Better To Have Never Known The Way v0

Welcome and Prayer

Introduction

Today we continue in our series in the epistle of 2 Peter, and we’re at about the halfway mark. We’ve been saying that Peter is writing this letter to a community of churches under threat from a group of false teachers who are leading them astray. On one hand, these false teachers are teaching false doctrine. On the other hand, and what is arguably the bigger problem, these false teachers, who claim to be Christians, are living in ways that are completely contrary to the way of righteousness or the way of Christ. So they are misrepresenting who Christ is

Up to this point, Peter has only alluded to the presence of these false teachers, and we haven’t had a clear picture of who they are or what exactly they are doing. In today’s text, we will see Peter describe, in very painful detail and with very charged language, the character of these false teachers and how they behave in ways that are totally against the way of Christ.

So a word of caution before we proceed: this is not going to be a very uplifting text. You would not put these verses as your wallpaper. You should not ever send these verses to a friend unless you mean to shame them.

But I believe that we have something to gain from this text. The thing is that these false teachers in Peter’s day have not disappeared. They are still here today, some of whom could be sitting in the pews with us on Sunday, some could even be on stage claiming to present the true word of God! Peter helps us to recognise such characters and...

Now, I do not mean that we should be suspicious of every single person in church. I do not mean that we should excommunicate or disfellowship anyone who even slightly resembles what Peter is about to describe. All of us, in some way, are like these false teachers because we share the same human condition and sinful nature.

Let’s begin by reading the whole text.

2 Peter 2:10–22 (ESV)

Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Not the most encouraging of Scripture passages that we have today. I doubt that anyone would decorate their walls with “These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm”. I’m pretty sure nobody’s famous verse would read “Accursed children”!

Notice that Peter’s big gripe with the false teachers is not primarily about the false doctrine that they are teaching, but the shameful lifestyle that they are living. It’s not that Peter doesn’t care about doctrine or that doctrine isn’t important, and we’ll see Peter address that in chapter 3...

What’s Going On

We’re actually going to begin by looking at the end of our passage today, because that’s where we get a glimpse of what these false teachers are teaching. Having this context will help us make sense of the rest of the text. I have alluded to this in previous weeks, but this is where we get the clearest picture of what is going on.

The heart of their teaching is this: “They promise them freedom.” The false teachers are promising “freedom” to other Christians, and as we will see later, other Christians who are new converts and still immature in their faith.

“Freedom” is a big buzzword these days, just as it was back then.

What has happened is that this message of grace and freedom in Christ has become twisted and distorted. It has become what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.”

Analysis

English Standard Version Chapter 2

Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.

Let’s look at this phrase, “bold and wilful”.

The word translated “bold” does not mean a good kind of bravery or courage. The word here is tolmetes, which means an attitude of reckless daring that defies God and man. This is the rebellious teenager who stays out until 2am even when his parents tell him to be home by 10pm. This is the person who refuses to wear her mask in public during a pandemic even when surrounded by police offers. This is the accused person who goes to court and stubbornly says “I am not guilty” even when all the evidence says otherwise.

The word translated “wilfull (authades)” refers to someone who is determined to please himself at all costs. I don’t care what happens to anyone else so long as I am satisfied. The image that comes to mind here is that of the drug addict who is so deeply stuck in their addiction that they will do whatever it takes to satisfy their need for the drug. They will steal life savings from family members; they will rob banks in broad daylight; they will risk the death penalty or life imprisonment because the only thing that matters to them is “I must have this thing that will make me satisfied.”

These will be the recurring themes throughout Peter’s accusation. If we can sum up the one big problem about the false teachers, it is their arrogance that makes them think of themselves more highly than even God. It is basically idolatry—to worship and revere anything, including oneself, other than God. So these false teachers think that they are at the center of the universe. That everything exists to make them happy and fulfill their desires. They will not accept that anyone is greater or more important than themselves, and no one can tell them what they can or cannot do.

This was a common problem during the early church.

If any of that sounded familiar, that’s because this same issue is still around today.

So it’s not so surprising that "They do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones”

Who are these “glorious ones”? It’s a very high-sounding phrase, and it suggests a group of beings who are vastly superior to these false teachers. Some intepreters prefer a “normal” interpretation that doesn’t involve angels and demons and “celestial beings”. They have tried to interpret “glorious ones” as referring to the church leaders which would mean that the false teachers are rejecting their spiritual authority and church discipline. That idea is certainly present throughout the early church, but that is not likely what Peter means. In context, and also by cross-referencing to Jude, the “glorious ones” are most likely angels.

In any case, Peter is referring to a group of beings that the false teachers have no right to blaspheme or accuse or slander.

“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

“Whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord”

Verse 11 is extremely challenging to interpret, partly because it assumes a certain understanding in first-century Christianity.

[I mentioned last week that 2 Peter and the letter of Jude share a lot of parallels, so let’s have a look at Jude which may shed some light here.]

So this is the comparison. On one hand, there are the false teachers who are “bold and willful”, who arrogantly believe that they are free to do whatever they please. On the other hand, there are the much more powerful angels of God who are obedient and submissive to the will and authority of God.

Next, Peter compares the false teachers to “irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed.”

To state the obvious, calling a human being an “animal” is not a compliment. Specifically, these false teachers have lost what distinguishes them as humans and not animals: their capacity for reason, the capacity to control their instincts, and their capacity for a higher moral and spiritual consciousness.

Let’s be clear: animals are not bad. God created animals and called them good. Animals are part of God’s perfect plan. He is pleased when an animal behaves as He designed it, just as he is pleased when human beings behave as He designed us. The problem arises when human beings stop acting as God designed and choose to act as something else for which they were not designed. God designed mankind to be the rulers over the animals, not to become like the animals! But these false teachers have done just that—they have abandoned their God-given sense of morality and reason.

“Peter, like the rest of the New Testament writers, emphasizes that Christianity is inescapably ethical. You cannot have relationship with a good God without becoming a better man (and remain an animal).”

Likely that their behaviour is motivated by a misunderstanding of Christian liberty and experience of the Holy Spirit. The false teachers think it means they are free to ignore church discipline and moral restraint, and that the more they pleasure themselves, the more spiritual they are because they are practicing that freedom.

Peter: That’s just bullocks! Christian liberty is the freedom to live as kingdom citizens, as people under authority and life-giving moral boundaries

“blaspheme about matters of which they are ignorant”

The Greek could also be read as “blaspheme because they are ignorant”. They have come face to face with the truth but cannot understand it because it runs so counter to their lifestyles. So rather than digging deeper to try and understand, they mock and insult it.

“suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing”

NIV: “paid back with harm for the harm they have done”. The false teachers have been living these lives believing that it’s a good investment: live sinfully and enjoy the good life. That’s a deception: living sinfully only robs you of the good life.

“They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime…while they feast with you”

“Reveling in the daytime” refers to getting drunk in the daytime, which everyone in the ancient world thought was a shameful practice—even the pagan Romans! And yet, these false teachers are

The Greek word for “pleasure” is hedonei, from which we get our English word “hedonism”, which connotes an extreme, unhealthy, and sinful level of pleasure.

“Blots and blemishes”: spoiling the mood of Christian fellowships as well as the good reputation of Christ their Lord.

“Eyes full of adultery”. Greek actually reads “full of an adulteress”. Every woman they see is merely someone (something?) to have sex with. Their minds are so corrupted that every woman is automatically objectified.

“insatiable for sin”. That lust is never satisfied. No matter how much they look at women or gratify themselves with them, they keep looking restlessly, to the point that they cannot control their looking. Their lust has trapped them; they cannot get out.

“Entice unsteady souls”. This is actually a fishing metaphor about baiting a fish, which would make sense since Peter used to be a fisherman. We will see more of these “unsteady souls” later on, but essentially these are the individuals who are not yet mature in their faith. Peter is not blaming these souls for being unstable—after all, everyone starts off as an a faith newbie. Rather, he blames those who take advantage of their immaturity and leads them astray.

“Experts in greed (pleonexia).” Greek: an unbridled desire for more and more things that you don’t need and you really shouldn’t have. This word is typically used in reference to money or “unnatural intercourse”. What’s worse is that they are “experts”—knowing that such things are wrong, they still do it.

“Accursed children”: a Hebrew expression. Peter is not speaking out of spite, not cursing them. He is simply naming a fact, maybe even out of pit. Their behaviour has merited God’s curse.

“Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. (Story of Balaam)”

Their covetousness is in the spotlight: what can I gain from this for myself?

According to Numbers 31:16, Balaam is held up as the stereotype for immoral teachers who teach for personal gain.

The donkey. “A dumb [donkey] possessed sounder prophetic vision than a religious official whose moral sense had been perverted by gain from wrongdoing’ (Barnett).” The point here is not how the donkey could talk. The point is that a donkey, renowned for being disobedient and difficult to handle, had more moral sense than a spiritual religious man! This animal "created for destruction” still proves himself better than a human being. The false teachers are worse than donkeys!

“Waterless springs and mists driven by a storm.” The teaching that the false teachers offer is a mirage, an unsatisfactory illusion. Only Christ can offer living water (John 4). The “mist” is a haze that signals dry weather and is quickly dispersed by wind—so also the teachings of these teachers is lying, deceptive, and quickly outdated. And because they have brought about this mist that darkens the mind, their reward is the “blackest darkness”.

“Loud boasts of folly that ensnare those barely escaping”. Possibly an emaciated theology of the body and salvation: that the only thing that matters is what you believe (knowledge or gnosis) so who cares what you do with your body, and actually, sexual promiscuity is good because it is an expression of spirituality. Ultimately, this is empty teaching that profits nothing—it only destroys your body as well as the salvation you think you’re getting. “Man is a unity”, body and soul and spirit.

“Those who are barely escaping”: relatively new Christians who are not yet firm in their faith, who are just escaping the pagan society, only to come into “Christian circles” and be led to live the same lifestyle.

Flamboyant, bombastic language makes the false teachers sound educated and well-informed, so it seems that they must know what they’re talking about.

Conclusion

Throughout Peter’s tirade against the false teachers, he hasn’t actually said anything about the doctrine that they are teaching. Instead, he has focused his attention almost solely on the their ungodly behaviour.

In our Church of Christ tradition, we pride ourselves on teaching exactly what the Bible says and getting our doctrines right. And I am glad that we put such great importance on rightly understanding the Word of God.

But orthodoxy, right teaching, must lead to orthopraxy—right practice.