John returns to the crisis that drove all three of his letters. 7"Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh." Teachers who denied that Jesus had come in human flesh were moving through the churches, and the question put to the spirits in 1 John 4 is put here to the people. What do they say about Jesus? The NIV Application Commentary says Jesus Christ is in the dock, and the outcome of the debate will either produce a religion centered on his work and words or push him to a secondary place.
8"Watch yourselves." The word is the language of a sentry. John addresses the church as a community that has something to lose, since the faith they received cost labor, and an unguarded door could squander it.
9"Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God." The Greek verb for goes on ahead, *proago*, describes someone who runs out in front of the group. The teachers John opposed considered themselves advanced, with a deeper knowledge that had moved past the plain apostolic message. John reverses the direction. What looks like progress is departure, because it leaves the teaching of Christ behind. The measure of growth is abiding, and whoever abides has both the Father and the Son.
Then comes the hardest instruction in the letter. 10"Do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting." It has to be read with its setting in view. Traveling teachers depended on the hospitality of the churches, which gave them a place to stay and a platform. False teachers used that welcome to win an audience and a following, and an early church manual, the Didache, gives the same counsel. John is describing how a church should treat a traveling teacher who has come to spread a denial of Christ. The concern is lending such a teacher a house and a greeting of welcome, which would help the work. The instruction was never meant to forbid ordinary kindness to neighbors, coworkers, or family members who disagree with us about Jesus. The limit John sets is the limit of what a church may endorse.
The letter ends with warmth. 12"I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete." After a stern paragraph, John reaches for a person. Some things a letter cannot carry, and a page or a screen does not stand in for someone in the room.
The letter closes as it opened, with a church's greeting to another church. The warning is written inside a family.
Ask who has been offering you a Jesus smaller than the one the apostles preached, and who you need to see face to face this week.
Prayer
Father, keep us watchful so that we do not lose what has been worked for in us. Keep us abiding in the teaching of Christ so that we have both the Father and the Son. Give wisdom to your churches about whom to welcome and what to endorse, and keep us kind to every neighbor. In Jesus' name, amen.