The End

Introduction

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

Could not put Humpty Dumpty back again.

It is a popular nursery rhyme. But nothing better fits what is described in today’s lesson.

The second chapter of Second Peter has detailed the coming false teachers. It has described their character, their stubborn hold on error, and their enticement of the unstable. It was Peter’s warning to future generations of the danger they face.

But today, we watch the last step in the saga. We find the end of the road.

Where does following evil lead? What happens if you start listening to voices disparaging the inspired scripture and replacing it with their clever notions?

It is not a pretty picture, one that ends with a revolting image.

What is the inevitable destination of the false teachers and their followers?

Discussion

Their Start

When we come to this passage, we find where they began.

Peter had said in the first verse of the chapter that the teachers would come from within. They would begin as follows of Christ.

But some have questioned that. Some believe that if the teachers indeed followed Christ, they would not have done such things. This is proof that they had not been converted. Yet, Peter is emphatic about where they began their free fall.

“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.” (2 Peter 2:20, ESV)

He uses two terms to dispel the myth of the phantom believer.

They had escaped. We know about escape. Someone is in prison or in chains, and they break free. But the Greek term adds nuance to that basic sense. It includes a turning back on what was. These were Christians whose conversion showed they turned away from the sordid lives they once lived. There was a change of behavior.

Secondly, they had come to the “knowledge” of Jesus. It is more than merely knowing facts. When someone knows Jesus, they recognize who he is and what he has done for them. It is a strong statement that they decided to follow Jesus.

It seems clear that Peter gives a thumbnail sketch of their lives before they had turned to false teaching. They were followers of Christ who had forsaken a former life of sin.

But the teaching and philosophy they espoused turned dark.

Their Fall

They turned away from Christ in their error and their teaching.

Again, we see two words that Peter uses to describe the difference.

“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.” (2 Peter 2:20, ESV)

They were entangled, caught in the net of error. They saw it as something that gave them superiority and privilege. It made them someone. It is hard not to be so enticed as to be twisted in the cords of this kind of thinking. It fed their base lusts and gave them what they wanted. Their newfound way of life provided them with an easy income of fleecing the unwary as they turned their heads in their direction.

The false teachers were like the carnival barker who enjoyed the attention and the easy marks at the Midway.

Then, it overcame them. Peter uses a military word indicating defeat. They lost the battle with sin and were now prisoners making their home in their new state. They now served a new master called evil and were firmly in his grasp.

Peter paints a bleak picture of this fall.

“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.” (2 Peter 2:20, ESV)

Worse…than the first. Sad words that weep over the spiritual condition of these teachers.

But how could it be worse?

Peter explains himself.

“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.” (2 Peter 2:21, ESV)

How can it be “better” not to have known? Isn’t any taste of Christianity better than none at all?

We tend to be sort of Pollyanish about this verse. Isn’t it better to know the way first? Perhaps there is hope. If you knew it once, you could come back.

But Peter allows no such sentimentality. It is better if they had never known the way than to have turned back.

This is not a prodigal son story. You know the story of Luke 15. A boy gets antsy to live on his own but with daddy’s money. So, he takes his share of the inheritance, goes to a far country, where he wastes it on false friends and free living. But the money runs out, and he ends up in the pigpen.

But he comes to himself and runs to his father, and all seems to be forgiven.

We love that story. But that’s not this story. This one has no “happily ever after.” It grits its teeth and clenches its fist. It’s not about redemption but repair.

Why is it better not to have known?

It is important to remember the context of this statement. In the first verse, Peter gives a broad overview of the false teachers.

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.” (2 Peter 2:1, ESV)

One statement tells the story behind the despair. The teachers have denied the Master who bought them.

They came into Christ because he was their savior. He was the one who bought them. Now, they have turned their back on him and refuse to see his proper place. If you cannot see him as your salvation, you can find none.

One proverb says: The wise man knows which bridges to cross and which bridges to burn.

The teachers chose to burn the bridge over which they could return—the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

They have returned to their previous state without the way out.

So they are now left on their own, without any hope. It is a dead-end with nowhere to go.

The End

To capture the terrible state in which they find themselves, he provides a stomach-churning image.

“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.”

(2 Peter 2:22, ESV)

They have become like the most detestable creatures in his time. For the Jew, pork was synonymous with unclean. It was something that demonstrated how filthy something can be.

Dogs were not the cuddly creatures sleeping at the ends of beds. Instead, they were roaming animals, looking for prey. They reeked with fleas and filth and were considered worse than a nuisance.

He says they have become “dogs and hogs.”

And the pictures are revolting.

Anyone who has owned a dog has had the experience of a dog vomiting and then returning to it. It is something you cannot watch or bear. Peter got the image from Proverbs.

“Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” (Proverbs 26:11, ESV)

It is like the dog and its vomit when you do not learn and return to the terrible life you left.

The pig, which is washed, cannot wait but to start to wallow in it again. Peter calls it mire but uses a word that came over into English as “barbarian.” A barbarian is slimy, smelly, and foul. It described the invading Goths at the end of the Roman Empire.

There is nothing pleasant, nothing redemptive, and nothing holy about the images. It is the worst end a person can imagine. A dog in front of vomit and a mud-coated hog. That’s the spiritual condition that the teachers enjoy.

Conclusion

As Peter ends the chapter on the false teachers, he brings us to the very end…the pigpen with all of its odors and germs. Who wants to live in a hog slop?

They are best described by a Persian proverb:

He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not is a fool; shun him. He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a child; teach him. He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep; wake him. He who knows, and knows that he knows, is wise; follow him.

They are the fool who should be shunned.

Peter warns successive generations of the danger they face. And we are there as well.

If Peter were to speak directly to us today, he would say: Beware the hand that leads you, lest they take you where they are.

Don’t follow them to their end.