2 John 1:9

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

What are we being taught?

Picking up where we left off yesterday, we might see through this word of God that having both the Father and the Son is tied to what we are being taught. That makes what we are being taught extremely important.

Isaiah 59:14

Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.

When truth is not taught it affects our walk of faith, akin to hobbling a horse to prevent it from leaving.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 English Standard Version

3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

One of the signs of a dangerous cult is the measures put in place to prevent practitioners from leaving and following after the truth. History has shown us that sincere people have been led to their deaths by those who pervert the truth for their own selfish means.

We might be helped to recognize some of those who do not teach the bible in the full light of truth if we can see one aspect of love in 1 Corinthians 13 which says “love does not insist on having its own way.”

Truth can stand alone and reveal itself without being crammed down our throats. 

Matthew 13:25

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

Tares look like wheat. The important idea in this parable is that no one was standing guard to prevent another gospel from being taught.

As a final thought, if there is any doubt as to the truth I believe I am sharing, talk to your elders and discuss what is said here.

Galatians 3:21
Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

“Beginning with 2 Corinthians 1:20 recognize that there is not just one promise. Are we clear about all the promises of God?” (quote from yesterday)

If we only focus on the abundant life in terms of what God can and is doing in us, we will miss the purpose behind those promises. This is similar but not exactly like receiving a gift without ever opening it until you have received all the gifts. The promises of God are fulfilled one at a time. When we are born again we enter into this new life in Christ and it is hard to see what that first promise is that is given immediately.

There is a lot of information between John 3:3 and Galatians 3:21 and we have a lot to learn and we struggle with making sense of it all.  Galatians 3:21 brings into focus what the law could not do that placing our faith in Christ, becoming born again, achieves.

Easton’s Bible dictionary does not give a definition of righteousness and refers us to justification. Other sources focus on the issue of right thinking, wanting to do right, to be right, in a manner which is not self-righteous.

Because there is this concern about being right without being self-righteous, then our only hope is in the declarative state of justification in which God places us in a position of right standing before God based on what Christ has done and not anything we have done ourselves.

That ties justification and righteousness together in a way that implies one thing is done for us and the other is done to us. Once we place our faith in Christ we are justified, done for us and we are found righteous, done in us. But how can righteousness be found in us?

Philippians 3:9

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

We are found in Christ and His righteousness becomes our righteousness because Christ abides with us.

2 John 1:9

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

What are we being taught?