The either-or is a thing we really don't like. Like Megyn Kelly, most of us would prefer to settle for more. We like the both-and. We want to have our cake and eat it too. We want mutually exclusive things. But John tells us today what we have already known in our hearts from the very beginning: there is a real choice between life and death. You can really wash out of the Christian life. I'm not saying you can lose your salvation in the sense that God will take away His gift of life from you. But you certainly can stop doing the Christian thing and come out as an atheist, an unbeliever, an unrepentant sinner, etc. John presents two hard alternatives to us in our text this morning. Either guard yourself or lose your reward. You can't have both. If you guard yourself, you won't lose your reward. If you don't guard yourself, you will. Either abide in Christ's teaching, or lose God. Either one or the other. John begs the church, in no uncertain terms, to guard themselves and abide in the teaching of Christ — or else to lose everything, including God. This is a genuine either-or. John is serious when he warns about the consequences of walking away from God.
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Caleb Nelson
Two Alternatives Walking in the Truth: 2 John Harvest Reformed...
Caleb Nelson grew up in Ft. Collins, CO. Born into a Christian home, where he eventually became the eldest of 11 children, he has been a lifelong Presbyterian. He professed faith at the age of six, and was homeschooled through high school. He then attended Patrick Henry College...
