IV. False Teachers (2 Peter 2:1-22)

IV. False Teachers (2:1-22)

2:1 In opposition to the prophets and apostles, who rightly convey the Word of God (cf. 1:16-21), there were indeed false prophets among God’s people in former times, just as there will be false teachers among churches today and in days to come. Such teachers infiltrate the body of Christ with destructive heresies, false doctrines that lead to eternal destruction for those who believe them and for the false teachers. The assertion that such people deny the Master who bought them affirms an unlimited and universal atonement. But this doesn’t imply a universal salvation. Christ’s atoning work is available to all, but effective only for those who will receive it.

2:2-3 Peter warns against false teachers because many in the church follow their depraved ways, and pure Christianity is maligned because of them (2:2). What’s more, they exploit the church with made-up stories (2:3) for wicked, self-centered, and self-serving purposes. The false teachers referenced here do not veer unknowingly into error but intentionally perpetuate lies. Therefore, they will receive condemnation and eternal destruction (2:3).

2:4-6 Peter gives three examples to demonstrate that God judges evil and that punishment, therefore, awaits false teachers. First, God judged the angels who sinned and cast them into hell (2:4). This is a reference to the prehistoric rebellion of Satan and the angels who sided with him (see Isa 14:12-15). Second, God didn’t spare the ancient world . . . when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly (2:5; see Gen 6-8). This example highlights the fact that God preserves the godly even as he judges the wicked, a theme picked up again in 2:7-10. In the flood, the godly person spared was Noah, a preacher of righteousness, along with seven of his family members (2:5). Third, God reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly (2:6; see Gen 19:23-29). This example highlights the Lord’s judgment of those who lead ungodly lifestyles and are unrepentant.

2:7-8 The God who judges also delivers. As he delivered Noah from the flood (2:5), he delivered Lot from Sodom, for Lot was a righteous man whose righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard (2:8). Even today, feeling tormented by wickedness is one indication of a person’s desire for righteousness.

2:9-12 Here Peter brings the themes of judgment and deliverance together, noting that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment (2:9). Ultimate deliverance for believers will come at the rapture of the church (see 1 Thess 4:13-18), yet God also brings deliverance in history at times. For the wicked, there is no hope apart from repentance and faith in Christ, only the fearful expectation of eternal destruction in hell, especially for those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority (2:10).

These verses begin a more detailed description of false teachers. Though such people identify with Christ’s church publicly (2:1), they refuse to live under his lordship. They are bold and arrogant, mocking the spiritual power of Satan and demons—referenced here as glorious ones to denote their status as celestial beings, but not any moral goodness within them (2:10). In contrast, angels, who are greater in might and power than evil principalities, know better than to treat such beings flippantly (2:11). False teachers are like irrational animals in their lack of moral constraint and their reckless attack of powers they do not understand. Also like wild animals, the false teachers eventually will be captured and destroyed (2:12).

2:13-14 Such false teachers are not only evil at night when their deeds can be hidden. They are evil in broad daylight as well. They are flagrant with their unrighteousness, feasting at the Lord’s Table and fellowshipping with the church while using their Christian veneers to hide evil intentions. In the end, they will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done (2:13). Such false teachers see women as tools to be used, preying particularly upon unstable people. They are greedy as well, like children (2:14).

2:15-16 The greed of false teachers is like that of the Old Testament false prophet Balaam . . . who loved the wages of wickedness (2:15). Peter sheds light on the narrative of Balaam in Numbers 22–24, clarifying that he attempted to curse Israel in hopes of financial gain. However, a rebuke from a speechless donkey illustrated that an animal had more spiritual insight than Balaam (see Num 22:28-30). So too with the false teachers.

2:17 Like springs without water and clouds without rain, the false teachers arrive with a pretense of offering refreshment but in reality offer nothing to sustain spiritual life. Thus, they are destined for the gloom of darkness, eternal hell.

2:18-19 Contrary to the way of spiritual growth, false teachers use their communication abilities to arouse the fleshly desires of recent converts to Christianity—referenced here as people who have barely escaped—and drag them backward into their old lifestyles rather than forward in righteousness (2:18). The false teachers promise . . . freedom to those who follow their counsel. But they deliver, and experience, slavery to corruption (2:19).

2:20-21 When Christians are tricked by false teachers into returning to their previous, unrighteous lifestyle that the knowledge of Christ had delivered them from, they will find themselves in a worse state since they now know better.

2:22 In the end, those believers who follow false teachers become like them in their lifestyles. They seek ultimately to satisfy their sinful desires above all else. That situation is depicted by appropriate proverbs, portraying such lifestyles as behaving like disgusting animals.