It is real
This week is on 2 John 1:7-11:
These verses follow a paragraph where John tells us to love one another. So it's kind of jarring for him to tell us to be so inhospitable to someone as he tells us to be. On the one hand, we're called to be loving and accommodating to the world, but on the other John is asking us to be cold and heartless. Why?
If someone is claiming to be a Christian but denying that Christ is real and died for our sins, they are denying the core fact of our faith. They're looking to be accepted by the Christian community, but they deny the reality we have in common. Their Christianity isn't a Christianity of grace bought at a severe price. It's a Christianity of cheap grace gained from membership in a club, or of works accomplished by "being good and moral." The common denominator is that Christianity without Christ isn't Christianity!
Digging deeper into this, our whole purpose is to be a light to the world, and a demonstration of Christ's power to people who have never encountered him. How is that compatible with a faith that includes no Christ but claims to be equivalent? There is nothing equivalent to Christ! How can you demonstrate something you don't believe exists? How can you lead people to the way, the truth, and the life, if you believe that all ways are the same, that all truths are equivalent, and that all things lead to eternal life?
The person who claims to be a Christian but who denies Christ is a dangerous counterfeit. They claim to represent our faith but actually represent its opposite. Supporting someone like that is undermining the work Christ died to accomplish. Could you represent the US embassy by telling people that the US is just part of England and that all English speaking countries are part of The Crown's territories? No! You'd either be severely misguided, or you'd be a traitor. Nobody doing that should expect to collect an ambassador's salary or be welcomed as an American diplomat.
The cool thing is that the fact that John felt the need to spell out the reality of Christ's sacrifice only underscores how real it is. Christians weren't exactly popular during the time this was written. They needed all of the friends they could get, politically speaking. It must have been really tempting to just say "Yeah all faiths are pretty much the same. These secular Christians are still working on our side in the sense of expanding our numbers and influence." But John did the opposite. Why do that if he wasn't utterly sure of the reality of Christ's existence and sacrifice?
We should extend Christ's love to everyone we meet. But there will be people who claim to be Christians for political or financial purposes that we must distance ourselves from. These people are not on our team. They dilute, twist, or deny the truth our faith is based on. It's impossible to be wholly for Christ and to still be in denial of who and what he was. God is real. Our sins were paid for by a real bloody sacrifice that none of us could afford. Our salvation comes not from our obedience or goodness or decision to attend a church service. It comes from the real God who sacrificed himself in a real way to pay for our real problems to be completely forgiven.
I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.
These verses follow a paragraph where John tells us to love one another. So it's kind of jarring for him to tell us to be so inhospitable to someone as he tells us to be. On the one hand, we're called to be loving and accommodating to the world, but on the other John is asking us to be cold and heartless. Why?
If someone is claiming to be a Christian but denying that Christ is real and died for our sins, they are denying the core fact of our faith. They're looking to be accepted by the Christian community, but they deny the reality we have in common. Their Christianity isn't a Christianity of grace bought at a severe price. It's a Christianity of cheap grace gained from membership in a club, or of works accomplished by "being good and moral." The common denominator is that Christianity without Christ isn't Christianity!
Digging deeper into this, our whole purpose is to be a light to the world, and a demonstration of Christ's power to people who have never encountered him. How is that compatible with a faith that includes no Christ but claims to be equivalent? There is nothing equivalent to Christ! How can you demonstrate something you don't believe exists? How can you lead people to the way, the truth, and the life, if you believe that all ways are the same, that all truths are equivalent, and that all things lead to eternal life?
The person who claims to be a Christian but who denies Christ is a dangerous counterfeit. They claim to represent our faith but actually represent its opposite. Supporting someone like that is undermining the work Christ died to accomplish. Could you represent the US embassy by telling people that the US is just part of England and that all English speaking countries are part of The Crown's territories? No! You'd either be severely misguided, or you'd be a traitor. Nobody doing that should expect to collect an ambassador's salary or be welcomed as an American diplomat.
The cool thing is that the fact that John felt the need to spell out the reality of Christ's sacrifice only underscores how real it is. Christians weren't exactly popular during the time this was written. They needed all of the friends they could get, politically speaking. It must have been really tempting to just say "Yeah all faiths are pretty much the same. These secular Christians are still working on our side in the sense of expanding our numbers and influence." But John did the opposite. Why do that if he wasn't utterly sure of the reality of Christ's existence and sacrifice?
We should extend Christ's love to everyone we meet. But there will be people who claim to be Christians for political or financial purposes that we must distance ourselves from. These people are not on our team. They dilute, twist, or deny the truth our faith is based on. It's impossible to be wholly for Christ and to still be in denial of who and what he was. God is real. Our sins were paid for by a real bloody sacrifice that none of us could afford. Our salvation comes not from our obedience or goodness or decision to attend a church service. It comes from the real God who sacrificed himself in a real way to pay for our real problems to be completely forgiven.
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