Second John: 2 John 7-9-The Identification of the Deceivers and Consequences of Following Their Teaching

2 John 1 The elder, to the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth—2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love. 4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. 7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. (NIV)

“Because many deceivers…have gone out into the world” presents the reason for the apostle John’s request in verse 5 that his readers make it a habit of divinely loving one another.

“Many deceivers” refers to the false teachers who deny the incarnation of the Son of God.

These teachers are not only called “deceivers” by John because of their teaching but also because they lead people into living which is not according to God’s holy standards, which is why he emphasizes his readers’ conduct in verses 5-6 when he requests that they love one another since this will produce godly conduct.

“Who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh” identifies for the reader what the false teachers taught, namely they denied the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

They deny any idea of this taking place in history despite eyewitness testimony of the disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ.

“Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist” indicates that John is telling his readers that this (those who don’t acknowledge Jesus as the Christ appearing in a human body) identifies the deceiver as well as the antichrist.

In 2 John 7, John is teaching his readers how they can identify those teaching false doctrine, namely by their rejection of the incarnation, which indicates that he was dealing with an early form or incipient form of Docetic Gnosticism or Cerinthianism, which is named after its most prominent spokesman.

The question arises where did these false teachers “go out from”?

More than likely, it appears that John is referring to these individuals teaching false doctrine as going out from the church, which is indicated by what he taught in 1 John 2:18-19, which is written around the same historical period as 2 John.

In these verses, John is telling his readers that many antichrists went out from the Christian church but were not really of their number indicating they were not believers in the first place and if they were they would have remained with the church.

In 2 John, there is also a possibility that not only were these false teachers who rejected the incarnation, non-believers, but also believers who had been deceived by the false teachers.

The fact that John did not want his readers to be deceived by them and thus requests that they live by means of the truth by obeying the command to love one another makes clear that this was certainly a possibility.

If it was not possible for a Christian to be deceived by false teachers so as to reject the incarnation after first believing in it, which they would need to in order to get saved, then John would not have written this epistle in the first place.

The fact that he does makes clear that a Christian who has been saved through faith in Jesus Christ can be deceived so as to reject the incarnation.

Those believers who were deceived so as to reject the incarnation would not lose their eternal salvation (Romans 8:1, 38-39; Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15) but rather would lose rewards if they did not repent (1 John 2:28).

2 John 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. (NIV)

John is commanding his readers to protect themselves in regards to those teaching false doctrine such as the rejection of the incarnation.

He wants them to protect their status of receiving a full reward from the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat and in order that they might not lose rewards.

“That you do not lose what we have worked for” presents John’s purpose for commanding his readers to begin and continue to protect themselves.

“But that you may be rewarded fully” presents an emphatic contrast with the idea of John’s readers losing rewards as a result of being deceived by the false teachers.

2 John 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. (NIV)

“Anyone who runs ahead” refers to going beyond the established boundaries of the apostles’ teaching with regards to the person of Jesus Christ implying disobedience to their authoritative teaching and rejection of their delegated authority over the church.

“And does not continue in the teaching of Christ” defines specifically for the reader what John means by those who are transgressors and refers to not conforming to the apostles’ teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ.

“Does not have God” teaches that those who do not conform to the standard of the apostles’ teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ and in particular the teaching which says that Jesus is the God-man, never experience fellowship with God.

“Whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son” speaks of conforming to the apostles’ teaching regarding the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It indicates that those who conform to the standard of the apostles’ teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ and in particular the teaching which says that Jesus is the God-man, experience fellowship with both the Father and the Son.

Therefore, John identifies the deceiver as a “transgressor” and specifies what they teach, namely they do not conform to the standard of the apostolic teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ.

Here in 2 John 9, the apostle John is teaching that those who do not conform to the standard of the apostolic teaching concerning the person of Christ never experience fellowship with God.

He also teaches that those who do conform to the apostolic teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ experience fellowship with both the Father and the Son.

John teaches these principles to his readers because he wants their fellowship with the Father and the Son to continue unhindered or undisturbed by the false doctrine being propagated throughout Ephesus.

It is essential that John’s readers understand this principle because if John’s readers adhere to the teaching of the false teachers concerning the person of Jesus Christ, they would not be experiencing fellowship with God since this teaching is based upon a lie from Satan.

If they obey John’s apostolic teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ, they would be experiencing fellowship with God since this teaching originates from God and is therefore based upon truth and is supported by eyewitness apostolic testimony.

In fact, if they reject the apostolic teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ, they would in fact be calling God a liar which is sin and would result in a loss of fellowship which is restored through the confession of sin and maintained by obedience to the apostles’ teaching.

Also, they would be calling God a liar because the apostolic teaching originates from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

If John’s readers obey the apostolic teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ, they would be experiencing fellowship with God since they would be agreeing that God speaks the truth since this teaching originates from God who is truth.

Those who rejected the incarnation of Jesus Christ who were non-believers would not have God in the sense that they would not have an eternal relationship with Him.

They would not be justified and would still stand condemned before God because they are sinners by nature and practice.

Their problem is resolved by exercising faith in Jesus Christ as Savior which would demand that they accept the Spirit inspired apostolic testimony concerning the person of Jesus Christ, namely that He is the God-Man.

Those Christians who were deceived by the false teachers would no longer be experiencing fellowship with God.

The solution to their problem would be confession of sin (1 John 1:9), which would restore them to fellowship with God.

This fellowship is maintained by obedience to the apostolic teaching which is inspired by God and originates from Him.