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).
In 2 John 1:5–6, the writer urges the “dear lady” to hold to a familiar instruction: love one another. These verses continue the letter’s movement from joy to exhortation. After the writer expresses happiness that some of her children are “walking in the truth” (verse 4), he turns to a direct request: keep living out the central instruction they already received.
These verses present love as the central, longstanding instruction for the community addressed. The writer’s tone is personal and urgent (“I beg you”), but the content is not portrayed as a new policy. It is a reminder of what they already had “from the beginning” (explicit claim). The passage also ties love to concrete behavior.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with 2 John 1:5, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
5Now I beg you, dear lady, not as though I wrote to you a new commandment, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.