Better to Have Never Known the Way

Welcome and Prayer

Introduction

Today we continue in our series in the epistle of 2 Peter, and we’re at about the halfway mark. Now, if the title of this lesson sounds a bit dark and gloomy, well, you’re right. We are in that part of 2 Peter where Peter really hammers the false teachers who are causing so much trouble for the church. It’s like a really, really angry letter of complaint.

In our previous lessons, we saw Peter arguing against the false teachers. He was defending the truth of his own teaching and describing the certainty of the judgment that will come to those who defy God.

In today’s text, we are going to come face to face with these false teachers themselves. We will see Peter call out their rebellious and ungodly way of life, which is especially disturbing because, as we saw in the previous lesson, these false teachers are not pagans, but Christians. Members of the church who have been baptized into Christ, who have partaken of the same Lord’s Supper, and they ought to know better. And that’s how we have our lesson title for today: it is the harsh pronouncement that Peter makes about these false teachers, that it would have been better if they had never known about Jesus and eternal life rather than to know him and then slander him.

Buckle your mental and emotional seatbelts, because we’re going into some rather painful and negative places. If you haven’t clicked away yet, thanks for staying on. And I do hope that we will emerge from this session not feeling depressed or resentful or ready to point fingers, but rather that we will hear the gracious voice of God who lovingly warns us to protect us against those who would sabotage our faith, and who seek to destroy our relationship with the One who loves us.

Let’s begin by reading the whole text. This is Peter’s description of the false teachers.

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.”

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. But for Peter, what matters is the fruit of that doctrine. How does that doctrine affect the way you live? And does the way that you live glorify the Lord, or does it ruin the reputation of Jesus Christ?

What’s Going On

But first, I want to begin by talking about the doctrine that these false teachers are teaching. We’ve skirted around it before, but a clearer understanding will reveal their motivation for living the kind of lifestyle that they live, and it will help us understand why Peter is so concerned about its impact for others in the church, especially for newer, less mature Christians.

The heart of their teaching is found in verse 19: “freedom.” Now, obviously freedom is not itself a bad thing. It’s a wonderful thing. In fact, the whole gospel is that Jesus Christ came to set us free from the law of sin and death—Romans 8:2. We are free from the power of sin that separates us from God. We are set free from the requirements of the law of Moses that no one can fulfill.

But what has happened is that the false teachers have twisted and distorted this message of freedom. They teach that we are free to do whatever we like, including the things that lead to sin and death! They teach that we are free from any sort of moral obligation—basically “no one can tell you what to do because Christ has made you free!” They teach that we are free from any kind of final judgment (which we will see more of in chapter 3)

You can see how this kind of so-called Christian teaching would be very attractive, especially to those who think that Christianity is just about following a bunch of rules.

It has become what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace” in his book, “The Cost of Discipleship.” He says:

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Here’s the thing: Bonhoeffer wrote about this phenomenon in 1937, almost 2000 years after 2 Peter was written. Sadly, things have not changed all that much. The false teachers that Peter was arguing against died long ago, but their teaching continues to this day. Today we still see in contemporary Christianity a good number of Christian leaders and teachers promoting this idea that you can be a Christian and do whatever you want. You can be a Christian without changing the way you live. And that’s not Christianity.

Analysis

Now that we have this background established, we can go through the text and see how this twisted idea of “freedom” has resulted in the twisted lifestyle of the false teachers.

Blaspheming Angels

2 Peter 2:10–11 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.

Let’s start with 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 person who commits crime in broad daylight and stubbornly pleads innocence even when all the evidence and a hundred eyewitnesses say that he is guilty.

The word translated “willful (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 and run illegal operations and kill people if they have to. Because the only thing that matters to them is “I must have this thing that will make me satisfied, and I don’t care what happens to other people.”

What a horrifying level of arrogance and selfishness! Perhaps you can see how a twisted idea of freedom would lead to this kind of behavior. If I believe that I am free to do whatever I want, then I should do whatever pleases me. What matters is my immediate satisfaction, my immediate happiness, and no one, not a parent or a church leader, can tell me what I can or cannot do.

Then we see that the false teachers use their freedom to blaspheme the glorious ones. This is a strange phrase, and it certainly sounds like Peter is talking about beings who are higher than humans. One interpretation is that the “glorious ones” is a nice way to describe the church leaders who should be in authority over the false teachers. And it is true that the false teachers used their freedom to reject the instructions of the church leaders. This is widely documented in other parts of Scripture as well as other early church writings. However, “glorious ones” in this context is too lofty a term to describe human beings, even for church leaders who are legitimately important and fulfilling a spiritual role. Given the context, Peter is likely talking about angels, and the point is that these human false teachers have dared to insult angelic beings of a totally different power level than they are.

By contrast, in verse 11, Peter describes the angels who are in fact greater in might and power, but even they do not consider it their right to blaspheme against others.

In Jude 9, which is the parallel to this verse in 2 Peter, there is the very strange story of the archangel Michael fighting with the devil.

Jude 9 (ESV): But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

We don’t have time to get into the details of this very interesting story, but it was common knowledge to the early Christians. So here is an archangel, probably the second most powerful being after God himself, dealing with a disgraced fallen angel who is far beneath him. But even he recognizes that he does not have the right to pronounce judgment. So he relinquishes whatever power he has and allows the Lord to take over as the rightful judge.

So angels, who have more might and power and authority than human beings to act, recognize that there are limits to their authority, and they submit to the ultimate authority of God. So what does that say about these false teachers, who are so much lower than the angels, and still blaspheme against beings that are higher than they are? That simply goes to show how reckless and obstinate these false teachers are.

Behaving Like Animals

2 Peter 2:12–13 (ESV): 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, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing.

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.

What is ironic is that these false teachers think that they’ve got it right. They think that their belief about unbridled freedom to do whatever they want is correct. They think that it’s the more advanced version of freedom, that only the truly faithful can understand what freedom really means.

This was a common issue in early Christianity as well—having these individuals who would pop up claiming to have some kind of special knowledge or special revelation from the Lord that no one else has, and that if you followed their way of thinking, you would be more spiritual, more faithful than anyone else.

Really though, what’s going on is that their “special and advanced doctrine” is really only a disguise for their primal, uncontrollable, animal-like behaviour. And the reward for that kind of behaviour is “destruction”. What‘s interesting is that it’s not God who directly punishes them by sending judgment. Note the passive construction here: “they will also be destroyed in their destruction.” The false teachers, in teaching false doctrine and living ungodly lives, have created their own destruction. What they thought would give them freedom and an enjoyable, pleasurable life is precisely what will destroy them from the inside.

Revelling in the Daytime

2 Peter 2:13 (ESV): They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.

This refers to the behaviour of getting drunk in the daytime, which every ancient culture frowned upon—Jews, Christians, and even the pagan Romans. Of course, with drunkardness comes all other kinds of unsavory behaviour. What kind of message does it send when a Christian behaves in a way that even a non-believer considers shameful? What does that say about the Christian God and the Christian belief system? It really is a “blot and blemish,” isn’t it? The holiness of God, the sinlessness of Jesus Christ, the purity of the Holy Spirit is mocked by these false teachers who think that their freedom allows them to act in shameful ways.

But it’s not just the general impression that they give to non-Christians. This phrase, “while they feast with you,” is possibly a reference to the Lord’s Supper, which in the early church was still a full meal that Christians would eat together. It was sometimes called the “love feast”, and it was a time for fellowship and celebrating the good news of Jesus. It is a joyous meal, but it is also a sacred meal. And here come these false teachers who have profaned it, who have become drunk at these meals, and who have very possibly started to have sex with people during the Lord’s Supper! Back then, pagan religions had this idea of “sacred prostitution” where human sexual intercourse would arouse the gods to bless the world. The more sex you have, the more religious or spiritual you are. Somehow, these false teachers have brought that idea into Christianity.

That comes up in the next few verses:

2 Peter 2:14 (ESV): They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!

The Greek here literally reads “They have eyes full of an adulterous.” Wherever these false teachers look, whoever they look at, all they can see is a sexual object who can satisfy their fleshly desire. They cannot see them as people created in the image of God, temples of the Holy Spirit who are beautiful and sacred.

And yet the more they gratify their flesh, the more they want. That’s what sin does: it lies to us that “You will be satisfied if you just have this thing. You’ll be satisfied if you do it just one more time. You’ll be satisfied if you have the right person.” But then when the deed is done, it is unsatisfying because God is the only one who can truly satisfy our longings. And they are about as far away from God as they can possibly be.

Perhaps the most disgusting part is that they want to be as far away from God as possible! They are “trained” in this lifestyle of sensuality.

So Peter cries out in frustration, ”Accursed children!” These false teachers who think they are wise and advanced in their spirituality are actually nothing more than immature brats who have managed to deceive themselves. And that brings us to the story of Balaam, another Old Testament story.

Balaam

In short, the story of Balaam is that he is a prophet himself, and he is hired by a certain king Balak to curse the nation of Israel. He agrees because he’s going to get a lot of money out of it, and he doesn’t care that this is the nation of the Almighty God. So he gets on his donkey and prepares to curse Israel, only for his donkey to begin talking and hinder his progress. He also meets an angel of the Lord on the way, and he ends up blessing Israel instead of cursing them.

By the time Peter is writing, Balaam’s reputation is decidedly negative. He is the model of the false prophet who is only working for his own benefit. Elsewhere, Balaam also has the reputation of leading Israel astray into moral decay. Clearly, Balaam is meant to be the parallel and the prototype of the Peter’s false teachers, who are also just working to please themselves and lead other Christians into moral decay.

So Balaam is working in opposition to God, who wants to bless his people. Balaam is so blind, so caught up in his own selfish desires, that his own animal has to intervene. Now, we might dismiss this story as pure nonsense—of course animals don’t talk, right? We’re not here to quibble about the scientific possibility of animals talking. But think about what Peter said just a few verses earlier: the point is that the false teachers are behaving like animals. They have abandoned their better human reasoning and moral sense, so much so that even an animal knows better how to obey the will of God.

Waterless Springs and Mists Driven By a Storm

Now we come to verse 17. Your Bibles will probably show a break in the paragraph. That’s because Peter shifts from the individual character and behaviour of false teachers to the effects of their teaching on others.

First, he brings up two expressions to describe the false teachers: “waterless springs and mists driven by a storm.” Both convey a similar idea about something that promises water, whether an oasis or rainfall, but ends up not delivering. This was an audience surrounded by Middle Eastern deserts. They would understand the pain of expecting there to be water when there really isn’t. In the same way, the false teachers may be teaching this idea of unbridled freedom that looks really good, but it’s actually empty and worthless. It appears that it will satisfy you completely, but it only leaves you more and more dissatisfied. They promise to give life, but they only leave you barren and dry.

And for them, the gloom of utter darkness as been reserved. This recalls chapter 2:4, when Peter talks about how the fallen angels are committed to chains of “gloomy darkness.” The punishment of these false teachers is the same; they do not go unnoticed by God.

Still, the false teachers are extremely convincing to those who are “barely escaping from error.” This refers to those Christians who are new converts, new initiates to the Christian faith, those who are not fully anchored in the way of Christ. So when they hear “loud boasts of folly”, it doesn’t initially sound like folly. Instead, they sound intelligent, enlightened, wise.

“They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption.” The false teachers think that they are preaching a higher sort of freedom to do whatever they want. But they are kidding themselves, because the only thing they want is to continue in their sin and corruption. That’s not true freedom because they cannot choose the way of goodness and virtue.

Now we come to what I think is the scariest statement that Peter makes in this section, which is also the title of our lesson today.

2 Peter 2:20–22 (ESV): 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. 21 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.

This is a frightening thought. We have seen that these false teachers were originally Christians. They knew who Jesus was. Yet somehow, they have rejected everything that Jesus represents. Knowing the straight and narrow road that leads to life, they have chosen the way of destruction. Knowing that they are to bear the fruit of the Spirit, they have chosen to live lives of sensual pleasure.

They have become “entangled and overcome”, which was a description of a gladiator, a powerful warrior, being trapped in a net, or a hunted animal being caught in a trap. They may struggle and kick out, but they only get more and more trapped. And it’s only a matter of time before they are killed.

This verse also recalls a parable that Jesus told about a man who had a demon cast out of him. The demon goes into the wilderness and cannot find rest, so he comes back to his human host, finds it empty, and calls seven other demons to join him. And Jesus also said that “the last state has become worse than the first.”

Conclusion

Okay, we’ve made it through this rather negative and depressing text. What can we take away from this?

I hear a warning for myself. These false teachers were once true Christians. If they could be led astray by their own fleshly desires and twist the gospel to fit their own lifestyles, isn’t it possible that I do the same? That is a frightening thought, and all the more I ought to give myself to prayer and study and set my mind and heart on the things of God, so that I may be truly free to follow him.

I think we may also hear a call to pay attention to the church and to the world around us. False teachers are still around today, who may be teaching half-truths about the gospel that lead many, even genuine Christians, into lives of sin while thinking that they are living as true followers of Jesus. This is not to say that we should view every single preacher or Christian leader as a potential false teacher. But we should perhaps pay closer attention to what is being said.