“For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”

John now moves to the occasion for his writing of Second John – safeguard of truth. This challenges readers to resist false teachers. Verse seven is the reason for the challenge in verse six. It warns against propagating error by hosting false teachers and thereby giving them credibility. Love requires a condition for its integrity — the truth of God’s Word. 

John gives 3 warnings:

Warning against many deceivers abroad (v. 7).

Warning against receiving a half-reward (v. 8).

Warning against apostates who reject the deity of Christ (vv. 9-11).

For many deceivers have gone out into the world

There were few suitable motels in the first century, so traveling teachers stayed in homes of the locality where they ministered. Some of these teachers were imposters. Some taught incipient Gnosticism, which held that, since matter is evil, God could not dwell in human flesh. 

False teachers damage the exercise of mutual love because their teaching negates the essence of Christianity: the incarnation. The false teacher, Cerinthus, preyed not on pagans but true Christians. 

who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.

The essential error rampant in John’s day related to the doctrine of Christ. They denied that He came in the flesh (1 Jn 5:1). They could not conceive of the fact that Jesus was both truly God and perfect man. All of Christianity revolves around this doctrine. 

1 Jn 4:2-3, “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.”

PRINCIPLE: 

We need great discrimination in today’s culture of non-discrimination. 

APPLICATION: 

We live in a day when almost no one wants to exercise spiritual discrimination because we live in a culture that neutralizes truth. No one wants to be dogmatic or claim anything definitely. In No Place for Truth, David Wells concludes that evangelical Christians today have reached a point where there is no place for truth. He chronicles doctrinal death among evangelicals. He says that this cliché culture has taken a dreadful toll on the human spirit, emptying it of “meaning, depth, and morality.” 

Churches today increasingly refashion their faith around therapies centered on the self. They have lost the truth that stands outside human experience. Instead of standing apart from the world’s blandishments, they are absorbed into it. 

We have to be accurate in our understanding of God’s truth. If a chemist is not exact in his measurements, he may blow the lab to pieces. We live in a day when anything is good enough when it comes to truth. Anything is not good enough, and almost is not close enough. Two plus two never equals five. Sloppiness has no place in expounding the truth of the Word of God.