2 John 4-6
"It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love."
John addressed the reader of the letter as "dear lady", but he wasn't referring to his own wife; rather, he was referring to the reader as a close spiritual friend, which is the church. So, verse five is actually telling the church that they ought to love one another. You might think it's strange that the church needed to be reminded to love one another, but the fact of the matter is that the church does need to be reminded again and again; otherwise, it's easy for us to become self-centered.
We are the product of our environment. I used to wonder why every follower in the Jehovah's Witness church can go out and share the gospel as soon as they join the church. On the contrary, we, the church that actually holds the truth, can't seem to mobilize the believers to spread the gospel. We're not talking about preaching the gospel here - It's even difficult just to have believers pass out gospel tracks. I later discovered that Jehovah's Witness church has created an environment where everyone must go out to share the gospel; in fact, it is considered a manifestation of salvation to do so. In churches like ours, on the other hand, when newcomers notice that the old-timers are not out there preaching the gospel, they will do the same no matter how much it is preached and pressed from the pulpit, because the environment is simply not there. I'm not advocating that Jehovah's Witness has the truth; but even though they hold erroneous beliefs, but they are good at creating an environment to encourage spreading the gospel, which makes new believers go out and spread the gospel naturally.
If we want to love one another in the church, then we must cultivate an environment of love in the church; otherwise, no matter how much the pulpit encourages, rebukes, or makes alter calls to follow God, nothing will happen, because the church does not provide an environment where love can freely flow. If some people actually follow the command to love, they will be rejected by the cold hard reality and won't dare to move forward. Let us constantly remind ourselves to love one another, and may the Lord give us wisdom to establish an environment of love in the church.
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