If you look at 2 John 66And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. (2 John 6), you will find that the elect lady and those with her are exhorted thus: "And this is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.”
John had seen the Lord in His wondrous life, had seen Him die on the cross, was a witness of His resurrection, and beheld Him taken up into heaven. He was present on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down from an ascended Christ to baptize believers into one body and thus form the Church. He had lived long enough to see evil come into the circle of the professing church.
What is the remedy? Is it to begin afresh with a new and purer sect or an improved constitution? Listen to his reply by the Holy Spirit: "This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it." The Spirit of God makes it plain that He suffers no innovation of man to trespass on the sacred principles of God's Word for the guidance of His people, whatever their exercises may be, or whatever the date of their history.
Now apply this principle today and you must find yourself in one of two positions-either on God's ground of gathering the disciples at the beginning, or on some ground that man, in his fancied wisdom or mistaken zeal, has set up since the beginning.
J. G. Bellett