Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 John · About this commentary
Remaining in the Teaching of Christ
2 John 1:9-11
9 Whoever transgresses and doesn’t remain in the teaching of Christ doesn’t have God. He who remains in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. · WEB
Whoever stays in the teaching of Christ has the Father and the Son; whoever walks past it walks out on both — and no welcome may say otherwise.
Verse 9 states the principle with John's own verb. The one who does not remain — menō G3306, the word used of truth in verse 2 — in the teaching of Christ does not have God; the one who remains has both the Father and the Son. It is the first epistle's arithmetic 1 John 2:23. However forward the walking looks, freedom lies inside the word John 8:31–32.
Verses 10 and 11 take it to the door. The visitor in view is a carrier — one who comes and does not bring this teaching. The letter refuses both house and greeting. The house, because assemblies met in houses Romans 16:5, where hosting the teacher handed over the congregation; the greeting, because chairein G5463 blessed an errand onward. Receiving true teachers makes fellow workers for the truth 3 John 1:8; greeting the deceiver makes a sharer — koinōneō G2841 — in his evil deeds. Hospitality enlists the host in the traveler's work; which work is the only question.
The boundary is as wide as the mission it blocks. Kindness to strangers is commended beside brotherly love Hebrews 13:1–2; what is refused is the platform — assembly, endorsement, send-off. A church may feed a man it will not let teach.
held with reason What this mark means