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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 2 John 1:10 - 1:10
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
If any one cometh and bringeth not (ei tis erchetai kai ou pherei). Condition of first class with ei and two present indicatives (erchetai, pherei).
This teaching (tautēn tēn didachēn). This teaching of Christ of 2Jo 1:9, which is the standard by which to test Gnostic deceivers (2Jo 1:7). John does not refer to entertaining strangers (Heb 13:2; 1Ti 5:10), but to the deceiving propagandists who were carrying dissension and danger with them.
Receive him not (mē lambanete auton). Present active imperative with mē. For lambanō in this sense see Joh 1:12; Joh 6:21; Joh 13:20.
Into your house (eis oikian). Definite without the article like our at home, to town.
Give him no greeting (chairein autōi mē legete). “Say not farewell to him.” Apparently chairein here (present active infinitive, object of legete present active imperative with negative mē) is used of farewell as in 2Co 13:11, though usually in the N.T. (Act 15:23; Act 23:26; Jam 1:1) of the salutation. But here the point turns on the stranger bringing into the house (or trying to do so) his heretical and harmful teaching which seems to be after the salutation is over. The usual greeting to a house is given in Luk 10:5. On the other hand, if chairein means greeting, not farewell, here, it can very well be understood of the peril of allowing these Gnostic propagandists to spread their pernicious teachings (cf. Mormons or Bolshevists) in home and church (usually meeting in the home). This is assuming that the men were known and not mere strangers.