2 John 9 --- Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.
We moved deeper into 2 John after being warned of false teachers in verse seven, then learning we need to watch and confront ourselves in verse eight, today there is a clear message given to all parties.
If ANYONE does not remain or abide in the teaching of Jesus Christ, but GOES BEYOND it does not have God.
Wow, that's a direct and clear statement here. The words "GOES BEYOND" are actually one word in the Greek, proagō, and it means: In a bad sense, to go further than is right. Or proper.
So, the Bible/Word sets the boundaries and anyone or anything that pushes beyond these teachings to a higher understanding, a better teaching, a new way to be blessed, another path to be saved, it states they do not have God.
Also, it jumps out here, "Anyone who does not remain in Christ's teaching" so we're talking about people who are familiar with or appear to be familiar with the Bible, as they are taking what the Bible says and adding to, revising it, or pushing beyond it's borders.
These types of teachings always lead to the person teaching it or to yourself. They are almost always self-centered doctrines that promise more worldly things, healing, money, personal understanding or enlightment, etc… Anything except relationship and abiding in Jesus, in His Word, Love, or Truth. These teachings do not lead you to the Jesus in the Word or His teachings.
When these wonderful sounding false teachings of new ways to be blessed or better understandings fail to produce the promised fruits, the teaching or teacher leaves the person to blame themselves for not having enough faith, for not praying right, for doing something off. It almost always ends with the person feeling condemned, torn down, and pointed in the opposite direction from Jesus and the Bible.
This is why John says in verse eight you need to WATCH YOURSELF. If you aren't reading your Bible regularly and you don't know KNOW the Word, you don't KNOW Jesus and His teachings and His character and His voice, then how will you know when a teacher is leading beyond the proper or rightful boundaries of Jesus Christ?
Be the Berean, even with me, the things I say here are my walk through the Word, check it, take your own walk. KNOW that you KNOW the Jesus of the Word, that you KNOW His teachings, His character, His heart, His voice. Never just take a teacher's word, especially when it's something new or sounds too good to be true. Even when, no, especially when they accompany this wonderful new teaching with Bible verses. Take those verses, go to those chapters, learn what book it is, who it was written by, who it was written to, what is the context of the verse, what are the verses before and after it.
If your Bible doesn't have a summary of each book, you can always go to biblegateway.com or blueletterbible.org to get resources for these things. You can even use this website: https://insight.org/resources/bible which is an overview of each book of the Bible by Chuck Swindoll.
So, there are ways to dive in and make sure what you're being taught is based in the Bible and it should always lead you to the Word, to Jesus, to restoration, never to condemnation, confusion, or being torn down.
The question is, will you take the time to be the Berean and make sure these teachings are true? Remember it says ANYONE who goes beyond abiding in Jesus Christ is in the danger zone. Is it worth it?
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