Remaining in the Teaching of Christ
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. 10 If anyone comes to you and doesn’t bring this teaching, don’t receive him into your house, and don’t welcome him, 11 for he who welcomes him participates in his evil deeds.
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