2 John 1:10-11

1:10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him any greeting, ¹  1:11 because the person who gives him a greeting shares in his evil deeds. ² 

2 John 1:3

1:3 Grace, mercy, and ³  peace will be with us from God the Father and from ⁴  Jesus Christ the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

2 John 1:5

Warning Against False Teachers

1:5 But now ⁵  I ask you, lady (not as if I were ⁶  writing a new commandment ⁷  to you, but the one ⁸  we have had from the beginning), ⁹  that ¹⁰  we love one another.

[1:10]  ¹ sn Do not give him any greeting does not mean to insult the person. It means “do not greet the person as a fellow Christian” (which is impossible anyway since the opponents are not genuine believers in the author’s opinion).

[1:11]  ² sn Shares in his evil deeds. Giving a public greeting could be understood by an onlooker to suggest agreement with the (false) teaching of the opponents and is thus prohibited by John.

[1:3]  ³ tn “And” is not in the Greek text. It is supplied for smoothness in English.

[1:3]  ⁴ tc Most witnesses, including some early and important ones (א P 33 Ï sy), have κυρίου (kuriou, “Lord”) before ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Ihsou Cristou, “Jesus Christ”), but this is a typical scribal addition, motivated by pietistic and liturgical concerns. Further, early and excellent mss (A B Ψ 048 0232 81 323 1739 al) lack κυρίου. Thus, both internally and externally, the shorter reading is strongly preferred.

[1:5]  ⁵ tn The introductory καὶ νῦν (kai nun) has some adversative (contrastive) force: The addressees are already “living according to the truth” (v. 4) but in the face of the threat posed by the opponents, the author has to stress obedience all the more.

[1:5]  ⁶ tn The words “if I were” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied for clarity in English.

[1:5]  ⁷ sn An allusion to John 13:34-35, 1 John 2:7-8.

[1:5]  ⁸ tn “The one” is not in the Greek text. It is supplied for clarity in English.

[1:5]  ⁹ sn See 1 John 2:7.

[1:5]  ¹⁰ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause indicates content.