These three Epistles are so like the Gospel of St. John that there is no doubt that the Apostle John wrote them. The third letter was probably written first because its purpose was to settle a dispute about John’s authority. The second letter was written to refute those who denied the truth that Christ was man and God at the same time. Both letters are so short that unless they were the work of a highly respected leader in the Apostolic Church, there would have been little incentive to save them and even less to forge them.

  A characteristic teaching of St. John shines out clearly in the second letter. “To love is to live according to his commandments; this is the commandment which you have heard from the beginning, you live a life of love.” (II John 6).

  The first letter is much important than the other two letters. It can be compared to a modern day encyclical letter in it teaching and significance. Sent to the communities of Asia Minor which was threatened with disintegration due to the impact of heresies, it summarizes John’s religious experience. He develops in it the themes of light, righteousness, love, and truth. As children of God, he teaches, we must live a life of integrity which is the only way to fulfill the two commandments: faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and love of the brethren.

           In this letter, John also teaches us how to develop a real knowledge of God and intimacy with Him. He is refuting the false teachers who claim superior knowledge of God and even a special companionship and intimacy with Him. These false teachers even denied the divinity of Jesus as Son of God. St. Irenaeus, writing about a century after St. John, tells us that John had struggled at Ephesus against the doctrine of Cerinthus who taught that Christ is a spiritual being descended on Jesus who was just  a normal man. This descent happened at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan.  Christ remained with Jesus until just before the passion. Thus Cerinthus divided Jesus and the Christ and denied that Christ ever suffered or shed blood.

 John, too, was refuting those of his day who did not keep the commandments and pretended that their actions were not sinful. These people had a special hatred of their former Christian brethren which was particularly repulsive to the apostle who preached love.

 What John wrote to strengthen the Church of his day sounds equally apt in our day when false doctrines, at times, threaten to lead us astray. John’s advice circled repeatedly around love of God and love of one’s neighbor. It is as valid and needed today as when John wrote this letter.

  “We can be sure that we know God only by keeping his commandments. Anyone who says `I know him` and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, refusing to admit the truth. But when anyone does obey what he has said, God`s love comes to perfection in him. We can be sure that we are in God only when the one who claims to be living in him is living the same kind of life as Christ lived` (I John 2:3-6)