|
This valiant verse and the tremendous truth embedded therein reads:
"Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son."
The ASV renders the verse in this fine fashion:
"Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son."
This message was addressed to the elect lady and her children (vs. 1,4,5,13).
HOW ARE THE TRANSGRESSORS IDENTIFIED?
This verse is in the context of verses 7,8. Therein John depicted a deceiver, i.e., one who went about spreading dangerous delusions and poisonous practices. The world was full of them in John's day. They were Docetic Gnostics who refused to confess that Jesus had come in the flesh. They said he only appeared to have a body but was just a phantom. They were antichrist -- those opposed to Christ and totally hostile to his divine claims. They were the sort of people that, if heard and heeded, could make the elect lady and her children lose their heavenly rewards. They are the ones who go onward or take the lead. "Transgresseth," "goeth onward" or "taketh the lead" derive from the word proago in the Greek text and from which we derive such terms as progress, progressive and progression. However, this progress is AWAY from, rather than TOWARD the Christ. As such it becomes daring, defiant digression. It becomes reckless retrogression. It is a rebellious refusal to stay with what Christ and apostolic authority taught. The transgressors refuse to abide in the doctrine of Christ. It is too straight-laced for them; it is too old-fashioned for them; it is too much lacking in modernistic progression for them. The Christian church in their digressive dives into the missionary society, mechanical music in worship and literally dozens of other digressive practices view themselves as progressives. They did this a century ago; there has been no appreciable change in them in modern times. They did and do depict their opponents (churches of Christ) as non-progressives, moss backs, lacking in toleration and non-possessors of that irenic spirit in which they take pompous pride.
ABIDETH NOT AND ABIDETH CONTRASTED
"Transgresseth" or "goeth onward" and "abideth not in the doctrine of Christ" describe the same atrocious act. One is a positive description; the other delineates a negative description. To abide not is a refusal to remain adamantly in apostolic doctrine. It is a digression from such; it is a departure from truth into error -- fatal error, damnable falsehood. Such people do in the noxious name of religious progression what is unauthorized by Holy Writ. They do what they want to do; this is the all pervading principle behind their religious beliefs and practices. They do what Cain did in Genesis 4, what Nadab and Abihu did in Leviticus 10, what Saul and the people did in 1 Samuel 15 in saving alive the finest of the livestock for self-appointed and self-satisfying sacrificial purposes, what David and the people did with the new ox cart in transporting the ark of the covenant in 2 Samuel 6, what Jeroboam did in the new religion he devised for the newly formed Northern Kingdom in 1 Kings 12, what arrogant Uzziah, king of Judah, did relative to incense burning in 2 Chronicles 26, and the worship devised by human will that constituted part of the Colossian heresy in Colossians 2 -- whatever pleases the human heart.
Some years back I had a frank conversation with a college student of mine when I taught Bible for college credit in the University of Tennessee at Martin. She was a member of the Christian Church. We talked freely and frankly about their usage of mechanical music in worship and our refusal to use such. Quite candidly she said, "I realize there is no New Testament authority for its use; my brethren and I use it BECAUSE WE LIKE IT." That is the real WHY of its usage among all religious devotees of the same, though few will be as frank and honest as this young lady was.
The one who abides is the person who remains with the doctrine of Christ minus addition, subtraction, modification, alteration or any sort of substitution. To abide in truth means to give it a warm welcome, to provide a home for it and to allow it a permanent residence in attitude and action, in motive and mission, in language and life.
WHAT IS THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST?
It is not the doctrine about Christ but the doctrine he taught personally or that which he taught through apostolic agency. Here are what some outstanding Greek scholars have said relative to this verse, A. T. Robertson in his Word Pictures In The New Testament, Vol. 6, p.254, Not the teaching about Christ, but that of Christ which is the standard of Christian teaching as the walk of Christ is the standard for the christian's walk (1 John 2:6). J. R. W. Stott in his Commentary on John's epistles, about the "Usage Of The N.T." (Westcott, Crooke) requires that the genitive be interpreted not as objective, "the teaching about Christ," but as subjective, "Christ's teaching." This no doubt includes what Christ continued to teach through the apostles. Henry Alford in Alford's Greek Testament, not abiding in the doctrine of Christ (i.e.,) in Christ's doctrine, -- that truth which Christ himself taught. Joseph Henry Thayer in his Greek-English Lexicon, The doctrine which has God, Christ, the Lord, for its author and supporter.
In his superb commentary on the epistles of Peter, John and Jude brother Guy N. Woods says, "The 'teaching of Christ' here is not teaching about Christ, or teaching which is Christian in substance or nature; it is the teaching which Christ did personally and through those whom he inspired. It is the teaching of Christ, because he is, in the final analysis, its author, and from him it issued. It is thus an infallible standard, and no deviation from it is possible without apostasy."
The doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matthew 16 is the doctrine they taught -- not what was taught about them. The doctrines and commandments of men in Mark 7 and Matthew 15 are what they taught -- not what others taught about them. The doctrine of Balaam and the Nicolaitans in Revelation 2 is what they taught -- not what others taught about them.
Some wish to make the doctrine of Christ equal just to an expressed belief that Jesus is God's Son and thus the only ground or condition of fellowship with him regardless of what else he believes or does not believe. The doctrine of Christ is the entire Gospel which God's Son taught personally and continued to teach by apostolic agency when he went back to the Palace of the Universe on heavenly high.
HOW DOES ONE HAVE BOTH THE FATHER AND SON?
By abiding adamantly and remaining permanently in the doctrine or teaching of Jesus Christ, i.e., the Gospel of God's only begotten Son. We have the Father when we have the Son; we have the Son when we have the Father. We have both when we hear and heed their doctrine, the glorious gospel of God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit. No other has the Timeless Trinity.
|
