2 John 1:1-2 The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;… We are sometimes told by Christian apologists that women have acquired an honour since the preaching of the gospel, which was almost denied them in the old world; and that because the feminine type of character is com- mended to us by the example of Him who was emphatically the sufferer. I believe both assertions have a foundation of truth in them; but that they are not true, and therefore would not have been adopted or commended by the apostle. It is not true that women were not honoured in the old world. I might allude to the Jewish feeling about mothers. In that character the highest and Divinest promises rested upon them. But they do not only appear as mothers. Deborah is a judge and a prophetess of the people. Miriam leads the songs which celebrate the deliverance of the nation from Pharaoh. Greek history, again, pays high honour to women. The Trojan war, the subject of its earliest legends, of its noblest song, is undertaken in vindication of female honour and the sacredness of the marriage bond. In the Homeric poems, the freewoman is treated with reverence; even the captive taken in war is not without honour. The Roman State, which almost rests on the authority of fathers, was anything but neglectful of the mother and the wife. The traditional origin of the Republic is the retribution for the wrong done to Lucretia. One of the earliest stories, that of Coriolanus, illustrates the honour which even the proudest, most wilful son paid to her who had borne and nursed him. Some of the noblest recollections of the perishing commonwealth are connected with the name of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, and Portia, the wife of Brutus. It is dishonest to over look these facts; and being dishonest, it is unchristian. We do not honour Christ by disparaging that which took place before He dwelt on earth. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth; |
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