A
We live in an age in which all sorts of people call themselves Christian, even if their continuity with historic Christianity is outright broken. This is not a new problem. All three of the Johannine letters deal with problems from schismatic groups, and in 1 and 2 John one of the characteristics of these groups is that they are heretical. The vast majority of our semi-Christian heresies acknowledge Jesus.
The Johannine community was struggling with heretical teaching. In 1 John 4:1 we read that “many” false prophets have left the church community for the world. In 2 John 4 we read that “some” of the Christians are walking in the truth, while in 2 John 7 we learn that there are “many deceivers.”
The impression is that the majority of the church is defecting and going “out into the world,” probably to form their own groups based on their own doctrines exactly what we see with the Oneness doctrine.
The root of the heresy in both 1 John 4:2–3 and 2 John 7 is the denial of “Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.” There is a grammatical difference between the two passages that may indicate a shift in emphasis, but the root concept is the same in both.
In Johannine terminology to confess something is not simply to agree that it is correct, but to acknowledge one’s allegiance to it. So to confess Jesus Christ would be to state that one is committed to him as Lord. But why does John use the double title “Jesus Christ” and “in the flesh”? This phrase in 2 John is designed to rule out christological heresy. Oneness theology denies who Jesus is (the second person of the triune God of the Bible one in perfect essence with the persons of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit).
In 1 John 4 the heretics claim to be inspired by the Holy Spirit when they teach what they do about Jesus. This does not mean that they were under direct Spirit-control at the time of their speaking, but that they were claiming that this was what the Spirit had taught them. John says that one can tell the true Spirit of God by the doctrine he teaches. The true Spirit has the right doctrine; the spirit that does not lead people to pledge their allegiance to the orthodox Christ is in fact not the Holy Spirit, but the spirit of antichrist.
This statement is not grounds for calling up spirits and trying to get them to speak through people and making them affirm or deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh or who, in fact Jesus is, but it is grounds for examining the doctrine of the person who claims prophetic inspiration and seeing if it corresponds with the orthodox confession.
In 2 John we do not hear of the spirit-inspiration of the heretics, but they are themselves called deceivers and antichrist. It appears that they were trying to infiltrate the orthodox house churches and were actively recruiting people to their way of thinking. That is why they are deceivers and why the people need to “watch out” that they do not lose what they have in Christ (2 Jn 8).
The Christian church finds its unity not around this or that doctrine, but around Jesus Christ in truth with an accurate understanding of Him. To reject the real Jesus, either by denying his true humanity (being “in the flesh”
or by denying his divinity (by denying that Jesus was really the Christ... the second person of the one Triune God of the Bible which together existed before the universe was created), is to break with the faith and to split from the church community.
It is not that doctrine is the key issue, but that it expresses the distinguishing characteristics of the actual person to whom one is committed. The one not committed to the real Jesus Christ does not know either the Father or the Son, according to John (emphasis added) and remain professors not possessors.
The Johannine community was struggling with heretical teaching. In 1 John 4:1 we read that “many” false prophets have left the church community for the world. In 2 John 4 we read that “some” of the Christians are walking in the truth, while in 2 John 7 we learn that there are “many deceivers.”
The impression is that the majority of the church is defecting and going “out into the world,” probably to form their own groups based on their own doctrines exactly what we see with the Oneness doctrine.
The root of the heresy in both 1 John 4:2–3 and 2 John 7 is the denial of “Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.” There is a grammatical difference between the two passages that may indicate a shift in emphasis, but the root concept is the same in both.
In Johannine terminology to confess something is not simply to agree that it is correct, but to acknowledge one’s allegiance to it. So to confess Jesus Christ would be to state that one is committed to him as Lord. But why does John use the double title “Jesus Christ” and “in the flesh”? This phrase in 2 John is designed to rule out christological heresy. Oneness theology denies who Jesus is (the second person of the triune God of the Bible one in perfect essence with the persons of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit).
In 1 John 4 the heretics claim to be inspired by the Holy Spirit when they teach what they do about Jesus. This does not mean that they were under direct Spirit-control at the time of their speaking, but that they were claiming that this was what the Spirit had taught them. John says that one can tell the true Spirit of God by the doctrine he teaches. The true Spirit has the right doctrine; the spirit that does not lead people to pledge their allegiance to the orthodox Christ is in fact not the Holy Spirit, but the spirit of antichrist.
This statement is not grounds for calling up spirits and trying to get them to speak through people and making them affirm or deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh or who, in fact Jesus is, but it is grounds for examining the doctrine of the person who claims prophetic inspiration and seeing if it corresponds with the orthodox confession.
In 2 John we do not hear of the spirit-inspiration of the heretics, but they are themselves called deceivers and antichrist. It appears that they were trying to infiltrate the orthodox house churches and were actively recruiting people to their way of thinking. That is why they are deceivers and why the people need to “watch out” that they do not lose what they have in Christ (2 Jn 8).
The Christian church finds its unity not around this or that doctrine, but around Jesus Christ in truth with an accurate understanding of Him. To reject the real Jesus, either by denying his true humanity (being “in the flesh”
or by denying his divinity (by denying that Jesus was really the Christ... the second person of the one Triune God of the Bible which together existed before the universe was created), is to break with the faith and to split from the church community. It is not that doctrine is the key issue, but that it expresses the distinguishing characteristics of the actual person to whom one is committed. The one not committed to the real Jesus Christ does not know either the Father or the Son, according to John (emphasis added) and remain professors not possessors.
