False Prophets and Their Punishment – 2 Peter 2
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Even so, many will follow their licentious ways, and because of these teachers the way of truth will be maligned.3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly; 6 and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment 10 —especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority.
Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring against them a slanderous judgment from the Lord. 12 These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and when those creatures are destroyed,[h] they also will be destroyed, 13 suffering the penalty for doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of doing wrong, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved. 18 For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who have just[l] escaped from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them. 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 overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 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 that was passed on to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb,
“The dog turns back to its own vomit,”and,“The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud.”
What does the passage say?
V. 1-3 Peter emphasized the importance of putting aside our will to follow God’s will. As the end of the world approaches, however, he warns that many teaches the opposite message. Instead of following God’s will, these false prophets encourage to follow our desire.
V. 4-10 Then Peter says that the evil will be punished by the righteousness of God, on the judgement day. It implies that some who are following the evil ways seem to be doing well, but Peter says God is only holding their foot. Even though Christians appears to be suffering, in God’s kingdom there will be a different story. “So God knows how to rescue the godly from evil trials. And he knows how to hold the feet of the wicked to the fire until Judgment Day.” v. 9 The Message
v. 11-22 Peter says that God’s wrath will fall upon the false teachers, who coarse the believes to stray away from God. Peter reminds the people that these false teachers were believers at one point. If they’ve escaped from the slum of sin by experiencing our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ, and then slid back into that same old life again, they’re worse than if they had never left. v. 20 The Message
pHe warns the people not to fall into the same trap of being like ‘dogs turning back to their vomit.’ v. 22 NRSV
What does this mean to me/us
As a teacher of the word, I do have to constantly remind myself of the danger of falling into a pit of thinking that I know something.
My call is to share the word of God, not my own.
Once my thoughts proceed God’s will, how am I different from the false prophets?
In the same way, if we, who are children of God, go back to the ways of living in the world, by following our own wills, instead of our Lord, how can we be different from these false prophets?
Peter, who urges us to give up, our will is challenging us to be on guard.
Today, what if we find one thing, in our day, which we do because we are following our own will, instead of God’s will?
Then we will understand why Peter is warning us to be away from these false prophets.
What does this MEAN to you?
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