Life is an Expression of the Doctrine of Christ

Before you start todays devotional, ask the Lord to use it to grow you up in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Why would John not want us to love everyone?

We’ve been talking about the role of truth and love, and John again warns us about deceivers in the world who teach Jesus Christ isn’t God.“ Antichrists” is what he calls them.

The spirit of the antichrist is to deny everything that is said about Him, everything He said, and everything He did for us in redemption by dying on the cross and being raised bodily from the dead. The spirit of the antichrist will eventually be headed up by the Antichrist, as described in Revelation 13.

In John’s day, a cult called Gnosticism was running riot. Some Gnostics taught Jesus and Christ were two different entities, and the divine came upon Jesus at His baptism and left Him at the Cross. Others denied that Jesus had a physical body and that people only thought they saw Jesus, but He wasn’t actually there. Other Jewish sects picked up some Christian teachings and mingled them with their teaching, creating distorted conceptions about the person of Christ.

Then and now, the one thing that sets a deceiver apart is what they teach about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unless they think rightly of Him, everything else goes down the tube.

A fellow believer might hold a different view on other points of theology, for example, on election. Election has been debated through the centuries, with great theologians holding differing views. However, you must agree on the essentials of the faith, like the virgin birth, how we are saved, Jesus’ deity, His miraculous life, His work of redemption upon the cross, etc.

John says that if you deny the deity of Christ, you may be religious, but you’re not a Christian. After all, Christian means one who believes and follows Him.

Did you know the Lord wants to reward those who follow Him, even beyond the gift of salvation?! Just imagine the joy at hearing Him say to you someday, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). Every believer ought to be working for a reward (see 2 Timothy 4:7-8). It would be such a loss to be taken in by deceivers and lose our reward. We’ll never lose our salvation, but when we fellowship or identify ourselves with anything that denies the deity of Christ, we risk losing our rewards. Some people get so “progressive” in their thinking that they walk away from God. John praises those who stay the course and don’t change their doctrine after the world’s pattern.

There’s many a fake ministry that’s trying to make a fast buck today. Jesus sometimes said the children of the world are wiser than we are, so we need to show some spiritual discernment and not be taken in by false ministries.

After some personal greeting, John closes this tremendous little letter with a message to alert every believer today.

1.How should John’s warnings about the spirit of antichrist impact our attitudes toward whoever’s advice and directions we follow?

2.If we can’t lose our salvation, what can falling prey to false teachers do to us?

3.All throughout this letter John has preached love and truth. What are some ways in your life you can practice love and truth more and better?

Additional Resources

Listen to Dr. J. Vernon McGee’s complete teaching of 2 John 6—8 and 2 John 9—13.

For a deeper study of 2 John, download the 2 John Bible Companion for free!