1The elder, to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not I only, but also all those who know the truth, 2for the truth’s sake, which remains in us, and it will be with us forever: 3Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
4I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, even as we have been commanded by the Father. 5Now I beg you, dear lady, not as though I wrote to you a new commandment, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. 6This is love, that we should walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, even as you heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
7For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don’t confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist. 8Watch yourselves, that we don’t lose the things which we have accomplished, but that we receive a full reward. 9Whoever transgresses and doesn’t remain in the teaching of Christ doesn’t have God. He who remains in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10If anyone comes to you and doesn’t bring this teaching, don’t receive him into your house, and don’t welcome him, 11for he who welcomes him participates in his evil deeds.
12Having many things to write to you, I don’t want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and to speak face to face, that our joy may be made full. 13The children of your chosen sister greet you. Amen.
The statement in 2 John 7 referring to “those who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh” (along with the similar statement in 1 John 4:2) can be understood in several different ways. Many interpreters have suggested this is actually a correction or adaptation of a slogan used by the author’s opponents (whom he labels “deceivers” and “antichrists” in 2 John 7), but there is no sure evidence for this in the biblical text.
Still, there are at least three ways the phrase can be understood: (1) the whole phrase “Jesus Christ coming in the flesh” is the object of the verb “confess”; (2) “Jesus Christ” is the object and “coming in the flesh” is the complement, thus “confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh”; (3) the name “Jesus” is the object and the phrase “Christ coming in the flesh” is the complement, thus “confess Jesus as Christ coming in the flesh.” All these possible interpretations have been seen as evidence that the author’s opponents were Docetists, similar to the ones against whom Ignatius of Antioch wrote in the second century A.D. According to Docetism, Jesus had only the appearance of a human being, but was really a divine being all along, even throughout the Incarnation (the term “docetism” is derived from a Greek verb which means “to seem”). In this case the author of 1 and 2 John is emphasizing the reality of Jesus’ humanity; it was not mere outward appearance as the opponents claimed. Other explanations of the views of the opponents are also possible, however, such as one which makes a distinction between the human Jesus and the Christ-spirit which came upon him at some point (for example, at his baptism by John the Baptist) and which departed from the human Jesus before he died on the cross. In this case, the author of the Johannine Epistles is stressing the importance of Jesus’ earthly career, including his sacrificial death on the cross, and denying that one can drive a wedge of separation between “Jesus” and “the Christ” as the opponents were attempting to do.