There is a great escalation in the middle East as we speak, and it is the old battle between religions. Down at its core is the spiritual battle between Satan with other false gods, and the true God of the universe. Every religion on earth follows a man, whether it’s Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Islam, Buddhism, and yes even Christianity. The only religion that in its purest form follows the invisible God is Judaism, but even that has turned into really following Moses or Abraham.
And yes every religion is a belief system that cannot really be confirmed undeniably. The deciding factor is Jesus Christ, was he just a man, a prophet, or was he the Son of God, therefore being supernaturally incarnated as a man, and resurrected from death. All the so called scriptures of these religions are single sourced for the most part by the man (or so called prophet) that people chose to follow, and they were written over a relatively short time span.
The Bible calls these false prophets. Many of these writings use the Scriptures, especially some of the Old Testament, and alter or add to it. The difference between the Bible and these other religious manuscripts is that the Bible has at least 40 different authors who wrote over a period of about 1500 years, and produced a seamless, perfectly unified set of writings that all lead to one thing. If it was just written by one person or even a handful of people within a short time span, we would have more reason to be sceptical of the Bible.
The truth is I, or anyone else could take the Bible, come up with some clever new interpretations that appeal to a specific group of people, and have an instant following. All you need to do is tickle people’s ears a little bit. And as long as you don’t get too weird, or live a real bad life, you could have a religion with some staying power even after you died.
Peter has just ended the last chapter saying that no prophecy (no real word of God) has ever come from man or his own understanding, but only the Holy Spirit. Even Jesus himself claimed that everything he said came from the Father. Now Peter says “BUT”… there have always been and always will be false teachers amoung you in the church.
Often these are leaders, but not necessarily. There can be influential people in the church who don’t have official titles but have a lot of influential power. Verse 2 tells how they operate. It says they “cleverly” teach destructive heresies. What is a heresy?
This is a very interesting word that we often use but maybe don’t know exactly what it means. The word literally means to “make a choice for oneself” and reflects the idea of disunity. So in this kind of context it is basically making a choice about what the word of God says or means for one’s own benefit, bringing about disunity.
They do this to the point of even denying the Master (sovereign Lord) who bought them. In other words they are even belittling the significance of Jesus life, death and resurrection. That describes every other religion. This is done in order to give permission to live by one’s own desires rather than follow a sovereign Lord who literally purchased your life through his sacrificial death.
In the first 3 verses Peter gives us three ways to:
I. Identify False Teachers (vv 1-3)
A. Immorality (v. 2a)
First of all, they will have followers and they will all be characterized by immorality. Now this appears to be specifically referring to sexual immorality, but the original word is actually “pernicious ways”, which means deadly or wicked ways. In essence anything that would be characterised as sin, for all sin causes death and takes us away from God’s presence. And when combined with teaching that sin is Ok and Jesus death really isn’t that important, it will bring literal eternal destruction.
But we need to remember that it’s not just saying or teaching this, but by acting in intentional sin we are in our behaviour denying Christ, as John says in his first letter. Does the leader or teacher seem to condone sin and/or minimize it, especially using God’s word?
B. Greed (v. 3a)
Listen to how the King James version reads verse 3, “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you”. What is the motivation for their false teaching? There own selfish desires. It is not just to get your money, though that might be part of it. But the idea is that their own selfish desires cause them to use people for their own purposes and benefit. They have no regard for anyone but themselves, people are just to be used for their own purposes and pleasure as merchandise. They make us like slaves.
Does it seem like a preacher is more interested in getting a big congregation so they can be famous, wealthy, publish books, travel, and live an extravagant lifestyle and not have to deal personally with people. Or do they really seem to be serving God and people sacrificially? There’s nothing wrong with achieving those other things with true humility and proper motives, giving credit to God.
Now they do all of this by cleverly:
C. Lying (v. 3a)
In our day this would often look like people in the church who slander others especially when they don’t like the truth that they are teaching. The person who is convicted and doesn’t like it so they start spreading rumors about a pastor or elder, or anyone else who makes them feel guilty about what they’re doing. Often they gain followers if they have some influence in the congregation, and they often get what they want, because people are not willing to go to the trouble of checking out the truth for themselves. So a pastor may get fired, or resign, but in a moment we hear about what the false teacher will get.
In fact the last part of verse three says in effect, their condemnation has happened long ago and their destruction will not be delayed at the day of judgment. There won’t be a long trial, or an opportunity to explain themselves to God, God will just send them straight to Hell. In fact starting in verse 4 we hear of the:
II. False Teachers Destiny (vv 4-10a)
The actual word used for hell here is tartarus, which means a deep dark place lower than hades or the grave, where all dead unrepentant sinners spend their days until the final judgment. Many believe this is the pit that Satan gets chained up in before he is released for the final battle of Armageddon.
Peter goes on to give three examples of how God executes judgment even before hell. He mentions the sinning angels including Satan, who got thrown down. He then mentions the flood, and the utter destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. But he also mentions that in the midst of the destruction of the evil people, he does rescue the righteous, the holders of the truth.
It says he is especially hard on those who follow their own sensual desires for pleasure, and those who despise authority. Meaning actually despise the word of God and those who represent the truth of God in the church, like pastors and elders and teachers in the church who hold confessing Christians accountable to live as they are called and commanded to live. Most of us don’t want our leaders to hold us accountable.
Just because a pastor or other leader in the church may not live perfectly themselves, the truth is still the truth and we are all to live by the truth. And we should not disqualify the truth just because a person preaching the truth struggles with the desires of the flesh like everyone else. Remember Jesus said even about the Pharisees in Mt 23, do what they say, but don’t necessarily do what they do, for they often don’t practice what they preach. The difference between the sinning truth preacher and the false teachers Peter is condemning here, is that these people alter the truth or belittle the truth, to justify their actions.
I am going to mess up, our elders are going to mess up, but we will hopefully still teach and believe the truth and repent from our screw ups, rather than making excuses. A great sign of Christian maturity is how you respond to valid criticism or conviction of sin. Do you deny and try to distort the truth or do you confess and repent, and thank the person for caring enough to not sit back and watch you throw yourself into hell or slavery to sin?
Finally Peter gives us insight into the:
III. False Teacher’s Character (10b-22)
What usually keeps us from accepting criticism and confessing and repenting of our sin? Pride and arrogance. So much so that these people will even belittle or put down both God and Satan’s power. “Oh come on, do you really believe that stuff. We have just as much power and ability to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong as they do”.
This so strongly reflects the attitude of Adam and Eve in the garden of eden. The original sin is really saying that we are equal to God, and should have the same powers and rights as he does.
Because these people are so arrogant and have no respect for authority, Peter says they are like unthinking animals who only:
A. Act on Instinct (v.12a)
They don’t think, they only respond to their fleshly desires, without any consideration to morality, kindness, the benefit of others, God. Remember the great commandment which Peter mentions at the end of this passage, to love God and love others? This is completely disregarded for the sake of self-satisfaction. The worse part is that they do this without even trembling, without any fear of judgment. “God’s not really going to send people to hell, he is a loving God who gives us free will”. And that is a sign of not being saved, because it denies the whole reason for salvation.
He also says they:
B. Scoff at Truth (v. 12b)
They scoff at things they don’t understand. Isn’t that a common characteristic of many unbelievers. They belittle Christian values or things God says but they have never even read the Bible, they make their opinions based on what they believe rather than even looking at the truth or examine what the Bible really says. That was me once not long ago.
I believe this includes people in the church who are great at pulling verses out the Bible, out of context for their own selfish purposes. A practice that has gone on throughout the entire history of the church, and continues rampant today.
This can be done very cleverly and it can sound great. Here are some examples of actual church websites that say something very appealing to people in an effort to dilute the truth of the Scriptures. See if you can discern the problems with these attempts to attract and reach people:
“Our church is growing large and strong with an emphasis on the importance of every individual.”
“Our church is not just a church; it’s an adventure.”
“We’ll make sure the first face you see when you approach our church has a smile on it.”
“We will give you the resources and the opportunity to reflect upon yourself, to develop a balanced lifestyle and discover the healthy whole person God designed you to be.”
Now these sound very positive don’t they? But what are they promoting? Self, the individual, my needs.
They reflect what James McDonald says are three deadly myths that are attacking the church today:
- The word of God is not sufficient
We need other man made things like self-help and psychology, and science to supplement it if we want to solve our problems.
- The Word of God is not sophisticated
It might have been okay for the simple people back in history, but we are much more intelligent and sophisticated now. The new generations need something more than just the word of God. The danger here is that when our human sophistication doesn’t work, it gets attributed to God and the church loses authority and credibility.
- The word of God is not settled
It needs to be adapted. The Bible doesn’t mean today what it says, I Joseph Smith have a new revelation from God. The Bible can mean different things to different people, it’s always evolving and needs to be updated. We even need to be careful of this with newer translations of the Bible.
- The word of God is not sure or reliable
This one says Christ is not unique in this world of pluralism. “He isn’t the only way to God. I believe in God, but it’s very narrow minded and ignorant to say that there is only one way to be right with God. That really discounts our intelligence and causes intolerance of alternative beliefs. All beliefs should be respected and accepted. That is the most loving thing”. We need to love and respect people with different beliefs, but loving them can include telling them the truth that we believe, so they at least have a choice. It is not narrow minded it is specific and helpful.
This can all be summed up in Paul’s words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3-5:
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
The final characteristic Peter mentions here is an:
C. Insatiable Desire for Sin (vv 13b-22)
Of course this is what causes all the others. Listen to the words he uses, they delight in deception, they brag about their ability to lure people into sin and twisted sensual desires, they promise freedom but are actual promoting slavery to the flesh. Everything they do is an attempt to justify and promote self-pleasure.
And here’s the worse part in verses 20-22. They know the truth and maybe even at one time accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and this is what makes them worse off than an unbeliever. They are so deceived and are intentionally rejecting the truth of Jesus and the great command to live a Holy life, loving God, believing God, and loving others more than self. They are worse off now than if they had never known the truth.
And then he quotes a very vivid proverb at the end of verse 22… Dogs in this culture were not friendly pets but seen as wild filthy beasts, and pigs would literally bring feelings of disgust to these people. They would never consider eating pork, poor souls, no bacon. So as Peter writes this to the church at the end of his life, after the church has been well established, I think we need to take it and apply it to ourselves.
What are you a slave to? Do you desire to be a slave to Christ, or to your own desires? Do you seek to find alternative meanings of Scripture to justify and condone ungodly behaviour? Do you try to ignore Scripture so that you don’t have to feel convicted? Are your desires more important to you than the one who bought you?
When a sermon seems to speak directly at you and maybe convicts you, do you get mad at the pastor, or are you thankful that he preaches the truth, and does it create a desire in you to change? If a pastor or teacher seems to spout their own opinions, do they get offended when you ask them to back up their views with Scripture?
The big idea here for us to take away for application is that we must above all believe and be committed to the true Word of God, and not man’s personal interpretations that don’t fit with the whole of Scripture. Freedom is not the ability to do what ever we want. You are not free if you follow your sinful nature, you are just a slave to that instead of God, and who do you trust more?
These false teachers and their followers are like people who know they are sinking in quicksand but refuse to grab the rope thrown in to save them. They know about salvation and Christ, but they reject this truth so that they can continue freely in their sin.
As we read in Galatians 5:1: “For freedom Christ has set us free, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.”
