False Teachers

2 Peter 2

False Teachers and Their Destruction

1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; 11yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. 12But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.

13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. 14With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! 15They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered Him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit,"and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."

This passage of scripture has always been one that has been used by leaders and preachers, including myself years ago, to bring down the hammer on those people who are not walking in ‘ absolute holiness ‘. As I have read over this passage time and time again, it has become more and more clear that he is not addressing people that are struggling with sin, but he is addressing the people and warning them about false teachers. We need to see what makes these men false teachers.

In the days in which this letter was written the biggest problem in the church was religious men forcing people to conform to the traditions of men and laws, rules and regulations.

In verse 1 it says “..., just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them...” We need to note one word here that will help us to understand that these men were not, as some suppose, outright telling people not to believe in Jesus and go out and sin. The word is ‘secretly’! They will secretly introduce destructive heresies. We know that if they had outright denied Jesus as Lord that would not be very secretive.How will they denying Jesus? They will as Paul says, time and time again, cause you to fall from the freedom you have by placing on you a mixture of law, causing you to try and add to what Christ has done on the cross, trying to earn or retain your righteousness by human effort.
“Many will follow their ways and bring the way of truth into disrepute” ( Disrepute- To bring into low esteem in the eyes of others ) The way of truth will be marred. We all know what the truth is, Christ has done it all and we can’t add a thing to it or retain it by our efforts, it is a gift.

“ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell...” He clearly says that this that these false teachers are doing is ‘sin’. How did the angels sin? They followed satan in his pride, they thought they could be like God, they entered into unbelief. Do you know what happens when we try and add to what Jesus has done? We say that we need to ‘complete’ what He started, it is pride and unbelief. This is sin!

Look later on in verse 5 “ ... But protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness...” God rescued Noah. Noah was not just a righteous man but he was a preacher of righteousness. Like Abraham, Noah believed Gods promises and so he was righteous.

Verse 10 “ This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority...” Sinful nature is unbelief. The sin of unbelief manifests in many different ways- sexual immorality, drunkenness, anger and fits of rage etc. What causes this? 1 Corr 15: 56- “ ... And the power of sin is the law.” Rom 7 in verse 8 “ ... For apart from law sin is dead” Rom 4:15- “ And where there is no law there is no transgression” Rom 6: 14- “For sin shall not be your master because you are not under law but under grace”.
The cause of sin is the preaching the law!! Although the law does not allow sin, but it is holy and perfect, something we cannot attain to.

These false teachers who will lead people astray by their heresies are those who secretly slip bits of law into the church and bring people into a state of unbelief and so they end up living in sin and the sin manifests itself in many different ways.

Peter Goes on to call these men ‘brute beasts’, ‘ Experts in greed’, ‘an accursed brood’, ‘ They have left the straight way’, ‘springs without water’, ‘dogs who return to their vomit’, ‘pigs that go back to the mud’.

Look what he says in verse 19 “ they promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity – for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.” ( The word for ‘depravity’ in Christian theology in the dictionary is: the innate corruptness of human nature due to the original sin. What was the original sin? The sin of unbelief. God said do not eat, satan said ‘ did God really say’ Eve and Adam ate because they doubted God which is unbelief) Peter says in this verse that ‘a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him’, if the law has mastered him then he will be a slave to the manifestations of sin under the law. But we are slaves to righteousness.

Verse 21 is the hard one to interpret “ It would have been better for them to not have known the way of righteousness, than to have know it and then turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them” Note that it does not say that they ‘followed’ the way of righteousness. But it says that they have ‘known it’ yet turned their backs on it. They know of righteousness by faith but choose not to believe and turn their backs and try obtain it through the law, their own human efforts. They have rejected the sacred command that was passed on to them. The word for ‘sacred’ in the Greek means: acceptable and pleasing to God. What is acceptable and pleasing to God? FAITH.

The acceptable and pleasing command of God that was given to them is “ Believe in the one I will send, the Christ, Messiah. Believe in Jesus”

Quite simple really - Don’t let false teachers, teachers of the law slip in destructive heresies but keep preaching righteousness through Jesus and people will not fall into sin and manifest the fruit if sin, but people will be liberated and walk by the Spirit and thus the life and love of Jesus will be manifest in them and through them and the kingdom of Heaven will be ushered in through the church into this world.

God Bless