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THE RESPONSE TO FALSE TEACHERS: AN EXEGESIS OF II JOHN 7-11

How should faithful Christians treat false teachers in the church today? Should Christians show hospitality to those who they disagree with concerning doctrinal matters? What is the nature of the false teaching that the deceivers espouse? How close of a relationship can an individual have with the Antichrist? The Apostle John in his letter to the “elect lady” addresses some of the issues proposed. The Holy Spirit through the pen of John deals specifically with the response to false teachers in Second John 7-11. John provides the church today with instructions on the “who” and “why” of disfellowship. This passage deals with the obsession with labeling false teachers and the habit of drawing fellowship lines in the church today.

Before II John 7-11 can be examined for today’s applications, the text must be studied to learn of its original meaning for the first century readers.

BACKGROUND

What is the background pertaining to II John 7-11? Why did John write this short letter? How does this text fix into the big picture of the letter?

Circumstances of Writing

This section will deal with the questions of where and when, to whom, and why was the letter written.

Author. The Apostle John is generally believed to be the writer. “The writer identifies himself only as ‘the elder.’ Internal evidence and tradition point to the apostle John as the author.” It has been said that, “John identifies himself as ‘the elder,’ not in the sense of an officer in a local church, but in the sense of elder statesman of the church at large.” This letter is a friendly note by John to a friend.

Place and date. II John does not specifically indicate within the text the place and date of the writing. Nevertheless, some scholars have made some reasonable guesses. One scholar supposes that, “probably no great interval of time existed between the writing of 1 John and 2 and 3 John. The epistles do not reflect raging persecution or major external trails. Their time and tone appear to be almost identical with 1 John. Therefore, A.D. 90-95 is a reasonable guess.” One writer states that Second John was “written around A.D. 90 from the city of Ephesus.” These conclusions seem reasonable and plausible.

Recipients or Recipient. The Apostle John is writing “to the chosen lady and her children” (II John 1). There are two interpretations of what “the chosen lady” means. One view is the figurative view which states that John is referring to a congregation on a whole. The figurative view is strengthened by the use of the plural personal pronoun “you” in verses 10 and 12. But the plural personal pronoun argument is not conclusive because John could be including the children of the “chosen lady” (II John 1).

The second view is the literal view, which states that John is writing a personal letter to a lady in a local congregation. “The ‘elect lady’ (eklekte kuria) has several possible meanings. If the designation is personal, (1) kuria could be a personal name, with ‘elect or ‘chosen’ as a descriptive modifier: ‘to the elect Cyria.’ (2) Eklekte could be a proper name, with kuria, ‘lady,’ an appositive: ‘to the lady Eclecte.” Either of these two interpretations of the “elect or chosen lady” is acceptable.

The likely recipient of second John is an individual lady because of “the informal, personal style of the epistle favors the literal view.”

Theme and purpose. The purpose of Second John “is clearly to encourage those to whom it is addressed to continue in the active exercise of the faith and love which they had learned from Christ and His Apostles, even to the point of refusing hospitality to those who claimed to come in Christ’s name, but who, in the writer’s opinion, were destroying the work of Christ by their teaching.” “Thus John, in the second epistle, felt the need to caution one dear lady and her friends about accepting any and all teachers into their homes” because of the blasphemes teachings of the deceivers that were abroad. At this time in history, “men were traveling throughout the empire and great works were being accomplished. Yet there were somber clouds within the empire, as false teachers were also energetic in their work.” This group of false teachers has been labeled by history as “Docetists.” This group of false teachers “denied the humanity of Christ and taught that He was only vision, a mere manifestation, or phantom.” The preconception that the Docetists had that clouded their view was that “the spiritual was regarded as divine and good, while the material was created and evil, therefore a real incarnation of the Son of God was impossible.” Overall, John admonishes the “elect lady” that the love one has for another does not surpass the love one has for God (II John 5-6). John also states that he hopes to come and see his friend in the near future (II John 12).

The prevailing theme that runs through this letter would be the importance of loving one another, but this love does not include showing hospitality to those who are destroying the basic tenet of Jesus Christ coming to earth and having a physical body.

Structure. The Apostle John has a specific structure as he communicates his message. John introduces this letter with a simple greeting (II John 1-3). The first point John makes is an exhortation to Christian love (II John 4-6). John desires that the Christians continue to love one another because that command is a major tenet of Christianity. The second point John makes is a warning against false doctrine and entertainment of false teachers (II John 7-11). John wants the family to know that they must not participate in helping false teachers do their work. John says that their show of hospitality is contributing to the devil’s work. The Apostle John gives his conclusion by stating his hope for coming for a visit and gives another greeting from fellow believers (II John 12-13).

EXPLANATION

When one studies the Bible, one needs to put the text up for explanation in context. Also one should study the text as it fits into the large picture of the total scope of the Bible. Therefore the connection and transition of the given text needs to be examined.

Connection, transition After the Elder John writes a friendly greeting and encourages the family to continue to love one another, John proceeds to dealing with the issue of the influx of false teachers. While Christ was on earth, “Jesus himself warned the Apostles of the rise of false Christs and prophets’ who would attempt to deceive even the elect” in Mark 13:22: “For false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order, if possible, to lead the elect astray.”

Also Second John must been seen in the context of all of the letters by John. “These false teachers already had been referred to in I John 2:18-29.” In First John, the Apostle instructs his readers to “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (I John 4:1). Since “energetic evangelism and excitement of studying with traveling missionaries were the overtones of the day,” John had to insure that the purity of the doctrine about Christ would be intact. “The heresy of these teachers was that they confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.” This heresy is the reason why John is writing this lady. Maybe he knew she was known for her hospitality, and he did not want her to extend fellowship to false teachers because the other members may think she was endorsing what they were teaching.

The Deceivers and their heresy

Why was the Apostle John so concerned over one lady providing some food and shelter to a certain group of men? The reason was that these false teachers were deceiving the masses about the identity of Christ. John warns the “elect lady” that many deceivers have gone out into the world. John uses the word deceiver which “is properly an adjective signifying ‘wandering or leading astray, seducing.” These false teachers were leading people astray by teaching that Christ never came to earth in the flesh. They stated that Christ was only an image or a vision of real person. John was calling attention to a well-known group of false prophets of his day. “The error in their teaching undoubtedly was the Docetics and dualistic teaching of the Gnostics that the divine Christ could not in any sense have been incarnated in the flesh of the man Jesus of Nazareth, since they held that human flesh was evil.” The nature of the false teaching was that the incarnation never happened. “There is in this heresy a double affront: it opposes Christ and deceives men.”

The identity of the Antichrist

The identity of the Antichrist has been debated throughout the centuries. “Two positions are generally held about the Antichrist. Some claim that John did not mean a personal Antichrist: ‘their have arisen many Antichrists’ (I John 2:18), and anyone denying the incarnation is anti-Christ. Others think that John meant that such Antichrists as John’s ‘many’ are forerunners of a great personal antagonist of Christ to arise at the end of the world.” The first view about the Antichrist being people who are against the core teaching, which is the incarnation of deity, is correct. The term “Antichrist occurs only in the writings of John (I John 2:18, 22; II John 7) and refers to those whose actions are opposed to the interests and teachings of Christ.” I. Howard Marshall states, “The elder is so convinced of the danger of taking up this position that he brands any person who adopts it as (the) deceiver and (the) Antichrist. He means that such a person is the deceiver par excellence, since his denial cuts at the very root of Christian belief. Indeed, he has made himself the opponent of Jesus.” Therefore the Antichrist is everybody who is against Christ.

Maintaining the faith and the reward

After John warns the “elect lady” about the deceivers in verse seven, John admonishes his lady friend in verse eight to watch herself that she will not hurt what has been accomplished and also not lose her reward. It was important to John that the “elect lady” “watch herself” so that she would not fall victim to the false teacher’s corrupting doctrine. “The use of the reflexive ‘watch yourselves’ does not mean: ‘Look out, not for those men, but for yourselves.’” If she was lead astray, others may fellow her lead. Obviously, souls were being saved in the church she attended and John did not want to see souls fall away from the truth. John worked to hard on evangelism to see false teachers destroy his work. John wanted his friend to stay faithful to the end so that she may receive a “full reward.” The “full reward” would mean a ticket to heaven. It was essential that the “elect lady” not succumb to the ear tickling ways of the false teachers.

The consequences for false teachers

John is verse nine provides the consequences for not abiding in the “doctrine of Christ.” The Holy Spirit plainly states that if you deny the incarnation of Christ you do not have God, but if you continue to believe in the incarnation, you have the Father and the Son’s favor. Most of the controversy of this text is centered on the phrase “Anyone who goes to far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God.” A more literal rendering of the phrase says, “Everyone going forward and not remaining in the teaching of Christ does not have God.” The phrase “anyone who goes to far” is the Greek what proagon which means, “to go on ahead.” “The author is almost certainly borrowing from the vocabulary of the heretics.” The heretics “claimed to have ‘go ahead’ views, a superior gnosis (knowledge), which had enabled them to advance beyond the rudiments of the faith in which the common herd were content to ‘abide’.”

These false teachers were “going to far” in the “doctrine of Christ”. But what is the “doctrine of Christ”? “The expression ‘doctrine of Christ’ has been taken to mean the entirety of Christian doctrine (known in Greek as the subjective genitive). Or the ‘doctrine of Christ’ can refer to the single doctrine about Christ (the objective genitive) that some were denying, namely, that Christ had come in the flesh.” The Phrase “doctrine of Christ” is referring to the teaching about Christ’s incarnation. The reason for believing that the phrase is in the objective genitive and therefore rendered “the doctrine about Christ” is because of verse seven in the context. In verse seven, John gives the erroneous doctrine that the false teachers were promoting. This false teaching was that the deceivers did “not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.” Also, there are a parallel verses in First John that are definitely discussing the doctrine of Christ’s incarnation. They state, “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also (I John 2:22-23). Another argument to prove that John is writing about the teaching of Christ’s incarnation is the historical background of the text. In the time of John’s writing, the teachings of the Docetics and the Gnostics were influential, and it would seem strange for John to make a sweeping statement that would include the entirety of all of Christian teaching when in reality he was only addressing the false teachings of the Docetices and the Gnostics. Finally, “the objective genitive is supported by Bultman, Marshall, Rengstorff, B. Weiss, and the NEB.” Therefore the phrase “the doctrine of Christ” is referring to the teaching of the incarnation and not the entire scope of Christianity.

Avoid offering hospitality to false teachers

Since the false teachers did not have fellowship with God, John advises the elect lady and her friends not to offer hospitality to preachers who do not preach the doctrine of Christ in verse ten. The elect lady was probably known throughout the region for offering passing preachers a place to stay. John may have known of her reputation for giving hospitality to strangers and so he wants to make sure that she only helps those who are true preachers of righteousness. John knew that “the refusal of hospitality would be the most effective way of stopping the work of the false teachers.” Also, “it must be made quite clear to the world that the church has no tolerance for those whose teaching destroys the faith.” John even went so far as to demand that these false teachers not even be given a greeting. The word greeting literally means “and do not say to him, greetings.” John instructed that no sign of endorsement be made between Christians and false teachers.

Giving hospitality is fellowshipping false teachers

In verse eleven John plainly states that if an individual is providing food and shelter to a false teacher, that person is participating in the antichrist’s evil deeds. In verse ten, “the welcome and greeting contemplated are clearly such as express approval of the character and work of those who claim such reception.” John admonishes that “discernment must be maintained lest one be guilty inadvertently of participating in their false teachings by such support.” John uses a form of the word “partaker” to descript the role of the person who is providing hospitality. The word “partaker” in the Greek is Koinoneo and it means, “to have a share of, to share with, take part in.” Therefore, if the “elect lady” provides some hospitality to a false teacher, she is contributing to his evil deeds.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this text warns of the work of the antichrist and the deceivers that are traveling throughout the region spreading doctrine that denies the incarnation of Christ. John admonishes the “elect lady” and her friends and family to not offer any hospitality to these corruptors of the faith, and if she does, she is participating in their evil deeds.

APPLICATION

Like every other text in the Bible, this text is relevant to Christians today. There are many practical applications a person can make from II John 7-11. The first application is the need not to help or fellowship those who deny the incarnation of Christ. The second application is the need for the church to avoid labeling others false teachers just because they may disagree with them on an insignificant issue. As one scholar has said, “It should be noted that the elder’s attach is on those who strike at the heart of Christian belief, not at those who may have happened to differ from him on theological points of lesser importance.” The third application is the fact that people cannot use II John 9 as a “monkey wrench” to disfellowship those who they may disagree with concerning the more difficult parts of scripture. Some members of the church use this verse to justify condemning others because they do not agree completely with them on every issue. They make the verse have a scope that was never intended by John. The fourth and finally application is the need to avoid endorsing events put on by false teachers. Christians should not allow others to think that they are in fellowship with any group that denies the incarnation of Christ. II John 7-11 speaks to Christians today as much as it did to Christians in the first century.