1This is the third time I am coming to you. “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” 2I have warned previously, and I warn again, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, I write to those who have sinned before now and to all the rest that if I come again, I will not spare, 3seeing that you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me who is not weak, but is powerful in you. 4For he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him through the power of God toward you.
5Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 6But I hope that you will know that we aren’t disqualified.
7Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that you may do that which is honorable, though we may seem to have failed. 8For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. We also pray for this: your becoming perfect. 10For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.
11Finally, brothers, rejoice! Be perfected. Be comforted. Be of the same mind. Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12Greet one another with a holy kiss.
13All the saints greet you.
14The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Love (Gk. ἀγαπάω, agapao, ἀγάπη, agape). (17:26; Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8, 1 John 2:5, 15) Strong’s 26
The verb and noun forms of this word are each used well over 100 times in the NT, so it is a fairly common word. It is used commonly outside both the NT and Christian literature as well. In non-Christian literature, this word is used much like the term “love” in English, referring to affection for people, things, etc. Christians adopted this word, following Jesus’ use of it, and gave it a narrower and more particular meaning, “divine love.” It is always used in this particularly Christian way in the NT. Divine love is always sourced in God, and is an expected expression of a Christian’s love for God and other Christians. The essence of this divine love is that it affirms eternal and infinite value. When the NT forbids this love, it always has a temporal object in mind (e.g. honored seats, the world). When it encourages it, there is always an object of eternal and infinite value in view, that is, God or humans. Finite human beings are of infinite value simply because God created them in His own image, forever. God affirms that His image, a human being, is of infinite and eternal value (John 3:16). Christians, likewise, must make the same affirmation of love with respect to every human being, especially believers (1 John 4:7, 8).