2 John 1:7-13: a reflection

7For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don’t confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist. 8Watch yourselves, that we don’t lose the things which we have accomplished, but that we receive a full reward. 9Whoever transgresses and doesn’t remain in the teaching of Christ doesn’t have God. He who remains in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10If anyone comes to you and doesn’t bring this teaching, don’t receive him into your house, and don’t welcome him, 11for he who welcomes him participates in his evil deeds. 12Having many things to write to you, I don’t want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and to speak face to face, that our joy may be made full. 13The children of your chosen sister greet you. Amen.

John warns his readers about deceivers who have gone out into the world, denying core truth about Jesus. And his counsel is simple and pointed: watch yourselves, and remain in the teaching of Christ. Whoever does not remain in it, he says, does not have God; but whoever remains in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. The safeguard against being led away by falsehood is to abide, to stay put, in the true teaching about Christ.

Notice the word remain, or abide. John does not tell his readers to go chasing after the latest ideas, or to prove themselves by embracing novelty. He tells them to stay, to remain rooted in the teaching they had received from the beginning, the truth about who Christ is. In a swirl of confident new voices claiming to have moved beyond the old teaching, faithfulness looks like remaining, holding your ground in the truth, not drifting after every new thing.

That is wisdom for any age, including ours, where there is always pressure to progress beyond the historic teaching about Christ, to trade the old truth for something that sounds more advanced or appealing. John's word is not to keep moving but to abide: remain in the teaching of Christ, and you remain in fellowship with the Father and the Son. Do not let confident deceivers pull you off the foundation. Guard what you have received, stay rooted in the truth about Jesus, and abide there. In remaining, you keep hold of God himself.

Lord, amid confident voices pressing me to move beyond the historic truth about Christ, help me do what John counsels: remain in the teaching of Christ. Keep me rooted in the truth I have received, not drifting after every appealing new thing. Guard me from deceivers, and let me abide in the teaching, and so abide in the Father and the Son.