Studies in 2 Peter

Studies in 2 Peter Presentation 05

The Corruption Of Truth Chapter 2v12-22 Presentation 05

Introduction “How do we know who we can trust?” This is a question that has exercised Christians for hundreds of years as they have been confronted with “new” teaching. We have already seen that Peter has provided a kind of identikit picture to help us recognise false teachers whose influence can undermine the assurance of God’s people. Or, to change the metaphor, we have been given a litmus test that will help us to distinguish between authentic and spurious spirituality. Peter now further develops this test so intent is he on preventing God’s people from being led astray. Presentation 05

Arrogance And Self-sufficiency In v10b-13a we learn of the arrogance and self-sufficiency of the false teacher. “Bold and arrogant these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings”. The “celestial beings” may be the fallen angels of v 4. In which case, Peter is saying something as follows, “the false teachers are so brazen and self-assured that they revile the evil spirits as though they were safe from any supernatural evil influence at all. In contrast, the holy angels who are far greater in strength and power than the fallen members of their species would not dream of speaking accusingly of them. Instead they humble themselves and leave the issue of judgment to God”. Presentation 05

Arrogance And Self-sufficiency It would appear that what is in the writer’s mind is that the authority of God himself is behind the holy angels’ respect for inferior or fallen angels. But, where there is no recognition of God’s authority, then men are bold and arrogant and give no second thought to speaking evil of spiritual realities. An obvious practical application of this principle can be made in our human relationships. Authentic spirituality is not marked by accusing and judging other professing Christians in God’s presence, quite the reverse! Presentation 05

Arrogance And Self-sufficiency Peter then in v12 compares false teachers to animals and for two reasons. First, they are completely ignorant of what they are talking about. They revile spiritual realities in the way that a wolf might howl at the moon. Animals live by instinct, there’s no moral dimension to their behaviour - a lion doesn’t develop a guilty conscience after tearing an antelope apart! But secondly, these teachers will be destroyed like the animals - the seeds of destruction lie within their nature. To resist God and oppose him is always the beginning of self-destruction. They will come to an end in judgment and then all their howling will be silenced. How we need to guard against spiritual pride! Presentation 05

Unashamed Indulgence. Peter’s second point is that we live in a moral universe v13…. Unashamed indulgence reaps its own harvest, ‘they will be paid back...’. These kind of men tend to have a short term view of pleasure, they have no moral qualms concerning their immoral behaviour and give little thought of consequences. They are described as ‘blots and blemishes’. Now a blot or blemish is something that devalues the value of the whole. Presentation 05

Unashamed Indulgence. The Christian love feast which preceded the sacrament of the Lord’s supper in the early church, would appear to have been brought into disrepute. A similar situation had developed in Corinth cf. 1Cor11.20-22. This blemish devalued the Lord’s supper! Some years ago a church leader in Scotland gained notoriety for leading many of God’s people astray. So self-assured was he of his power over his flock that he arrived at worship in a state of drunkenness and used vile and filthy language. Such people commit openly and brazenly in daylight hours, the sins that others perform furtively in the dark. Presentation 05

Unashamed Indulgence. Peter goes on, they ‘have eyes full of adultery’. This term includes immorality but its’ meaning is far broader and describes someone who seduces the allegiance of God’s people from God to themselves. They are engaged in a kind of tug of war with God for the allegiance of the hearts of those who have placed themselves under their care. If dying to self is a characteristic of a genuine Christianity then selfish self-centredness lies at the heart of those who reject God’s authority. It is this preoccupation with ‘self’ even in the context of supposedly serving God that causes Peter to cite the example of Balaam. Presentation 05

Unashamed Indulgence. After the Exodus when the Israelites approached the land of Moab, Balak, the king, unsure of their intent sent for Balaam the prophet and offered him money, Num. 22:7, to come and curse the Israelites. ‘Greed’ for gain consumed this prophet’s thinking. It blinded him to spiritual realities, so much so, that he failed to see an angel blocking his path as journeyed to perform his vile deed. The irony of the situation was that his donkey saw the spiritual reality that he was blind to. It would appear that the false teachers were not only luring young converts into sexual promiscuity, but charging them for their own special teaching! If you pay for something, you take it more seriously! Presentation 05

Unashamed Indulgence. Their target audience were, "unsteady souls,” v14 “new converts,” v18. People who were unstable in their grasp of truth. Often false teachers have particular target audiences in mind, people of a particular background or with particular needs whom they can bend to their will. We need to take seriously the need to establish our own doctrinal stability, that of our children and of those who are new converts. We need to be increasingly committed to helping each other to send down roots that will strike into the bedrock of Christian truth Presentation 05

Emptiness Of False Teaching Peter’s third section in v17 deals with the emptiness of false teaching. The teachers are described as "springs without water and mists driven by a storm”. Imagine yourself lost in a desert, your tongue is parched and then you see an oasis. You run towards it only to discover that it is dry as a bone. False teachers appear to offer thrills, insight and freedom, but in reality they are empty and barren. These teachers promise spiritual blessing but are incapable of delivering what they promise. Presentation 05

Emptiness Of False Teaching False teachers are also ‘like mists’. Now what effect does a mist have? It obscures what is there. Mountain climbers, aircraft pilots, car drivers fear the onset of mist and with good cause! False teachers have the effect of obscuring what is true!. The blackness reserved for them is a fitting punishment for they have attempted to obscure the light of God’s truth. We need to be able to distinguish between waterless springs and springs of living water! The one bubbles up unto eternal life. The other cruelly fails to satisfy thirst for all eternity, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. We must become a deeply discerning people. Presentation 05

The Danger Of Following… Finally, these false teachers enticed new and unstable converts by promising them ‘freedom’. It’s possible to get an idea how they argued from 1 Pet. 2v16, "Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as slaves of God." The call to freedom lies at the heart of N.T. faith. But it’s not a call to give free reign to ones’ passions. Yet these teachers offered freedom from the restraint of law. “You are now able to sin but in a Christian context. The gospel has brought you into a realm of grace, sin with gusto then access the grace of God’s forgiveness”. They offered a licence to sin! Presentation 05

The Danger Of Following… The adherents of this view were not free! They were ‘slaves of corruption’ v19. In contrast the gospel call to freedom teaches that: 1. Christ had died to free us from the guilt and power of sin We are free from the law in the sense that we need no longer strive to keep it in our own human effort. We are given new hearts by the Holy Spirit so that freely we can delight in holiness. Presentation 05

The Danger Of Following… Paul knew that his teaching on Christian freedom was open to abuse. CfGal. 5:13, “You were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.” Now these false teachers were doing precisely that! They used their freedom as an opportunity to indulge their love for money, praise and sexual pleasure. They may have cited Gal.5v1, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery!” Implying, “Away with the enslaving rules that govern the life of the body - have a sin binge! You are not under law; you are under grace!” Presentation 05

The Danger Of Following… Peter also sounds the alarm and warns that if you forsake the way of righteousness and by your actions deny the Master who bought you, then you are not saved and your condition is worse than it was before you knew the way. Some people appear to make a start in the Christian life and outwardly appear to have escaped from the defilements of the world. Remember Jesus’ parable of the sower; the cares, riches and pleasures of life can choke the young plant so that it withers, bears no fruit and dies. Luke 8:14. Presentation 05

The Danger Of Following… Peter says in v20ff the more you know of Christ and his gospel then the more severe will be your judgment if you reject him. “It would have been better never to have known the way”. Jesus makes the same point in Matt 11.21ff, "Woe to you Chorazin and Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago …it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you" A doctor gives you a 10 day course of antibiotics and says, “Don't stop taking them after five days just because your sore throat clears up. If you do, it may flare up all the worse.” So too, in the Christian life, if you stop trusting Christ and disobey his prescription for your redemption, your latter state will be worse than the former. Presentation 05

The Danger Of Following… Does Peter teach that God's elect can lose their salvation? No but he teaches that church members, who make an outward profession of faith, can turn away from Christ and be lost. Cf. v22 characteristically dogs return to their vomit; and after cleaning up a pig on the outside, it remains a pig and will return to the mire. In other words, those who leave the way of righteousness, never to return, simply show that their inner nature had never been changed! Jesus said, "He who endures to the end will be saved" Mt. 10v22. There is no salvation apart from persevering faith. And persevering faith reveals itself in righteous living. Therefore, to abandon the way of righteousness is to exclude oneself from salvation. Presentation 05

Conclusion This epistle was written to help us confirm our election. It warns us not to deny the Master who bought us, and by strengthening us to resist the temptations of spiritual pride, self-sufficiency, love of money and the summons to unbridled sexual license. It may not be the kind of chapter that we enjoy reading. But then not all medicine tastes good. God, the great physician, knows our need! If this book helps increase our determination to secure a full assurance of hope to the end, it will have surely achieved its God given purpose. Presentation 05

Studies in 2 Peter