What Does 2 John 1:5 Mean?
And now I ask you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but the one we held from the beginning, that we love one another.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.THE KEY
The command to love is old in its source and present in the shared life it names.
THE MEANING
The love named here is not a fresh demand imposed on you; it is a command held from the beginning and alive in your shared life now. The verse holds what is received and what is lived together: the command takes shape as you love one another.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that love is a new obligation someone has just imposed; the verse locates it in what has been held from the beginning.
THE ROOT
ἀγαπῶμεν
agapōmen
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπ-
agap-
Love, regard with affection.
The Greek form means “that we love,” placing speaker and addressee inside a shared action. The agap- word family joins loving with being beloved, so the command names a relationship in motion, not only an abstract rule.
ALSO GROWS
agapē: Love
ἀγάπη
The noun names the same love that the verse expresses as a shared action.
agapētos: Beloved
ἀγαπητός
The related word names the one who is loved, linking the command to the people who share it.
ἀρχῆς
archēs
GROWS FROM
ἀρχ-
arch-
Beginning, origin, first place; related forms also carry the sense of primacy or rule.
“From the beginning” places love at the relationship’s source, before it is presented as a new demand. The arch- family also reaches toward primacy, giving the beginning the sense of what comes first.
ALSO GROWS
archē: Beginning, origin, first principle
ἀρχή
This is the noun used in the verse, locating the command in what is already there at the start.
archō: Begin, rule
ἄρχω
The related verb connects beginning with what takes the first place.
archaios: Ancient, old
ἀρχαῖος
This branch carries the sense of what has been present from long before the present moment.
καινήν
kainēn
GROWS FROM
καιν-
kain-
New, fresh, or of a new kind or quality.
“new” in this verse is kainēn. The verse denies that the command is novel, then places it at the beginning. The contrast allows love to be old in its source and newly present in the way it is shared now.
ALSO GROWS
kainos: New, fresh, of a new kind
καινός
This is the form behind “new commandment,” the novelty the verse explicitly sets aside.
kainotēs: Newness
καινότης
This noun shows how the same word family can name the quality of being new.
anakainoō: Renew
ἀνακαινόω
This related verb shows newness as something made fresh again.
THE PATTERN
The love-command remains rooted in what is received and takes present form in love for one another.
You shall not avenge, nor hold a grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.A new command I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, so also you love one another.Beloved, let us love one another, for love comes out of God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.THE THREAD
Beloved, let us love one another, for love comes out of God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.Both verses use the agap- word family in the call to love one another. First John opens that shared command further by joining the act of loving to being beloved.
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