4159 - "The Elect Lady"

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 26, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 33.

4159 — "The Elect Lady"

Please explain 2 John 1. Did "the elder" mean the church and the members, or was the epistle addressed to a member of the church and her family?

G. R.

There are those who think that this was addressed to a certain lady, or member of the church, and her own children. The "elder" has reference to John the writer, and the elder sends to this woman, whom he calls "the elect lady," and to her children through her, this epistle to strengthen and comfort her. This clearly seems to be the meaning of it. Sometimes "the elect lady" is taken as the church, and her children as church-members. And this application would be a very fitting one as an illustration, if nothing more; but the epistle itself seems to have been written to an individual woman.