2 John 9 KJV
[9] “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.”
We must remember that John is older, and is coming to the shoreline of life and eternity. He does not have many days left on this earth, and has no time for wasting words. He makes his statement both bold, and clear. You are either in or out. You are either saved or lost. You either have God or you don’t. He makes no exceptions, and he makes no excuses for the reader in this text. There is no room for sitting on the fence in this verse.
We have a lot of folks that want to sit on the fence today. They are saying one thing, but believing or doing another. I am glad the scripture makes it clear that you either believe the Bible or you don’t. You either abide in the truth or you don’t. You either have salvation or you don’t.
We have a tendency to excuse people for departing from the faith. Let’s face the cold hard truth that, while some have been a Demas or a John Mark, most have never experienced true salvation. They walked away because they never really had a relationship with God in the first place. They were actors who got tired of playing the part. They never really believed what they said they did, so they did not abide in the truth.
Evidence that you are a true believer is that you are still believing today. Believers believe, and keep on believing. They believe more and more truth as they continue to abide in the word. Truth always comes down to doctrine, and those who don’t believe the truth will be carried away by some new doctrine that comes along. When it comes to the truth, you are either on one side of the fence or the other. You cannot sit on the fence.