2 JOHN 1:8 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.”
Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully — the elder casts the struggle against false doctrine in terms of preserving apostolic labor and securing the community's eschatological reward. The phrase 'what we have worked for' (ha eirgasametha) invokes both the elder's teaching ministry and the martyrological sacrifice of the apostolic generation, making doctrinal faithfulness a matter of honoring their legacy. The promise of full reward (misthos plērēs) connects present vigilance to future vindication, motivating steadfast adherence to truth amid pressure to compromise.
Church Fathers on 2 John 1:8
These are they against whom the Lord has cautioned us beforehand; and His disciple, in his Epistle already mentioned, commands us to avoid them, when he says: For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Take heed to them, that you lose not what you have wrought. And again does he say in the Epistle: Many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know the Spirit of God:…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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