This last section of this short letter, starts with an exhortation, or an encouragement, and a warning of sorts, to "look to yourselves etc, " Normally, the Bible is telling us to look to God, but here, this rather unusual statement is given to us.
Look to yourselves. The idea here, is that of "take care" that you do not lose, or throw away and destroy all that you have worked for thus far in your walk. But, keep on abiding, and believing, that you will receive from the Lord all that He would want to reward you for. He wants you to have a full, and perfect, and complete reward.
So, we are heading for heaven, and in heaven we will appear before Christ to be rewarded for our labors here below. So in saying, "look to yourselves", the Lord is simply dealing with a fact of life, and that is the need to be careful on our way to heaven. It's similar to the thought that is imbedded in a portion of what we call the Lord's prayer. "Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil, ( or the evil one ) In other words, the christian is aware of danger from within, and from without. Just as in any area of life, caution and care valuable attributes.
John ends with another explanation of what he mentioned earlier in verse 7, about deceivers.
2nd John 7. 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.
A deceiver is someone who seduces others away from the truth. It's a quiet steady effort, not an out and out blatant thing. To deceive means, to wander to rove, to mislead, lead others into error, it speaks of an impostor, a corrupter. So, this is a major part of why the readers were to be careful, it's because of the many deceivers . They are transgressors, they do not abide in the teaching of the Bible, and they are without God,
The person who remains in the teaching of Jesus Christ, has both the Father and the Son. Through God's Word we have His Son, and the Son's Father. They are both ours, and with us forever, and we with them forever. Praise God.
The final warning, is to not associate with false teachers. Those who bring this anti-christ doctrine, denying the humanity and the divinity of Jesus Christ, are not to be received into your house, and not to be greeted. If you do, you are sharing in their evil deeds.
What could this mean in practice, in our lives? It does not mean to be rude, or to be unfriendly, or to not be loving, and showing the grace of Christ. But, it clearly means to simply not have anything to do with these folks. That's all. In that culture of John's day, people would be coming into one another's homes, as there were no church buildings, there were no coffee shops etc, etc.
Social contact through being in homes, eating together was a big and normal part of life.
John is saying here, "draw a line of truth" Don't cross that line, and don't allow false deceivers into your world. You don't want to participate in what he calls "their evil deeds"
Indeed, evil, or destructive consequences follow false doctrine. The two go together. The one leads to the other.
Another way to understand the above, is not only not to welcome them, but, not to wish them God's blessing, and not to encourage them in their false teaching, don't hope for their success, and don't encourage them in their work.
John ends his letter with an anticipation of seeing his readers, and blesses them with greetings from others.
Pastor Bob Grenier
Calvary Chapel Visalia
