2 John 1:11

for he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works.

Present-day Christians are very reluctant to receive this teaching, Smith stating that:

Heretics are our fellow-creatures, and our office is to win them. If we close our doors and our hearts against them, we lose our opportunity of winning them and harden them in their opposition.[22]

All such comments fail to take into consideration the identity of the people John was speaking about. They were false teachers of anti-Christian doctrine, having already acquired the status of open enemies of the Lord and of his Church. What John said of them was absolutely in line with the admonition of Jesus Christ himself who taught, concerning false teachers, that his followers were to "let them alone!" (Matthew 15:14). Hospitality and friendship extended to known enemies of the truth is a violation of our Lord's word, as well as that of the apostle John. Many a young Christian, unaware of the true nature of the enemy, as well as of the cunning seductiveness of error, has violated the prohibition here with a result of their own everlasting ruin.