2 Peter 2 Study Notes

2:1-3 Not only were Spirit-moved men of God present in OT Israel, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as false teachers were even now present among Peter’s readers. Peter’s warning describes these “false teachers” as those who spread destructive heresies, or teachings destructive to the faith. The effect of their teaching was so far-reaching that they even denied the Master (“sovereign Lord”; Gk despotÄ“s) who bought them. Though many followed the heretics’ shameful immorality and the way of truth was maligned, little did the false teachers realize that denying the Lord would bring swift destruction on themselves (cp. v. 3). Driven by greed, the false teachers invented deceptive stories (the exact opposite of Peter in 1:16) with which they exploited their listeners.

2:4-10a In order to warn his readers and urge them to action, Peter recalled three examples of God’s judgment and deliverance. (1) God judged the angels who sinned (cp. Gn 6:1-4). (2) God also judged the ancient world at the time of the flood (cp. Gn 7:17-23) but protected Noah and seven others (cp. Gn 7:13-16). (3) He judged the immoral cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (cp. Gn 19:23-29), yet rescued righteous Lot, who was distressed and tormented by the immoral behavior of the ungodly (cp. Gn 19:29). Peter then pointed out to his readers that God was capable of delivering them, the godly, from the destructive false teachings of heretics in their midst. Peter further assured his readers that despite the false teachers’ immorality, the unrighteous, especially those who followed the polluting desires of the flesh and despised authority, would not escape God’s sovereignty or punishment.

2:10b-22 Peter further described the false teachers. They were rash, arrogant, and, in contrast to the behavior of the more powerful angels, slanderously insolent. They were brute-like and irrational in their understanding, blasphemous, and ruled by lust and greed. Peter compared the false teachers to Balaam (Nm 22-24). Like Balaam, these false teachers had abandoned the straight path, were consumed by greed, and would receive the wages of their unrighteousness; Balaam’s donkey showed more moral sense than Balaam did. The false teachers are described as springs without water and mists driven by a storm. In other words they were unsatisfactory and unstable. As punishment, the gloom of darkness was reserved for them. With their empty boastful words, and despite their promises of freedom to others, these false teachers led their hearers into the same spiritual slavery and corruption to which they themselves were enslaved. Although these heretics had once claimed to know Christ and even experienced some freedom from sin, they returned to their old practices and became entangled again. They were worse off in the end with their rejection of Christ than they were at the beginning when in a state of ignorance; indeed, it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness. Just as a dog returns to its own vomit and a pig returns to wallow in the mud, so also these false teachers reverted to the immoral lifestyles they preferred by nature. The immoral behavior of the false teachers shows that they had never been genuinely converted.