7 ¶ For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
These
teachers of falsehood are described:
-
by their quantity or number: there are many, far more than teachers of truth;
and so be vigilant and beware of their mischief!
-
by their nature: deceivers, workers of deceit, subtly masquerading themselves
as ministers of Christ but in reality handle the word of God deceitfully; they
are anti-Christ in that they preach another Christ. Claiming themselves to be
servants of Christ, but their teaching evidence that they are antichrist, i.e.
opposed to Christ.
-
by their commission: they were self-commissioned and have "entered into
the world." They are NOT Christ's servants to His church.
-
and by their chief heresy on the person of Christ: denying that Jesus Christ is
the eternal Word made flesh and has come in the flesh.
Look
to yourselves... watch out against these deceivers... gone out into the world,
seeking whom they may deceive and plunder.
