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Warning against false teachers
v. 7. For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an anti-Christ.
v. 8. Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
v. 9. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
v. 10. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God- speed;
v. 11. for he that biddeth him God- speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
Here the warnings of the longer letter are summarized: Because many deceivers went forth into the world that do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh; this is the deceiver and the anti-Christ. These words are addressed to the entire family to whom this letter was sent, and give the reason why they should obey the old commandment, namely, because seducers are at work, men who were acquainted with the Gospel-truth, but deliberately denied it and went forth with the intention of deceiving souls. The principal heresy of the deceivers, the foundation of all their anti-Christian teaching, was this, that they denied Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate, the Savior of the world. So each and every one of them was, in truth, a deceiver and an anti-Christ; every one of them was busily engaged in attempting to dethrone Christ.
The apostle's warning, therefore, is specific and personal. Look to yourselves, lest you lose what you have worked for, but rather receive a full reward. We Christians must ever be on our guard and hold fast that which we have. The treasure of our faith, although given us without any merit or worthiness on our part, causes us many an hour of tribulation and battle; it is too precious to lose lightly. We must cling to our Christian belief, and all that it includes, with all the power at our command. For only if we are faithful to the end, shall we receive, as a merciful reward, the crown of life, Rev_2:10. That, indeed, is a full, a wonderful reward, the bliss of everlasting salvation before the face of the Lord. There certainly is danger in taking up with false teaching and risking the loss of the Gospel's comfort: Everything that is "progressive" and does not remain in the doctrine of Christ has not God; he that remains in the doctrine, this one has both the Father and the Son. The false teachers of Asia Minor were fond of boasting that they alone were progressive, advanced thinkers; they alone were making the Gospel fit new situations, just as the false prophets of our day are always advertising, with a pitying side glance at the poor benighted Bible Christians that still cling to its doctrines of sin and grace. The old teaching of Christ, of salvation through His blood, had been set aside by them as not agreeing with the demands of an enlightened people. But St. John's judgment upon such teachers is short: They have not God. Every one to this day and hour that denies the manifestation of the Father in the Son for the salvation of the world by His suffering and death thereby denies the true, revealed God. No teaching is true, no teaching has a right to exist, which eliminates the redemption or obscures the glory of the Cross. On the other hand, every teacher, 'every believer that clings to that old doctrine of salvation through the blood of Christ, to the fact that God the Father sent His Son into the world that men should live through Him, has both the Father and the Son, is united with them by the bonds of the closest union, in faith.
There was need of caution in those days: If any one comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into the house, and do not greet him, for he that greets him becomes a partaker of his wicked works. There was need of such caution and discrimination in receiving the receiving "apostles and prophets" of those days, who not only went from congregation to congregation, but also from house to house, trying to gain adherents for their false doctrines. St. John, therefore, gives the very good rule and precept that such people should be forbidden the house and that no one should wish them good luck in their undertaking, wish them well in their work. To this day the wandering preachers that are trying to gain proselytes for their false teaching should be treated in the same way: they should be refused admittance to the houses and should certainly not receive our good wishes in their evil work. But to carry this admonition out to such an extent as to deny even a civil greeting or the courtesies of charity to members of a false church is to transgress against other passages of Scriptures, such as Mat_5:43-48; Gal_6:10.