2 John 1:9

Progress in Theological Thought. “Every one that ‘progresseth' and abideth not in the eaching of the Christ hath not God; he that abideth in the teaching this man hath both the Father and the Son.”

ὁ προάγων : the Corinthians (see Introd. pp. 156 f.) boasted of their enlightenment. They were “progressives,” “advanced thinkers”. τῇ διδαχῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, the teaching which recognises Jesus as the Christ (see note on 1 John 4:1-2), i.e. the Messiah, the Saviour. Θεὸν οὐκ ἔχει, i.e. according to His true nature as the Father manitested in the Son (καὶ τὸν Πατέρα καὶ τὸν Υἱόν). It is necessary not merely to believe in God but to believe in Him “through Christ” (1 Peter 1:21).

St. John does not here condemn theological progress, which is a necessity of living and growing faith. A doctrine is a statement of Christian experience, and since there is always more in Christ than we have ever experienced, our doctrines can never be adequate or final. Theology is to God's revelation in Grace as Science is to His revelation in Nature; and just as Science is always discovering more of the wonders of the First Creation, so Theology is always entering more deeply into the glory of the New Creation and appropriating more of the treasures which are hidden in Christ. Even the inspired Apostles did not comprehend all His fulness. Each saw only so much as was revealed to him, and declared only so much as he saw. Each approached the infinite wonder along the lines of his temperament and experience. St. John saw in it a revelation of Eternal Life; St. Paul the Reconciliation of sinners to God, the satisfaction of humanity's long desire and the completion of its long discipline under the Law; the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews the rending of the Veil and the opening of free Access to God. St. John does not condemn theological progress; he defines its limits: “abide in the teaching of the Christ”. (1) We must never break with the past; the new truth is always an outgrowth of the old. A theology which is simply old is dead; a theology which is simply new is false (Cf. Matthew 13:52). (2) We must maintain “the teaching of the Christ”. Jesus is the Saviour, and no interpretation of Christianity is true which eliminates Redemption or obscures the glory of the Cross.