“If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him…”
We now come to the second warning: Do not tolerate a false teacher accessing the local congregation.
If anyone comes to you
Traveling teachers depended on local people for lodging and finances (Ac 18:2-3; 21:7; 3 Jn 5-8). The “if” indicates that false teachers were actually attending the church at Ephesus.
and does not bring this doctrine,
“This doctrine” is the doctrine of the incarnate Christ. False teachers who denied the incarnation did visit the elect lady’s congregation. Their purpose was to spread the Gnostic doctrine.
For the third time, John uses the word “doctrine.” It is impossible to be a Christian without doctrine. We have to know Whom we believe, what we believe, and why we believe it. If a person is wrong about Christ, he is wrong about everything in Christianity. Jesus Christ is the substructure for everything in the Bible.
PRINCIPLE:
There is no latitude for difference in the doctrine of the incarnation.
APPLICATION:
Some doctrines in the Bible leave room for honest differences of opinion among evangelicals; however, the doctrine of Christ leaves no latitude. If we make a mistake about Jesus Christ, it will cost us our souls. He is the only way of access to heaven.
Jn 10:7-9, “Then Jesus said to them again, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 “All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.'”
Jn 14:6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way [literally, road], the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'”
Ac 4:12, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
1 Co 3:11, “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
Co 2:9-10, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”
Dear sir,
You have made it clear about what is false doctrine.Of course,it is true that there are differences of opinions among the evangelicals in many issues of the Bible.But as evangelicals,there must be love in between them & they must respect each other.There must not be cut throat competition among evangelicals in the work of the Lord.