THOUGHTS IN 2 PETER - NUMBER TWO - 2 PETER CHAPTER 2 - Part 2 - LEARNING FROM FALSE TEACHERS
LEARNING FROM FALSE TEACHERS
In the last posting we looked at five Traits of False Teachers and drew from that several cautions that can apply to us. In this second posting we conclude this study of the Traits.
The introduction I used last time when beginning the 5 traits that we examined, I want to repeat. Then we will continue from where we left off.
Now we know there is a world of difference between one who belongs to Christ and a false teacher (unconverted). Peter also spends this chapter describing the state of these false teachers; the traits by which they can be recognised. The section I want to do could be titled, “Watch that we do not develop shades of these traits.” Learning from them – SO that I be not like them. Let us consider the remaining 6 of their characteristics.
[F6]. “DARING, SELF-WILLED.” VERSE 10
{{2 Peter 2:10 “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.”}}
They do not stand in awe of godly things, or show any respect to the Godhead. These false teachers are independent people with wide and novel agendas who seem to have about them the ring of authority; not frightened to overstep the boundaries and challenge people to explore unconventional methods and approaches. They are audacious (“Daring” in the NASB; “Presumptuous” in the KJV).
These push their own wheelbarrows and appear to be “very with-it people”. Increasingly, self-assertiveness is looked upon as a trait of a “fulfilled” person, or in other words, the working towards MY OWN ADVANTAGE is a commendable thing (ignoring the rights of the helpless, that is.). In fact, it is just the assertion of a life in total independence of God. It is this trait in false teachers that will give rise to new “theories” of the resurrection, etc.
They will be identified by their liberalism, their imposed “academic standard”. One expression used is “indulge the flesh with its corrupt desires,” and I do not think this is concentrating on sexual failures and indiscretions (alone), but rather on the whole attributes of the flesh, and here I select just one verse – {{Galatians 5:20 “idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions”}}. This is in the section where Paul lists the deeds of the flesh.
CAUTION:- Watch out for any move to progress onto territory either not confirmed by the word of God, or not motivated by the Spirit. It is so important to seek the leading of the Spirit in every aspect of decision making, to be very aware of the weaker brethren and seek their good. Beware of those who want to be “with it” and modern in society; who want to be popular; and who want to be noticed.
[G7]. “REVILING WHERE THEY HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE.” VERSE 12
{{2 Peter 2:12 “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.”}}
This verse has the strong parallel with the Jude one – {{Jude 1:10 “These men revile the things which they do not understand, and LIKE UNREASONING ANIMALS, THEY ARE DESTROYED BY THESE THINGS WHICH THEY KNOW BY INSTINCT.”}}
Barnes – [[“Speak evil of the things that they understand not - Of objects whose worth and value they cannot appreciate. This is no uncommon thing among people, especially in regard to the works and ways of God.”]]. Our modern age is one where all have opinions on everything and spew forth from a fountain of real shallowness. False teachers are puffed up in their own presumed knowledge and they are quick to put others down as they mutilate God’s word.
Again Barnes writes (The KJV uses “brutes” for animals)– [[“If a man sinks himself to the level of brutes, he must expect to be treated like brutes; and as wild and savage animals - lions, and panthers, and wolves, and bears - are regarded as dangerous, and as "made to be taken and destroyed," so the same destiny must come upon men who make themselves like them.”]]
Arising out of this trait is arrogance. There is no evidence of humility but a gross forwardness. Earlier, Peter says “they revile angelic majesties.” (verse 10) and I am not sure what that means but it reveals both the arrogance, and ignorance of these false teachers. The Christian must be careful not to intrude into areas where he has no right and little knowledge. A little knowledge puffs up and leads down the path of developing arrogance.
Ellicott mentions the Greek in verse 12 – [[“Moreover, the word for “perish” (KJV) is from the same root. “Like brutes born for capture and destruction, these men shall be destroyed in their destruction.” But such a translation would be misleading in English.”]]. The idea is that false teachers are entering into destruction.
CAUTION:- Watch the temptation to comment publicly in areas where we may not be informed well, or have little knowledge. We may end up being embarrassed. Christians should be direct people, but directness that is based on fact. Humility is very necessary, and we don’t program ourselves for humility. We need to be humble before God and the rest follows.
[H8]. “THEY COUNT IT A PLEASURE TO REVEL IN THE DAYTIME.” VERSE 13
{{2 Peter 2:13 “suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to REVEL IN THE DAYTIME. They are stains and blemishes, REVELLING IN THEIR DECEPTIONS, as they CAROUSE WITH YOU.”}}
Unashamed brazenness is a trait brought out here. Revellers like to frequent the night away from gaze and scrutiny. That is why night clubs are called “Night Clubs” with all their shady behaviour. These ones here have no compunction about displaying what they are, in full and open view. These are high profile persons who love their standing. It speaks of all that is anti-Christian, for the followers of the Lord are humble and sober minded.
Peter calls them stains and blemishes and we can picture a magnificent artistic canvas with imperfections developing on it. Stains and blemishes are not noticed on something already degraded. These false teachers are open about their deceptions and wrangling of scripture and the promotion of their error.
What is sad is that the churches are so weak these days in biblical security and solid teaching, that any wind of error comes along and it gets captured. Once inside, the false teachers have a field day. I am appalled when I see on the Internet the atrocious greed and horrible things said by false teachers like Benny Hinn and Jesse Duplantis and Kenneth Copeland, but the people love it and can’t get enough. These false teachers revel in the daytime, in public view.
Peter used the word “deceptions” and that is the key to false teachers. They fall into this verse – {{2 Timothy 3:13 “Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”}} They deceive because they themselves are deceived.
The NASB and the ESV both say “as they carouse with you,” and Strong’s defines as “to feast sumptuously with you”. This was probably in the love feasts, which means the false teachers were at the heart of the church they attached themselves with. Can this even be applied to some ministers today? The parallel verse in Jude says {{Jude 1:12 “These men are those who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves - - -“}}. In developing this, here is the message in Jude - https://sermoncentral.com/sermons/false-teachers-are-hidden-reefs-in-your-love-feasts-jude-1-12-ron-ferguson-sermon-on-fellowship-267542
CAUTION:- Watch that you do not get caught up with the high fliers for that leads to wantonness and socialising the gospel. It also leads to departure from the “sound mind” required of us. Be ye separate. Be on guard for false teaching is destructive and very subtle when it arrives. God wants discerners. Don’t dabble with it.
[I9]. “HAVING FOLLOWED THE WAY OF BALAAM.” VERSE 15
{{2 Peter 2:15 “FORSAKING the right way they have gone astray, having followed THE WAY OF BALAAM, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.”}}
The story of Balaam is an interesting one. I can read that story in the Old Testament and Balaam seems to come through in a fairly good light. It is only when we read of him in Revelation 2:14 that we see exactly what sort of person Balaam was:-
{{Revelation 2:14 ‘But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold THE TEACHING OF BALAAM, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality.’”}}
God knew all about the situation with Israel for He knew what was in the heart of Balaam and that he was hankering after the riches and honour that Balak could supply. Therefore, for that reason, He then told Balaam to go with the men. Because Balaam did not obey the voice of the Lord in the first instant, then God was angry with him because he was being disobedient. When we are disobedient to what God has said, and pursue what we know is wrong, then we go against God’s word and God is angry. God was angry with Balaam, but because all this was to be to the detriment of His people, the Jews, then God was going to intervene.
Balaam was a vain man concerned how others might see him. That is pride. Pride always wants the elevated position. It is just like wicked Haman from Esther who wanted all to see his importance. Balaam’s reply was, “Because you have made a mockery of me,” and his anger would have killed the donkey if the man had held a sword. A donkey in the hands of the Lord, is far superior to a donkey of a man. Balaam was the real donkey. In Numbers 22:25, as the donkey pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall, so the Lord sometimes must press our feet when we walk from His proper way.
Balaam taught Balak to put stumbling blocks in Israel’s way and to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. We can conclude from this that Balaam was a most wicked person. Here there was a move to take the people into forbidden things and that is what the false teachers will do as well. It is similar to what Jeroboam 1st did to Israel. False teachers like to stretch the boundaries, to introduce people to “new” experiences, to enter doubtful and forbidden territory, yet those who are seduced can not see the error before them, but like lost sheep, follow these false teachers.
CAUTION:- Watch any thought in our hearts to take the people of God into “forbidden territory”. Watch the thought to extend the boundaries to make the gospel more appealing, lest we lead our people into spiritual immorality and to tamper with the appealing trinkets of idolatry. I believe the use of rock music in the promotion of the gospel is just one example of forbidden territory.
[J10]. “SPEAKING OUT ARROGANT WORDS OF VANITY.” VERSE 18
{{2 Peter 2:18 “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,”}}
This verse introduces us to a trait all so common among false teachers - that of eloquence. They love the sound of their own voices and have the gift of the gab often as they proclaim arrogant words of vanity. This would show they have become victims of position, sounding out what they think is expected of them. There, they have surpassed humility and their vanity spreads into abstract revelations, special messages, new-age philosophy, all claimed to be from God and they put their point across directly. Many follow them.
How a man can stand before others and lie in the name of God shocks me. Jesse Duplantis several times speaks about his being in heaven and Jesus asking him for advice on something Jesus wants to do. You can not get more arrogant than that. There is no fear of God before his eyes. How can someone be like that? This is a trait of false teachers, not just Duplantis. Also we are not speaking just of the word of faith people. We include all who falsely handle the word of God.
The end of verse 18 is interesting. The KJV reads {{2 Peter 2:18 “For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, THOSE THAT WERE CLEAN ESCAPED FROM THEM WHO LIVE IN ERROR.”}}
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges says, [[Some of the better MSS. give those who were a little (or partially) escaping … In the one case, stress is laid on the fact that the work of a real and true conversion was marred by the impurity into which the victims were afterwards betrayed; in the other, on the fact that their conversion had been but incomplete, and that therefore they yielded readily to the temptation. A possible construction of the sentence would be to take the last clause in the Greek in apposition with the first, “those that had partially escaped, those that live in error,” but the English version gives a preferable meaning.]]
CAUTION:- Watch for any move that suggests you are important in your position, for if you accept that, then you have lost dependent humility. Speak only the true wisdom of God which indicates a familiarity with His word of the living God. Then there can be no vanity or any new revelation. Those who promote new experiences are false. Guard the flock with all diligence.
[K11]. “PROMISING THEM FREEDOM WHILE THEY THEMSELVES ARE SLAVES OF CORRUPTION.” VERSE 19
{{2 Peter 2:19 “promising them freedom while they themselves are SLAVES OF CORRUPTION; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.”}}
It is said that we cannot raise anyone higher than we are ourselves. These false teachers make rash statements about blessings and future promises of which they themselves are in gross ignorance. They proclaim high sounding words of liberty, and riches by being delivered from the inner prison cell of the heart. This speaks of total hypocrisy. So easy it is to deliver promises to an audience, urging them to follow such and such an approach.
This reminds me of psychologists and family counsellors who run around giving marital advice, but themselves are in adultery or in third or fourth marriages, with their own children on drugs. It reminds me of the blinded, high-profile charismatic false teacher announcing healing to all and sundry as they are “slain in the Spirit”.
False teachers are enslaved. So many of them are enslaved to a system, or to a particular false doctrine and they are so enslaved (made slaves of it) that it eats them up. They can not proclaim to wideness of God’s word, but have to keep coming back to their own false doctrine/s like a record stuck in a groove.
They promise freedom and liberty for living but these false ones are corrupt, and their corruption has bound them. Their lies overtake them.
CAUTION:- Watch very carefully that you don’t preach in areas where you have “not attained”. Make sure you know the reality of what you preach first. Guard against any empty promise or blessing. Make sure you stand on redemption ground before you preach redemption. One more thing too – Be careful about having “pet doctrines” that you keep parading in sermons and in preaching. This is particularly so if that pet doctrine is something unusual. We must be balanced and only the spirit of God can do that.
