John had been reminding this godly lady that 'walking in love' meant 'living in obedience' to Father God's commands (2 John 1:5-6).  Now he warns that there are many people who do not love the Lord or want to obey Him.  Therefore, she must not be naïve or welcome them as true brothers or sisters.  Although they speak about God, and preach with confidence, they are dangerous deceivers (Matthew 7:15).  However nice they may appear to be, their master is a liar who desires to cut people off from God (John 8:44).

Such spiritual illusionists are identified by what they believe about Jesus.  John wrote that if they do not proclaim that Jesus is God who has come to earth in a human body, they cannot truly know God (John 17:1-5; John 6:27-29).  If they have no relationship with Father God through the Lord Jesus Christ they cannot speak truthfully about God, salvation, heaven or hell.  Alas, there were many such people who troubled the fledgling churches.

They were certainly sincere and confident; but false prophets were, and are, a spiritual threat to the church (Matthew 24:24).  That is because the fully-divine and fully-human identity of the Lord Jesus Christ is critical to His salvation mission.  Without those characteristics He cannot be the anointed Christ (Messiah) of God, and apart from Him there is no salvation (Acts 4:12).  So the people who deny that Jesus is the Christ are antichrist.  Their mission (whether or not they realise it) is to deceive people into adopting a different salvation-philosophy, which can never save (Galatians 1:6-9).

We must not be naïve.  We live in a spiritually dangerous world where the Evil One, through his agents with many disguises, denies the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Most of those people will be apparently devoutly religious while some will be militant secularists – but they share the same desire to flout the supreme authority of Christ.  It is right to love everybody, but we must love and obey God first.  Real love cannot compromise on the uniqueness of Christ.  We need much grace and prayer to navigate through a world where many despise and deny the true identity of Jesus; and would like to derail our faith too.