2 Peter Chapter 2
2023 - First word of the first verse is "but", drawing a contrast between what is about to be said and what was said before. All the translations I looked at started with this same English word, which is translated from the Greek "de". Very simple. Delta epsilon. Used 2,870 times in the KJV. It is "but" 1237 times, "and" 934 times. Next highest is only 166 times. Thirteen different English words are used to translate "de", and there are 300 occurrences where it is not directly translated at all. So. This little conjunction is very versatile, depending on it's context. So here is the verse:
1 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. [2Pe 2:1 ESV].
Does "and" work in this verse. Well is this an addition to what went before? Not really, then, because what went before was a statement about the unimpeachability of scripture. If the verse starts with "but", we would expect something that "offsets" the truth of scripture, and THAT is what we see. Even though scripture is from God, and so inerrant, despite that fact, false teachers arose - in those olden days when the scripture was new, when it was being spoken and written by prophets. Even so, false teachers arose then, and they will also be here in our time.
First verse has the phrase mentioned in the intro saying the false prophets were "bought" by the Master. MSB uses a whole column on this verse alone.
MSB says this chapter is written so that false teachers can be identified. One of the characteristics of their teaching is misrepresentation. As Satan to Eve in the garden, they twist and turn and restate in a way that changes the meaning. "Nothing is more wicked than for someone to claim to speak for God to the salvation of souls when in reality he speaks for Satan to the damnation of souls." False teachers represent themselves as pastors, teachers, evangelists, but always as fine Christian men and women speaking God's own truth. But those who follow them follow them right into hell. "This is why it is so tragic when a church makes a virtue out of the toleration of unscriptural teachings and ideas in the name of love and unity." Such an important statement!
2023 - But it is the false teachers, the unsaved, who are denying the master who bought them. Could this be the same kind of situation that we saw back in 1:9? In that verse, saved people have drifted so far away that they have "forgotten" that they were cleansed from sin. Why wouldn't we in fact EXPECT Peter now to talk about how this problem even extends to those in high positions in the church? Saved men, who become so popular, who develop such a following, that they too drift away from the Master who bought them and begin to "tickle the ears" of their followers in order to keep them, to recruit new followers, and to take up ever larger collections? The become so enamored with their fame and popularity that they begin to chase that as their goal rather than chasing the truth of God. Boy. That sure makes a good tie back to what Peter was saying in Chapter 1. Read on, and see if it is somewhere contradicted. Skip down to 2023-Vss 4-10a below for a continuation of this line of thinking...
Next, MSB notes that "All false religions have an erroneous Christology." I need to be more grounded in Christology to avoid being deceived!
And finally, to the phrase that started this...bought. MSB says this is an analogy, as a master buying a slave, and the requirement that the buyer be considered sovereign over that slave. Christ bought saved sinners, and is Sovereign over them. That is, the one bought has a responsibility to submit to the one who bought them. But that is where false teachers are false. They do not truly submit to the sovereignty of Jesus. Peter is about to mock their claim of being bought by writing of their coming damnation. Then this sentence: "Thus, the passage is describing the sinister character of the false teachers who claim Christ, but deny His lordship over their lives.
2022 - So this whole verse is worth a look:
1 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. [2Pe 2:1 ESV]
First phrase is referring back to the end of chapter one, which ended by saying that all prophecy - true prophecy - is inspired by the Holy Spirit speaking through men, and is NEVER produced by man alone. Not if it is scripture. Yet even in that day, when the Torah and the Talmud were being written, false prophets did arise. My goodness just read Ezekiel if you don't think that's right. Over and over the false prophets show up and tell lies of their own while claiming the words are from God. God surely despises this. Isaiah and Jeremiah also talk about them but they are more prominently discussed in Ezekiel. So think about that - as we prepare to understand the rest of the verse...In the OT, there were false prophets. These were not speaking for God, not working with God, not serving God, having NO PART of God. Those false prophets are condemned in the harshest possible terms. They will not be in heaven, reprimanded for selling out both God and the people they were to shepherd. They were false - through and through. So. Next phrase. Does not say there will be false prophets among you. Says false teachers. So there is a significant change here. A contrast of providers of false information. In old times, they were pseudoprophētēs, while now there are pseudodidaskalos. You don't have to read Greek to see that these are separate entities in every sense. Why would Peter use such different words? Because, perhaps, with the deaths of the apostles, with the deaths of all who had first hand experience of Jesus, there would be no more prophecy - and no more scripture. Now, there will only be teachers expositing what has already been written, and there will NO new material offered. ANYTHING that contradicts what was written to that point is false teaching. I think this also sets prophecy in a superior position to teaching...and I think a study of spiritual gifts bears that out. I am not even sure we should say there are still prophets and then try to explain why they are different than the OT firebrands. Why not say prophecy has left us, and today's firebrands preachers...and we know preachers come in all makes and models.
2022 - Still on v. 1....
Next phrase. Secretly and destructive are the key words here, but how are we to take them? Secretly is the Greek "pareisagō". It is used only here in the mGNT, the TR. So we cannot look elsewhere. But the BLB interlinear looks in other literature of the time, and this word means privily, secretly, craftily. I picture a Sunday School class - in our day - totally devoted to their teacher, and that teacher introducing doctrines, meanings, and interpretations that are destructive, perhaps in the sense of divisiveness. Maybe this teacher gets found out, and disfellowshipped, asked to leave, removed from his teaching position, and he/she leaves and takes the class with him weakening the church in a destructive way. Heresies? What exactly is a heresy? Greek "hairesis". We might think of this as a toupee, which appears luxuriant and nourished, but is in fact only loosely and artificially resting on the scalp it claims to be an integral part of. It is insidious in that it appears to spring from scripture, when in fact it is fabrication.
A deeper look at "heresy", because the Interlinear has far more information:
αἵρεσις, -εως, ἡ;
1. (from αἱρέω), act of taking, capture: τῆςπόλεως, the storming of a city; in secular authors.
2. (from αἱρέομαι), choosing, choice, very often in secular writings: Sept.Leviticus 22:18; 1 Macc. 8:30.
3.that which is chosen, a chosen course of thought and action; hence one's chosen opinion, tenet; according to the context, an opinion varying from the true exposition of the Christian faith (heresy): 2 Peter 2:1 (cf. DeWette at the passage), and in ecclesiastical writings [cf. Sophocles' Lexicon, under the word].
We only think of this word in the 3rd sense. That last phrase is in fact representative of how we mostly think of this word; "An opinion varying from the true exposition of the Christian faith". But that isn't how it was used up to that point. Why choose this word for "breaking" with true exposition? Storming a city...a false teaching is an attack on the whole. Heresies are not just "disagreements" between scholars. A heresy will undermine a whole book of the Bible, perhaps, or a whole fundamental doctrine of the church, upon which others perhaps depend. To say that Christ was not really fully human for instance, but instead some kind of angel/human cross, is a heresy because if true, so much more is undermined, including the substitutionary death on the cross. Only like for like sacrifice is sufficient. This is heresy. And then the second definition - I think it means that it is an individual embracing as truth something that is not mainstream. It is choosing to believe what is destructive to the "main body", and to thus be a part of that destruction. This is a pretty incredible word when we look deeply.
2022 - And still we are on v. 1 -
Next phrase - denying the Master who bought them. If we theorize that in the same way the OT false prophets were not speaking God's words, and knowingly so, and we equate those prophets with today's teachers, as the first part of this verse says, then these teachers are unsaved. If unsaved, in what sense are they "bought"? If we say Christ died for all so it is in that sense that they are bought, then Limited Atonement must fall, and with it a good chunk of Calvinism. For me, that's too high a price for this interpretation. So what then? One can be a slave and not acknowledge it as truth. You do that by saying you have no master. What a common idea. "They can lock me up but they can't take my freedom". William Wallace maybe said something like that. The American Revolution comes to mind. In fact, if you are locked in a cell, if your purchase by another is papered up all legally and officially, then guess what? You were bought, though your behavior and your self-image deny it. What they do is impugn the position and the rights and the character of their legitimate Master, but this state of affairs exists only in their own minds and NOT in reality. See how this ties in with the other meanings of heresy? Think that's just chance?
And last phrase, the result of flirting with the unorthodox - Not reprimand. Not chastisement. Swift destruction.
What a supremely frightening verse for someone to teach about! It says if you teach wrong, you're done, and yet we almost have to teach this to appreciate that those who stand up here week after week and teach us are walking near the edge of a cliff. Imagine the care one must take to keep away from this particular edge!
Okay, 2022 moving on to the rest of the chapter after 55 minutes on vs 1! What a verse!
2022 - Vss 2, 3.
Worldly sensuality and inner greed are common characteristics of those who teach heresy. I get a mental picture of Joel Osteen. Compare him with say, Billy Graham, or John MacArthur. There is "not muzzling the ox", and there is Kobe beef. False teachers are identifiable, but often I think only by those close to them, those in the inner circle. Think of Jim Jones. Those near him had to see him going off the deep end. They had to see his rampant adultery. It is our responsibility, if we recognize a false teacher, to make sure the light is turned full on them, according to church disciplinary procedures.
Is a woman who teaches a Sunday School class a false teacher? Absolutely she is. She is mocking specific scriptural teaching, because in her view, it does not apply. She is following her own opinion instead of clear scripture. I knew they shouldn't be doing it, I had no idea how dangerous they were. I had no idea "what" they were. She brings followers. She takes them with her when, if the church leadership functions correctly, she is removed from that position. This is a secret, destructive heresy. A simple one to deal with, and yet how widespread is it? Look how the verse ends, too: "...Their condemnation...is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep."
Peter gives several examples of how foolish it is to think a righteous God won't punish wrongdoers. When angels sinned, he cast them into chains and gloomy darkness where they remain, he destroyed the whole world but saved Noah and his family, he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah yet saved "righteous Lot" (I need to give Lot more credit. He is in Hebrews 11 too I think. Why else would God have saved him?). The point is, God knows how to dispense justice to sinners, and how to save the righteous out of the midst of that destruction.
2021 - A bit of an aside...The Greek word for "hell" in 2:4 is Tartarus. I saw that word repeatedly in studying out the whole "Jesus went down and declared victory", and the passage about bringing captivity captive. It would seem to me at this point that Tartarus is indeed the pit where the angels that followed Satan are now confined, and from which they will be released during Great Tribulation. This verse may in fact be where that whole idea comes from. Does this make angels and the demons that possessed so many in the NT different creatures? Is it that all the fallen angels are confined and not available for use by Satan, and only these demons - these much less powerful but fully evil beings - are available to him? What about the Prince of Persia, and the spirit of antichrist being held in check even today. There is a lot here that could be pursued. Back to the point....Tartarus for fallen angels, Hades for fallen sinners, Paradise for pre-resurrection saints. Tartarus is a pit. Hades is down - because the rich man looked up to see Lazarus. Paradise is up, because Lazarus looked down at the rich man.
2023 - I think Tartarus is just the Greek word for the place to which Hades and the pit and Gehenna refer. Just a different language, not a different place.
Vss 4-10a are a series of rhetorical situations aimed at establishing as fact that God judges evil - not only at the end, and not only in the past - but repeatedly and visibly over the whole course of human history. Isn't it interesting that Peter says the angels who followed Satan have already been confined to the pit, to Tartarus. In Revelation, when Satan is thrown out of heaven, who exactly is still up there with him, and why?
2023 - 4-10a,
Continuing from the note above speculating as to whether these false teachers are saved but have been overtaken by their own lusts that ought to have been put away...but were instead puffed up by their position of authority as teachers. (Jim Jones?).
We see angels who got cast into the pit, then
we see the whole world but for Noah and his family destroyed, then
we see Sodom and Gomorrah.
We see these instances of God destroying the ungodly, unrepentant.
Then
We see Lot rescued from Sodom. This seems to be for us a picture of how if we persevere in our beliefs even in the midst of the worst kind of ungodliness - taught by false teachers - God can and will still rescue us as he rescued Noah and Lot. He can rescue us right out of the middle of his destruction of those who sin against him. Concurrently with the rescue of the godly, He can and has "kept the unrighteous under punishment". Surely this is contrasting Noah and Lot as believers with the rest of mankind as unbelievers? Why have we focused in on individuals who resist the influence of unrighteousness? Because the false teachers seek to "divert" everyone from the path? No...that doesn't work. So the real question - the real "burden" of maintaining that the false teachers Peter is talking about as being saved but far off course - is what he means by "kept the unrighteous under punishment"? Is that about all those that drowned and all those that were burned to ash? Or is it about Lot who was camped out with them...no no no. That road leads nowhere.
We might make this work if we see that the angels, though unrighteous, are to be judged later. Those in Noah's day continued 120 more years, but did not escape God's judgment. And the same with Sodom. For 50, for 10? How long did Sodom and Gomorrah continue before final judgment. So...When we are struggling under false teachers, we are to stay true to those scriptures that we know are light in the darkness, and though it may seem that the false teachers are getting away with it while God does nothing, remember always that He will ultimately bring them all down. So if the false teachers are saved but off the path a great distance, what is the punishment they will endure UNTIL the day of judgment? That almost sounds like purgatory!!! Not looking for a new doctrine here...So that leaves only that the false teachers will be held for judgment at the rapture - since they are saved. Just as the angels are being held now. And the spirits of the false teachers? Of these saved but so far gone that they teach false doctrine for worldly gain? Will those who die in this state be in heaven in the spirit until the rapture.
I have dug myself a hole. But I think it is worth considering. I am moving on, and will see what I think next year.
The next paragraph, vvs 10b-16, describe the false teachers in a very vitriolic manner. It describes their behavior - both how they appear outwardly, and what they are thinking inwardly. Like Balaam, they put the money gained from their evil ahead of righteousness. They are immoral - eyes full of adultery.
2021 - These characteristics are what we need to look for in our teachers. How do we do that? We need to spend time with our teachers, we need to know them better. Like preachers - who can also fall into this category! - we need to know them well and so see what their true character is. We don't "examine" those to who's leadership we submit. We are obligated to do so, yet we so seldom do so. If someone at church stood up and said "Jesus is a myth" then we'd surely get suspicious. But what if someone who seems for all the world to be a good teacher is having an affair with a secretary at his work? Shouldn't we know about this? It would likely be going on in secret, but if it came out? Wouldn't that be important? Grounds for removal, or even more than removal? I know of such a situation, where it got out, and the church did nothing. The man remained a deacon even. There is no way this was right, leaving him authority after such a fall. Look at this list, and note how many fallen televangelists succumb to "eyes full of adultery". It is like the most common downfall. Not just recently but going all the way back. How can we say that a televangelist who turns out to be an adulterer was ever teaching the truth, and not a greedy sinner more interested in deceiving the lost with false promises in order to get their money? We should never turn back to such a teacher!
2023 - So that previous paragraph is pretty harsh. It denies that Satan attacks pure teachers more vigorously than he just lets the false teachers do their thing. And sometimes, despite the best intentions of our teachers, they sin. Why would they not, if we do. So again, the key to all this is knowing them well enough to know if this was a "slip up" in that they sinned, or a slip up in that they are constantly sinning, but they slipped up and got caught this time. These are two radically different situations and we would need great wisdom to distinguish between the two. But in such cases, it is what we SHOULD do!
2023 - Look at vs 13 though! Accursed children? Children? Can children be unsaved???? Balaam is invoked here....perhaps as the OT version of the NT false prophets. Balaam believed in God. But Balaam chose gain over truth. Balaam was cursed by God. But God used him to bless Israel three times. I'm thinking about how the demons believe too, and tremble, but their belief is not saving. Balaam's belief was surely not saving. So maybe, after all this, the false teachers believe in God, but their belief is not saving. They understand, but they do not submit. They believe, but they do not serve.
Yeah. That's probably what it all means. The false teachers believe - and so would be adept at deceit, accomplished at nuance - pulling away those saved but not firmly grounded. This is almost certainly what is meant. Once Balaam is held up as an example, it all just kind of false into place. I won't say it is comforting, but it does make the best sense of all the possibilities.
2023 - And then vs 17, which leaves absolute now doubt. I should have read it all before starting off on that wild goose chase:
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. [2Pe 2:17 ESV]. Utter darkness is exclusively for the unsaved. And the false teachers are just like the world other than Noah, and the citizens of S and G other than Lot. They are reserved for hell is what they are.
2022 - Rather than try and insert into the middle of the paragraph above, I will just put here as addendum this year's thoughts on this passage:
This passage:
10...Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. [2Pe 2:10b-11 ESV]
The glorious ones are the godly whom God has always rescued and preserved though earthly corruption reaches "Biblical proportions". We can expect false teachers to be entirely disrespectful toward the saved, to blaspheme them, mock them, call them the liars, and so on. Impugn their witness and their character in order to prevail rather than stick to Biblical exposition. This is how we identify them, incautiously vocal where angels dare not speak.
Vss 11-16 show us that these false teachers are not thinkers at all. They have no reason, no logic, but run only on instinct, like animals, who think not of the righteous way to provide themselves food, but who will kill, maim, lie, steal and anything else that is necessary to overcome whatever stands between them and their appetites. That is what Peter is saying. And what brilliant pictures he paints to do so.
In 17, they are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm.
2022 - It just goes on and on. Characteristics of false teachers. Shouldn't take more than one lunch with them to see through their lies, to discern the facade of spirituality that cannot disguise a core of corruption.
2023 - Yeah...might take more than one lunch. Surely they are protected by Satan, too. And he is an accomplished deceiver.
The targets of these people are those "barely escaping" or "trying to escape". MSB says these are not saved people, but people with high levels of guilt and anxiety. People with broken marriages, lonely people, people tired of living with the consequences of their sins and looking for a new start, and "escape" from the place that sin has left them. With their false teaching, their promise of salvation without repentance of sin, their "non-condemnation" of the sin that keeps these people where they are, the false teachers appeal to this sort of people. Rather than leading them into a life of hope and eternal glory, the false teachers bring them down to death and hell because they reject the Jesus that is the only way. Making adultery legal - and in the case of our culture today, making homosexuality ok, making abortion ok, making dissipation through drugs and alcohol ok - and "acceptable to God" in their kind of church, they damn many souls to hell, and earn for themselves a very hot place there.
2023 - Previous paragraph needs revision. If MSB is correct and these are the saved who have stumbled, then false teachers are not going to be sending them to hell. Need to determine whether I agree that they are saved - in which case the hellfire part in the previous paragraph goes away, or whether they are indeed lost. Really need to figure this out.
2025 - Look at this last phrase of vs 19: 19 ...For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. [2Pe 2:19 ESV]. How profound is this? Whatever it is that we continually rationalize as ok but know deep down to be sin, is the "whatever" that overcomes us. And that thing that we always fall for, that we WANT to fall for, keeps a wedge between us and God, hinders our prayers, stunts our spiritual growth. The "whatever" that we desire this much is not our friend but our greatest enemy.
Vs 20 is not about saved people falling back to an unsaved state. It is like several previous passages - particularly the one about the Jews who believe intellectually but have just not gotten over the hump of unreserved commitment to Christ - where some very knowledgeable and educated in good Christian doctrine, at last spurn it in favor of the corrupt gain they can get from compromising that doctrine themselves, and enticing others to the same.
2021 - That is one thing it could be saying, and after reading it, it is probably the right one. The false teachers that are being summarized here are very knowledgeable and as such they realize the doctrinal "shading" that they do in order to deceive for gain, or power, or immoral purposes. They know very much, but instead of accepting by faith, with all this knowledge they have, they instead choose to use what they know to deceive. They don't quite get over the bar - but having gotten so close, having been high enough to see clearly the other side - to see the victory that is prepared - they choose not to go over the bar. The whole thing about dogs returning to their vomit sounds just like the "no more chances" thing in Hebrews. This is that same thing. MSB notes on the end of chapter 2 agree. He says this is the same as Heb 10:26, 27. He lists examples of apostasy - and I don't have time to put them all in, but they are in the MSB note to 2:20. The thing to be clear about is that these false teachers were never saved. They got close! They have even markedly changed their outward behavior in order to "take on sheep's clothing". But they are not saved. They are worldly. The notes on 2:19 and 2:20 are worth rereading until I can say them in my own words.
One thing - the false teachers promise freedom to those struggling with life's "bondage", life's problems and cares. But they cannot ultimately provide this freedom, since they are living in the same bondage themselves. And here's the thing - if you follow a false teacher you submit yourself to the same bondage the false teacher is in. Slaves cannot free slaves, so following a slave makes you a slave to the slave.
2022 - Vss 20-22,
The 2021 notes are very on target I think. I see though in the false teacher's offer of freedom the whole name it claim it movement embodied. This is them, today, right out there in the daylight, preaching exactly what 2Pet says they will preach. And look how often they fall! This has to be the most pointed, most unforgiving, most direct revelation of the characteristics, techniques, and identifying marks of false teachers in the whole Bible. THIS is where you come if you have suspicions!
2022 - I looked again at the MSB notes on vss 20-22. This is worth quoting:
"Such false teachers as Peter was describing were not made outside Christianity. They are always bred in the church, half in and half out; but eventually they reject the truth and try to seduce others in their attempt to fulfill their self-gratification."
These are the dogs returning to their vomit.
2023 - Vs 20:
20 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. [2Pe 2:20 ESV]. Think of the seed that fell among the thorns. It sprouted, it grew, perhaps significantly...but then the thorns choked it down, deprived it of nutrients, distracted it with competition. The false teachers may well have walked down the aisle, but they were not saved. They sought the experience, the emotion, not the underlying truth. And then they continued to associate worldly sensuality - emotion and physical exhilaration - with the truth of God, and so lure others away. But they never ever surrendered - that is the word - they never surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.