2 John 1:3

Grace be with you, mercy, and peace Rather, as R. V., Grace, mercy, and peace shall be with us. It is not so much a prayer or a blessing, as the confident assurance of a blessing; and the Apostle includes himself within its scope. This triplet of heavenly gifts occurs, and in the same order, in the salutations to Timothy (both Epistles) and Titus. The more common form is -grace and peace". In Judges 2 we have another combination; -mercy, peace, and love". In secular letters we have simply -greeting" (χαίρειν) instead of these Christian blessings. -Grace" is the favourof God towards sinners (see on John 1:14); -mercy" is the compassionof God for the misery of sinners; -peace" is the result when the guilt and misery of sin are removed. -Grace" is rare in the writings of S. John; elsewhere only John 1:14; John 1:16-17; Revelation 1:4; Revelation 22:21.

from God the Father Literally, - from the presence of, or from the hand of(παρά) God the Father": see on John 1:6; John 16:27: the more usual expression is simply -from" (ἀπό), as in Romans 1:7; 1Co 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2, &c.

and from the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Father Omit -the Lord" with AB and the Vulgate; the title of -Lord" for Jesus Christ, though found in the Gospel and in the Revelation, does not occur in S. John's Epistles. The repetition of the preposition marks the separate Personality of Christ; whose Divine Sonship is emphasized with an unusual fulness of expression, perhaps in anticipation of the errors condemned in 2 John 1:7; 2 John 1:10.

in truth and love These two words, so characteristic of S. John (see on 1 John 1:8; 1 John 2:8; 1 John 3:1), are key-notes of this short Epistle, in which -truth" occurs five times, and -love" twice as a substantive and twice as a verb. -Commandment" is a third such word.