What Does It Mean to “Walk According to His Commandments”?

What Does 2 John 5–6 Say?

John’s discussion of commandments appears in the middle of a tightly connected argument about truth, love, and obedience.

In verses 1–4, truth dominates John’s language.

Believers know the truth.

The truth abides in them.

And John rejoices when he discovers believers “walking in truth.”

Then John turns directly to love:

Notice how closely John’s ideas fit together:

These are not three unrelated instructions.

They describe different dimensions of the same faithful Christian life.

Walking in truth produces obedience.

Obedience includes loving others.

And genuine love operates within the boundaries of God’s truth.

This becomes especially important because John is about to warn his readers about false teachers.

Beginning in verse 7, he describes deceivers who distort the truth about Jesus Christ.

That means verses 5–6 prepare us for an important lesson about love.

Christian love cannot mean unquestioningly accepting everything someone teaches.

If love means walking according to God’s commands, then love itself must remain governed by God’s truth.

John is preparing his readers to understand that they can genuinely love people while refusing to support teaching that contradicts the truth about Christ.

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What Does It Mean to “Walk”?

John’s use of the word “walk” is important.

He is not primarily talking about physically walking from one place to another.

Throughout Scripture, walking becomes a picture of how someone lives.

Your “walk” is the direction, pattern, and conduct of your life.

John uses this same picture several times in his writings.

Put these together and John’s meaning becomes clear.

Christianity is not merely agreeing with certain doctrines.

Truth is meant to shape life.

That distinction matters because Christians still sin.

John certainly knows this.

In 1 John, he warns Christians against claiming to be without sin and reminds them of God’s provision of forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

So “walking according to His commandments” cannot mean achieving sinless perfection.

Instead, John describes the characteristic direction of someone who genuinely belongs to Christ.

A believer may stumble while walking.

A believer may need correction.

A believer may struggle with particular sins.

But the direction of the Christian life is toward Christ and toward increasing obedience to Him.

This keeps obedience from becoming either legalistic or meaningless.

John does not say that obedience earns our relationship with God.

But neither does he allow someone to claim a relationship with God while treating God’s commands as irrelevant.

Those who know Christ desire to walk with Christ.

And walking with Christ necessarily changes how we live.

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What Are “His Commandments”?

The word “commandments” can immediately raise another question:

Which commandments does John mean?

Is he referring to the Ten Commandments?

The entire Law of Moses?

Jesus’ commands?

Or God’s commands more generally?

The immediate context gives us an important starting point.

In verse 5, John identifies one command in particular:

John says this is not a new command that his readers have never encountered.

It is something they have had “from the beginning.”

That language strongly echoes John’s first letter and Jesus’ teaching recorded in John’s Gospel.

Jesus told His disciples:

Jesus did not invent the idea of loving others.

The Old Testament had already commanded God’s people to love God and love their neighbor.

But Jesus gives His disciples a profoundly Christ-centered pattern:

“Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”

The life and self-giving sacrifice of Jesus now provide the defining example of Christian love.

John returns to this repeatedly.

First John 3 connects the command to believe in Jesus Christ with the command to love one another.

That passage is especially helpful because John summarizes God’s command in two closely related responsibilities:

This does not mean those are the only instructions Christians ever need to obey.

John’s writings contain many moral commands and assume the broader ethical teaching of Scripture.

But it does show us the center of John’s thinking.

Christian obedience is fundamentally shaped by faith in Christ, allegiance to Christ, and Christlike love for others.

This is why John’s language about commandments cannot be separated from his language about relationship.

Jesus said:

Obedience flows from love for Christ.

It does not purchase His love.

That distinction is essential for understanding what John means when he calls Christians to walk according to God’s commandments.

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How Are Love and Obedience Connected?

One of the most important statements in 2 John appears at the beginning of verse 6:

That definition may sound surprising in a culture that often defines love primarily in terms of emotion, acceptance, affirmation, or personal happiness.

John defines love differently.

Love certainly includes affection and compassion.

But biblical love is ultimately governed by the character and will of God.

If God is love, then God—not culture and not personal preference—has the authority to define what love looks like.

This means genuine love sometimes tells someone what they want to hear.

Sometimes it does not.

Sometimes love comforts.

Sometimes love encourages.

Sometimes love gives generously.

Sometimes love forgives.

Sometimes love confronts sin.

Sometimes love establishes boundaries.

The determining question is not simply:

That can be a helpful question, but it cannot be the final question.

The deeper question is:

The rest of 2 John demonstrates why this distinction matters.

John is about to tell his readers not to provide support or endorsement to teachers who distort the truth about Jesus Christ.

Someone could object:

“Wouldn’t refusing hospitality be unloving?”

John’s answer is effectively that love cannot require disobedience to God.

Helping someone spread destructive falsehood would not become loving simply because it was done with good intentions.

At the same time, this principle must never become an excuse for cruelty.

John is not giving Christians permission to be harsh, arrogant, insulting, or unnecessarily combative.

The same apostle who fiercely protects truth repeatedly commands God’s people to love one another.

Truth and love are not competing virtues.

They belong together.

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What Had They Heard “From the Beginning”?

John twice points his readers back to something they had known “from the beginning.”

In verse 5, he explains that the command to love one another was not something new that he had suddenly introduced.

Then in verse 6, he reminds them that this was the command they had “heard from the beginning.”

What beginning does John have in mind?

In John’s letters, this expression frequently points back to the beginning of his readers’ Christian experience—the apostolic message about Jesus Christ that they originally heard and believed.

First John provides an important parallel:

John does not direct Christians toward a secret teaching that appears later in their spiritual development.

He repeatedly directs them back to the message they received concerning Jesus Christ.

That message included the command to love one another.

This fits Jesus’ own teaching to His disciples.

On the night before the crucifixion, Jesus commanded His followers to love one another according to the pattern of His own love for them (John 13:34–35).

John later summarizes Christian obedience in similar language:

Notice the two dimensions John brings together:

Christian obedience grows out of the gospel the believer has received.

John’s readers did not need to discover a more advanced religion.

They needed to continue living according to the truth and commands they had received through Christ.

This becomes particularly important when the false teachers appear in verse 7.

They claimed something contrary to the apostolic teaching about Jesus.

John’s answer to theological innovation is therefore remarkably consistent:

Remain in the truth.

Continue in the teaching of Christ.

And keep living according to the command believers received from the beginning.

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Is John Telling Christians to Keep the Torah?

Because John says that Christians should “walk according to His commandments,” some readers may naturally ask whether John is telling followers of Jesus to observe the Law of Moses.

After all, the Old Testament repeatedly connects loving God with keeping His commandments.

Jesus Himself quotes commandments from the Law.

And John clearly believes that God’s moral will did not suddenly become irrelevant with the coming of Christ.

However, we should be careful not to make a jump that John’s context does not make.

This distinction matters.

John certainly knows the Old Testament.

The command to love one’s neighbor was not invented in the New Testament.

Leviticus 19:18 commanded Israel to love one’s neighbor, while Deuteronomy 6:5 commanded Israel to love God wholeheartedly.

Jesus affirmed both commands and identified them as summarizing the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:37–40).

There is therefore genuine continuity between the moral will of God revealed in the Old Testament and the life God calls Christians to live.

But continuity does not mean that Christians have simply been placed under the Mosaic covenant as Israel was.

John’s own language points us toward Christ and the commands believers have received through Him.

Consider the way John describes Christian obedience elsewhere:

John can speak about God’s “commandment” and then summarize it in distinctly Christ-centered terms:

That is significant for interpreting 2 John 6.

John’s emphasis is not a return to Sinai as the governing covenant for the Christian life.

His emphasis is faithful obedience to God as people who belong to Jesus Christ.

This same pattern appears in John’s Gospel.

Jesus repeatedly speaks about His own commandments:

Jesus does not present obedience as irrelevant.

Quite the opposite.

Those who love Him are called to obey Him.

But Christian obedience is now centered upon relationship with and allegiance to Jesus Christ.

That helps us avoid two opposite mistakes.

The first is lawlessness—the idea that because Christians are saved by grace, God’s commands no longer matter.

John clearly rejects that idea.

The second is placing Christians back under the Mosaic covenant as though following Jesus requires covenantal Torah observance in the same manner required of Israel.

John does not make that argument either.

Instead, he describes believers as people who know Christ, love Christ, believe the truth about Christ, and therefore desire to obey what God commands.

So when John says, “walk according to His commandments,” we should not automatically substitute the phrase “keep the Mosaic Law.”

The immediate context instead calls Christians to a life of obedience shaped by the truth of the gospel and expressed especially through Christlike love.

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How Does Jesus Define Obedience?

John’s teaching about commandments becomes even clearer when we return to Jesus’ words recorded in John’s Gospel.

Jesus repeatedly connects three realities:

One of the clearest examples appears in John 14.

Jesus does not describe obedience as a way of convincing God to love us.

Instead, obedience is the response of people who love Him.

That distinction is essential.

This means Christian obedience is deeply relational.

We are not merely checking religious requirements from a list.

We are following a Person.

We trust Jesus.

We love Jesus.

We recognize Jesus as Lord.

And therefore His words matter to us.

John 15 develops this even further.

Jesus connects keeping His commandments with abiding in His love, and then immediately identifies love for one another as central to His command.

The parallels with 2 John 5–6 are difficult to miss.

John is not inventing a new understanding of obedience in his letter.

He is applying what he learned from Jesus.

And Jesus Himself provides the ultimate example of what obedient love looks like.

His love was not merely spoken.

It was demonstrated through sacrificial action.

He humbled Himself.

He served.

He gave Himself for others.

And ultimately He went to the cross.

This also means we cannot separate Jesus as Savior from Jesus as Lord.

We are saved by His grace, not by our obedience.

But the Savior who rescues us also calls us to follow Him.

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Does Obedience Earn Salvation?

If John places such strong emphasis on keeping God’s commands, another question naturally follows:

Does our obedience earn or maintain our salvation?

The answer is no.

John does not teach that sinners make themselves acceptable to God by successfully keeping enough commandments.

The gospel begins with what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, not what we accomplish for God.

John makes this especially clear in his first letter.

The direction of salvation is important.

God loved us.

God sent His Son.

Christ dealt with our sin.

We receive life through Him.

Our obedience comes as a response to that saving grace.

This distinction protects us from legalism.

Legalism turns obedience into a means of establishing our righteousness before God.

The gospel tells us that our righteousness and acceptance are found in Christ.

But grace must not be confused with indifference toward obedience.

John refuses that error as well.

First John repeatedly presents obedience as evidence that a person’s profession of knowing God is genuine.

John’s reasoning can be summarized this way:

That does not mean Christians obey perfectly.

John has already made provision for believers who sin by pointing them to Jesus Christ and His atoning work (1 John 1:9–2:2).

The issue is the direction of someone’s life.

A genuine Christian increasingly desires to live under Christ’s authority rather than treating His commands as irrelevant.

This also explains why obedience and assurance can be connected in John’s writings.

Our imperfect obedience is not the foundation of our salvation.

Christ is.

But a growing desire to follow Christ provides evidence that His transforming work is taking place in us.

So 2 John 6 is not a formula for earning eternal life.

It is a description of the life that flows from knowing and loving the One who gives eternal life.

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Truth, Love, and Obedience Belong Together

By the time we reach 2 John 6, a pattern has emerged that helps us understand the entire letter.

John repeatedly brings together three realities:

These are not competing priorities.

They depend upon one another.

Truth Gives Love Its Direction

Without truth, love can become whatever we want it to mean.

We may begin defining love entirely by feelings, cultural expectations, or another person’s immediate desires.

But God’s truth gives love an objective foundation.

It tells us what is genuinely good.

It tells us who God is.

It tells us who people are.

It tells us what sin is.

And it tells us what God has done to rescue sinners through Jesus Christ.

Love Gives Obedience Its Heart

Obedience without love can become mechanical, proud, or self-righteous.

A person can become so focused on rules that obedience becomes primarily about proving personal faithfulness.

Jesus consistently rejected that kind of religious pride.

John instead connects obedience with love.

We obey God because we love Him.

And because we love Him, we desire to love the people He has placed around us.

Obedience Gives Love Visible Expression

Love cannot remain merely a feeling.

It eventually acts.

That is why John can define love in terms of walking according to God’s commands.

Obedience gives concrete expression to what love claims to believe.

This framework becomes extremely important in verses 7–11.

John is about to confront false teachers who deny the truth about Jesus Christ.

His readers will have to decide what love requires them to do.

Should love require them to welcome and support these teachers?

John says no.

Why?

Because love walks according to God’s commands, and God’s commands never require His people to participate in the spread of falsehood.

This is why John’s teaching is so relevant.

Some Christians may be tempted to emphasize truth while neglecting love.

Others may emphasize love while becoming hesitant to speak clearly about truth.

John refuses both options.

The Christian life is a walk in which truth shapes us, love motivates us, and obedience directs our steps.

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The Gospel Connection

John’s call to obedience only makes sense when it is rooted in the gospel.

Christians do not obey God in order to become acceptable to Him.

We obey because God has already acted to save us through Jesus Christ.

The Christian life begins with grace.

God sent His Son.

Jesus came in the flesh.

He lived in perfect obedience to the Father.

He died for sinners.

He rose again.

And everyone who trusts in Him receives forgiveness and eternal life.

This is especially important in John’s writings because he continually connects love, obedience, and relationship with Christ.

Jesus says that those who love Him will keep His commandments (John 14:15).

John says that love means walking according to God’s commandments (2 John 6).

But both truths come after the greater reality that God first loved us.

First John explains that God’s love was revealed by sending His Son so that we might live through Him (1 John 4:9–10).

Our obedience is therefore a response to grace.

That also means Christian obedience is deeply connected to the character of Jesus.

He does not merely command us to love.

He shows us what love looks like.

He serves.

He sacrifices.

He speaks truth.

He shows compassion.

And ultimately He gives His life for sinners.

Walking according to His commandments therefore means more than checking off religious duties.

It means increasingly becoming the kind of person whose life reflects the One we follow.

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What This Means for Us

Second John 5–6 gives Christians a practical framework for thinking about obedience.

It is neither legalistic rule keeping nor vague spirituality.

It is a life shaped by truth, motivated by love, and directed by God’s commands.

1. Do not reduce Christianity to belief without obedience.

John clearly cares about doctrine.

He warns strongly against false teaching and insists that Christians remain in the truth about Jesus.

But correct doctrine is not the end of discipleship.

Truth is meant to shape life.

The question is not merely:

Do I understand Christian doctrine?

We should also ask:

Is that doctrine producing obedience in my life?

2. Do not reduce obedience to rule keeping.

It is possible to become so focused on rules that we forget the relationship at the center of Christianity.

John’s language protects us from that.

He connects obedience with love.

Jesus does the same.

The goal is not to become a person who merely knows a long list of commands.

The goal is to become a person who loves Christ and increasingly desires to please Him.

We follow because we trust the One who leads us.

3. Let God’s Word define what love looks like.

John’s definition of love challenges us whenever our culture defines love differently from Scripture.

Love cannot simply mean affirming whatever another person wants, believes, or chooses.

Sometimes love encourages.

Sometimes love comforts.

Sometimes love gives.

Sometimes love corrects.

Sometimes love establishes boundaries.

The question is not merely what feels loving in the moment.

The question is what faithfulness to God requires.

4. Measure your walk by direction, not perfection.

John is not describing sinless perfection.

Christians stumble.

We fail.

We need forgiveness.

We need correction.

But the direction of the Christian life should increasingly move toward obedience to Christ.

That gives believers both humility and hope.

We do not pretend we have arrived.

But neither do we become comfortable with a life that ignores Christ’s commands.

5. Test claims of obedience by the teaching of Christ.

Not everyone who talks about “keeping God’s commandments” means the same thing.

That phrase can be used to support very different theological systems.

John’s own context provides an important test.

Christian obedience must remain centered on Jesus Christ and consistent with the apostolic teaching about Him.

The question is not simply:

Does this teaching emphasize commandments?

The deeper question is:

Does this teaching faithfully reflect the way Jesus and His apostles describe Christian obedience?

6. Remember that obedience should produce love.

John’s immediate emphasis is not ceremonial precision, theological pride, or public religious performance.

His emphasis is love.

That gives us a useful test.

Is our obedience making us more patient?

More compassionate?

More willing to serve?

More willing to forgive?

More faithful to truth?

More willing to sacrifice for others?

The obedience John describes should increasingly reflect the character of Jesus.

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Dig Deeper: Trace Love and Obedience Through John’s Writings

One of the best ways to understand 2 John 5–6 is to trace the relationship between love, obedience, truth, and Christ throughout John’s writings.

John consistently refuses to separate these themes.

Christian obedience is therefore neither cold legalism nor vague spirituality.

It is a life shaped by relationship with Christ and increasingly conformed to His will.

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An Important Distinction: Obedience Is Not the Same as Legalism

Because Christians are called to obey God’s commands, it is important to distinguish biblical obedience from legalism.

The two are not the same thing.

Biblical obedience begins with grace.

God saves us through Christ.

We receive forgiveness through faith.

Then, as people who belong to Christ, we increasingly desire to live under His authority.

Legalism reverses that order.

It treats obedience as a way of earning, securing, or proving our worth before God.

John’s teaching does not support legalism.

But neither does it support lawlessness.

Grace does not make obedience irrelevant.

Grace changes the reason we obey.

That difference changes everything.

Obedience becomes gratitude rather than payment.

Discipleship rather than self-salvation.

Love rather than spiritual scorekeeping.

And following Jesus rather than trying to establish our own righteousness.

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Reflect: What Direction Is My Walk Taking?

John’s language invites us to examine the direction of our lives.

Consider these questions:

• Do I think of obedience mainly as a burden, or as part of following the Jesus I love?
• Are there areas where I know what Christ teaches but am resisting obedience?
• Is my understanding of love shaped more by Scripture or by what my culture currently calls loving?
• Am I more concerned with appearing obedient than actually becoming like Christ?
• Does my obedience make me more loving, humble, patient, and faithful—or more proud and critical?
• Have I confused grace with permission to ignore something God clearly commands?
• Have I confused biblical obedience with placing myself under requirements Scripture does not place upon Christians?
• Where is God currently calling me to take a concrete step of obedience?

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Questions for Personal or Group Study

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Remember

That is the pattern John gives us.

Not perfect obedience.

Not obedience that earns salvation.

Not obedience detached from Christ.

But a life increasingly moving in the direction of the Savior we trust and love.

So when John tells Christians to “walk according to His commandments,” he is calling us to something deeply relational:

Know Christ.

Love Christ.

Trust His Word.

And let that relationship increasingly shape the way you walk.

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