2 PETER 2: 1-9 [Our Precious Faith Series]
CHRISTIAN CAUTIONS & CONFIDENCES
[Jude 4-18 / Psalm 91]
The book of 2 Peter began by teaching on the divine provision for a godly life. It went on to stress the divine inspiration of Scripture. Not all in the church though will grow in godliness nor follow the teaching of the Word. Having stressed the importance of God¡¯s Word, Peter next relays a warning against those who threaten the church¡¯s purpose (CIT) by rejecting their progress toward godliness and by refusing to submit to the authority of God¡¯s Word.
In an attempt to give a bases or justification for a misdirected life, false teaching would come into the church. False teaching can come in many different expressions and by numerous approaches. These false teachers can be intelligent, talented, and winsome people. But following their teachings can jeopardize our future. How can we recognize them? Chapter 2 of 2 Peter answers that question.
I. EXPOSURE OF FALSE TEACHING, 2:1-3.
II. EXAMPLES OF HISTORIC JUDGMENT, 2:4¨C6.
III. EXPLANATION OF DIVINE DELIVERANCE, 2:7-9.
False prophets are dangerous on three counts: their underhanded methods and shameful ways bring the faith into disrepute, their teaching is a denial of God¡¯s truth, and their destiny is to bring destruction both on themselves and their followers. Verse 1 forewarns churches to guard against false doctrine that subverts the Lordship of Christ. ¡°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.
Satan¡¯s counterfeits with their entrapping activities have always been present within the people of God. They appeared in ancient Israel [Dt. 13:1¨C5; 1 Ki. 13:18; 22:5¨C23; Je. 5:13, 31; 6:13; 23:16-40; 28:1-17] and they were present in the first-century church and they are present within the church today [Mt. 24:4-5, 11; Mk. 13:22, 23].
They do not walk in an announce themselves, but begin working behind the scenes. Their teachings containing some truth which has been cleverly blended with error. That allows them to secretly introduce false teachings. ¡°Secretly introduce¡± translates pareisaxousin, ¡°bring in alongside¡± or ¡°infiltrated,¡± suggests underhand dealings.
¡°Heresies¡± refer to wrong beliefs deliberately chosen rather than the ones revealed by God¡¯s Word. Such heresies are ¡°destructive,¡± for they lead people away from Christ and thus to spiritual ruin (ap¨leias). [Swift could be translated imminent as it is in 1:14.]
To deny [is arn¨¦omai, which] means ¡°to contradict, reject, or disavow.¡± The next time a member of a religious sect calls on your home, ask him or her the direct question, ¡°What do you think of Jesus?¡± Here Jesus is called the Master or Sovereign Lord. [1 John 2:22f]
They were bought or ¡°redeemed¡± [agorazo] in the sense that Christ paid the redemptive price for their salvation, but they did not yield to Him as Lord and so were not saved. Peter believed that Christ¡¯s death paid the cost of redemption even for those who deny the Lord [Barbieri, Lou. First & Second Peter. 2003 The Moody Bible Institute. Chicago. P. 123]. Christ¡¯s death is ¡°sufficient¡± for all (1 Tim. 2:6; Heb. 2:9; 1 John 2:2), but is ¡°efficient¡± only for those who believe. This is a strong argument for unlimited atonement (the view that Christ died for everyone) and against limited atonement (the view that Christ died only for those whom He would later save). [Walvoord, John & Zuck, Roy. The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983, p. 870.]
Verse 2 indicates that the tantalizing aspects of false teaching attracts many followers within the church. ¡°Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;
The tragic fact about many false teachers is that they are successful¡ªpeople listen to them and follow them and their sensual or shameful ways [aselgeiais, ]. [Paul mentions the great apostasy of the end times in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 as well as in 2 Timothy 4:1.] They followed sensuality or what feels good instead of ¡°the way of truth¡± [Ps. 119:30]. The way was an early name for the Christian faith (Acts 9:2). [Believers could often avoid persecution by participating in emperor worship (2 John 1).] The Christian way is not only correct doctrine but also correct living.
The attitudes and lifestyles of those that follow sensuality [false teachers] would give a black eye to the Christian community, making it fodder for jokes on late-night television.
We must be careful to avoid false teachers today. Any book, tape series or TV message must be evaluated according to God¡¯s Word, not by how it makes you feel. Beware of special meanings or interpretations that belittle Christ or His work.
Verse 3 distinguish false teacher by their desire to exploit the Christian faith for their own advantage. ¡°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.
Their attitude is not what I can give back to God and His people, but what can I get from God and His people. False teachers exploit people. They use them as merchandise or objects. [The Greek word is empore¨²omai, which denotes the business of buying and selling.] By the way I have some ¡°holy water¡± from the Jordan River available for a donation of twenty-five dollars or a prayed over cloth ¡°with healing power¡± for a donation of 50 dollars. This tendency so grieved Jesus that it caused Him to overturn tables in the temple rather than allow His Father¡¯s house to remain a den of thieves (Matthew 21:12, 13).
They exploit with false or ¡°fabricated words¡± [plastois where we derive the word ¡°plastic¡±]. These words are artificial, not genuine. They told people what they wanted to hear instead of teaching God¡¯s inspired Word. They manipulate people to attain their own ends therefore their end will condemnation [krima, ¡°judgment¡±] and destruction [ap¨leia; ]
Retribution for anyone leading another astray may not be immediate, but it is certain. The wheels of His judgment may turn slowly¡ªbut they grind thoroughly.
False teachers scoffed at the idea of future judgment [at the Parousia]. Divine judgment never happens, they said. It must be taking time off or taking a nap (v. 3b). To refute this claim, Peter cites well-known O.T. examples of divine judgment which brings us to our second section.
II. EXAMPLES OF HISTORIC JUDGMENT, 2:4¨C6.
Peter now refers to several illustrations to demonstrate both the Lord¡¯s judgment and His deliverance. He pulls incidents from the history of God¡¯s people to show God¡¯s sure and definitive purposes both in salvation and in condemnation. First he cites three examples of punishment in vv. 4¨C6. [Verses 4¨C9 are a single sentence in Greek.] Together the three examples show God¡¯s punishment of pride, disobedience and immorality. The first example in verse 4 is that of fallen angels. ¡°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;¡±
The fate of the fallen angels points to the fact of a final judgment when human rebellion, culminating in the unbridled indulgence of self and rejection of God¡¯s authority, will be duly punished. [Some say this sin refers to Genesis 6:1¨C4, others to the fall of angels when they rebel with Satan or Lucifer (Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek. 28:11-19). Two cruxes are: can angel become corporal and are all the fallen angels chained pits of darkness? ]
If God in His justice punished disobedient angels [Jude 6] surely He would not hesitate to punish people. He plunged the angels into hell, literally, ¡°tartarus¡± apparently a prison of custody (gloomy dungeons) between the time of the judgment and their ultimate consignment to the eternal lake of fire. There will be no future trial for their doom is already sealed. False prophets, Peter argued, will taste the same judgment as the rebellious angels. [Walvoord & Zuck, p. 871.]
[Tartarus is the prison of the ancient Greek deities in Hesiod¡¯s Theogony, a classical Greek story with conceptual parallels to Gen 6:1¨C4. Tartarus is a place of extreme torment.]
The second example in verse 5 is from the old world, meaning the people who lived in the time of Noah before the Flood. ¡°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;
The primary focus here is the unsparing hand of God on the pre-flood civilization, the ancient world with its ungodly people. The sinfulness of the entire world was so great that it brought forth God¡¯s justice. Do the unrepentant today think they can escape God¡¯s judgment because of their large numbers? Peter reminded them and those who are the targets of their delusions that God can judge evil even when it involves the entire human race.
God¡¯s judgment had to fall, but His loving-kindness is seen in sparing righteous Noah (Gen. 6:9). The inclusion of Noah and his family indicates the possibilities of redemption and godly living even as the rest of the world lives in unrighteousness.
In verse 6 we find the third well-know example of universal destruction of the ungodly. ¡°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;¡±
The sinfulness of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah called for their destruction (Gen. 13:13). The open rampant public wickedness by the citizens of these city demanded that God stop it, because no one else would or could. Their evil unnatural sexual depravity had made the cities toxic. Present day homosexuality, which is scarring so much of Western culture, recalls the same shameful conduct in those two ancient cities (Gen. 19:4¨C5; Gen. 13:13; Rom. 1:27). We too need to beware of the wrath that is to come against unrestrained perversion.
III. EXPLANATION OF DIVINE DELIVERANCE, 2:7-9.
As verse 5 mentioned the deliverance of Noah and his family, so verses 7 & 8 cite God¡¯s rescue of Lot. ¡°and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men
In Genesis 19 Lot hardly seems like a righteous man. But in his standing before God he was a justified man (¡°righteous,¡± is dikaion, ¡°justified¡± occurs three times in vv. 7¨C8). This is evidenced by the fact that Lot was distressed (kataponoumenon, ¡°oppressed¡±; used only here and in Acts 7:24) by the enormity of iniquity all around him.
Verse 8 relays the torment Lot experience by living in such a perverse society. ¡°(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),¡±
Besides being distressed, Lot was also tormented (ebasanizen, ¡°tortured, tormented¡±; Mt. 8:29) in his righteous soul (lit., ¡°he tormented [his] righteous soul¡±). Seeing and hearing about all their vile ways day after day grieved Lot to the point of inner torture. [Walvoord & Zuck, p. 871.]
The people in those twin cities were filthy (en aselgeia, ¡°in shameful sexual debauchery¡±), unprincipled (athesm¨n, ¡°without morals¡±; 3:17), and involved in lawless (anomois, ¡°without any standard or code¡± be it human or divine) deeds. Living in such toxic conditions Lot was worn down in his inner struggle to remain right and follow God. When we are no longer shocked and struggle with the sinfulness of our society, we are our society.
The unmerited sheer grace of God in the rescue of Lot is seen by the angels dragging him to safety. This rescue demonstrates how far God will go to deliver even the weak-willed righteous (Gen. 19:16).
Verse 9 reveals the point of the previous verses. ¡°then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,¡±
That God can deliver the godly from trials is a source of comfort to believers. The biblical record exemplified by Noah and his family members and Lot and his wife and daughters makes it abundantly clear the Lord know who to rescue the godly. As Peter¡¯s audience experienced persecution, they can be assured that God can deliver them just as He delivered others down through history. Though we may not know when God¡¯s deliverance will come, fear not, it will come. God is in control even when the world seems to be falling apart or going to hell in a hand basket.
The word ¡°rescue¡± in verses 7 and 9 speaks of God¡¯s willingness and ability to deliver His people from assorted difficulties and dangers. He delivers them even when they themselves like Lot do not overtly seek deliverance. But depending on the Lord¡¯s ability to rescue is no excuse for not entering into the warfare against false teachers and their teachings.
[This passage seems to indicate that believers will not go through the Tribulation that period in history described in Revelation 6¨C19 when God will pour out His wrath upon a Christ-rejecting, rebellious world.]
On the other hand God holds (t¨¥rein, ¡°keeps under guard¡±) the unrighteous for the coming Day of Judgment (3:7) at the great white throne judgment for those cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11¨C15). Meanwhile God continues their punishment in this life (Rom. 1:27b) and in hades after death (Luke 16:23). To be punished is a present participle in the original, and might better be rendered, ¡°¡and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the Day of Judgment.¡± The Lord will deliver the godly, but He will punish the ungodly, and especially false teachers (v. 10). [The participle kolazomenous (¡°punishing, injuring¡±) is another of Peter¡¯s words that occurs only once in the NT.]
IN CLOSING,
Peter is concerned that after his death, the people of the church he addresses in this letter will lose their way because of the false teachers and false teachings among them. God though knows how to rescue godly people in any generation or in any situation from the testing that come from living among unbelievers, both from their conduct and their destructive ideas.
What enables people to persist in righteousness is the hope for deliverance from testing and destruction. In the same way, the hope of God deliverance culminating in the Parousia should sustain Peter¡¯s readers today in the practice of righteousness.
Just before Jesus went to the cross, He spoke the words of John 16:33 to His disciples. ¡°I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have tribulation [trouble]. But take heart! I have overcome the world.¡±
Troubles do come whether we like it or not. Be comforted in knowing that our elder brother and Savior has overcome the world and our heavenly Father has promised to rescue us from all our troubles. May the reality of this promise go deep into each one of our hearts today.
