help those who work for it.