10 key words in 2 John #1: lady

Introduction:

When you think about it, most of what we have come to know as the New Testament is a collection of letters. Imagine coming across an old box in the loft containing a bundle of letters from different writers to different recipients, written at different times and with different purposes. It would be hard to work out exactly who and what and why, wouldn’t it? It’s the same in a way with the biblical letters and that’s why there’s an awful lot of speculation about dates and writers etc.

These three short letters – 1,2 and 3 John – are traditionally thought to be written by the author of the Gospel of John, known as John the Evangelist. 1 John is written to a group of early believers, some of whom were losing sight of the truth to be found in Jesus Christ. This letter – 2 John – is written to an individual – and this individual is a woman!

This month’s approach is to pick out 10 key words from the letter and unpack those words to see what message they contain for us today. So I suggest that each day, you read the whole letter, then read my thoughts on a particular key word and then take that word with you to reflect on throughout the day.

The whole of 2 John:

1 The elder,

To the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth— 2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.

4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 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. 6 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.

7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.

12 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

13 The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings.

The 10 key words:

• lady
• chosen
• children
• love
• truth
• Jesus
• joy
• command
• deceiver
• teaching

Today’s word: lady

lady: a polite or old-fashioned way of referring to or talking to a woman:

There’s a young lady here to see you.
Mind your language – there are ladies present!
Say “thank you” to the lady, children.
old-fashioned – the lady of the house (= the most important or only woman who lives in the house)

Right at the start, John makes it clear who this letter is addressed to – ‘To the lady chosen by God and to her children’. This word for ‘lady’ appears nowhere else in the New Testament outside of 2 John.

The word is kuria, the feminine form of kurios, which does appear often in its masculine form in the New Testament, translating as ‘Lord’ or ‘master’ and denoting the head of a household or the master of a slave.  It’s not surprising then, in the context of that time, that this word would not be commonly used for a woman. In the context of 2 John, the word probably denotes a woman who was in a place of authority or leadership: maybe the wife or daughter of a Roman official or a godly older woman whose good influence extends far beyond her immediate family or most likely, a prominent leader in the Christian church. From Who Was the “Chosen Lady” of 2 John?

The article mentioned above goes on to say that many commentators on this letter have interpreted ‘lady’ as a metaphor for the church rather than as a literal woman. However, the writer of this article, Lamar Wadsworth, cites many more reasons to accept that John was in fact writing to a literal woman.

The chosen lady may have been a leader in the church for many years, balancing her public ministry with work, home, marriage, and parenting. Perhaps God did not call her to a place of public ministry until later in life. Her public ministry may have been a long-deferred desire of her heart. We do not know, but we may be sure that she struggled to balance public ministry with many other responsibilities, just as female and male ministers do today. We may be sure that her ministry role was defined not by her gender but by her spiritual gifts, the call of God upon her life, the divinely implanted desires of her heart, the needs she faced, and the opportunities she had. Lamar Wadsworth

This view would not have sat comfortably within the teaching of the church that I grew up in. Anything we read from the Bible conveniently fitted with a view of women as subservient to their husbands, unable to serve God in any official ministry, unable to teach anywhere other than the Sunday School. I’ve since learned that the Bible is packed with incredible women of God, whose role was not defined by their gender but by their spiritual gifts.

I’m therefore loving this little letter already – a letter addressed specifically to a woman of respect and influence by one of the Gospel writers, by one of those who knew Jesus in person! Wadsworth describes this ‘lady’ as ‘a worthy model for a church leader and as a biblical example of a Christian woman who engaged in public ministry that included teaching and preaching the word of God.’ I find just reading that description very moving. I’ve found it pretty hard to shake off the accepted ideas of the role of women in the church that I grew up with. There have been occasions where others have suggested I should think about training as a vicar and I’ve felt a sense of calling too – and I laid all that aside when comments were made or it felt too hard to fight against the prejudice.

People are quick to write women off as raging feminists when we point out injustice and inequality based on gender. And yet it is still there, all around us. To be honest, it’s there for me in the word ‘lady’ which feels like a certain type of ‘nice woman’ that I have never aspired to be.

And so for today, let’s focus on the fact that this letter in the Bible is addressed to a woman, a significant leader in the early church. Let’s get our heads around that. The church does not run (or should not) by the world’s rules about who can and can’t do something. We should all be respected for who we are as equals, regardless of gender.

As women, let us reflect today on what it is to be a woman in our society and in our churches. Allow God to liberate you from anything around gender that has been holding you back.

As men, I invite you to reflect on how you have, maybe unwittingly, upheld systems, within the church, the family, the workplace, that have ‘kept women in their place’. Allow God to show you where change is necessary in your own heart and mind.

PS: Don’t ever call me ‘lady’. But ‘woman of God’, I’ll take that.