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2Jn_1:3. The formula of greeting. It agrees substantially with that which is found in most of the N. T. Epistles; the prefixed ἔσται μεθʼ ἡμῶν ( ὑμῶν ), however, is peculiar; the future indicates the wish as a certain expectation, which is based on the immediately preceding statement (Düsterdieck). If we take the reading ἡμῶν (see the critical notes), the apostle includes himself along with the readers of the Epistle, which indeed does not elsewhere occur in the salutatory formulae; μετά = “with.”
χάρις , ἔλεος , εἰρήνη ] just as in 1 and 2 Tim. and Tit_1:4.[7]
παρὰ Θεοῦ πατρός ] Instead of παρά , ἀπό is elsewhere regularly used in this connection, as à reads here also; on the difference of the two prepositions, see Winer, p. 326; VII. p. 342.
To Θεοῦ πατρός , ἡμῶν is always added by Paul, except in the Pastoral Epistles. God is here called πατήρ , first of all in His relation to Christ, but also with the consciousness that in Christ He is the Father of believers also.
καὶ παρὰ Ἰησ . Χρ . τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ πατρός ] similarly in the other Epistles of the N. T., only that here the sonship of Christ is specially indicated; the repetition of the preposition brings out the independence of the Son along with the Father.
The last addition: ἐν ἀληθείᾳ καὶ ἀγάπῃ , is peculiar to John; the ἀλ . and ἀγάπη are the two vital elements (Baumgarten-Crusius: fundamental features) of the believer, in which the divine manifestations of grace, mercy, and peace have to work (Düsterdieck): “the words contain an indication of the contents of the whole Epistle” (Ebrard); a Lapide erroneously supplies: ut perseveretis vel ut crescatis. Grotius wrongly defines the relationship when he says: per cognitionem veri et dilectionem mutuam, nam per haec in nos Dei beneficia provocamus, conservamus, augemus; in the first place, ἐν is not = per; and, in the second place, our conduct is not the cause of the divine ΧΆΡΙς Κ . Τ . Λ ., but the relationship is the converse.
[7] The explanation of these words given on 1Ti_1:2 is regarded as unsatisfactory by Düsterdieck, although it is in substantial agreement with his own, only that it is not expressly stated that χάρις means “grace,” ἔλεος “mercy,” and εἰρήνη “peace,”—which is surely self-evident,—but only the relation of the three ideas to one another, which is often erroneously interpreted, is pointed out.