False Teachers (2 Peter 2)

This chapter is very similar to the Book of Jude, with perhaps the difference between them being that in Jude’s case the false teachers have already appeared whereas in Peter’s case their arrival is still future. It is not only Jude and Peter, however, who warned about this development in the church. Paul informed the elders of Ephesus that false teachers would come, some from outside the church and some from among the elders themselves. John also mentions false teachers who claimed to have no sin. And he also refers to some false teachers who had left the church; if they had been true teachers, they would have stayed.

The fact that God, by the Holy Spirit, guided biblical writers to refer to this danger should make us alert to its presence, because the danger is always around. And Jesus also said that many false prophets would come with messages that would deceive many, with some of them even claiming to be the Messiah.

Presence of false teachers (vv. 1-2)

Peter says that it is inevitable that false teachers will come to where his readers are, which suggests that they were mobile, travelling around to spread their ideas. Verse 1 indicates that such teachers have not yet infiltrated the churches to which Peter is writing, but he says that they will come. He provides some marks of the false teachers so that his readers will recognise them. What are those marks?

First, they spread their ideas secretly, perhaps without seeking approval from church leaders. I recall as a new Christian listening to a man who taught that the New Testament does not require repentance for believers today, and he spoke quite persuasively, but he did so in a public hall with no one supervising what was going on. Quite a few went to hear him. His message indicated that he was a false teacher.

Second, the focus of their message will be the denial of the Lordship of Christ, which may merely mean that they will teach that discipleship does not require obedience to the commandments of Jesus. In this sense, they will deny the Master that bought them (Peter is taking them at their profession; he is not discussing the intent or extent of the atonement). They were promoters of the doctrine of antinomianism (no law), which has reappeared in many forms down the centuries.

Third, they will practice what they preach, so they should stand out from the crowd for their lax living. Fourth, they will be popular, with many following them, because they promote a version of the faith that does not major on the necessity of progressive sanctification in the lives of true disciples. Fifth, they will bring the cause of Christ into public disrepute. Sixth, their aim is to profit themselves from what Christians or others can give them; I suppose we could say that they will be eager to take up a collection.

Previous examples of divine judgement (vv. 3-9)

Someone might have asked Peter, is it likely that God will judge those who speak against him? After all, he is the God of love, the God who is longsuffering and patient. Peter’s answer is to go to the only place that will tell us, to sacred history recorded in the Bible. From there, he selects three examples of divine judgement.

The first example concerns fallen angels. Spurgeon commented on a sermon on this verse: ‘Behold here a wonder of wickedness, angels sin; a wonder of justice, God spared them not; a wonder of punishment, he cast them down to hell; a wonder of future vengeance, for they are reserved unto judgment! Here are deep themes, and terrible. Black as tempest are the facts, and flashes of terrible lightning flame forth therefrom.’

What happened to those angels after they rebelled against God? He imprisoned them until the Day of Judgement. There is some discussion about when this rebellion happened because we know that the devil and demons are not prevented from tempting us at the moment. So some suggest that this must have been a second rebellion of angels. The answer depends on what is meant by ‘cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment’. Obviously, they are not in a material prison, so ‘chains of gloomy darkness’ could be a non-literal description of their condemned state, the condition they are in until the day of judgement when the sentence will be given. The demons responded to Jesus, when he freed the demoniac from Gadara from their influence, by asking him if he was judging them before the time. So they knew that such a time of judgement was coming for them, and that they could not avoid it. The point that Peter is making is that they were judged severely and comprehensively. None escaped.

The second example is the flood that righteous Noah preached about when he warned people of divine judgement that was coming. When the flood came, the only living ones who had listened to his message were the members of his own family. Clearly, he was not in the majority, but he was in the right. The judgement came suddenly, and it was comprehensive. No one escaped.

The third example was what happened to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when God judged them for their sins. What sins were those? Genesis mentions their immorality, but Ezekiel mentions other sins of which they were guilty as well: ‘Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy’ (Ezek. 16:49). Her judgement included extinction as a community, with no prospect of recovery. Peter says that what happened to them is an example of what will happen to the ungodly.

We should keep in mind what Jesus said about Sodom when speaking to the people of his time: ‘And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day’ (Matt. 11:23). And he also said about places where his disciples had preached, ‘Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town’ (Matt. 10:15). As with the flood, judgement came suddenly, and it too was comprehensive. No one escaped.

Peter points out with regard to Sodom that Lot was not punished with the other citizens. He is described as righteous Lot who was greatly distressed by what he saw and heard taking place. Peter phrases Lot’s response in an unusual way. We might have said that his soul was tormented by what he witnessed, but Peter says that Lot tormented his own soul by what he saw and heard. His response was not passive to the sin around him. Instead, it was almost a spiritual discipline for him to be distressed about their sins. Nisbet comments that a true penitent ‘will account it his duty to put himself to much grief, as the words here signify, while he ponders and is a witness of [God’s] dishonour that has forgiven him.’

From those three examples, Peter makes two deductions: first, God can keep and rescue from his judgement those who are truly his; God kept Noah in a world of rebels, God kept Lot in a city of rebels. Second, God knows how to confine in imprisonment all those who have rebelled against him, whether angels, or the people at the flood or the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. That is where they are today, enduring punishment, and waiting for the decisions to be given on Judgement Day.

Peculiarity of the false teachers (vv. 10-13)

Peter highlights what those teachers are doing. They engage in immorality and detest authority. They blaspheme those whom Peter calls ‘the glorious ones’. Peter is referring to a feature of the message of those false teachers, that seemed to have included demeaning references to the fallen angels, here called the ‘glorious ones’. This suggestion is deduced from his statement that the good angels, who possess great power, don’t speak inappropriately about those other angels, with the implication being that the false teachers did. In other words, the good angels leave the decisions about judgement with the Lord himself. Which, of course, is where we should leave it and not speculate about what it involves. Yet those false teachers, who spoke out of ignorance and with great boldness, will be destroyed in the destruction that is yet to come on the fallen angels. Their confidence will not deliver them from judgement.

Pictures of the false teachers (vv. 13-19)

Peter further describes the false teachers and uses very graphic illustrations to depict the kind of people they are. They love their form of pleasure and are not ashamed to do in the daylight what others might do when darkness can hide their actions. They even use Christian gatherings for displaying their ideas (note the reference to the love feast in verse 13). They are marked by an insatiable desire for immorality, they impress souls who are unsteady in the faith, and they are driven by covetousness (they are in it for what they can get out of it). Having once professed the faith, they have turned away from it. 

They continue the policy of Balaam who decided to speak against Israel despite knowing that God had blessed them. What they do and say is self-chosen and they know that their way of life displeases God. They have nothing of benefit for true believers – they ‘are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm’. They are on the way to a lost eternity, and Peter indicates they are beyond rescue: ‘For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.’ 

Their message has disastrous effects: they lead prospective converts away from the truth (‘those who are barely escaping from those who live in error’. Their message of liberty from the law is actually a message of slavery to sin, of gross sin, and anyone who looked at their way of life would see that was the case (v. 19). What a terrible description, but a true description!

Prospects for the false teachers (vv. 20-22)

Depending on how we read this set of verses, we can make wrong conclusions. Peter says that the false teachers had previously been Christians. Some have taken this statement and deduced from it that a true believer can be lost. That is a mistake, and the mistake is based on not recognising the difference between profession and possession. A person who possesses salvation cannot be lost, but a person who merely professes it can be lost. Peter here is referring to profession.

Having said that, it is the case that even a profession brings us into contact with Christ, and that contact brings about changes to some extent. Prior to their departure from the faith, Peter says that those teachers were influenced by the faith, and they had followed a righteous lifestyle to an extent. Jesus in the Parable of the Sower says that some can receive the seed of the kingdom with joy but then, some time later, give up the faith. We should not think that a mere profession does not have initial and perhaps ongoing effects, because it does, and sometimes it has deep effects. But it does not continue. The obvious example of this is Judas Iscariot.

The false teachers had been sinners before they were affected by the gospel. Having given up the gospel, they became greater sinners than they had been formerly. They had not merely returned to their previous level of sinfulness, but they had commenced a level much lower. And they had done this while still attached to the church and involved in its activities. But their departure did not mean that they would be judged as merely unconverted people. Their judgement will be greater because they have rejected the Saviour after knowing something of the blessings connected to the gospel and the church.

Lessons

The first lesson to note is that the presence of false teachers is an ongoing threat to the church. Today, it may be an even bigger threat because of the range of media resources that are available.

Second, the biggest threat to the church is never outside the church. Threats outside the church, such as persecution, are easily identified. But threats from the inside are not so obvious and therefore not so easy to detect.

Third, it is not just false teachers who give up the faith. Ordinary professing Christians do as well. Their departure may not be the decision of a moment, but a slow decline in the wrong direction. But listening to what is false can accelerate the departure.

Fourth, the best way to proceed is to learn what the Bible says and stick to it resolutely, depending on the Lord for his aid.

Fifth, we should be on the watch for wrong influences and gently warn people who seem to be influenced by them, because God in his providence has brought it to our attention.

The apostle John told his readers that they were not to help in any way those who become false teachers (2 John 10 and 11). An obvious reason for such instruction is that his readers would be helping a wrong cause. But there are other reasons for not getting involved, and one is ensuring our personal safety in a spiritual sense. The best protection from a danger is to keep as far away from it as possible.