WHAT DOES IT mean to be a “Christian”? How might someone else tell? Is it enough for someone to wear a cross on a golden chain? Surely not, unless one wants to argue, for example, that Madonna’s fashion choices on her video Like a Virgin were meant to be a profession of faith. Well, then, is it enough to identify as a Christian by checking a box on a religion survey? How about going to church every Sunday? Most Sundays? Reading the Bible with respect? Volunteering time in some ministry? Tithing regularly? Lacing your speech with phrases like, “Praise the Lord”?

Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with behaviors like wearing a cross, going to church, or uttering the name of Jesus (at least when we’re not using it to swear). But anyone can do these things regardless of what they believe, what values they hold, and how they live otherwise. Moreover, even the term “Christian” itself is sometimes used in ways that seem to have only a weak relationship to the person of Christ, as when we speak of the “Christian thing to do.” This is why some have tried to substitute other terms like “disciple,” “believer,” or even “Christ-follower.” Such terms, after all, represent what Jesus actually called people to do: to be his disciples, to believe, and to follow him.

As the saying goes, anyone who would be a true follower of Jesus has to “walk the walk” and not just “talk the talk.” It’s not enough to spout Bible verses or use religious language. It’s not even enough to engage in religious behaviors like church attendance, Bible study, or prayer, as valuable as these might be in themselves. To “walk the walk” is to consistently live in a way that embodies what it means to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

In the New Testament, the verb “walk” is used nearly 100 times, often in a literal sense, as when Jesus walks by the sea — or even on it! — or heals the lame so they can walk. But when the apostles Paul and John use the verb in their letters, it’s typically a metaphor for how people live. As Paul famously wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:7, for example, “we walk by faith, not by sight.” As for John, he declares that God is light, and that one can therefore walk in the light or walk in darkness (1 John 1:5-7). Moreover, anyone who claims to abide in Jesus must walk as Jesus walked, or as the New International Version translates it, “live” as Jesus lived (1 John 2:6).

Later, in 2 John, the apostle uses the verb three times, all in the span of three verses:

It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. (2 John 4-6)

Walking in the truth, walking in obedience, walking in love: these are all of a piece, together embodying what it means to follow Jesus. To walk in the truth means to live in accordance with the truth about Jesus, the truth embodied by Jesus, taught by Jesus. It is a life of obedience to that truth, including his commands. And the command that John emphasized throughout his first letter, and now reemphasizes here in his second, is the command to love one another.

This isn’t a new command, John writes, “but one we have had from the beginning.” Again, John thinks back to the Upper Room and Jesus’ parting words, remembering how he commanded the disciples to love one another. And John, of course, passed Jesus’ teaching on to his community. In 1 John 2:24, for example, he reminded his readers, “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.” Soon after, he makes that general statement more specific: “For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another” (1 John 3:11).

In 2 John, then, the apostle passes the same teaching on to another believing community, or possibly to more than one. As suggested in the previous post, by writing that “we” have had this commandment from the beginning, that “we” must walk in obedience to that command, he makes common cause with his readers, establishing a connection that says, We are your sister church, and we’re all in this together. Only then does he say that Jesus’ command is that “you” walk in love.

IT’S OF THE utmost importance, I think, that we recognize the priority John gives to love at the beginning of the letter. John’s world was already one of division and controversy. He was, remember, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” the disciple who stood by him at the cross, the disciple who outran Peter to the empty tomb. And still, the Christian community attached to him split over theological differences. That should be a sobering reminder that even the wisest and most faithful of Christian leaders might not be able to stave off congregational conflict or prevent people from leaving.

Theological controversy has always dogged the church, each party claiming to be the one walking in the truth, walking in obedience. But I wonder: could they as easily or confidently claim to be walking in love? John seems to think these are inseparable, for to walk the walk means to live as Jesus lived and to obey his command — which means to love one another, and even to love one’s enemies.

The world needs people who will not only tell the truth, but live the truth — and that means to love as Jesus loved. Let’s be sure to remember that when we find ourselves in the midst of controversy.