Some Key Words

Deceiver (planos [4108]):

a corrupter, a deceiver; an imposter or misleader; Vines: an imposter of the vagabond type

Acknowledge (homologeo [3670]):

to speak thoughtfully together with, to speak the same with, or consent to the desire of another, to agree to a fact as truth, to celebrate with public praise, confess; agree with, concede, not refuse or deny, to profess openly, praise, celebrate; to assent, covenant, acknowledge; Vines: to declare openly, being the effect of deep conviction of facts.

Flesh (sarx [4561]):

human body, man, infirmity of human nature, natural descent, temporal advantage; the body, natural generation, man's nature with or without negative connotations, a living creature, human nature as opposed to divine nature; man, body, human nature, human beings; Vines: the holy humanity of the Lord Jesus, in the totality of all that is essential to manhood, i.e., spirit, soul and body.

Watch (blepo [991]):

perceive, take heed, beware; understand, discern, consider, weigh carefully; to look at.

Full (pleres [4134]):

abounding, abundant, complete, perfect; filled up, lacking nothing; covered over, complete.

Reward (misthos [3408]):

wages, hire, reward; dues paid for work, the fruit resulting from toils and endeavors, either reward or punishment; pay for services

 

Paraphrase

7 Those who deny that Jesus was truly here - a man of flesh even as we - are doing nothing other than trying to lead us astray. 8 Against such deceptions we must be vigilant, that we not lose the ground of faith that we've gained, but rather continue strong to the reward God has for us.

Key Verse

8 - We must be careful to stand firm. Only those who persevere attain to the reward.

Some Parallel Verses

7

1Jn 2:26 - John writes to warn of deceivers. 1Jn 2:19 - who began within the church, but left it, 1Jn 4:1 - and, having gone into the world, give rise to the need to test those who claim the Spirit. 1Jn 4:2 - One test of Jesus as is their acknowledgement Christ and as man. 1Jn 2:18 - That many deny this in their teaching is a sign of the last hour we live in.

8

Mk 13:9 - We must be on guard against both physical and mental attack, that our standing firm might be a testimony to our attackers. 1Co 3:8 - Each of us will be rewarded according to our labors. Heb 10:35 - We must guard our confidence, for it will be rewarded.

 

New Thoughts

The full reward: the perfect and complete wages due to us for our service, or the abundant fruit resulting from our toils and endeavors. Either way, this precludes being blessed for sitting on one's duff. Note the parallel of 1Co 3:8 - each rewarded according to his work. It's not works salvation, it's working because of salvation. Our ticket to heaven does not hinge upon our doing things, but the quality of that heavenly life would seem to. God's pretty clear on the fact that He has little use for the sluggard. He is not a rewarder of loafing. This also comes back to the point of the previous section, which is that love obeys. God has commanded us to do good works, He has declared that we were created for that express purpose (along with giving Him glory and worship.) It's His point in having us about. To not labor would be to ignore our instructions, which would be to despise the instructor. It's a side point to this particular passage, and yet so clear. We need to keep this in mind, as we're told not to be 'busy.' There's truth to that, but there's danger as well. We ought indeed to be very busy, but only about the work God has appointed to us. To often, we're very busy with things that have the appearance of good works, but which were not our job. We're in effect avoiding what we were told to do. We're like the child that doesn't want to do chores, and does artwork instead, hoping the pretty picture will satisfy their parent in spite of their disobeying the command to do chores. We're still little children in so many ways. God have patience with us, and teach us to recognize ourselves in our children that we might have patience with them, too.