His Commandments: Confessing Jesus Christ As Coming In Your Flesh

"Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father. And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not CONFESS Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever TRANSGRESSES and DOES NOT ABIDE in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son." (2 John v. 3-9)

confess- to reveal by circumstances

circumstances- the existing conditions or state of affairs surrounding and affecting an agent

transgress- to violate a law, command, moral code; offend, sin; TO PASS OVER OR GO BEYOND

(each of these definitions have been taken, in part, from Webster's College Dictionary)

I think I could say, by these definitions, that confession is not words spoken only, but deeds.

What is the doctrine of Christ? What the Holy Spirit inspired and empowered Jesus with to please His Father. Now, Jesus intercedes for the saints "to walk just as He walked".

"Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." (Romans 8:27)

"And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:27)

"So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:33)

The deceiver tempts the believer, in this case the elect lady and her children, to transgress the doctrine of Christ; to pass over or go beyond to an expected end without bearing His reproach; to violate, rather than confess His commandments.