II Peter Chapter 2
Peter finished chapter 1 telling us that holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Chapter 2 will start out by telling us that there will be men who will be false teachers that we need to look out for. How will you know if someone is teaching false doctrine? You yourself need to be reading the Word to know what is truth, and the Holy Spirit will guide you. A false teacher may think that he can teach about God, and gain notoriety and monetary gain, but God knows His heart. These false teachers can appear to be good teachers because they appear to have been believers of the Master (Jesus) who bought them (paid the death penalty on the cross for them) and then they turn around and deny the Master. Their denial of Christ in their teachings will be taken very seriously by God. They may appear to get away with it for a time, but you can be sure they will be judged. Peter goes into great detail to describe the swift judgement that will come upon the false teacher based on God’s dealings with other sinners and the judgement they received.
Let's Reflect
1. Peter talks about certain beings who we might think are too high to be judged, what were those beings?
2. God judged the ancient world saving only Noah and his family in the great flood. Think about how many people died in that great judgement. How many were saved - how many were in Noah’s family?
3. Today we see a world caught up in the sin of lust and sensuality, doing whatever they lust after, just as they did in the days of Lot. What cities were destroyed by God because they were an epicenter of sensuality and debauchery?
4. Because false teachers are not following after the truth of God’s Word, they themselves will fall into sin. It is interesting to see how many false teachers fall into sexual sins. Peter describes them as having eyes full of adultery that do what?
5. The saddest part and the scariest part about false teachers are that they once heard the truth, but they made a decision to forsake the truth and to go in the opposite direction. While they feast with you and promise you great liberty, they themselves are trapped and are slaves of corruption (decay and death). Peter says that they are men who go to great length to gain money. They are like Balaam from the Old Testament. In other words, they are past the point of listening to God, and they are going their own way like Balaam did. What did it take to get Balaam to listen to God?
6. These false teachers are useless like springs and mists that are waterless. Peter tells us that their judgement will be worse than the unsaved person, because they at one time heard the truth, saw the freedom offered through Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross, but decided to go after their own lusts. What proverb does Peter use to describe the stupidity of these false teachers?
