ANNOUNCER: In 2 John verse 9, what does the phrase mean, “does not have God?” Is this verse hinting that we can lose our salvation by some sort of doctrinal defection? Over the next few minutes, let’s have a discussion about it, and we’re glad that you’re joining us, friend, here on Grace in Focus, a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org. There’s lots to learn about us there, including our free online seminary, our application and registration period for the fall semester is now open, and our annual national conference pre-registration coming to an end here on May 7th, a couple of days from now, so get online and get registered right away at faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s question and answer discussion here are Bob Wilkin and Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, Bob, we’ve got a question from Norm, and his question is on 2 John. He says, I’m having a debate with a non-free gracer or future free gracer. There’s some hopefulness here. He said he has suggested 2 John 9 says that we are not always saved. So we’ll read that in a second, but he also says your search service on the website does not show any 2 John articles and displays only 1 John. Are there no articles on 2 John? 

Just for Norm and anybody else that’s curious, there are a few blogs and articles on 2 John. You’ve got to type in 2 John. I found a couple of them, but I guess this is a call for Bob and Ken to write some more on this. [See here and here.] But as we’ll see in this episode, 2 John is very, very closely related to 1 John, so there’s a lot of, almost everything we see in 2 John, we can trace somewhere back to his first letter and it’s expanded on even more. So that’s where we’re going to go. 

But first, let me read this verse, 2 John 9. He says, “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.” 

BOB: So he’s saying that this future free grace person that he’s talking to looks at this verse and says this proves we can lose our salvation. By doctrinal defection, right? Losing our correct beliefs. A couple of things. First of all, 2 John in Greek is not 2 John. It’s Beta John. 1 John is Alpha John. 2 John is Beta John. 3rd John is Gamma John. And that helps me remember that 2 John, Beta John, is about don’t support the bad guys. And that’s what these verses are saying. And then Gamma John says, do support the good guys, the good teachers. 

Now notice in verses, well, the verses that precede this, “many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Look to yourselves that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.” John is saying, look, if you get deceived and duped by false teachers, we’re not going to get the full reward we should have gotten for the ministry we’ve done among you. And then he says, “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God.” 

I would agree with Norm’s friend that it’s possible for a believer to do that. That’s the whole point in John bringing this up. And he says, “He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.” The question is, what does it mean to “have God” and to “have the Father and the Son?” Well, it doesn’t mean to be born again. It does not mean the Spirit of God living within us. It means to be someone who is in fellowship with God the Father and God the Son, so that it’s kind of like saying, hey, Sam, I’ve got your back. I’ve got you. That means I am promising that I’m going to protect you. I’m going to be there with you. God the Father and God the Son are behind us whenever we are sound in our doctrine. They’re supporting us. They’re protecting us. But whenever we depart from sound doctrine, then we don’t have God. We don’t have the Father. We don’t have the Son in terms of Their support. 

And notice he goes on to say, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him.” Now, this isn’t saying if some Mormon missionaries come to your door, you’re sinning if you invite them to sit down in your house and talk. This is talking about when they had traveling teachers in the first century, they would invite them to stay in their home. They would feed them. They would house them. When it says nor greet them, it doesn’t mean you can’t say hello to some people who are Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons. 

What it means is you don’t pray God’s blessing upon them. “He who greets him shares in his evil deeds.” That’s why I say 2 John is about don’t support the bad guys. This is anybody that is departed from sound doctrine. And so if you’re sending money to somebody who is a Protestant, but they teach works salvation, well you’re supporting false teachers. And if you’re supporting someone who, for example, does not teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again, then you’re supporting people who are proclaiming false doctrine or people who deny many vital truths of Scripture. For example, they don’t believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. Well, that would be supporting people who are denying a fundamental of the faith. 

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BOB: What he’s saying in verses nine through eleven is that we are to support true teachers. That’s 3 John. We are not to support false teachers. And so if Norm departs from fundamental truth, then Norm no longer has God supporting him. He no longer has the Lord Jesus Christ supporting him in what he’s doing. But he’s still born again, right? Because John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but [have] everlasting life.” And the Lord Jesus is quoted by John and John’s Gospel to say the believer will never hunger, will never thirst, will never die, will never be cast out, and no one can pluck us out of Jesus’ hand or the Father’s hand. We’re secure. And you see that, of course, in the first epistle of John, for example, in 1 John 2 verses 24-26, 1 John 5:9-13, it’s all real clear.

Even in this book, he’s writing to a local church. He says, “The elder, to the elect lady and her children.” Well, the elect lady or children refers to a local church, that’s a chosen church, a chosen lady, “and her children,” the believers, “whom I love in truth.” In other words, these are born again people. “Not only I, but also all who have known the truth, because of the truth which abides in us, and will be with us forever.” So the people he’s writing to are people of the truth. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to necessarily abide in the truth. So we’ve got to be careful because these false teachers are coming, verses seven and eight, and they can mislead the readers. 

SAM: Yeah. And I think in John’s Gospel, there’s a relevant verse here, John 8:31, “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.” And I think that’s closer to what’s being talked about here. It’s not about having salvation or not, but this is about being good disciples, about being followers of Christ. And I think it’s especially important that you highlighted that 2 John is written to a church, not just individual believers because this is especially important for a church. If you have a church, and in that time, you have these traveling teachers going around in your church, lets in a bad egg, a guy who’s going to spread bad doctrine, then it’s not just, okay, I let this guy my house and gave him some food and now he’s going to keep going. It’s now my whole church is under attack by bad doctrine. And again, 1 John goes into even more depth of this of those who were saying that Christ didn’t come in the flesh, and they are, what does it say, the spirit of the antichrist or something? 

BOB: And they’re also called antichrist. 

SAM: Right. And so this is very, very strong language that John is using. This is writing to protect people that are already in a body. They’ve already been taught what they need to know. 1 John talks about them being overcomers. What he’s doing is not evangelizing. He’s not really even rebuking. He’s trying to strengthen the churches that he’s already planted, so that they don’t go astray. And in Paul’s writings, we see examples of churches that went astray, and it’s partially due to letting bad teachers in, bad doctrine in. And so John, this is a preventative prescription, not a redemptive prescription. 

BOB: Two things. I love the connection with John 8:30-32, going on a bit more, John says, “As he spoke these things, many believed in Him,” the capital H, believed in Jesus. “And then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him.” Well notice it’s not that they profess to believe in Jesus. John tells us twice they believed in Him. Same thing is whoever believes in Him has everlasting life, well, verse 30, many believed in, in verse 31, Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. A lot of people say there’s no such thing as a believer who’s not a disciple. Well, Jesus contradicts that here. 

SAM: And we see throughout John, we see Nicodemus who Jesus evangelized very powerfully with John 3:16, I think the best evangelistic verse, but here clearly in verse 32, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. I think Nicodemus is an example of a believer who was not set free. He was still enslaved to fear and to the law because he was afraid of the other leadership in the church or whatever it may have been. 

BOB: The Sanhedrin.

SAM: Right. And so he wasn’t abiding and he wasn’t one of Christ’s disciples in that sense, at least at the time of John 3. 

BOB: Yeah. And by the way, you mentioned that in verse 32, He says, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” That ties in directly with 2 John because the beginning of 2 John is all about the truth. And it’s all about, even the section that Norm’s asking about, is about abiding in the truth. 

And by the way, one other point, Norm, if you read the Scriptures, Old and New Testament, it’s clear the Bible is filled with warnings to believers about the dangers of falling away either doctrinally or morally. And there’s no question, but that if we fall away doctrinally or morally, we’re going to be judged by God in this life, and we’re going to be judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ after this life. But there’s also no question that once we believe in Christ, we’re saved forever. Once we’re saved, we’re always saved, that what He gives us is everlasting life. As one of my seminary professors, Dr. Charles Ryrie, loved to say, if everlasting life could be lost, then it’s got the wrong name. 

So Norm, keep up your good work, talking to your friend who’s a future free-gracer, but great question, Norm, and let’s all keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: how to share the gospel quickly, not leaving anything out. Come back and join us again for that. In the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.