Introduction
From the Second Century on, the earliest tradition of the wider Body of Messiah testified in unison that this letter is the second letter of the apostle John and also the author of his third letter being 3 John. John refers to himself as “the elder” (2 John 1:1) and the apostle Peter when addressing the elders in his first letter also referred to himself as “a fellow elder” (1 Peter 5:1). The three main themes John addresses is that if we love our Triune God then we will know the truth and be walking in the truth and have a love of the truth as it is revealed in the Messiah our Lord Jesus, God the Son, who is Himself the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that no one comes to God the Father except through Him (John 14:6).
Deceivers and false teachers had infiltrated the church. These were people who taught a false doctrine about the person of Jesus, teaching that He was not truly a man but only appeared to be one. This early heresy, called Docetism, required the strongest possible response from John. Docetism allowed that Jesus may have been in some way divine, but denied His full humanity.
Hard core Docetism taught that Jesus was only a phantasm or an illusion, appearing to be human but having no body at all. Other forms of Docetism taught that Jesus had a ‘heavenly’ body of some type but not a real natural body of flesh. Docetism was closely related to Gnosticism, which viewed physical matter as inherently evil and spiritual substance as inherently good.
The problem with Docetism was that it denied the core truths of the gospel, namely, the death and resurrection of Messiah. If Jesus did not have a real body, then He did not really die (Docetism taught that His suffering on the cross was mere illusion). And, if Jesus had no physical body, He could not have risen bodily from the dead. Without the actual death and resurrection of Jesus Messiah, we have no salvation, we are still in our sins, and our faith is futile (1 Corinthians 15:17).
Docetism also denied the ascension of Mesiah teaching that He had no real physical body to make the ascent. On the matter of Jesus’ humanity, the Bible could not be clearer. The Lord Jesus went out of His way to prove His bodily resurrection to the disciples who thought at first they were seeing a ghost: “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (Luke 24:39).
Gnosticism, which John was writing against in his first and second letter embraced Docetism’s error: “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Messiah has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist” (1 John 4:1-2). John also addresses this matter in this his second letter (2 John 1:7). Early church fathers fought valiantly against Docetism, especially Ignatius of Antioch (c. AD 35–107). Ignatius rightly taught that, if Jesus had not actually shed His blood on the cross, then His death was meaningless. Ignatius saw that there was no possible way to align the deception of Docetism with the truth of Christianity. Docetism was a branch of Gnosticism.
The Gnostics themselves claimed to have a superior inner spiritual knowledge that could only be embraced and understood by those who would adhere to their movement and join their ranks. Gnosticism was in reality an ancient form of ‘new age’ thinking where the emphasis was on ‘experience’ but as for the flesh it could do what it liked because it was inherently evil.
According to his first letter John writes that these Gnostics were once members of the Body of Messiah but had turned against the doctrine of the apostles and formed their own doctrines which denied the full deity and full humanity of the Messiah our Lord Jesus, and so these heretics left the fellowship (1 John 2:18-19).
So the apostle John was warning the true believers away from these false teachers. At the core of these heresies was a denial of the deity of the Lord Jesus which was a denial of the eternal relationship between God the Father with God the Son, which is the spirit of antichrist (1 John 2:22-23), and also a denial of the eternal Tri-Unity within the Eternal Godhead, being God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit (Colossians 2:9). Even though his letter is short John devotes almost half of it to giving further instructions to the assembly on how to deal with these false brethren, who, had it seems, been seeking to persuade other believers still in the assembly to join them. With this letter’s thematic similarity to 1 John, it is best to suggest that John wrote from Patmos in about AD 90. Let’s now look at the text of his letter.
2 John: Exposition (NASB 1995)
(Vs.1) The elder” Here John uses the term “the elder” describing himself as a bishop, presbyter, shepherd or overseer all titles that can be used interchangeably, and this shows his humility in that he does not state that he is an apostle, a title which would have been his right to use. Undoubtedly the assembly knew who he was and in using the term “elder” he was reassuring them of his care for them as a shepherd would care for the flock of sheep under his care. When the Lord Jesus had called John to follow him John was mending nets. His ministry would be a spiritual “net mender” which would primarily be his role in maintaining the spiritual health and wellbeing in the lives of his fellow believers within the wider Body of Messiah when they needed shepherding. In all of his three letters including the gospel he wrote, his love and care for and devotion to the wider Body of Messiah is very apparent. He was the one who leaned on the breast of the Lord Jesus at the last supper and became known as the apostle of love, and as the one Jesus loved and when He was hanging on the cross committed Mary His mother into John’s care (John 19:25-27).
“…to the chosen lady and her children,” Some have thought that It either refers to an actual woman or serves as a metaphor for the local assembly to whom John was writing. In either case, whether to a smaller family group joined by blood, or to a larger one joined by their confession of faith in Messiah, the application of the letter remains unchanged. When you consider that the global community of Messiah corporately is called “the Bride of Messiah” then it would have to be a reference to His Body, the faithful Church. The fact that this lady and her children were “chosen” would be a reference to God’s purpose of election, a desperate subject in itself. We know that God inhabits eternity where time as we know it down here on earth does not exist up there (2 Peter 3:8). God in His foreknowledge in eternity knows all things and knows who will ultimately be saved and who will not, however He still gives people the choice. His election of individuals is based on His foreknowledge of all things.
Having said this I am reminded of what the late Derek Prince said; “God does what He wants, when He wants, in the way He wants and with whomsoever He wants and asks no man’s permission” and then added, “can we make room for the sovereignty of God?” Scripture teaches both truths. God makes the final decision in all matters but in saying this while maintaining His absolute sovereignty, He still allows for human choice (Deuteronomy 30:19-20) (John 3:16). In some cases God’s servants were chosen even from their mother’s womb for a specific task such as we see in the case of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:4-5). Added to this God is not willing that anyone should perish but wanting that all might come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9b). If God arbitrarily selects some for hell and others for heaven then we would have to lay aside many verses in scripture that teach the opposite. God foreknows all things but the choice is still given.
In Psalm 139:16 David writes that all the days ordained for him, and by implication, us as individual believers were written in God’s book before one of them came to be. This is a greatly encouraging truth to all those who struggle in spiritual matters. Knowing us from all of eternity God has ordained the path we will walk in and by His divine power has already provided all we will ever need for life and godliness in this world as we grow in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus and in our daily walk with Him (2 Peter 1:3). As individual New Covenant believers we have been predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s Son (Romans 8:29). To this we have been elected. The proof of our election is that our daily lives will be growing in conformity to the image of the Son of God. Election in the Bible has to do primarily with nations (Genesis 25:23) compare (Romans 9:11-18). If you are a born again believer in Messiah then you are a part of God’s elect people. Having said these things “the chosen lady and her children” would have to be the local assembly that john is addressing corporately as a community.
The term “God’s elect” used in scripture also is a reference to the corporate Body of Messiah (1 Peter 1:1-2) (Colossians 3:12). We always need to make the distinction between when God is referring to an individual or to a group corporately. If we are God’s elect then it will be evident in the life we are living. The New Testament letters are addressed to specific corporate assemblies even though there are individuals are mentioned by name. “The chosen lady and her children” then would refer to the Body of Messiah corporately as a community of New Covenant believers, although we can allow for the fact that the Greek text could also suggest that this was an individual lady and her children in the assembly to whom John was writing.
“…whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth,” This seems to be a reference to the corporate community of believers whom John loves in truth, or loves because he knows that this is the truth of the gospel. “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). One cannot profess to love God and not love His Word. The Messiah Himself said; “If you love Me you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15).
If we love God then we will love the truth of His Word in its entirety (Psalm 119:16), and that living Word of God Himself within the Tri-Unity of the Godhead, the pre-existent Messiah our Lord Jesus who became that Word fully revealed in a human body at His incarnation. He is in Himself the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 1:1-5, 15, 30; 14:6) (1 John 1:1-4).
All who love the truth of God’s Word will also love God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and the entire Bible itself because it is the Word of the Triune God; “All Scripture is Spirit-breathed by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The word used here for “know” (Greek “ginṓskō”) is “to know the truth by an inward supernatural revelation that goes deeper than just merely the intellect.” If we love our Triune God, and love His Word, and want to do His will for our lives, then that desire was infused into our inner spirit man deep down on the inside of us by the blessed Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) (1 Corinthians 2:13-16). This is the “knowledge” John is speaking about and is also used in his first letter (1 John 1:4-6; 3:1, 16, 19;4:2, 6-7,13,15; 5:2 20). As it has been said; “If that which is above us is not within us, then we will soon yield to that which is around us.” This heart knowledge, or inner spiritual revelation and experience the Bible calls the New Birth will produce an outward lifestyle that lines up with the Word of God. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God in His regenerating work (Luke 8:11) (Ephesians 5:26; 16:17) (1 Peter 1:23).
(Vs.2) “because of the truth which remains in us and will be with us forever:” The blessed Holy Spirit, also called the Spirit of Jesus, or the Spirit of God, who lives down on the inside of us if we have been spiritually reborn from above (John 3:3), does not hop in and out of us like a yo-yo. He is an abiding presence within us. He has sealed us for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30). He is the Spirit of truth and will never lead us into doctrinal error (John 15:26; 16:13). He remains in us and empowers us to walk in step with His desires and will. He is God the Spirit, equal in deity with God the Father and with God the Son. He will be with us forever (John 14:16).
He is the anointing we received from the Holy One and by Him we know all things we will ever need to know concerning the truth of God’s Word and how to apply it to our daily lives as we walk in step with Him. God the Holy Spirit is the only one who can enable and empower us to daily crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. (1 John 2:20) (Galatians 5:16-18; 22-25). If we have the truth of God’s Word imbedded in our heart deep down on the inside of us, and nurturing it and feeding upon it by faith through reading and studying the Bible, then we will be able to discern truth from error when we are confronted with doctrines and teachings that are a mixture of truth and error combined. This is how Satan works. He lays truth and error side by side (2 Peter 2:1).
The Lord Jesus Himself said; ““My teaching is not My own,” Jesus replied. “It comes from Him who sent Me. If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own” (John 7:16-17). One thing we can count on is that the words of men fail and do not last, however, the Word of God remains and abides forever! It will say the same thing tomorrow as it does today. As it is also written; “For, all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the LORD stands forever” (1 Peter 1:24-25a).
(Vs.3) “Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Messiah, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.”
One thing about the apostles was that they never put themselves above the flock under their care, neither did they lord it over the sheep. They knew that every New Covenant believer regardless of their spiritual development or their calling or gifting enjoyed the grace, the mercy and the peace of God. Grace leads to God’s mercy upon sinners who have not earned it or merited it in any way, and this mercy recognising the favour of God brings an inward peace which passes all human understanding. Let’s briefly look at these words because they are linked.
“Grace” This is the free unmerited favour of God towards us, who by birth and by nature are great sinners in His sight, and who as New Covenant believers in Messiah have had our sins atoned for, forgiven and cleansed by His redeeming blood (Psalm 51:5) (Ephesians 1:7). God takes the initiative in the work of salvation and woos us to Himself through the Holy Spirit whom D.L.Moody called “the Hound of Heaven.” Indeed “God so loved us that He gave His one and only begotten Son, so that whosoever is trusting in Him to save them to the uttermost will never go to eternal hell, but be saved from the lake of fire to enjoy eternal life and experience the favour of God in this life (John 3:16-18; 10:10) (Hebrews 7:25).
Grace then is that which produces joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, and charm, loveliness of grace, character and speech. Through the wooing of the Holy Spirit the grace of God produces the new creation deep down on the inside of us (2 Corinthians 5:17). One who experiences constantly the favour of God in their life will experience His mercy, especially in times when we fail to please Him or we fall into sin, or into heaviness of spirit due to manifold temptations from the world, the flesh and the devil. At such times we all need the grace and the mercy of God. Grace then is a free unearned, unmerited favour from God towards us. As we read; “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Messiah Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).
“Mercy” In the Greek text this word speaks of God’s kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them. It is showing mercy to others as we have been shown mercy by God, and as we comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received from God, as those needing His grace and mercy towards us as well as to others. As we read; “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Messiah (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Messiah Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Messiah Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-10).
God then is rich in mercy and pardons in abundance when we repent and turn to Him, holding no confession back but laying everything out before Him to deal with. As Isaiah writes; “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7). So then the grace of God leads to the mercy of God received through repentance and saving faith which produce the peace of God deep down on the inside of us.
“Peace” This word carries the idea of tranquillity, a sense of inner harmony, concord, security, safety, prosperity, but most of all the peace of Messiah which nothing in this world can match (John 14:27). We may lose all temporary things in this life but the Lord Jesus assures us we will never lose His peace. It mirrors the word “Shalom” in the Hebrew which conveys “a very deep sense of peace, and being filled up with hope and expectancy of God’s goodness and favour to come, even though ones external circumstances may be tumultuous and their feelings troubled.” This peace God imparts is a supernatural peace that transcends all human comprehension, and will be a garrison or fortress for our hearts and minds in Messiah Jesus when Satan assails our minds with his wicked thoughts and temptations.
As we read; “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will garrison your hearts and your minds in Messiah Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). Indeed as we read in Proverbs; “The name of the LORD is a strong (high) tower; the righteous run to it and are safe” (Proverbs 18:10). Grace, mercy and peace are all the work of a sovereign God who works them towards us, and in us and through us to others according to His loving, sensitive, divine, infinite wisdom, and infallible power. These three spiritual blessings from the LORD grace, mercy and peace, will, through the strength given by the Holy Spirit, empower us to walk in truth and love.
(Vs.4) “I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received a commandment to do from the Father.”
The phrasing of this sentence leads us to conclude that “the lady” mentioned and her children are in fact referring to the assembly of believers corporately being the Body of Messiah or His bride. John was “overjoyed” with an exceeding joy that he could hardly bridle as it just overflowed from him towards those over whom the Holy Spirit had made him an overseer or elder. In fact he could hardly contain himself because he found some of the children of God walking in truth. The words “to find” conveys the idea “to find by enquiry, thought, examination, to scrutinize, to observe, to find out by practice and experience, to see, to learn, to discover and to understand.”
As an apostle all of the gifts of the Spirit operated through him when they were needed. Spiritual discernment and discernment of spirits were spiritual gifts all of the apostles needed in their day, and they are more than ever needed today with the infestation of spiritual deception inundating the wider Body of Messiah. If God’s people knew their Bibles better, then they would be able to discern truth from error and not be taken in by the false prophets and teachers flocking to the internet to ply their wares on gullible and naive Christians. Now John calls those reading his letter “children” which has nothing to do with their physical age but with their spiritual development (See 1 John 2:12-14). No matter how mature a believer is in their faith they can still be spiritually deceived and led like children by the evil one who comes to them masquerading as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
What delighted John was that there were those in the assembly who were “walking in truth.” These are those “walking continuously, making steady progress, living a regulated lifestyle and conducting themselves in an appropriate manner as befits those who are governed by the truth of God’s commandments.” These are those who are transparent before the eyes of the LORD without hiding anything from Him, which He sees anyway being all knowing. If the truth of God’s Word does not govern our lives then the only other option we have is deception. So this was the case of some John was writing to and he was overjoyed by this.
God’s Word will lead us into Spiritual fruitfulness in this life and into eternal life in the age to come, however spiritual deception, if we do not recognise it, will ultimately if not checked, lead us down into the pathway of spiritual death. If we do not receive and have a love of the truth (God’s Word) we will be practicing wickedness and ultimately God Himself will send us a powerful delusion so that we will no longer be capable of believing the truth even when we hear it, and instead believe the lie that will be the law of the beast empire of the man of sin when he is revealed and recognised by the faithful Body of Messiah (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). John further deals with this matter of spiritual deception later in this letter. Once again John places himself on an equal footing with all of God’s children when he writes;
“just as we have received a commandment to do from the Father.” Did not the Messiah our Lord Jesus say to His disciples; “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another” (John 14:34-35). He also said; “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). His commandments are set out in the Word of God and if we have had His law written on our hearts, being the seat or the control centre of our affections, by the blessed Holy Spirit of God, then we have the power to walk in the truth of God’s Word. It does not mean that we are free from temptation and from committing sin because we still have the old nature at war with our new nature we received when we were born again (John 3:3) (2 Corinthians 5:17) (Galatians 5:16-18). However, we will not be living a lifestyle of sin because God’s seed of His divine life lives in us, and He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world (1 John 3:5-10; 5:18-21; 4:4).
(Vs.5-6) “Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you are to walk in it.”
Once again John focuses on the Greatest Commandment given by God in the Old Testament scriptures (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), and endorsed by the Lord Jesus in the New Testament scriptures. The Lord Jesus said; “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind (Luke 10:27 adds “and with all your strength”). This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). Once again John reiterates that if we have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), then we will not only seek to love God with our entire being and to love our neighbour as we would love ourselves, but we will also be seeking daily to walk in obedience to the commandments of God which we have in the entire Bible and which have been written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Jeremiah 31:33).
If we really love the truth then we will want to walk in it and in this way show our willingness to be obedient and pleasing children of our Heavenly Father. Obedience is primarily an action of the will, not the emotions, which can be fickle at the best of times. What does scripture say? “For the grace of God has appeared (in the person of the Lord Jesus), bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:10-14).
All of us, including myself, need to develop the habit of just saying “no” to the devil when he tempts us. It has nothing to do with the emotions, but everything to do with the action of the human will. At such times of great and persistent temptation we can call on the name of Jesus, call on the power of the blood of Jesus to cover and protect us, and call on the power of God’s Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, and call upon the name of Jesus to deliver us. The most effective prayer is “Lord help me!” and He will every time! Sometimes we need to pray this short prayer several times in a day or at night, when in the dark hours the tempter often seeks to weave his diabolical web over our minds and hearts. God always hears and avenges His elect saints who cry to Him day and night against the adversary, He will deliver them speedily! (Luke 18:7-8).
Faith in His Word is the key that will unlock the spiritual resources we will need to kick the devil out of our affairs! If we resist him he will flee, but we have to persist in our resistance at times because he knows if we do not mean business in the matter of resisting temptation when it comes. As it has been said; “You cannot stop the birds from flying overhead, but you can stop them from nestling in your hair!” The trigger that will launch our faith against the devil when he comes at us is by our confession of what God has said in His Word the Bible. When we start to praise the LORD with our entire being and focus on how God has delivered us in the past and confess the promises of God verbally Satan gets the message and leaves, and through our praise we can run him out of our affairs every time (Psalm 8:2; 9:1-3).
If we walk in the commandments of God by faith because we love Him, then that love will overflow to others, especially our brothers and sisters in Messiah who are fellow members of the Household of Faith. Now John once again addresses the matter of spiritual deception and the spirit of antichrist he has written about in his first letter and how to deal further with the spirit of antichrist. Let’s now look at this…
(Vs.7) “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Messiah as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.”
The world is full of spiritual deception and in these last days it has infiltrated the wider Body of Messiah. Wider Christendom itself is inundated and infested with false and spiritually deceptive doctrines such as Interfaith, Ecumenical ties, Hyper faith prosperity doctrines, kingdom Dominion theology and the manifestation of all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders emphasising spiritual experiences but neglecting holiness and Biblical authority which is rampant within wider Christendom with its structured denominational system and within wider Charismatic circles by and large.
“Many deceivers” These are those who are like springs without water and mists driven by wild storms of demonic spiritual power for who the blackest darkness has been reserved (2 Peter 2:17), greedy shepherds who feed only themselves without any spiritual fruit, spiritually uprooted, twice dead, having been once alive by the Spirit, but have apostatised (Jude 1:12), who have abandoned the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2). The word “deceivers” conveys the idea of those who “are wandering without any spiritual light, or roving around seeking those whom they can devour with their deception, misleading others and leading them into doctrinal error, vagabonds, tramps, imposters and corrupters full of deception.” These then are those “who have gone out into the world,” They have gone out of the fellowship, rejected apostolic doctrine, which we have today in the New Testament completed canon of scripture, back into the world, having been spiritually seduced by false and deceptive teaching (1 John 2:19).
They are “those who do not acknowledge Jesus Messiah as coming in the flesh” These openly confess and adamantly declare and speak out freely and to even celebrate their false and demonic doctrine that denies the deity of the Messiah our Lord Jesus being the fact that He is totally divine and totally human in the one body. They openly deny Jesus “Messiah as coming in the flesh” or it can be rendered as “coming into the flesh” which would clearly show that He pre-existed as God the Son in eternity, and that as the Living Word of God entered into a fully human foetus, created by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, and the one, who after His birth tabernacled among us as God in a human body, fully divine and fully human in every way. Who can really grasp this? It is an undeniable fact attested to by those who walked with Him and wrote the New Testament (1 John 1:1-4).
As the Lord Jesus also said “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” On another occasion He said “Before Abraham was born I AM” declaring openly that He was God, the Great I AM and equal with God among men, and the religious leaders wanted to stone Him because He as a man was declaring that He was equal with God, and also by this declaring Himself to be the God of Abraham manifested in the flesh. He was the living tabernacle (Temple) of God on earth! (John 2:19). Those who left the fellowship denied these great apostolic truths we have preserved by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Those then who deny these great Biblical truths are “of the spirit of antichrist and are themselves antichrists” (1 John 2:18-23).
(Vs.8) “Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.”
“Watch yourselves,” The word “watch” is a very comprehensive and detailed word in the Greek text. It is so because of the very dark, dangerous and demonic nature of spiritual deception spawned by the spirit of antichrist. To “watch” then is “to discern, to be possessed with spiritual sight, to perceive by the senses, to feel and to know by experience, to have the power of understanding through our inner spiritually regenerated spirit man being fused together with God’s Spirit, and our spirit being one with Him in spirit and in truth, to consider, to contemplate, to weigh carefully and to examine or to scrutinize.”
“…that you do not lose what we have accomplished, As a Father in the faith John, as a true spiritual shepherd, did not want his flock, over which the Holy Spirit had made him an apostle and overseer, to fall away from the rock of revelation knowledge they have received from him concerning the person and work of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. A denial of the person and redeeming work of Messiah was the doctrine of devils which the spirit of antichrist would be seeking to work its demonic power through spiritual deception in the fellowship if it could. John was lovingly reminding them of what they had received from the LORD through the apostolic teaching he had imparted to them by the work of the Holy Spirit.
“…but that you may receive a full reward.” Spiritual fidelity and faithfulness to the Lord Jesus and to the Word of God brings with it a full reward. The words, “a full reward” denotes “to be filled up as an empty vessel would be filled up to overflowing with water, to have the soul thoroughly permeated with the life , the light and with the power of God, and filled to overflowing with the Living water of life being God the Holy Spirit Himself, to be complete and to lack nothing of spiritual value, and to be fully complete in the Messiah our Lord Jesus in every way in body, soul and spirit (Colossians 2:10). John then continues…
(Vs.9) “Anyone who goes too far and does not remain in the teaching of Messiah, does not have God; the one who remains in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”
“Anyone who goes too far, “ No one is exempt from the danger of teaching doctrinal error. In a war the enemy snipers target the officers. Officers are in the crosshairs and the enemy sniper knows that if he can take out the officers, the higher the rank the better, then there will be disarray and confusion in the ranks of the troops over whom their officers presided. For those of us who teach scripture there is always the danger of running ahead with our own interpretations instead of being regulated by what the scriptures teach and this is especially true when teaching others about the Messiah our Lord Jesus.
Many have a Jesus today, the right Jesus, but have Him all wrong in that they promote a Jesus who is like a rather indulgent father figure of sorts, who is like a spiritual dispensing machine as it were that hands out spiritual experiences and manifestations and material blessings and healings for the mere asking. Others see Him as one who promotes Kingdom Dominion, Kingdom Now theology, having things good in this world, or one who wants His brethren to be materially prosperous and have an abundance of health and wealth. Others want a Jesus who gives them all sorts of spiritual manifestations, miracles, healings, signs and wonders.
As the late Derek Prince said; “Many hunger and thirst for miracles signs and wonders, but very few hunger and thirst after righteousness.” In many of these assemblies into the supernatural miracles, signs and wonders and into prosperity and Kingdom Dominion theology are in fact going too far and overreaching and going beyond Biblical truth. Satan by stealth always promotes “destructive heresies” and he mixes truth with error and lays them side by side and in effect deny the Lord Jesus true nature and character (2 Peter 2:1). It is like having a regular diet of beautiful healthy gourmet sandwiches filled with every healthy ingredient and very tasty indeed to the palate but also laced with arsenic, a deadly poison, not detectable, but which over time accumulates in the body and eventually brings about death. The apostle Paul warns us that we are not to go beyond what is written in the Word of God (1 Corinthians 4:6). God will deal with those who do (Deuteronomy 4:2) (Deuteronomy 12:32) (Proverbs 30:6) (Revelation 22:18-19).
“…and does not remain in the teaching of Messiah,” If one goes ahead and beyond what is written in the Word of God, the Bible, he does not remain in the teaching about the Messiah our Lord Jesus as revealed in the Bible in both Testaments as we now have the completed Canon of the Spirit-breathed Word of God. To “not remain in” has the idea of “not remaining in, or to continue in, or to sojourn in a place, to remain in ones set condition, to remain in an unscriptural mindset and course of action, to linger over a false and deceptive doctrine not endorsed by scripture and specifically in this context of 2 John relating to the true nature of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. It is in fact to depart from what the Lord Jesus taught, to step out of a strong spiritual position of refuge and to step into a different and spiritually destructive state.
One who does this and continues to remain in this state, “does not have God.” that man may have a supernatural power to persuade men, but it will not be from the LORD but from another spirit, and if there is a denial of the person of the Messiah our Lord Jesus as God the Son then it is the spirit of antichrist that denies the eternal Father and Son relationship in the eternal Godhead. If one does not have the scriptural teaching and revelation of God the Son, our Lord Jesus, then they do not have God the Son, neither do they have God the Father abiding on the inside of them (1 John 2:23). Many today then within the wider Body of Messiah have the right Jesus but have Him all wrong, such as the hyper faith, wealth and health prosperity have it good in this world money preachers and the advocates of Kingdom Dominion doctrines, and the seeker friendly, seeker sensitive, churches, or the immerging Church to name just four and there are others.
“…the one who remains in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.” This one who remains in the teaching of the apostles, who remains in, or perseveres in, or continues in, or sojourns in or remains in ones set condition without wavering or turning aside from the set path they are walking in, and who remains in a scriptural mindset and a steadfast course of action, and who lingers over the Word of God and studies it, has both God the Father and God the Son living deep down on the inside of them, and through the abiding presence of God the Holy Spirit actually have the fullness of the Godhead abiding in them (John 14:23). They are spiritually fused together with the LORD and one in spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). Now John tells us how we are to deal with those who would befriend us and seek to have fellowship with us or visit our assemblies or come into our homes that do not bring the teaching of the apostles as we have in the New Testament. These actually have a false Messiah and teach another way of salvation. And so John writes…
(Vs.10-11) “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”
“…do not receive him into your house,” To “receive him” is to take him by the hand, to associate with, to seize, to lay hold of, to apprehend, to admit, to receive what is being offered and not to refuse it, or to give him access into one’s home. For example when the Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons come to your door, be courteous to them, but do not allow them into your home because they have a demonic deceptive spirit working in them. You may talk to them at the door and seek to persuade them to consider the truth concerning the person and work of the Messiah our Lord Jesus as revealed in the Bible, however, it will be difficult seeing they are bound by an evil spirit, the spirit of antichrist, which only the Lord Jesus can remove.
Of course many Jehovah’s witnesses and Mormon’s that have been truly saved have left the sect. One who knows their Bibles can defend their beliefs, however, when you have a believer unskilled in the Word of God then they are vulnerable to spiritual seduction through false teachers. Another way of welcoming false teachers into our homes is through the light in our living rooms being the television or on the internet on our computers. We need to exercise discernment concerning the preachers and teachers we listen to or watch online over the internet.
Now today we see many evangelicals and charismatics embracing Roman Catholicism through ecumenical dialogue and associations. Many within wider Christendom are embracing other religions in interfaith amalgamations. Roman Catholicism teaches another way of salvation through a works based righteousness as does Judaism and Islam. It is another way of salvation not endorsed by the Word of God. Biblical salvation is not a salvation based on works of righteousness which we produce, but by grace through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-10) (Titus 3:5-7). We do not get saved by doing our own good works, however, if we are saved we will have works that are acceptable to God, and are along the line of the faith we profess to have. We do not do good works to get saved, but do good works because we have been saved!
The apostle Paul spoke about those who preach a different gospel and way of salvation when he writes; “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse! As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be under a curse!” (Galatians 1:8-9). One of the latest doctrines that are making inroads into the wider Body of Messiah today is from many of those associated with the International Coalition of Apostolic Leadership (ICAL) previously called the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). Many who call themselves ‘apostles’ are teaching the Jesus died spiritually heresy taught by the late Kenneth Hagin, passed on to Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Myer, Todd White, Bill Johnson and other luminaries associated with this apostolic and prophetic movement. The Jesus died spiritually doctrine at its core denies the divinity of the Lord Jesus as revealed in the Word of God and teaches that the Lord Jesus after He had died on the cross went to hell, took upon Himself a sinful nature and had to be born again in hell before the work of salvation was complete, a wicked and deceptive doctrine of the spirit of antichrist. (See the article on this website) (Did Jesus Die Spiritually?) Many mainline denominational church leaders across the interdenominational spectrum of churches are being sucked in to this so called ‘Apostolic’ movement today. Much more could be said on these matters.
“… and do not give him a greeting,” the word “greeting” has the idea of “rejoicing and to be glad, to rejoice exceedingly and to thrive and to be well in giving one salutations and to hail one who has approached you with overtures of unity and friendship.” Welcoming those of a different spirit is welcoming those devils masquerading as angels of light, ruining whole households by their spiritually perverted and pernicious doctrines by creeping into the Body of Messiah to promote their ‘wares’ and in many cases profiteering on the blood of the Lamb by fleecing the sheep of their hard earned dollars, a practice that caused the Messiah our Lord Jesus to weave a whip and in righteous anger drive the money changers out of the Temple! What do you think He would do today if He was here on earth to those leaders promoting godliness as a means to financial gain which in reality is a mask for covetousness in the hyper faith prosperity, have it good in this world Churches?
One of the most needed gifts of the Spirit today is the gift of spiritual discernment which can test whether a message is from the Spirit of God, or from the spirit of a demon or from the soul power of the fallen fleshly nature. In all three manifestations there will be supernatural power. Satan can counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders and even fake healings by occult power, the same false power as the magicians of Egypt did by which up to a point they were able to counterfeit the deeds of power done by Moses and Aaron. In the end Moses snakes ate up the magician’s snakes! The day is coming when God is going to expose these money loving connivers and their mega churches (2 Timothy 3:8-9).
“…for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.” To “participate” carries the idea of “one who enters into communion with another, or enters into fellowship with another and even shares in a partnership or to join oneself to an associate.” Sharing a platform with another speaker in a conference needs spiritual discernment. Just because a speaker is popular and ‘can get bums on seats’ and persuade men and women with powerful presentations and impressive speech does not mean that they are sound in doctrine or filled with the Spirit of God. Many sermons today for the most part are more like secular motivational messages laced with Bible verses here and there, usually out of their context, to bolster these speakers brand of ‘theology’ if you can call it theology Biblically speaking! Two Churches in particular where we see this kind of preaching is the Lakewood Mega Church in Houston Texas and Bethel Church in Redding California.
Those Church leaders or ministers, who invite guest speakers into their pulpits, even when they know that the speaker’s doctrines are somewhat dubious actually participate in their evil deeds. The LORD holds them equally responsible even though they themselves may be sound in doctrine but compromise for the sake of keeping their congregations. Another grievance to the LORD is the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) the largest and most popular Christian television and radio network globally, who practice “the mixture” which God hates.
In the Torah the LORD commanded the Israelites through Moses; “Do not plough with an ox and a donkey yoked together. Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together” (Deuteronomy 22:10-11). The ox ploughing represents the man or ministry treading out the nutritious grain of God’s Word but is hampered by the donkey who is a rather stupid and even lazy animal without proper sense who is yoked to that oxen. Wool represents a common earthy and fleshly lifestyle, whereas linen represents the righteousness of the saints. The mixture will never work!
When you look at the long list of speakers regularly broadcasting their ministries on the TBN Network you have genuine ministries mixed in with dubious and even heretical ministries. For example on one hand you have the ministry of Ray Comfort, a first class Spirit-filled street evangelist if ever there was one, laid side by side with TD Jakes who behind the scenes denies the Tri-Unity within the Godhead. So many preachers are in the mix!
From God’s perspective in His Word could we dare to say that TBN in God’s sight could be called the “Tuberculosis Broadcasting Network?” While the Network supports many ministries and missionary works financially, which is commendable, it is no excuse for mixing Biblical doctrine with unbiblical doctrines. Feeding the needy with nutritious grain (food) physically is one thing, but alongside of that feeding them with spiritually tainted grain (doctrinal error) is something else. God hates the mixture!
If the apostle Paul was around today he would say to the TBN executives what he wrote to his protégé Timothy; “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come (it is already here) when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths (made up stories and delusional visions and dreams). But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry” (2 Timothy 2:2-5). Would the TBN executives listen? ‘Ear tickling’ is the going thing in multitudes of churches today in the materially affluent churches of the western democracies. Having said this with the rapid rise of Islam globally things will change! John concludes his letter…
(Vs.12-13) “Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your (our) joy may be made complete. The children of your chosen sister greet you.”
When the truth is being preached and held in honour there will be hope, joy and peace in believing (Romans 15:13),and that in abundance, and the joy of the LORD will be the strength of His people (Nehemiah 8:10). As it is written in the psalms; “The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever. The LORD gives His people strength; the LORD blesses His people with peace” (Psalm 29:10-11).
This benediction from John mirrors what he writes in his first letter. “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Messiah. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete” (1 John 1-4).
“The children of your chosen sister greet you.” This phrase John uses would lead us further to believe that the chosen sister John mentions is those who also are members of the Body of Messiah who had been saved through John’s ministry on the Island of Patmos. He uses the plural term for children and this would have to refer to a corporate body of New Covenant believers who were with John in that Roman Penal colony on Patmos.
Epilogue
We are living in the last of the last days and the secular trendy things we see in the world today have entered into wider Christendom. There is an infestation of the spirit of antichrist that is already at work in the world and within wider Christendom like never before. The apostasy has kicked in big time and the man of lawlessness (Torahlessness) is soon to be revealed to the world and to the faithful Body of Messiah. The man of sin will enter the world’s stage on the floodtide of all kinds of counterfeit miracles signs and wonders that will deceive many who do not have the love of the truth as John has written about in this his second letter, and because of the increase of wickedness the love of most Christians will grow cold (Matthew 24:12).
As we see the Day of the LORD rapidly approaching may the grace of our Triune God keep us faithful to the end, even unto the Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9). In light of these last of the last days let’s hear once again what C.H. Spurgeon said; “A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats!” When the Messiah our Lord Jesus comes back to reward men and women according to what they have done of failed to do, may we be those whom He finds “Knowing, Walking and Loving the Truth.” Amen!
