2 John 1:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus John instructs us, the son of thunder, beloved above all the saints, who established the Church from end to end of the universe and stopped the mouths of heretics by his theology.

And James said: "Whoever wants to be a friend of them makes himself an enemy of God" (Jas 4:4). Listen, all you who share a table with heretics, to this bitter sentence against you: you are enemies of Christ. Indeed, whoever is a friend of the king's enemies can no longer be the king's friend. He does not even deserve life, and is condemned to every worse thing.

If we greet the impious, which is proper only toward those who share our character and faith, then by this we show that we are in communion with them and that they have already drawn us into their impiety.

John, the disciple of the Lord, intensified their condemnation by advising us not even to greet them. For, he says, the one who greets them participates in their evil works.

"He who says to him, Rejoice, shares in his evil works." The Apostle does not permit Christians to receive false teachers into their homes or greet them. Of course, this does not mean avoiding every accidental meeting and contact with them. In that case, as the Apostle Paul observes (1 Cor 5:10), we would have to leave this world. Rather, it means not receiving them into the house as teachers, and not greeting them as brethren of one mind. Only such communion makes Christians participants in the evil works of false teachers.

The Apostle's whole instruction has this general meaning: watch yourselves. If it should happen that a false teacher comes to you and begins to expound a teaching inconsistent with Christ's teaching and opposed to it, intending to turn you away from it and incline you to accept his own, be cautious. Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Mt 10:16). Avoid every kind of dealings with him in every way. Do not receive him into your home, and have no communion with him, no acquaintance, and still less friendship. Shield yourselves from all dealings with him.

Such estrangement from those who differ in faith, and such aversion toward them, may cause perplexity. Some sectarians, for example from among our schismatic sects, understand the Apostle's saying literally and try to observe complete separation in food and drink from those who differ in faith.

Meanwhile, the Apostle commands not so much outward separation from heretics as spiritual and moral separation. For after saying, "Do not greet him," that is, the heretic, the Apostle explains himself with the following words: "For he who greets him shares in his evil works" (2 Jn 11).

Teaching the general attitude toward heretics, the Apostle Paul says: "Reject a heretic after the first and second admonition" (Tit 3:10). But not everyone is capable of giving a heretic the proper admonition.

Having in view a woman and her children, John counsels them to have no fellowship at all with heretics, not to receive them into the house (cf. 2 Tim 3:5-7), and not to form acquaintance with them. For they loved, and still love, to deceive the simple-hearted (see Rom 16:18), and are therefore dangerous as wolves in sheep's clothing (see Mt 7:15; cf. 1 Jn 4:5).