The elder asks that “we love one another,” calling it “not a new commandment” but one they had “from the beginning” (2 John 1:5). He repeats the same point by saying, “This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it” (2 John 1:6). The command is framed as long-standing, not newly introduced (2 John 1:5–6).