Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

2 John 1:8

2 John 1:8. Look to yourselves: a rare expression, intimating the deep earnestness of the warning. That ye lose not the things which we have wrought: the apostles were God's labourers; but, with refined delicacy, this apostle represents the reward of apostolic work, not as to be received by themselves, but, as to be received by their flocks.

But that ye receive a full reward: of our work and your own fidelity. The reward of Christian labour is a familiar idea in the New Testament; and the last chapter of the Apocalypse represents the Saviour as coming with His ‘reward' ‘to render to each man according as his work is,' Revelation 22:12. But the labourers' reward is not dependent on the fidelity of their converts, though the converts themselves lose it if unfaithful. The word reward here seems to refer to the other world; but, before mentioning that, St. John deprecates their losing the benefits of apostolic labours, which listening to ‘evil workers' would occasion. There is a beautiful contrast in the original words: ‘See that ye let not slip all the fruits of our teaching, and all the benefits of your Christian discipline, in the present world; see that hereafter ye be found worthy of the completed rewards of Christian fidelity, as it is written, “Every one therefore who shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). The word ‘full' has no necessary reference to degrees of recompense: it is used as a most mighty stimulant, and what it means the next verse shows.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

2 John 1:8

Old Testament

New Testament