2 Peter Chapter 2
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
In chapter one, we saw that what God really wants is for you to use His precious and magnificent promises to make yourself more like Jesus. However, that’s not what the preachers in your day are going to tell you! These false prophets (people who say that they are telling you what God wants you to hear but don’t hear from God themselves) and false teachers (people who tell you that the Bible says something that it doesn’t really say) will tell you things which will destroy you spiritually if you believe what they say.
These false prophets and false teachers will try to get you to focus on other things and to neglect using the promises of God to increase in godliness. They will get you to focus on building church buildings, and giving money to the poor, and being busy organizing and attending church events, and fighting about all kinds of things with all kinds of people, and trying to get unbelievers to obey God’s laws, and so on.
So it is really, really important for you to not listen to them but to focus on the things that God wants you to focus on.
They will arise from among the people. These are not outsiders but members of the church.
The destructive heresies (doctrines that if believed will send you to hell) are introduced secretly. Nobody will tell you that they are teaching you heresy. It will all sound very reasonable. You must stop and think here, and ask yourself what these destructive heresies might be. If you can’t identify them then there is a good chance that they have succeeded in getting you to believe those heresies.
These false prophets and teachers will deny Jesus and end up losing their salvation. Specifically, they will deny things that are important for making God’s plan for our salvation to be effective.
Note what Peter says here: the Master bought them but they end up destroyed (i.e. they end up lost). That is, Christ died even for those who end up lost. This clearly shows that the doctrine of Limited Atonement (which says that Christ only died for those who end up getting saved) is false.
How does one deny the Master? When you deny something you refuse to acknowledge its existence, right? In the same way, these people will teach things that, when logically extrapolated, will imply that Jesus never existed, or never lived a sinless life, or lived a sinless life not as a man but as God, or never paid the price for the sins of man, and so on.
For example, the doctrine of original sin says that man is born a sinner. Since Jesus was born as a man and exactly like His brethren in all things, it logically follows that He too was born a sinner, making it impossible for Him to pay for our sins i.e. to buy us.
For another example, the doctrine that Jesus was 100% God and 100% man logically implies that Jesus can be tempted and cannot be tempted at the same time, which leads to a contradiction, which implies that Jesus didn’t exist (because contradictions don’t exist). If Jesus didn’t exist then no one paid for our sins and there is no salvation.
For a third example, the doctrine that God is three persons in one being makes it impossible for Jesus to pay for our sins because the payment for sins is separation from God, and if God is one being then God (Jesus) cannot be separated from God (the Father).
When you believe these destructive heresies you are in effect denying the Master who bought you!
2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;
Many (not few) will believe them, and they will give God a bad name. Are you among those who will believe them? How do you know for sure?
These heresies will make perfect sense i.e. they will appeal to our senses. But nevertheless, they will still be heresies.
3 and in {their} greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
These people are greedy – they are always asking you for money, and for more money. They try to squeeze as much money out of you as they can, and they will say whatever you want to hear to get that money from you.
Such people will end up judged and destroyed.
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
This refers to those angels who had intercourse with human women in the times of Noah. God did not spare them.
5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
God did not spare the wicked in Noah’s time and destroyed them with a flood. The flood may have looked like a natural calamity but it was engineered by God.
But God did not destroy the righteous with the wicked. He is a God who knows how to save the righteous.
6 and {if} He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing {them} to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly {lives} thereafter;
Like the angels, and the people of Noah’s time, the people of Sodom on Gomorrah engaged in physical / sexual activity outside what was normal.
Those who teach heresy engage in spiritual activity that is outside of normal.
7 and {if} He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men
8 (for by what he saw and heard {that} righteous man, while living among them, felt {his} righteous soul tormented day after day by {their} lawless deeds),
9 {then} the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
Again, we see that God rescued Lot because he was oppressed by the wrong behavior. In the same way, God will rescue the people who stand against such heresies.
10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in {its} corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties,
11 whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.
12 But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,
13 suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you,
14 having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;
15 forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the {son} of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
16 but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, {for} a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.
People in the church who despise authority show their hand by remaining in the church and complaining about the authority in the church. It is not a good thing to do. If you have problems with the leadership in the church you should leave the church, but if you decide to remain in the church then you should not complain about the church leadership to those who are not in the church.
Church leaders who live according to the flesh will also be judged.
People who say bad things about angels and demons will also be judged. Even angels, who are mightier than men, don’t revile (speak scornfully or abusively of) Satan and his demons. But some people have no problem saying all kinds of vile things about Satan and his demons.
People in the church who see an attractive person of the opposite sex and try to seduce them, playing on their insecurities and needs (i.e. enticing unstable souls), trying to get what they want (i.e. trained in greed) will also be judged.
Sometimes, God will try to warn them in unusual ways (such as getting a donkey to speak) and that may temporarily restrain them.
17 These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.
18 For speaking out arrogant {words} of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error,
19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.
Sometimes, Christians who are short of money are targets for unscrupulous people in the church. These unscrupulous people will promise financial freedom to these Christians who are trying not to do anything illegal, and get them to do what is shady. These people will also be judged.
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.
22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT," and, "A sow, after washing, {returns} to wallowing in the mire."
There are people in the church who stopped doing evil after they got saved but end up returning to such evil because of wrong or inadequate teaching in the church. It would have been better for such people to have not been saved in the first place!
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