2 John 1:7 - Meaning and Application

In this main part of the letter, John first gives some bad news. Many deceivers have gone out into the world. This warning comes for a reason. The lady and her household need to keep loving one another, because there are people in the world who destroy love. Those who tear down the faith also tear down Christian love, since a shared faith is one foundation for shared love. Or, put another way, they must keep walking according to God’s commands, because that will keep them safe. Their faithfulness is likely to be tested, because many deceivers have entered the world.

Sad news can still be shared with Christian friends, not to make them miserable, but to prepare them for danger. The deceiver is described in this way: he does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (2 John 1:7). He brings some error about the person of the Lord Jesus. He may deny that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, God’s anointed King and the promised Messiah, or he may deny that the promised Redeemer has truly come in human flesh. In effect, such a person acts as if Christ is still to be expected. It is strange that, after so much evidence, anyone would deny that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

John also shows how serious this is. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist (2 John 1:7). He misleads souls and works against the glory and kingdom of the Lord Christ. After all the light God has given, and all the evidence Christ has shown about himself, and all the witness God has given about his Son, such a person is a willing liar and a willing enemy of Christ’s person, honor, and cause. He will answer for that when the Lord Christ comes again. We should not be surprised that there are deceivers and opponents of Christ’s name now, because there were such people even in the apostle’s own day.

Because of this danger, John gives clear counsel to this chosen household: “Watch yourselves” (2 John 1:8). The more deceivers and lies spread, the more carefully Christ’s disciples must watch. False teaching can become so strong that even the elect, God’s chosen people, may be in danger from it. They must guard against two losses. First, they must not lose what they have worked for, what they have gained. It is a pity when religious labor comes to nothing. Some begin well, but in the end lose everything. The young man who had kept the commands of the second table, the commands about loving other people, from his youth lost all because he loved the world too much and Christ too little. Believers should take care not to lose what they have gained.

Many people have gained more than a good reputation for religion. They have gained light about truth, conviction about sin, a sense of the world’s emptiness, a view of the worth of religion, and an experience of God’s word working in them. Some have even tasted the powers of the coming age and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and yet they still lose all in the end. “You were running well. Who hindered you?” Why stop obeying the truth, or stop going on in it? It is sad when bright and promising progress in Christ’s school is lost at the end.

Second, they must not lose their reward, not any part of it. John says they should make sure that they receive a full reward. Some copies read “we,” but the meaning is the same. They should live so that they keep as full a reward as anyone in God’s church. If there are degrees of glory, then they should lose none of the grace, light, love, or peace that prepares them for higher glory. “Hold on to what you have,” in faith, hope, and a good conscience, “so that no one takes your crown” (Revelation 3:11). The way to receive the full reward is to stay true to Christ and keep going in religion to the end.

John then gives the reason for this warning. First, leaving gospel truth is really a leaving of God himself. Whoever goes beyond the teaching of Christ, and does not remain in it, does not have God. The teaching of Christ is what leads us to God. It is the means by which God draws souls to salvation and to himself. Those who turn away from that teaching are, in turning away from it, turning away from God.

Second, steady faithfulness to Christian truth brings great good and joy. It joins us to Christ, the center of that truth, and through him it joins us to the Father as well, because the Father and the Son are one. Whoever remains rooted and grounded in Christ’s teaching has both the Father and the Son. Through this teaching we come to know the Father and the Son, we are made holy for the Father and the Son, we are filled with holy love for the Father and the Son, and we are prepared for the endless joy of enjoying both forever. “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (John 15:3). That cleansing makes us fit for heaven. Since the great God has set his seal on Christ’s teaching, he also values it highly. We must hold onto that holy teaching in faith and love if we hope to reach blessed fellowship with the Father and the Son.