Remember Their Nature

A ring box isn’t supposed to be empty, especially at the moment of proposal. Its size, décor, and company logo all indicate there’s something of great value inside. In the hands of an eager young man down on one knee, that box promises great thrill for the girl who’s about to receive what’s in it. What a letdown to find it empty! But an empty ring box (even one used as a lighthearted, harmless trick) is a far cry from hollow religious teaching that can damn people to an eternal hell. That’s what false teachers do. Their speech, presentation, and promises all give the impression that something desirable is inside. But the Word of God says their doctrine is empty. In 2:17-19, Peter identifies two manifestations of the hollow claims of heretical teachers: showy speech and false freedom.

The first manifestation of the vain teaching of these heretics has to do with ostentatious orality they employ, showy speech that has no substance. These men are described as “springs without water, mists driven by a storm” (v. 17). The first expression refers to a well, and the second to a cloud. The common denominator, of course, is that both items promise something they actually don’t deliver. The well is dry, and the cloud is driven away by the wind before it has a chance to produce any rain. Both a well and a cloud, by their nature, hold the promise of providing water for weary travelers or dry crops. But neither lives up to its billing. Jude combines the two expressions in referring to the false teachers as “waterless clouds” (Jude 12). Both writers are describing the promise of the heretics to provide new sources of life for people. But there’s no substance to their promises. All they do is leave naïve people thirsting for satisfaction.

Standing in stark contrast to the dearth of satisfaction in false teaching is the eternal refreshment of the water of life, Jesus Christ. He told the Samaritan woman,

Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life. (John 4:13-14)

Only in him can anyone find lasting satisfaction. “The one who believes in me,” Jesus said, “as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him” (John 7:38). Through his death and resurrection, he bought the right to put the life of God back inside those he saves. And that life is a never-ending source of gratification for the otherwise thirsty soul, both now and forever!

Deceivers, on the other hand, have a reservation with “the gloom of darkness” (v. 17; cf. Jude 13). Just as their depravity is extreme, so will be their punishment. They won’t just experience “darkness” in the final judgment but “gloom.” It will be thick, eternal darkness. Peter pulls no punches in announcing the terrifying nature of the punishment of false teachers. He’s obviously talking here about the darkness of hell, the eternal destination of the wicked that’s characterized by both fire (see Matt 13:42; 25:41) and darkness (see Matt 8:12; 22:13).

But how exactly do these false teachers get away with such fraud? Peter says they speak with “boastful, empty words” (v. 18). In other words, they employ showy, arrogant speech that actually is hollow. It’s a shell without anything inside other than foolishness. They try to make their words sound weighty and important, but those words are really nothing more than mere stupidity. Yet their stupidity isn’t without effect. There are always some whom “they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery” (v. 18). Their shameless immoral appeals play tricks on some ignorant and immature souls the same way a fish is tricked into biting the fake, plastic plug cast by a skilled fisherman.

These duped individuals likely are new or at least immature believers. Peter describes them as “people who have barely escaped from those who live in error.” The word “barely” is a rare word used only here in the New Testament. It communicates the idea that it hadn’t been long since these people had escaped the clutches of their pagan counterparts, “those who live in error” as citizens of the wicked Roman culture. So the false teachers were luring some relatively new Christians into their immorality. These new believers were jumping out of the frying pan of paganism and into the fire of heretical religion!

A second expression of their empty doctrine was giving people a false sense of freedom. On one occasion Jesus told his disciples to let the Pharisees alone because they were blind guides who led people to share in their fate. He said, “And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit” (Matt 15:14). On this point the Pharisees were precursors to the false teachers of Peter’s day. These heretics are slaves leading people into the very pit of slavery. “They promise them freedom,” Peter writes, “but they themselves are slaves of corruption.” They have been overcome by their own evil conduct and, consequently, have become slaves to it. Now they’re compelling others into that same bondage but passing it off as freedom. They “were prisoners talking to others of a freedom that they didn’t have” (Vaughn and Lea, 1, 2 Peter, 182).

A proverbial statement serves to conclude Peter’s argument and solidify his point: “People are enslaved to whatever defeats them.” These false teachers are

so thoroughly dominated and controlled by their sinful nature (John 8:34; Rom 6:16) that their teaching is void of any divine power. Although they offer freedom, they are slaves to sin, utterly unable to bestow true spiritual freedom because they reject Jesus Christ—the only one who can truly liberate the soul (John 8:31-32,36; Rom 8:2; Gal 5:1; Heb 2:14-15; cf. Jas 1:25). (MacArthur, 2 Peter, 105–6)

Not much has changed. Today Christianity often is viewed as a restricted life confined to following a bunch of rules. Believers are seen as being enslaved to someone else’s bidding. The banner cry of modern individualists is, “Live your life the way you want to live it!” But all the time these false freedom fighters are luring people into a life of slavery to sin and bondage to corruption. As people gradually succumb to spiritual and moral decay by their own immoral choices, they ultimately lose even the illusion of freedom and fall into unqualified bondage to their sin. That’s why we need a Savior. Against the tide of false teaching that leads to damnation, we need to hear Jesus pronounce over us, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. . . . So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free” (John 8:32,36). And he has set us free indeed through his life, death, and resurrection. He’s broken the chains of sin and corruption, and he’s put his life back inside of us! If you’re in Christ, beloved, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2; cf. Rom 6:18; 2 Cor 3:17; Gal 5:1).

Every Christian, as well as every Christian church, needs to do some honest self-evaluation at this point as well. We need to ask, What powers have mastered us? We can’t afford to allow our banner cry of “Freedom in Christ!” to actually keep us from experiencing it. Jesus himself suggested it was possible to try to remove a splinter from someone else’s eye, all the while having a plank in your own (cf. Matt 7:1-5). It’s not uncommon for believers to become so busy pointing fingers at the evils of a corrupted culture that they fail to see slavery to sin in our own lives and churches (Davids, Letters, 247–48). It’s easy, for example, to rebuke the world for things like gay marriage and transgender accommodation and yet avoid calling into account Christians who are guilty of things like gluttony and materialism.

2 Peter 2:20-22

While I don’t watch a lot of TV, I do enjoy a couple of the crime shows like Criminal Minds and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I like to watch how smart people figure out things by unraveling a web of complex details. But sometimes it’s easy for the cops to match people with their crimes because of things like DNA. DNA is the abbreviation of deoxyribonucleic acid, which is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Yet the DNA of every person who’s ever lived is different because everybody gets a random mix of the genes from their parents, and that mix is never the same.

However, spiritual DNA is different. Since the fall of mankind, all of us have inherited the same sin-infected genes. Because we all have this sin nature, we all sin, and we all die as a result of our sin (cf. Rom 3:11-12,23; 5:14). For those in Christ, however, our tainted spiritual DNA has been replaced with the righteous DNA of Christ (cf. 1 Cor 15:22,45). Those outside of Christ remain enslaved to their unregenerate DNA. Peter just finished saying as much about the false teachers and their converts: “They themselves are slaves of corruption” (v. 19). Now he proceeds to show how the corrupted spiritual DNA of these people continues to show its ugly head.

Bible scholars have debated whether 2:20-22 is referring specifically to the false teachers or to the converts they were enticing (see vv. 18-19). The fact that the whole chapter is aimed at the false teachers, and that some form of the word translated “defeats” is repeated in verses 19 and 20, implies the false teachers are in view. At the same time, the word “For” at the beginning of verse 20, as well as the repetition of the same word translated “escaped” (vv. 18,20), suggests that Peter may have the converts in mind. But this is likely another one of those places where trying to be too definitive misses the point. Whether it’s the false teachers or those seduced by them,

The fate of those who had apostatized stands as a warning to those wavering under the influence of the teachers. Peter wanted his readers to see that those who commit apostasy are very unlikely to return to the truth. The decision is of great consequence, and those who are wavering must see that heaven and hell are at stake. (Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 360–61)

What the false teachers had done, their converts were in danger of copying! Peter’s warning can be organized around three categories: the presumption, the principle, and the parable.

Peter first talks about a gross presumption these apostates had made at some point in the past. Because they had “escaped the world’s impurity,” or the world’s contaminating moral influence, they had assumed they were truly saved when they really weren’t. How did they make such a damning mistake? The heretics’ escape had come about “through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” but it resulted in that “they are again entangled in these things and defeated.” That’s not much of an escape; in fact, it’s no escape at all! The word “knowledge” is epignosis, that full and complete knowledge of God in Christ. These people had come to the place where they understood the gospel. They actually got it. But the word “entangled”—another fishing metaphor—indicates they once again had been duped by their flesh and by the world.

So whatever “knowledge” of Jesus these folks had, it never took root. It only affected them short term, maybe with some intellectual grasp of Christian truth followed by a superficial change of behavior. But it evidently wasn’t the real deal. If it had been a true knowledge of Christ Jesus, it would have had lasting effect on their intellects and wills. Their imperfect knowledge only caused a brief change. They proved by their defection that they weren’t true Christ followers. Their profession was false. They made a tragic mistake about the genuineness of their spiritual condition.

This text is important for our understanding about the doctrine of the security of the believer. Some have suggested that this passage teaches that Christians can lose their salvation. But Peter isn’t in any way, form, or fashion unclear regarding his convictions about this subject. He opens his first letter by contending that believers “are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet 1:5). And he begins this second letter by claiming that God’s “divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Pet 1:3). Peter unapologetically declares that God calls believers and, therefore, will guard them so they will definitely reach their final salvation and participate in his divine nature. So why would he contradict himself at this point, teaching in one place that believers are secure and in another that they aren’t?

At the same time, Peter is equally firm on his conviction regarding the absolute necessity of the perseverance, endurance, or continuation of the saints. At the heart of the doctrine of eternal security is the relationship between endurance and authenticity. In the parable of the sower, two of the four kinds of soil on which the seed of the gospel fell represent people who initially give visible evidence of truly receiving it. However, that visible manifestation of life fails to endure and, consequently, proves their life to be inauthentic (see Mark 4:5-7). Later in his ministry, Jesus said that “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt 10:22). Of those who abandoned the community of faith, John says,

They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us. (1 John 2:19)

Other New Testament writers concur that endurance is the clear determinant of the authenticity of one’s salvation (see Rom 2:7; Heb 3:14; Jude 20-21; Rev 2:7,10,17,26; 3:21).

Peter’s words in 2:20 are a needed reminder that things like walking an aisle, making a “profession” of faith, praying a prayer inviting Jesus into your heart, joining a church, or even being baptized don’t guarantee entrance into heaven. Peter has taught throughout the letter that only those who continue to live a life of godliness will get eternal life (see 1:5-11). Perseverance is the mark of whether a person has the real deal (Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 363). If you are truly saved, you will endure. If you endure, you are truly saved. But if—like these apostates—you have “escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” and yet “are again entangled in these things and defeated,” then something is amiss with the genuineness of your professed faith.

The false presumption made by those who had walked away from the church leads Peter to articulate a simple principle: it’s better never to have known the gospel than to have known it and rejected it. For people who have known about Jesus and rejected him, “the last state is worse for them than the first” (v. 20). Why? Because the human heart is adversely affected by rejecting truth that is fully known and understood. “Cynicism and bitterness multiply in the soul of individuals who turn from God’s grace back to sin. Re-entanglement with evil produces scoffers and skeptics” (Vaughn and Lea, 1, 2 Peter, 183). In short, it’s far more difficult than ever before for such a person’s heart to be softened to the gospel. With knowledge comes responsibility, so that an individual is now more responsible for having known and rejected the truth.

Peter uses a number of proverbial statements in this passage, some of which he seems to draw from Jesus. Our Lord told a parable about an evil spirit that had been cast out of a man and then wanders around looking for a new place to inhabit. Finding no new home, it goes back to its previous dwelling, but this time seven other spirits join it in inhabiting the man (cf. Matt 12:43-45). Jesus concludes, “That person’s last condition is worse than the first” (Matt 12:45). Similarly, in his parable of the faithful and wise manager, Jesus indicates that to know truth and reject it deserves a harsher punishment:

And that servant who knew his master’s will and didn’t prepare himself or do it will be severely beaten. But the one who did not know and did what deserved punishment will receive a light beating. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be expected. (Luke 12:47-48)

Our Lord’s brother communicates a similar principle when he says, “So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it” (Jas 4:17). The bottom line: with greater knowledge comes greater accountability!

Peter feels the gravity of this principle merits restatement, so he says, “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them” (v. 21). The “way of righteousness” simply refers to the pathway of salvation through faith in Christ. And because the verb translated “to have known” is a perfect infinitive, these false teachers evidently had known about this way and had been fully aware of and yet ultimately snubbed it. Peter likely uses “the holy command” as a synonym for the gospel. It’s an allusion to the laws of God delivered to people for their good (cf. Deut 10:13). These apostates had received the gospel and understood it to be for their good, but then they took what was good and rendered it bad. It would have been better for them to still be in the position of never having known the gospel with the prospect of still rendering a right verdict when the opportunity came.

To render as bad what God has rendered good is at the heart of the unpardonable sin (cf. Mark 3:21-30; cf. Heb 6:4-6; 10:26-31; 1 John 5:16). To blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is to decree all of God’s goodness to actually be bad. It’s to declare darkness to be light and bondage to be freedom. Such revolt is unforgivable because there’s no longer any basis to acknowledge one’s sinfulness before God. The sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, the gracious gift of repentance, the loving conviction of the Holy Spirit, and the merciful patience of God have all been spurned. Consequently, nothing remains to serve as the backdrop of righteousness by which an individual’s sinfulness can be discerned. The situation is hopeless because the sin is unforgivable—“unforgivable not because God is unwilling to forgive, but because the man who persists in such self-delusion refuses to accept the forgiveness which God patiently proffers to rebels” (M. Green, 2 Peter, 142).

Peter finishes his weighty condemnation by illustrating this principle with a twofold proverb, one that parallels the lives of those who turn away: “‘A dog returns to its own vomit,’ and, ‘A washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud’” (v. 22). The first part of the proverb is similar to Proverbs 26:11, but the second part doesn’t appear to have a biblical parallel. The Jews considered both dogs and sows—or pigs—to be unclean, so Peter’s use of them here was intended to stir up disgust in his Hebrew readers. Dogs and pigs will always revert to the bent of their natures. The nature of a dog will compel him to eat his own vomit, and the nature of a pig will compel her to return to her mud hole. It doesn’t matter if the dog throws up something that’s made him sick, and it doesn’t matter if you give the pig a bath. Those activities have no lasting effect. These animals will naturally go back to what they were temporarily rid of. Their natures remain unchanged. Their innate DNA is exposed.

Jesus used both dogs and pigs to describe people who are completely out of touch with God (cf. Matt 7:6). Peter’s purpose here isn’t much different. Even though some people temporarily demonstrated some embrace of the gospel, they ultimately renounced Christ and went back to their old way of life. They simply demonstrated their true nature as loving the sickness and filthiness of their sin. This two-faceted proverb clearly exhibits the foolishness, disgrace, and desecration that characterizes a person who willingly goes back to the moral filth of worldliness after having learned about forgiveness and deliverance through the gospel of Christ.

It’s easy to see how the use of phenomenological language in 2:20-22 has caused some to interpret these verses as teaching that true believers can lose their salvation. Peter uses “Christian lingo” to describe those who fall away because they appeared at one time to be genuine Christ followers. They confessed Christ as Lord and Savior, they were baptized, and they joined the church. So Peter describes the false teachers—and some of their converts—in Christian terms simply because they were still participating in the community of faith after demonstrating some evidence of genuine faith. But now they’ve revealed that they weren’t ever part of the people of God because they haven’t remained true to the faith. Peter’s proverbial illustration of the dog and pig clearly indicates that those who fall away never really change their nature (Schreiner, 1 and 2 Peter, 364–65). Their true spiritual DNA is ultimately exposed.

I remember walking into the auditorium one Sunday to preach in one of the churches I used to pastor. A dear senior adult lady met me at the door and paid me what she thought was a compliment: “I listened to my two favorite preachers on television this morning.” And then she told me who they were—me and one of the most popular prosperity gospel preachers of our day! Because our broadcast was on a one-week delay, she could watch both of us before coming to our Sunday gathering. I was tempted to just smile, thank her, and move toward my seat in preparation for the beginning of the service. But it struck me that the stakes were too high. So I gently said to her, “Do you really think that he and I are saying the same thing?” The shocked and bewildered look on her face confirmed my suspicion. She hadn’t been assessing the content of either preacher’s sermons according to God’s Word. She was choosing favorites based on other criteria.

Peter unleashes some heavy artillery here on the false teachers. Why? Because he’s a shepherd—a pastor—who’s tired of his sheep being ravaged by men full of arrogance, lust, and greed who are masquerading in religious clothing. While his words at times seem harsh, they must be judged against the dire consequences of speaking softly or saying nothing at all. Michael Green’s warning is on target:

It does our generation little credit that such passion for truth and holiness strikes an alien note in our minds. Peter’s plain speaking in this chapter has a very practical purpose, just as Jesus’ warnings had: “What I say to you I say to everyone: ‘watch!’” We would be mistaken to assume, “It could never happen to us.” Both Scripture and experience assure us that it could. “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall” (1 Cor 10:12). Covetousness, sophistical arguments, pride in knowledge, gluttony, drunkenness, lust, arrogance against authority of all kinds, and, most of all, the danger of denying the lordship of the Redeemer—are these not all the paramount temptations of money-mad, sex-mad, materialistic, anti-authoritarian, twentieth-century man? (M. Green, 2 Peter, 144)

The contemporary church needs to be scared straight. We need to stop playing “Mr. Nice Guy” when it comes to false teaching. Pastors need to call some names and warn their people to shun the men who bear them. Believers need to take more seriously the detrimental influence false teachers have on ungrounded Christians and the damning effect they have on unsuspecting non-Christians.