Going Beyond Christ
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The Elder: To the elect lady and her children: I love all of you in the truth—and not only I, but also all who have come to know the truth — because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us forever.
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I was very glad to find some of your children walking in the truth, in keeping with a command we have received from the Father.
So now I urge you, dear lady—not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk according to His commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: you must walk in love.
Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves so you don’t lose what we have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward.
Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it, does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and don’t say, “Welcome,” to him;
for the one who says, “Welcome,” to him shares in his evil works. Though I have many things to write to you, I don’t want to do so with paper and ink. Instead, I hope to be with you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete.
The children of your elect sister send you greetings.
Point: Do not have anything to do with false teachers, and their false teaching, who go beyond Christ . Doing so is to become complicit in their ministry and do harm to people with your unintentional endorsement.
What does it mean to be intentional?
to have a purpose or plan for your actions (or lack of actions).
Can you live this life without intention or any intentions? No, because in doing so you are actually acting according to your intention to have no intentions, to live without purpose or pre-planning.
When Jesus came into this world, did He have an intention? Yes, to come into this world, fulfill HIs Father’s work and will, in redeeming creation back to God; man becoming one with God, once again.
Did Jesus go beyond what the Father desired? Meaning…did Jesus run ahead of what the Father’s will was? Did Jesus add to the Father’s will and work, or take away from it? Neither. Jesus fulfilled the Father’s will perfectly.
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work,” Jesus told them.
Then Jesus replied, “I assure you: The Son is not able to do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does these things in the same way.
“I can do nothing on My own. I judge only as I hear, and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
Jesus’ intention is to fulfill the will of the Father perfectly, doing nothing more and nothing less. Not adding to it, nor taking from it. Not going beyond it, and not coming short of it. When the spector of death finally showed his face, Jesus accepted and fulfilled the will of the Father.
Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”
Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
After leaving them, He went away again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.
Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
The intention of Jesus was to fulfill the will and work of the Father. He did not fall short, and He did not go beyond the will and work of the Father. The question is: do we?
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God.
What is the intention of Jesus for us? That we would fulfill the Father’s will and work. That we would love God and love people, bringing them back to a relationship with the Father, through Jesus Christ, the Son.
If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
The One who sent Me is with Me. He has not left Me alone, because I always do what pleases Him.”
He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
So…are we doing the will of the Father, or are we going beyond or falling short? The concern of the Apostle John in 2 John is that the community does not go beyond Christ, run ahead of who He is and what He has called them to be. The analogy would be two run a cross country race before knowing the course or adding to the course of what is required. The race in this life is to know the Father and to be with Him in His Kingdom. In order to know the Father and be with Him, in His Kingdom, one needs to come to know the Son, Jesus. For only by believing, knowing, and following Jesus, do we end up at the Father and in His Kingdom, at the end of the race. Nothing more, nothing less.
The Gnostic teachers went beyond what Jesus taught. They made the atonement less than what is was. Jesus did not die on the cross as divine. The divine spirit left Jesus before He was humiliated by death on the cross. So what? Jesus will leave us when the tough times come? He will leave us to hang on the cross by ourselves? Did Jesus really mean what He said when He says to us in Mt 28:20 “ And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Does the Father God lie when He spoke to Moses, speaking to Joshua, in taking the fortresses of their world, for Him?
Be strong and courageous; don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For it is the Lord your God who goes with you; He will not leave you or forsake you.” Moses then summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will go with this people into the land the Lord swore to give to their fathers. You will enable them to take possession of it. The Lord is the One who will go before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”
The Bible says that God is the same today, as yesterday, and as will be tomorrow. And Jesus says that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father. Then we can take great confidence in the fact that God being that same as yesterday, and one in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that He goes before us, and will be with us, always, never forsaking us, in whatever, whoever we face, walking in His will and work. A cross is nothing to fear, but it is to be embraced, because then we know the LORD God is with us. Jesus reminds us,
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
The false teachers have gone beyond Jesus and thus John advises the faithful to not follow them for they will lose what they have worked so hard to attain and hold. They will lose their full reward…eternal life in Jesus (2 Jn 8). They are to not go beyond what they know that Jesus lived, died, and arose for their sin to be paid and be redeemed to God the Father.
Watch yourselves so you don’t lose what we have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward.
Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it, does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and don’t say, “Welcome,” to him;
Why would John say not to extend hospitality to these false teachers? To extend hospitality would mean to endorse, accept, and give legitimacy to these false teachers message. It’s like when Telus came to my door to sell me their new security system. What was their sales strategy? Well you neighbor, Marty got one, so you should get one! Because I have a friendship with Marty, I should take Marty’s endorsement, and purchase their system as well. This is how cult’s and movements are built...on false pretences and assumptions instead of checking back with God and His Word.
The Apostle John represents the Word of God to this community. He is their shepherd. His job is to make sure they do not go beyond Jesus, nor fall short of Jesus. That is my same duty by teaching and preaching the Word of God, by the power of the Spirit, to make sure this community of believers ends up crossing the finish line in the Kingdom of God.
This is why I will never lead you to embrace that which the Word of God does not embrace…which Jesus does not embrace. The new BLM movement, is the old movement and teaching of Critical Theory of Karl Marx, advanced by the Frankfurt School and morphed into Critical Race Theory, which has morphed into the Critical Social Justice Movement. The assumed bases is social justice, equality, for all races of people, particularly the black person. But does the critical social justice worldview mean the same thing as the worldview of God’s Biblical justice?
Dr, Dean, and Reverend Voddie Baucham Jr, in his book Faultlines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastophe says this about the Critical Social Justice Movement,
At the heart of the “woke” movement lies the idea that the sin of racism is no longer to be understood as an individual sin. Instead, the term is now incorporates the idea of “institutional/structural racism” and its implications.....”Racism itself is institutional, structural, and systemic”. -Voddie Baucham Jr., Faultlines, pp.84-85
The sin of racism is no longer an individual sin, but a systemic sin embeded in the very fibres of our societal systems and structures, that need to be torn down and rebuilt in equity for all. The base of the “woke” movement of critical social justice is Critical Race Theory which is based on four assumptions (Faultlines, pp.. XVI, XVII):
Racism is Normal - it is the usual way that society does business.
Convergence Theory - white people are incapable of righteous actions and only undo racism when it their interests “converge” with the interests of colored people.
Anti-Liberalism - the foundations of liberal order, equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral priniciples of constitutional law are questionable.
Knowledge is Socially Constructed - storytelling/narrative of colored people has more authority and truth than science and reason method of white people.
The Centrality of Experiental Knowledge - the experiental knowledge of People of Color is legitimate, appropriate, and critical to understanding, analyzing and teaching about racial subordination.
In the end, Pastor Baucham comes to the conclusion that the Critical Social Justice movement is not compatible with God’s Biblical Justice because CSJ is a competing worldview. It has it’s own canon, it’s own priesthood, it’s own religion, and it’s own original sin - racism. The only way for deliverance is to raise colored people, and their perspective, above the white people. Colored peoples narrative, a superior truth, is the only narrative that matters in this revolution of structure, society, and institutions moving forward. To be considered a non-racist is to be an active anti-racist meaning to be activily working to promoting and install the colored people truth and perspective. There is no option. You cannot just call yourself a non-racist. If you are not doing anything to tear down the structures of todays society, because they are inherintly racist promoting white superiority, you are part of the problem, because you are benefiting from society. This is called the issue of ‘white priviledge’.
At the heart of the movement is what Pastor Baucham calls “Ethnic Gnosticism” - only colored people have the truth, now the truth, and can correct society to the truth. White people are incapable of revolutionizing society because we are blinded by our white priviledge. White people’s Christianity does not matter because our Jesus is a white Jesus, He has been whitened.
Does this sound like “secret” knowledge. Is it knowledge based on the Bible? Based on Jesus? Jesus said in Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Where is the color blindness in the CSJ movement? There are hundreds of pastor’s supporting and preaching CSJ, but where is the oneness of all people under Christ? Where is the color blindness? Where is the revolution of heart? Where is the acknowledgement and admittance that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? We are all equal in Christ, we have all sinned and fallen short of God. We are also all made in His image. Biblical justice is Matthew 23 and the fact the God, His Word and Son, are the final judge on justice, and bringer of justice.
False teachers have come into the church and are leading the church astray based on ethnic gnosticism, that we are not all one under Christ. Anti-racism of CSJ has become the new racisim of today. An eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth. CSJ is recompense for evil, which not all individuals are guilty of. A man is responsible before God for his own sin, not of his brothers, unless he leads him down that way.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Try to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone. Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for His wrath. For it is written: Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay, says the Lord.
All this to say, brothers and sisters, make sure what you endorse is God’s teaching, not false teaching.
Be weary of being complicit in the ministry of a false gospel.
Be on guard against an endorsement which can lead to harm of your brother or sister and the message of the gospel.
Continue in the teachings of Christ so that we are equipped to spot and discern that which is of a false teaching and gospel.