7. C. A. S., Brixton. There does not appear to be any point of truth involved in the use of “kosinos,” in Matt. 4:8, and “oikoumenee” in Luke 4:5. It is quite true the latter is never used in the New Testament for the material globe; but, as in Matt. 24:14 and Luke 2:1, for the people or kingdoms of the world. “Kosmos” is frequently used in the same sense, and also to denote the material globe. See the following examples of both: Matt. 5:14; 13:35, 38; Luke 11:50; John 1:10; 3:16, 17; 17:9; Heb. 4:3, and many others.
“God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Luke adds, “for all live unto Him.” Unto men the departed are dead, and their graves are with us, with the body sown in corruption; but they live to God, as may be seen in Moses being with Christ on the mount. So that whilst they are dead as to the body, they are alive as to the spirit. Matt. 22:32 and Rom. 14:9 are in perfect harmony. God is the God of the living as to departed spirits, and in that sense Jesus is the Lord both of the departed dead as to their spirits, and also of those who are still ‘here alive in the body. He is also Lord as to those who have eternal life and will be raised at His coming, and Lord also of “the rest of the dead., who lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” “And I saw the dead, small. and great, stand before God.” Men may despise and reject Him now, they will have to stand before Him then.
8. A. C., Deptford. The address in 2 John is to the elect lady; therefore the word elect would be specially applicable to her. John had found of her children walking in the truth. (Ver. 4.) Verse 5, “And now I beseech thee, lady.” The assembly is not addressed in John’s epistles. But here it is the responsibility of the elect lady to refuse such as have not the truth of the Father and the Son; or whosoever goeth beyond or addeth to the doctrine of Christ.
The use of the term “elect lady,” does not imply that her children who were walking in the truth were not the elect. Surely those wondrous words “elect of God, holy and beloved (Col. 3:12) are applicable to every child of God on earth. Error did so abound, even by the end of the first century, that John rejoiced greatly to find any walking in the truth. If so then, how much more so now! May every thought be tested by the word of God, “For many deceivers are entered into the world.” And though we are to love one another, yet we are not to be misled by the pretensions of love. “This is love that we walk after his commandments.”