Do Not

 

DEVOTION

THE 2^ND LETTER OF JOHN

DO NOT

2 John 7-11

7 Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. 11 Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.

NIV

Although walking in love is the core issue of this letter, John also makes sure this lady is aware of the false doctrines that are out there and have been attempting to infiltrate the church of believers. We know that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and thus Jesus was not resurrected. Of course, they did not recognize that Jesus was from God and thus was not the Messiah. None of the Jews that were not part of those who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ thought he was the Christ. They did not believe the Son of God came in the flesh. Those were, in fact, the Jews that had him killed by the Romans. It would also make sense that they would come after those who did believe Jesus was the Christ and try to convince them otherwise. They may even have sent out evangelist, per se, in an effort to bring people in the fold of Judaism. Then there were the Judaizers who wanted new Gentile believers to adhere to the Law and get circumcised in order to be a full believer. We can just imagine understanding from our time with so many different interpretations that have developed into a multitude of denominations, some at odds with each other over how baptism is done, whether it completes salvation or not, whether the gifts are still here or they were only for the early church. The differences just keep going, so it is not difficult to understand how so many different beliefs come into being during that time, considering they did not have a complete written record, but most of the gospel truth was orally passed on, with some letters circulating from church to church. Everything was new and exciting and people must have been always hoping for new information. John warns this lady and us, not to welcome new doctrines, for we know the truth from the beginning. We do have a complete record of the truth, and we also have the Spirit who leads us into all the truth. We too should not welcome any of that false teaching that is in abundance. There is an extremely deceptive belief being promoted all the time, but in our current social environment, it has become popular to decent against the authorities God has instituted, even our country and it's way of life. There are many who would claim God does not exist. What we need to remember is that we know the truth and we need to remain in the truth, remain in Christ, and walk in love, as Jesus did. We cannot and should not be influenced by anyone other than the Holy Spirit. There are too many who even come in the name of God who teach incorrect doctrine. We are not to welcome them into our homes, which for us is into our lives. We have both the Father and the Son. We believe in God the Father and God the Son and not a single person is going to convince us otherwise. We will not share in their wickedness.