Daily EncouragementSample

The warning is against false teaching and false teachers, of which there were many then, as there are now. They are deceivers and they are anti-Christ (verse 7). The core of all heresy is a false Christology.

What think ye of Christ? is the test,
To try both your work and your scheme;
You cannot be right in the rest,
Unless you think rightly of Him.

False teaching is frequently presented as advanced teaching - “Anyone who runs ahead. . . .” However, “To advance beyond Christ,” says Alfred Plummer, “is not progress but apostasy.” To run ahead to such an extent that you leave God behind is to go too far. The Christian progresses when he continues in the teaching of Christ. John Stott makes his helpful comment: “The Christian’s development is not progress beyond Christ’s teaching, whether direct or through the apostles as recorded in the New Testament, but a progressive understanding of it.”

False teaching calls for Christians to be on their guard - “watch out” (verse 8). And while we shall be polite to him, we shall not offer hospitality to the false teacher. We shall not take him into our homes. That is, if we treat false teaching as seriously as the New Testament does. “Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work” (verse 11).