20

The Limits of Love
(2 John 5-13)

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 should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. 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. 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 joy may be made full. The children of your chosen sister greet you. (5-13)

Verse 9 jumps out of this section: Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. There again (as throughout 1 John) is the test of a true Christian and a true preacher—pure doctrine concerning Christ.

The true church of Jesus Christ has always understood that fact. Through the centuries, even in the church’s darkest hours, there have always been those who were faithful to evangelize the lost with the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. People searched the Scriptures, without all the Bible study tools available today, to understand the gospel in preparation for spreading the message of salvation. Many unsung heroes of the faith labored for decades translating the Word so people could read it in their own languages. Missionaries traveled in arduous and threatening circumstances to reach difficult places with the truth of Christ. There they endured long periods of separation from family, friends, and country, suffered the loss of coworkers and loved ones, and battled disease, danger, and satanic opposition for the gospel’s sake (cf. Eph. 6:12). Tens of thousands of faithful evangelists have been martyred for their unwavering commitment to obey the Lord’s command to proclaim the truth that saves.

There are some, however, who advocate a radical and alarming shift from this commission, suggesting that preaching the gospel to the lost may actually be unnecessary, along with the immense sacrifices that have been made to do so. Going beyond the Bible’s teaching about the general revelation of God in nature (see the discussion of Rom. 1:18-32 below), some argue that natural theology (“the attempt to attain an understanding of God and his relationship with the universe by means of rational reflection, without appealing to special revelation such as the self-revelation of God in Christ and in Scripture” [Colin Brown, “Natural Theology,” in Sinclair B. Ferguson, David F. Wright, and J. I. Packer, eds., New Dictionary of Theology (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity 1988), 452]) alone is sufficient to save—apart from any knowledge of the true God, or of Jesus Christ or the gospel. Some imagine that God saves people apart from the gospel by treating them as He did those who lived before the time of the New Testament (a view labeled trans-dispensationalism). But as the writer of Hebrews emphasizes, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world” (Heb. 1:1-2). Having given His final revelation in His Son, God will not turn back the clock to another era. John 1:12 fixes the necessity of faith in Christ: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.”

Others, advocates of the so-called wider mercy view, propose something even more radical. They, too, believe that lost sinners can be saved apart from the gospel. But they go one step further and argue that those in non-Christian religions may actually be aided in coming to God by those false religions. Clark Pinnock writes,

Then, shockingly, he adds,

Pinnock’s universalism rejects the teaching of the apostles, who unhesitatingly declared, “There is salvation in no one else [than Jesus Christ]; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12; cf. 1 Cor. 3:11; 1 Tim. 2:5). It also rejects the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, who stated unequivocally, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).

In Romans 10:9-10 Paul explains the essential for salvation: “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Then in verses 13-15 the apostle—in sharp contrast to the “wider mercy” view—stresses the absolute necessity of the church carrying out the Great Commission:

Paul’s progression is crystal clear: only those who call on the name of the Lord can be saved (cf. Acts 16:31). But no one can call on the Lord without first believing in Him. And no one can believe in Him until they hear the gospel. Therefore the church must send out preachers to proclaim the gospel message to lost sinners because, as Paul summarized in Romans 10:17, “[Saving] faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word [about] Christ.” In 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 it is clear that the message and ministry of reconciliation is to preach Christ, since we are “ambassadors for Christ” through whom God makes His appeal for reconciliation (v. 20).

In keeping with the biblical mandate, the early church, at great cost, took the gospel to the farthest reaches of the Roman world and beyond, clearly understanding that people cannot be saved apart from believing in Christ. If they could, the suffering the gospel preachers endured (cf. 2 Cor. 11:22-33) was surely pointless. If the lost could be saved through natural theology or their pagan religions, the Christian missionaries could have stayed safely at home. Even exposing pagans to the gospel may have damned them, since they might not believe it. It would be better, on those terms, if they never heard it.

Paul’s encounter with the pagan Athenians on Mars Hill is instructive of how the early church approached those of other faiths. The apostle began by commending them for their religious zeal (Acts 17:22-23), much as he did the unbelieving Jews (Rom. 10:2). Then, as was his custom when evangelizing Gentiles (cf. Acts 14:15-17), Paul appealed to God’s general revelation in nature. He noted that he had “found an altar with this inscription, ‘to an unknown god’” (Acts 17:23). Despite the pantheon of gods they worshiped, the Athenians had a nagging concern that there might be one that they still did not know. To avoid giving offense, they erected a sort of catchall altar to appease any god they might have inadvertently overlooked.

The apostle’s reaction is illuminating. He did not approach those pagans expecting to discover how God had been speaking to them. Nor did he seek a new understanding of God’s grace and love in his encounter with them. Instead, he confronted them with the fact that they were worshiping in ignorance (Acts 17:23), and explained to them who God really is (vv. 24-29). And far from assuming that they could know Him and be saved from hell through their false religion, Paul closed his message by calling them to repent and turn to Jesus Christ, the only way to God, saying, “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (vv. 30-31).

Paul’s encounter with the Athenians illustrates the impossibility of anyone being saved through general revelation alone. General revelation demonstrates that an all-powerful Creator exists. But it does not reveal the way of salvation, “since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God” (1 Cor. 1:21 a). Human reason, even aided by general revelation, cannot produce a saving knowledge of God. Therefore, as Paul went on to write, “God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21 b). Only those who believe the message of “Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (vv. 23-24; cf. 2:1-5) will be saved (cf. 2 Thess. 1:8, where Paul defines those who do not know God as those who “do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus”).

No human has the power in himself to come to God, even by the gospel. Scripture is clear that humanity is dead and cannot in the flesh please God (Rom. 8:7-8). No person can by his own strength, works, or faith please God at all, especially not so as to earn salvation even under the hearing of the gospel, let alone apart from it. God alone saves sovereignly and always through the gospel. Only He can give life and light producing repentance and faith—always directed toward Jesus Christ.

To say that all men are totally depraved is not to say each is as bad as the other, or as evil as possible. That cannot be true because even “evil men” in general “proceed from bad to worse” (2 Tim. 3:13). But all men are alienated, “excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them” (Eph. 4:18), unable to do anything to please God—especially to do the highest good: to repent and believe. If an unregenerate sinner, on his own, by a free act of his will, could believe in God or Christ, then he would do the greatest work of all. But Scripture says that he cannot please God. The Bible would lie if he could, and it would have to be said that sinners are not dead, powerless, alienated, darkened, and hopeless. But unregenerate sinners do not have the ability to believe savingly. If they did have the power to do what pleases God, they should be glorified for it—maybe even worshiped. But no one can be saved except by divine, sovereign, regenerating grace—and God grants that apart from any righteous act, but only in connection with the hearing and believing of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If the salvation of one who heard the gospel was conditioned on his ability to believe, then there would be no need for efficacious grace. And God would be taking too much credit for His part in salvation by saying it is all through His grace. But this is a foolish, if not blasphemous, notion. No sinner can do anything that pleases God, and only God can sovereignly grant saving faith by grace alone, and He does so only through Christ. Paul writes on this matter:

If salvation is by man’s will, then what is the point of God’s electing a people? But all the redeemed are elect in Christ, the Beloved, and saved through the divine gift of trust in Him and His work (Eph. 2:8-9; cf. Rom. 1:16).

God does not save by sovereign grace through general revelation; rather, unaided by God, the sinner is rendered by that revelation under judgment and without excuse. All men have ample evidence for God’s existence, “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:19-20). That knowledge, however, does not lead them to God. On the contrary, it only leaves them without excuse when He judges them, because “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (v. 18). General revelation is not sufficient for salvation, but is enough for damnation. Human reason alone will never lead sinners to a saving knowledge of God because they suppress the knowledge of Him that is available in general revelation (cf. Rom. 3:9-18). Apart from God’s special revelation in His Son and in the Scriptures, people remain ungodly, defiant, depraved sinners, hopelessly lost in the darkness of idolatrous false religion (Rom. 1:22-32). And far from accepting them, God in reality has utterly abandoned them (vv. 24-32).

The apostle John knew that there is no substitute for teaching that the “truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21) and stressed the importance of it in this brief epistle. John had called his readers to live in the truth of Christ that unites, indwells, blesses, and controls them (see the exposition of vv. 1-4 in the previous chapter of this volume). He was about to exhort them to remain loyal to, guard, and learn the truth. But before he did so, the apostle paused to add an important caveat: truth and love are inseparably linked. Love is an integral part of obedience to the truth, being repeatedly commanded in Scripture (cf. the discussion below); therefore, those who do not love do not practice the truth. And those who uphold the truth do so in love (Eph. 4:15).

LOVING IN THE TRUTH

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 should walk in it. (5-6)

The Greek phrase kai nun (“And now”) that begins verse 5 provides a logical link to verse 4. John did not hesitate to ask this Christian lady to love; his request was perfectly consistent with living in the gospel truth. The parenthetical statement, 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, echoes 1 John 2:7-11 (see the exposition of that passage in chapter 6 of this volume). John was not writing a new commandment never before revealed, but was reiterating the one which she had heard from the beginning of her Christian life. All believers are called into a fellowship marked by love for one another. Divine revelation is clear that love is the defining mark of a true believer, and the lack of it characterizes unbelievers. In 1 John 2:9-11 John declared,

In one sense, what John wrote was not a new commandment. New translates kainos, which refers not to something new in time, but in essential character. The command to love is not unique to the New Testament. The Old Testament Law provided a summary of how to love. Deuteronomy 6:5 commands, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might,” while Leviticus 19:18 adds, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” When asked to name the greatest commandment in the Law, Jesus replied by citing those same two commands: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40). The Ten Commandments, the summation of the Law, are divided into two sections. The first five commandments describe how to love God; the last five describe how to love people. Thus Paul could write that “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10).

But though the commandment John spoke of was from one perspective an old one, viewed from another it was new. In 1 John 2:8 John wrote, “On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.” There are three senses in which the commandment is new. First, love is “true in Him”; that is, it has now been perfectly modeled in a human life by the Lord Jesus Christ. In his gospel John wrote concerning Christ’s love, “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end (lit., “perfectly,” “completely,” or “to the fullest measure”)” (John 13:1). Jesus offered Himself as an example of how to love when He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35; cf. 15:13; Phil. 2:5-9). Paul exhorted believers to “walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us” (Eph. 5:2).

Christians also have a new understanding of love through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As John pointed out in his first epistle, it is only possible for us to love “because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19; cf. Eph. 3:16-19). Paul wrote in Romans 5:5 that “the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” That supernatural love is one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22); thus Paul could write that believers “are taught by God to love one another” (1 Thess. 4:9).

Finally, the commandment to love is new in that it belongs to the new age inaugurated by the coming of Christ. We now live in the spiritual kingdom (Luke 17:20-21), which is growing (Luke 13:18-20) into the glorious millennial kingdom to be established when Christ returns, and after that the eternal kingdom. During this present spiritual kingdom “the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining” (1 John 2:8). The “true Light” is Jesus Christ (cf. John 8:12; 9:5; 12:35), through whom God has “rescue[d] us from this present evil age” (Gal. 1:4) and “from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). We are blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3), including divine, supernatural love, which is a way of life for those in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

The defining characteristic of love is that we walk according to His commandments. Love and obedience are inseparably linked, as Jesus made clear in John 14:15 when He declared, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (cf. vv. 23-24; 15:10). Believers manifest their love for God by their obedience to Him. In his first epistle, John wrote, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:3). The Old Testament also views obedience to God as the ultimate expression of love for Him. In Deuteronomy 11:1 Moses commanded Israel, “You shall therefore love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.” Moses’ successor, Joshua, gave Israel a similar charge: “Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Josh. 22:5). Love and obedience are also linked in such Old Testament passages as Exodus 20:6; Deuteronomy 5:10; 7:9; 30:16; Nehemiah 1:5; and Daniel 9:4.

Repeating himself to stress the importance of this truth, John wrote, This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. Those who truly love will walk in obedience to biblical truth and vice versa.

BEING LOYAL TO THE TRUTH

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. (7-8)

Biblical love does not imply a naïve, uncritical, undiscerning acceptance of anyone who claims to represent Jesus Christ. Thus, having stressed the importance of love, John immediately set limits on it. Believers cannot, in the name of love, embrace any of the many deceivers who have gone out into the world. Followers of the true Christ cannot love antichrists; those who are committed to biblical truth cannot have fellowship with those who pervert it (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14-15). Deceivers translates the plural form of planos, which literally means “a wanderer” (the English word “planet” derives from it). In this case, it refers to those who wander from the truth of Scripture; who corrupt it; who lead others astray from it; who are impostors (Paul called such people “false brethren” in 2 Cor. 11:26 and Gal. 2:4; cf. Jude’s description of them as “wandering stars” headed for the “black darkness” of eternal judgment [v. 13]).

These wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15) become especially dangerous when they infiltrate the church; hence the New Testament is full of warnings about them. In the Olivet Discourse Jesus predicted that in the end times “false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect” (Matt. 24:24). Paul called them “savage wolves” (Acts 20:29); “false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ” (2 Cor. 11:13); servants of Satan who, like their wicked master (v. 14), “disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds” (v. 15). The apostle told Timothy that “the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). In his first letter John pleaded with his readers,

Jude vividly and extensively denounced these deceivers as

Everywhere the true gospel goes, Satan’s emissaries are sure to follow. They preach a false, satanic gospel and thereby pervert the true gospel message and pollute the church. Paul warned the Galatians against them in the strongest possible terms:

John defined the particular false teachers in his sights as those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. There are many ways to undermine the gospel, such as by denying the deity of Jesus Christ, or that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. But these heretics denied the true humanity of Jesus Christ, refusing to acknowledge that He was God who had become fully human. They were forerunners of the dangerous second-century heresy known as Gnosticism, which posed one of the gravest threats to the early church. (For further information on the heresy against which John wrote, see the Introduction to 1 John in this volume.)

John countered the false teachers’ diverse attacks on the person of Jesus Christ by stressing the truth about Him in his epistles. In 1 John 1:3 he identified Jesus Christ as God the Son (cf. 3:23; 2 John 3); in 2:1 he presented Him as the believers’ Advocate with the Father, whose death propitiated God’s wrath against their sin (v. 2; cf. 1:7; 4:9-10); in 2:22-23 he declared that those who deny that Jesus is the Christ do not know God; in 3:8 he pointed out that Jesus has destroyed the works of Satan; in 4:14 he affirmed that the Father sent the Son into the world as Savior, and reiterated in verse 15 that only those who confess Jesus as the Son of God know the Father (cf. 2 John 9); and in 5:9-13 John wrote that only those who believe the divine revelation about Jesus Christ have eternal life.

To deny the biblical truth that in Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, God became fully human is to propagate demon doctrine. Anyone who does so is a deceiver and an antichrist (cf. 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3). To teach, as these heretics did, that Jesus’ humanity was merely an illusion is to strike a blow at the heart of the gospel. If Jesus were not the God-man, fully human as well as fully divine, He could not have died as the substitute for men.

Knowing the serious threat the false teachers posed, John warned his readers, Watch yourselves. The church must be vigilant, discerning, even suspicious, because what is at stake is so vital. Having labored in the lives of this lady and her children, John wanted to see the full fruit of that effort; he did not want them to lose what they together had accomplished. Paul expressed a similar concern for the Corinthians:

Like every faithful pastor, John and Paul were concerned that those under their care not lose ground spiritually. It was that concern that prompted Paul to sharply rebuke the Galatians for dabbling in false doctrine:

The church today has a legacy that has been handed down to it, a heritage that must be preserved at all costs. Men of God throughout history have preached, taught, and defended the true gospel, often at great cost of time, effort, and persecution—even to the point of death. As his life drew to a close, Paul repeatedly exhorted Timothy to protect the truth that had been handed down to him: “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you” (1 Tim. 6:20); “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you” (2 Tim. 1:13-14); “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them” (2 Tim. 3:14; cf. 2 Thess. 2:15).

But those who, influenced by false teachers, slip backwards risk far more than undoing the labor of faithful shepherds. The tragic consequences of their spiritual regression will include failing to receive a full reward. The Bible teaches that believers will be rewarded in heaven for their service in this life (e.g., Matt. 5:12; 10:41-42; Luke 6:35; 1 Cor. 3:10-15; 4:3-5; 2 Cor. 5:10; Col. 3:24; Rev. 22:12). While salvation cannot be lost (cf. John 6:37-40; Rom. 5:1; 8:1, 28-39; Heb. 7:25; 1 Peter 1:4), unfaithful believers may forfeit some of the reward that faithfulness to the truth would have gained them. John did not want to see that happen to those whom he loved and labored among. Paul had the same concern in mind when he warned the Colossians, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind” (Col. 2:18).

Believers must be discerning and decisively reject deceiving false teachers, no matter how loudly they clamor for love and tolerance. Loyalty to the truth, written and incarnate, demands it, and the consequences of not doing so—both now and in eternity—are sufficient reason to be faithful.

GUARDING THE TRUTH

Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. 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. (9-11)

Those who are loyal to Scripture will naturally seek to protect and guard it. No matter what he may claim, anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Proagō (goes too far) means in this context “to go beyond established bounds of teaching or instruction, with the implication of failure to obey properly “(“Proagō,” Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd Edition, Edited by J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida. Copyright © 1988 by the United Bible Societies, New York, NY 10023. Electronic edition, BibleWorks 7). The “established bounds of teaching or instruction” are revealed in Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 4:6 Paul wrote, “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other” (emphasis added). Any teaching not consistent with Scripture is to be rejected (cf. Rev. 22:18-19).

Abide again translates the present participle of the verb menō, which means “to remain,” “continue,” or “persist in.” The teaching of Christ can refer either to His teaching, or to the biblical teaching about Him, since both are in total agreement. False teachers are not content to remain within the confines of Scripture, but invariably add erroneous interpretations, revelations, visions, words as if from the Lord, or esoteric distortions of the biblical text, while claiming to have advanced knowledge, new truth, or hidden wisdom available only to them and their followers.

But such claims are specious. John plainly states that anyone who alters, adds to, denies, or misrepresents what the Bible says about Jesus Christ does not have God (cf. Matt. 11:27; John 5:23; 15:23; 1 John 2:23; Rev. 22:18-19). Conversely, the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. This is salvation language; having God and Christ must mean their indwelling presence. As Jesus declared in John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” There is no way to know God apart from faith in the Christ of Scripture (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Tim. 2:5).

In verse 10 John sets out one practical application of how to defend the truth: If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house. Hospitality for traveling teachers was common in the culture (cf. Luke 9:1-6; 10:1-12). The prohibition here is not to turn away the ignorant; it does not mean that believers may not invite unbelievers—even those who belong to a cult or false religion—into their midst. That would make giving the truth to them difficult, if not impossible. The point is that believers are not to welcome and provide care for traveling false teachers, who seek to stay in their homes, thereby giving the appearance of affirming what they teach and lending them credibility.

John’s use of the conjunction ei (if) with an indicative verb indicates a condition that is likely true. Apparently, the lady to whom he wrote had for whatever reason, in the name of Christian fellowship, already welcomed false teachers into her home. It was just such compassionate, well-meaning people that the false teachers sought out (cf. 2 Tim. 3:6); since churches were supposed to be protected by elders who were skilled teachers of the Word (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:9), they should have been less susceptible to the lies propagated by the deceivers. Having established themselves in homes, the false teachers hoped eventually to worm their way into the churches. It is much the same today, as false teaching insidiously invades Christian homes through television, radio, the Internet, and literature.

So threatening are these emissaries of Satan that John went on to forbid even giving them a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. Irenaeus relates that the church father Polycarp, when asked by the notorious heretic Marcion, “Do you know me?” replied, “I do know you—the firstborn of Satan” (Against Heresies, 3.3.4). John himself once encountered Cerinthus (another notorious heretic) in a public bathhouse in Ephesus. Instead of greeting him, however, John turned and fled, exclaiming to those with him, “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.3.4).

Chairein (greeting) means “Rejoice.” It was a common Christian greeting, conveying the joy believers had in one another’s presence. But it is an affirmation of solidarity that is totally inappropriate for false teachers, who have no part in the truth or genuine Christian fellowship. Such emissaries of Satan must be exposed and shunned, not affirmed and welcomed.

False teachers like to decry such treatment as harsh, intolerant, and unloving. But love forbids allowing dangerous spiritual deception to find a foothold among Christians. John’s pastoral admonition is perfectly consistent with Jesus’ denunciation of false teachers as “ravenous wolves” (Matt. 7:15; cf. Acts 20:29); thieves and robbers (John 10:1) whose only purpose is “to steal and kill and destroy” (v. 10). The church cannot aid or abet with impunity such spiritual outlaws by doing anything that would acknowledge them as Christians. The one who does so—even by doing something as seemingly innocuous as greeting them—participates in their evil deeds by helping them further their deception.

LEARNING THE TRUTH

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 joy may be made full. The children of your chosen sister greet you. (12-13)

The conclusion of this marvelous little epistle reveals one last responsibility believers have toward the truth. If they are to live in it, love consistent with it, be loyal to it, and guard it, they must constantly be learning it. Despite all that she had learned from John and her other pastors and teachers, there were still many things about which he needed to write to her. The apostle still had much to teach her, but he did not want to do so with paper (papyrus) and ink (lit., “black”; a reference to ink made from water, charcoal, and gum resin). It was his hope to come to her and speak face to face. The Greek text literally reads “mouth to mouth,” an idiomatic expression comparable to the English expression “eyeball to eyeball.” In Numbers 12:8 God declared that He spoke “mouth to mouth” with Moses. The phrase reveals John’s pastoral heart; he longed to have a personal conversation with this influential Christian lady to further her instruction in the truth.

The result of her learning the truth would be that her joy would be made full (cf. 1 John 1:4). The greater the knowledge of the truth, the greater the believer’s joy. Jeremiah said, “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jer. 15:16). Jesus also connected knowing and obeying the truth with experiencing joy (John 15:11; 17:13).

John’s concluding statement, The children of your chosen sister greet you, was a personal greeting he passed along from this lady’s nieces and nephews. As noted in the discussion of verse 1 in the previous chapter of this volume, John did not hesitate to refer to believers as chosen. Greet translates a form of the verb aspazomai, which is frequently used at the conclusion of New Testament epistles (Rom. 16:22, 23; 1 Cor. 16:19-20; 2 Cor. 13:12-13; Phil. 4:21-22; Col. 4:10, 12, 14, 15; 1 Thess. 5:26; 2 Tim. 4:19, 21; Titus 3:15; Philem. 23; Heb. 13:24; 1 Peter 5:13-14; 3 John 14). From his location in Ephesus, John signed off after calling this dear lady, and by implication all Christians, to the truth.

In an age of relativism and skepticism, the church must remain firmly anchored to the solid foundation of divine truth. There is no place for insipid, shallow, theologically contentless preaching, for worship based on emotion devoid of truth, or for tolerating false teaching. There is no virtue in ignorance; no substitute for learning, loving, and guarding the truth. Only by so doing will the church be able to fulfill its divine calling to be the “pillar and support of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15), shining the light of God’s truth in the world of darkness.