2 Peter

A Portrait of False Teachers - 1 (2 Peter 2:1–3a) 2 Peter 2:1-3 (KJV) But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious waysa; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. Intro. There is nothing more offensive to God than the distortion of His Word (cf. Rev. 22:18–19). To falsify the facts about who God is and what He said—even promoting Satan’s lies as if they were God’s truth—is the basest form of hypocrisy. • With eternity at stake, it is hard to believe that anyone would intentionally deceive other people, teaching them something that is spiritually catastrophic. ◦ Yet, such atrocious arrogance is exactly what characterizes the pseudo-ministries of false teachers. ◦ As the father of lies (John 8:44), Satan is constantly using deception and false doctrine to attack the church—employing false teachers to infiltrate the true flock. ◦ Claiming to teach truth, these purveyors of demonic error disguise themselves as angels of light (cf. 2 Cor. 11:14), attempting to creep into the fold unnoticed. • As a result, throughout redemptive history, God has repeatedly warned believers to be on the alert against such men (and women). • Deuteronomy 13, for example, contains an early warning from Moses against false prophets. He prescribes a severe punishment for these men, along with all those who endorse their falsehood: ◦ If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,” you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you. (Deut. 13:1–5; cf. 18:20–22) • This same sobriety is echoed in the New Testament by Christ and the apostles, who carefully warn believers about false teachers and their deceptions (Matt. 24:11; Luke 6:26; 2 Cor. 11:13–15). ◦ In light of this satanic threat, the New Testament writers emphasize the importance of being armed with the truth (cf. Eph. 6:14–17) for the purpose of discernment (1 Thess. 5:20–22). ◦ For them, doctrinal purity was a very high priority (1 John 4:1) and a heartfelt concern (2 Cor. 11:28). ◦ In fact, the apostles reserve their harshest criticism for those who distort the truth (cf. Gal. 1:9; Phil. 3:2). • The verdict from both Old and New Testaments is unmistakable: God does not tolerate false prophets (cf. Isa. 9:15; Mic. 3:5–7; Matt. 7:15–20; 1 Tim. 6:3–5; 2 Tim. 3:1–9; 1 John 4:1–3; 2 John 7–11). ◦ Ironically, many in today’s church do exactly the opposite—tolerating any teacher who claims to be Christian, regardless of the content of his teaching. ◦ Such mindless acceptance, in the name of love and unity, has tragically produced a careless indifference to the truth. As a result, some Christians view biblical absolutes as an embarrassment, preferring to embrace false teachers despite the Bible’s clear protest (Jer. 28:15–17; 29:21, 32; Acts 13:6–12; 1 Tim. 1:18–20; 3 John 9–11). • To be sure, Satan’s attacks are often external, through the propagation of false religions and cults. But he also uses internal tactics, seeking to destroy God’s people from within. ◦ Hence, his servants, as wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15), do their best to infect the flock with the doctrine of demons (1 Tim. 4:1). ◦ Because this false teaching comes in subtle forms, the undiscerning are often deceived, being unable to distinguish the error from the truth. • Peter understood the danger that false doctrine posed for his readers. ◦ In his first epistle, he had already warned them to be aware of the devil’s tactics (1 Peter 5:8). ◦ In this passage, he again addresses the strategies of the Evil One—exposing Satan’s servants for who they really are. ◦ In fact, he gives us a clear portrait of false teachers—looking specifically at the sphere, secrecy, sacrilege, success, sensuality, stigma, and sustaining motive of their operations. As a result, Peter’s insights are as relevant today as they were two millennia ago, since they address a problem that continues to plague the contemporary church (cf. 2 John 7). 1. Their Sphere - But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, (2:1a) a. Having just discussed the sure word of truth (1:19–21), Peter now shifts his focus to the deceptive words of false prophets (chapter 2). i. The coordinate conjunction but marks this contrasting transition. ii. Through genuine prophets, God has spoken the truth to His people, but, through false prophets, Satan has always tried to obscure or contaminate God’s message. iii. As servants of the Deceiver, false prophets propagate lies and falsehood in their systematic attack on the truth. b. Throughout history, these spiritual mercenaries have always plagued God’s flock. i. Even in Old Testament times they arose among the people of Israel, spreading their deceptions and causing devastation (1 Kings 22:1–28; Jer. 5:30–31; 6:13–15; 23:14–16, 21, 25–27; 28:1–17; Ezek. 13:1–7, 15–19). ii. That Old Testament Israel is in view here is evidenced both by Peter’s terminology (cf. Matt. 2:4; Luke 22:66; Acts 7:17; 13:17; 26:17, 23, where similar usages of the people clearly refer to the Jewish people) and his Old Testament illustrations (Noah—2:5; Sodom and Gomorrah—2:6; Lot—2:7; and Balaam—2:15). c. Even during Jesus’ ministry, false prophets were still a serious problem for the Jewish people (Matt. 7:15–20). i. For that matter, the entire religious establishment was corrupt, with the Pharisees providing the quintessential example of false religion. ii. Here is Christ’s indictment of those spiritual pretenders: 1. But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.” One of the lawyers said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too.” But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:39–52; cf. 12:1; Matt. 23:13–36; Mark 12:38–40) d. Just as he knew false prophets had assaulted Israel, Peter understood that there will also be false teachers among the church. i. Years before, Jesus had predicted that in the last days the church would have to endure a variety of false teachers: “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many” (Matt. 24:4–5; cf. vv. 11, 24). e. In a similar vein, Paul warned Timothy: i. Preach the word.… 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. (2 Tim. 4:2–4; cf. Acts 15:24; 20:29–30; Rom. 16:17–18; Gal. 1:6–9; 1 Tim. 4:1–3; 2 Tim. 3:1–9; Jude 4, 12–13) f. False teachers arise when the church begins to embrace the worldly culture around it. i. As a result, congregations no longer desire to “endure [hold to] sound [healthy] doctrine.” ii. God-centered worship and preaching is replaced by man-centered antics and entertainment. iii. A biblical emphasis on sin, repentance, and holiness is replaced by an emphasis on self-esteem and felt needs. iv. People look for teachers who proclaim only pleasant, positive ideas “in accordance to their own desires” because they want “to have their ears tickled.” v. As a result, these popular teachers (whom “they will accumulate for themselves”) will “turn” the minds of the people from the truth, leaving them vulnerable to Satan’s deceptive influence. g. The warning from Scripture is clear: false teachers will arise in the church. i. In fact, the church is one of Satan’s primary spheres of operation. ii. For that reason, the true shepherd must continually be on guard—constantly studying, proclaiming, and defending the truth, “so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict” (Titus 1:9b). 2. Their Secrecy - who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, (2:1b) a. False teachers are never honest and straightforward about their operations. After all, the church would never embrace them if their schemes were unmasked. i. Instead, they secretly and deceptively enter the church, posing as pastors, teachers, and evangelists. ii. That is why Jude describes them as “certain persons [who] have crept in unnoticed” (Jude 4). iii. The verb “to creep in” (pareisduō) means to “slip in without being seen,” or “to sneak in under false pretenses.” iv. The term refers to a clever defendant attempting to fool a judge, or a criminal secretly returning to a place from which he was banished. b. Posing as true shepherds, false teachers introduce destructive heresies (or literally, “heresies of destruction”). i. Destructive (apōleias) means “utter ruin” and speaks of the final and eternal condemnation of the wicked. ii. In this context, the term indicates that the antics of these men have disastrous eternal consequences, both for them and their followers. iii. That this Greek word has the sense of damnation can be seen by its use to describe 1. those who go through the wide gate in Matthew 7:13, 2. its use to describe the fate of Judas in John 17:12, 3. its application to unbelievers’ doom in Romans 9:22, 4. its use to describe the judgment of the man of sin in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 5. and its use by Peter in 3:7 of this letter to describe the destruction of the ungodly. 6. Peter marked those heresies as contrary to the gospel—they damn rather than save. c. The term heresies (haireseis) denotes “an opinion, especially a self-willed opinion, which is substituted for submission to the power of truth, and leads to division and the formation of sects” i. By using this word, Peter indicated that those false teachers had exchanged the truth of God’s Word for their own self-styled opinions. ii. As a result, they distorted the truth to their own ends, convincing the gullible to believe their lies. iii. Their teaching, then, was nothing more than a religious counterfeit—a pseudo-Christian knockoff. iv. While haireseis can simply refer to a sect or division (Acts 24:14; cf. 5:17; 15:5; 24:5; 26:5; 28:22; 1 Cor. 11:19), here it refers to the worst kind of deviation and deception—teaching that claims to be biblical but is actually the very opposite. d. False teachers do not always openly oppose the gospel. i. Some claim to believe it, to have the true interpretation of it; but in truth they misrepresent it, or offer a shallow, inadequate message that cannot save. ii. Because their teaching is as lethal as it is subtle, the self-styled opinions of false teachers can damn the souls of unsuspecting, professed believers (cf. Matt. 13:20–22, 36–42, 47–50). iii. Unless they repent, believe the truth, and turn to Christ, those who embrace these heretical doctrines will be eternally lost.