I rejoiced greatly, or ‘I felt very joyful,’ ‘I had great joy’ (for the noun “joy” see comments on 1 John 1.4). The verb is in the aorist tense, referring to a specific event in the past. Some idioms used here are ‘my heart is very glad (literally smiling),’ ‘my inner-being is expanding.’
To find some of your children following the truth is more literally “that (hoti in Greek) I find some … the truth.” The relationship between ‘to rejoice’ and the situation or fact in which one rejoices is viewed in various ways by receptor languages. Some of them do as the Greek, and take the clause as stating the contents of the joy. Others use a causal construction such as ‘because I have found….’ Such a construction may require a further shift resulting in a rendering of the sentence like ‘the fact that I have found some … makes great joy.’ Still other languages take the clause as referring to accompanying circumstances: ‘when I found….’
To find is in the perfect tense, which here, however, has practically the same meaning as the preceding aorist. It occurs in the Greek with a participle that refers to the state of being or the action in which the persons in question are involved. This clause structure may have to be changed; for example, ‘to find some of your children who are (or while they are) following….’ The verb to find can usually be rendered by ‘to (come to) know,’ ‘to hear,’ ‘to perceive,’ or by verbs suggesting an actual encounter, such as ‘to see,’ ‘to meet,’ ‘to come across.’
Some of your children refers to a part of the congregation addressed. The expression implies dissension, since there is apparently another part of the congregation which does not give reason for rejoicing. This partitive function of some of is rendered in some languages by first mentioning the whole, then the part, for example, ‘your children, there are those who….’ The Greek itself uses a comparable construction here.
Following the truth or, closer to the Greek wording, “walking in truth,” means to live in the sphere of truth and to do what is in accordance with it. This has been expressed in various ways; for example, “to be guided by truth” (Goodspeed), “to live the life of truth” (Phillips), ‘to act in accordance with the truth,’ ‘to heed what is true.’ For “to walk” and “truth” compare comments on 1 John 1.6.
This rendering assumes that “to walk in truth” (without the article, here and in 3 John 3c) has the same meaning as “to walk in the truth” (with the article 3 John 4; compare also “to live according to the truth,” 1 John 1.6). A few translators, however, prefer to interpret “in truth” as an adverbial phrase, rendered ‘really,’ ‘truly’ (compare 2 John 1.1), and to take ‘walking truly’ with the following clause. This leads to a rendering of verse 4b like ‘to walk truly as we have been commanded…,’ ‘to act/behave really as we have been commanded….’ This interpretation, though possible, is not recommended.
Just as we have been commanded by the Father is in the Greek literally “just as we received commandment from the Father.” The unit “to receive commandment from” has been rendered in Revised Standard Version and some other versions by the passive form of “to command.” If idiom requires it, one may shift to the active form, “just as the Father commanded us” (Good News Translation), but where an active and a passive construction are both possible, the passive is preferable here; compare the note on “just as he has commanded us” in 1 John 3.23. Another possible rendering of the Greek is “in accordance with the commandment we received from the Father.”
The Greek text uses the aorist tense here. This is to show that the reference is to a historic event. The writer may have had in mind an occasion like the one described in John 13.34, where God’s commandment to love is given through the mouth of Jesus.
The pronoun we has inclusive force here, similar to its use in verses 5-6. For “commandment” and the force of the singular, see comments on 1 John 2.3.
Quoted with permission from Haas, C., de Jonge, M. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on The Second Letter of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .