NOTES for Jo2 1:1-13

The truth has already been given to us once and for all, and no one can take it away from us unless we ourselves renounce it. Outwardly, rejecting the truth may not look like directly repudiating it. The sign of faithfulness to the truth is love for God, manifested in keeping His commandments. It is therefore possible to fall away from the truth while acknowledging it in theory but not living in accordance with it.

The deceivers who seek to sow discord among Christians do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. An antichrist, not necessarily the final one, since he may be one of the many “little antichrists,” can call Christ something like a “disembodied spirit,” just as certain heretics denied the reality of His incarnation and called His sufferings on the cross illusory. The deceivers may not confess Christ at all, denying His existence and therefore His coming in the flesh. Finally, they may even acknowledge Him as a real person while denying that He is the Son of God who came in the flesh. In all such cases, this is not about sincere but mistaken people who know nothing of Christ, but about ideologues who set their own false teachings against the Gospel and thereby try to lead believers astray.

The appeal not to associate with such people or even greet them might seem excessive and contrary to the principles of tolerance and neighborliness. But we must remember that this is not about neighbors who have not yet accepted Christ, but about itinerant preachers who make their way to brotherly communities in order to introduce discord and confusion. They have no intention of practicing religious tolerance or of being good and peaceable neighbors. They, too, must be loved, but alas, this is love for enemies.

To defile the gift received from the Lord is worse than never to have had it at all.