A Final Word on False Teachers (2 Peter 2:10–22)
This is a difficult, blunt passage—but the truth of God’s Word, even when it hurts, is for our growth and good. In 2 Peter 2:10–22, Peter gives his final word on false teachers, exposing their sins (bold, blaspheming, with “eyes full of adultery,” following the way of Balaam), their teaching (waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, promising freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption), and their judgment, captured in the true proverb: “the dog returns to its own vomit.” In a world of words, disinformation, and deception, this sermon calls the church to cling to the truth of God’s Word.
Introduction
Peter’s last letter is an exhortation to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ as we live in the last days. After encouraging us with the certainty of the Christian life based on the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophetic Scriptures (chapter 1), Peter is now warning us about false teachers within the church (chapter 2).
What’s the connection between growing in grace and knowledge and being warned about false teachers? As we grow, we’ll develop more and more immunity to false teachers and their teaching. And, as we’re awake to their ways, we’ll go back again and again to Jesus Christ.
Let me also make two concluding comments to this chapter.
First, this is definitely a difficult, blunt, and harsh-sounding passage to our ears. I grew up learning the phrase and concept, “The truth hurts.” This truth is the Word of the Lord. Amen? As his Word, it’s going to hurt at times but all for our growth and good.
Second, because this is God’s truth, it reminds us that there is a difference between truth and error in the world. I told Kris Wassam Friday night at his ordination up in Boise that he—and we—are to cling to the Word in the a world of words, disinformation and deep fakes. Cling to the truth of God’s Word, OURC! This morning, then, let’s listen in to what the Holy Spirit has for us.
Their Sins (vv. 10b–16)
Last time, we concluded with the twin truths that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment (v. 9). Then Peter said the Lord’s keeping the unrighteous for judgement was especially [true] for those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority (v. 10a). He now expands on these two sins in reverse order.
Arrogance
First, he speaks of the false teachers’ sin of despising authority or arrogance in verses 10b–13a. Bold and willful. They’re defiant and stubborn.
About what? They do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones or as the NIV translates, “celestial beings” (v. 10). The Greek word doxas is literally “glories.” The false teachers’ sin is arrogant audacity in making light of these “glories.”
Who are they? Note what the next verse says: whereas angels, though greater in might and power [than these “glories”], do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord (v. 11). Peter contrasts glories with angels.
What does that mean for the identity of the “glories?” These are fallen angels or demons. The false teachers of Peter’s day thought too highly of themselves and too lowly of demons. Turn over to Jude 8–9:
“Yet in like manner these people [false teachers]…relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority [the two sins of our text] and blaspheme doxas—the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputingabout the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.’”
Note even the archangel Michael rebuked the devil; not even angels speak blasphemous judgement against angels; but these teachers had the audacity to do so! The big principle of application is not what this says about angels and demons (which are real and present among us), but about false teachers: beware of arrogant teachers, beloved!
But these [false teachers], like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing (vv. 12–13a). Like animals’ lack of rationality, the false teachers are ignorant of the reality they claim to have power over. Like animals are caught and eaten, they’ll be rounded up by God and destroyed. As they’ve harmed others, they too will be harmed: suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. As you grow in grace, you’ll be able to mark and avoid these teachers.
Sensuality
Second, he speaks of the false teachers’ sensuality in verses 13b–16 with eight characteristics.
First, they count it pleasure to revel in the daytime (v. 13b). “Pleasure” hedone, the word from which we get hedonism. There’s an overall application for all of us here, too. Our entire existence as a nation is for the purpose of “the pursuit of happiness.” But specifically, haven’t you noticed that we are swimming in a cultural ideology of expressive individualism? This ideology says your core identity is who you feel you are on the inside, thus you need to express that on the outside in any number of “genders.” Sadly, as goes the culture, so is going many churches. Beware; avoid; cling to Christ as your identity, brothers and sisters. Ldet nothing get in-between you two!
Second,they are blots (spiloi) and blemishes (momoi) (v. 13c).
Third, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you (v. 13d).
Fourth, they have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin (v. 14a).
Fifth, they entice or seduce unsteady souls (v. 14b). The word for entice is used of the bait to lure an animal. We might think of bait on a hook to catch a fish. They are hunting for those not growing in grace and knowledge.
Sixth, they have hearts trained in greed (v. 14c).
Seventh, he calls them accursed children or “children of curse” (v. 14d).
Eighth, forsaking the right way, they have gone astray (v. 15a). How? He gives a biblical illustration from Numbers 22–24: they have followed the way of [self-proclaimed prophet] Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing [he was a prophet-for-hire], but was rebuked for his own transgression; [how?] a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness (vv. 15b–16). In other words, a creature[…] of instinct (v. 12) was more rational and spiritual then Balaam and, thus, than these false teachers!
Peter warned the churches of false teachers who were arrogant and who used their doctrine as a cover for their sins of sensuality, which they sought to lure others into.
Their Teaching (vv. 17–19)
Next Peter moves to the false teachers’ teaching.
Its Emptiness
Note first its emptiness in verse 17: these are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. The Lord is described by the prophet Jeremiah as a spring whom the Israelites rejected. The Lord as a spring, refreshes us with his sacred voice and word. Yet false teachers are like a mirage in the heat of the desert; they look to be refreshing, but leave you high and dry! And contra the misty clouds that promise to refresh the earth, they are blown away by the storms to leave you dry and dead. Thus, Peter says for them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.
Its Effects
Of the false teachers’ teaching, note second its effects on others in verse 18: for, speaking loud boasts of folly. Again, their words are contrasted with those of the irrational donkey of Balaam’s day! By their boasts of folly they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.
In other words, false teachers prey on the new convert, on the struggling believer, on the vulnerable believer, and on the stagnant believer who’s not growing in grace and knowledge. This is why it’s so important to be in the Word, brothers and sisters. Get into the Word so that it gets into you! Then frequent the house of God! Frequent our various times of study and prayer with other believers! The days are dark; false teachers abound. Stick to the refreshing spring of truth in the Lord’s own Word.
Its Effects
Note, third, its effects on themselves in verse 19; they [the false teachers] promise them [the weak believers] freedom, but they themselves [the false teachers] are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. What do they promise freedom from? It’s not entirely clear, but could be from demons, the Lord’s second coming of judgement, or any moral constraints. The point is the hypocritical effects on them.
I’ve said the past two Sundays on chapter 2, false teaching is devastating to the church. Like our seasonal wildfires, it blows through a church and leaves devastation in its wake.
Their Judgement (vv. 20–22)
Peter finally comes full circle to 2:3 and the false teachers’ judgement in verses 20–22. Note the “if…then” type of argument: for if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, [then] the last state has become worse for them than the first (v. 20). The big point is the false teachers’ judgement: the[ir] last state of being entangled in the defilements of the world has become worse for them than the first state of having escaped the world’s defilements.
Understanding“apostasy”
Here we face the theological knot of “apostasy” or the falling away of a believer. Let’s try to untie it. This is where the biblical idea of covenants is so helpful and important. Remember, one of Paul’s big principles in Romans 9 is that “all Israel is not Israel.” The Lord made a covenant with Israel, but not all those in the covenant were saved ultimately. This principle still applies in the New Covenant. The church or covenant people, has both sheep and goats, believers and hypocrites, and in this context, sincere believers and teachers as well as false teachers.
1) Some say the way to untie the knot is to these false teachers were saved, then they lost it. Response: But this would contradict many biblical teachings about God preserving us to the end.
2) Another view is that they had a temporary salvation, and that is what was lost. Response: But again, we have the same problem plus the issue that this makes God out to be a deceiver.
3) Another view is that people like this are judged now, but are saved only to receive a lesser reward in heaven. Response: But Peter speaks of their condemnation here!
4) Another option is that this is hypothetical, meaning, if hypothetically speaking someone was free from the world only to be entangled back in it, then hypothetically they would lose what they had. Response: But Peter isn’t describing hypotheticals here; he’s describing those in the church who not only profess Jesus, have no doubt been baptized, have joined the church and left their life behind, and are teachers. Yet, they’ve fallen.
5) This is why the concept of covenant, I believe, is the best way to understand on the one hand the reality of salvation and on the other, the authenticity of apostasy. Not all Israel is Israel; not all who take the name “Christian” are Christians; not all who live among us are of us. We’ve experienced this, sadly, as those who looked the part of escap[ing] the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ only to be again entangled in them and overcome.
These false teachers’ last state [of falling away] has become worse for them than the first [state of being within the covenant and experiencing its blessings]. Why? Verse 21: For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. Here Peter, the servant, sounds just like his Master, Jesus. In Matthew 12, after multiple healings and multiple scoffings by the Pharisees, they asked for another sign; he refused, then told a parable about it all:
“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’ [the person]. And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. [Then comes the punchline:] So also will it be with this evil generation” (vv. 43–45).
Again, Jesus spoke this way at his Last Supper: “woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” (Mark 14:21). Thus, Peter speaks of these false teachers’ judgement because, to quote yet another of Jesus’ saying, “to whom much was given, of him much will be required” (Luke 12:48). That brings us back to the idea of covenants. These false teachers left the world and entered into the church, or covenant community of Jesus’ people. They looked the part, they acted the part, they talked the part so much so that they were teachers. Listen to Hebrews 6, which says they, “have once been enlightened…tasted the heavenly gift…shared in the Holy Spirit…tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come” (vv. 4, 5). But subsequently they “have fallen away” (v. 6). He then gives an illustration:
“For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned” (vv. 7–8).
The church as the sphere of God’s covenant with his people is like a large piece of farmland. He blesses it with rain and some produce fruit while others thorns and thistles.
Summary judgment
Peter concludes in verse 22: What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” Here, he quotes king Solomon: “like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” How much more so the false teacher?
Conclusion
2 Peter 2 might be a hard chapter to hear, but it is the truth of God’s Word. Let’s hear his warning to beware of false teachers, their sins of arrogant and sensuality, their teaching that does not satisfy but damages others’ and their own souls, and be confident that he will ultimately be their judge. Until that great and final day, let us cling to Christ and his Word so that we grow in the grace and knowledge of him!