There’s a little organization in Burlington, Wisconsin, called the Burlington Liars’ Club. It began as a joke in 1929, and for a dollar you can still become a card-carrying member.1

And the tall tales are exactly what you’d expect.

One man claimed his wife’s feet were so cold that every time she took her shoes off, the furnace kicked on. Another told of a fishing hole where the fish were biting so fast he had to hide behind a tree just to bait his hook. And my personal favorite: a man cut down a tree on a day so foggy that it didn’t fall over until the fog lifted.

That’s not really deception. Everybody is in on the joke. Tall tales work because nobody is supposed to believe them. Real lies work because somebody is.

And that’s exactly why the Apostle John opens his little postcard of an epistle, 2 John, with such a strong emphasis on truth.

But not truth alone. Truth and love.

Who Is “the Elect Lady”?

Second John is short enough to read while your coffee is still hot, but it packs a remarkable amount into thirteen verses.

John introduces himself simply as “the elder.” It’s a modest introduction from a man whose pastoral authority needed little explanation. He writes to “the elect lady and her children.”

So who is she?

Some believe John is writing to an actual Christian woman and her household. Others understand “the elect lady” as a poetic way of speaking about a local church and its members. I lean toward the latter, especially since John closes the letter by mentioning the children of her “elect sister,” which sounds very much like one congregation greeting another.

Either way, John’s message lands with the same force. And in the opening verses, one word keeps showing up. Truth.

Walk in Truth

John loves them “in the truth.” Others love them “for the truth’s sake.” Grace, mercy, and peace come “in truth and love.” And John rejoices because he has found some of them “walking in truth.”

That phrase matters.

Truth is not something Christians are merely supposed to agree with. Truth is something we walk in. It shapes our direction. It determines our steps. It tells us where the road is even when the culture keeps moving the signs.

Christianity is not simply believing true things. It is allowing the truth of God to reshape the way we actually live. And John immediately connects that truth to something else. Love.

Live in Love

The road of truth, John tells us, should always be traveled in love.

That sounds simple enough…Until people get involved.

Some people are difficult to love. They are prickly. They are critical. They are negative. They seem to drink vinegar with breakfast and then spend the rest of the day looking for somebody to tell about it.

But truth never gives us permission to withhold love.

John reminds his readers that this is not some new commandment. We have had it from the beginning: Love one another.

There is no footnote that says, “Love them unless they’re annoying. Love them unless they’re loud. Love them unless they disagree with you. Love them unless they sit in your seat at church.”

No. It is a command, not a suggestion. And commands require obedience even when our emotions haven’t caught up yet.

In fact, John gives us one of the clearest definitions of biblical love in verse 6: “And this is love, that we walk after his commandments.”

That sharpens the whole discussion. Biblical love is not vague niceness. It is not sentimental approval. Love has a shape, and God’s commands give it that shape.

We walk in truth. And we walk in love. The two belong on the same road.

Love Is More Than a Feeling

Let’s visit the honest planet for a minute. One of the more humbling discoveries of the Christian life is that sometimes the hard-to-love person in the room is me.

I’ve had stretches when I’ve been short, cranky, defensive, and hard to love. And naturally, convinced I had excellent reasons for all three. I’m grateful God loves me anyway. I’m grateful for a wife who loves me anyway. And I’m grateful for people who keep showing grace when I’m not exactly making it easy.

That kind of gritty, practical love was one of the things outsiders noticed about the early Christians.

Lucian, a second-century satirist who was certainly no cheerleader for Christianity, mocked Christians for plenty of things. But even in his mockery, he acknowledged how quickly and generously they cared for one another and how seriously they regarded each other as family.²

Think about that. Even a critic noticed their love.

Would Anyone Notice Ours?

Would an outsider notice the same thing today? In many churches, I believe the answer is yes.

I’ve watched Christians quietly step into hospital rooms, cover unexpected expenses, bring meals, help with repairs, provide groceries, send notes, make phone calls, pray through the night, and carry burdens nobody else even knew existed.

No spotlight. No applause. Just love.

Not perfect love. Christians are still Christians, after all. Put enough redeemed sinners in one building and eventually somebody is going to get on somebody else’s nerves. But real love is there.

And why do Christians love like that? Because we have experienced a love like that.

The Love That Changes Everything

First John 4:10–11 says, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”

Christian love begins with God. He loved us first. He sent His Son. Christ bore our sin.

Grace came looking for us long before we ever thought about looking for God. And you cannot genuinely encounter a love that powerful and remain completely unchanged.

Suppose someone walked into church and said, “You wouldn’t believe what happened. On the way here, I got hit by a semi going seventy-five miles an hour.” And then he stood there looking perfectly fine.

No bruises. No torn clothes. Not even a limp.

You would have some questions. Why? Because encounters with great power leave evidence.

The point isn’t the truck. It’s the mark. And the love of God leaves a mark too.

If we have truly encountered His grace, it begins changing how we walk, how we speak, how we forgive, how we respond, and how we love.

Grace leaves evidence.

Truth and Love Belong Together

Our culture has a habit of pulling apart things God intended to keep together. Truth gets treated as harsh, rigid, or outdated. Love gets reduced to affirmation: something soft and sentimental that never confronts, corrects, or demands anything. But the Bible refuses to separate them.

Truth without love can become a weapon. Love without truth becomes sentiment. But biblical truth speaks with love. And biblical love refuses to lie.

We do not have to surrender truth in order to appear loving. And we do not have to surrender love in order to prove that we are right.

Christians should be known for both. So speak the truth, but speak it in love. Love people deeply, but love them according to truth. Hold the line without becoming hard. Open your heart without abandoning conviction.

We will not give up truth. And we will not stop loving. Because God never asked us to choose between the two.

Walk in truth. Live in love. Do both on purpose.

¹ Burlington Liars’ Club, “Burlington Liars’ Club,” official website, accessed August 31, 2026.

² Lucian, The Passing of Peregrinus 13, trans. A. M. Harmon, in Lucian, vol. 5, Loeb Classical Library (London: William Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1936).