2 Peter 2: False Teachers and Their Destruction

• v.1-3 Beware false teachers
• v.4-9 Remember the examples of God’s judgment in the past
• v.10-22 These people are right off the tracks in thought and deed and will be destroyed

[Chapter 2 Synopsis: In the present world there are many deceivers, false teachers, who live immoral lives and seek to lead others astray. God will deal with them]

v.1-3 Beware false teachers

[Passage Synopsis: Having emphasized that we live according to the truth he now warns against false depraved teachers who will be judged]

v.1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.

v.2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

v.3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

[Note: Some prophets of old were false as some teachers today are, they lead people in bad behavior and will seek to lead you astray with wrong beliefs.]

v.4-9 Remember the examples of God’s judgment in the past & saving power

[Passage Synopsis: God has clearly judged and destroyed sinners in the past, so He will do the same with them]

v.4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;

v.5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;

v.6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;

v.7,8 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—

v.9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

[Note: But remember how God judged angels in the past, and how He judged sin with the Flood, and how he totally destroyed two sinful cities, and how Lot showed up the sin of those days. In the light of all this, realise God can save the godly and punish the ungodly.]

v.10-22 These people are right off the tracks in thought and deed and will be destroyed

[Passage Synopsis: These people are blatant in their folly, their debauchery and their general immorality, often having once been true believers but now obvious backsliders. They will be punished]

v.10-13 Beware the ungodly

v.10,11 This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord.

v.12 But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.

v.13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, revelling in their pleasures while they feast with you.

[Note: There is so much wrong about these ungodly people, but they will perish, for they delight in public debauchery.]

v.14-19 The things they do

v.14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!

v.15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.

v.16 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

v.17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.

v.18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.

v.19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

[Note: They are sexually and ethically immoral and just like Balaam of old they are self-concerned and deceptive, remember, he was even rebuked by an ass. Everything about them is bad – wrong words, wrong desires and they lead others astray, and while slaves to sin themselves, they promise freedom to others.]

v.20-22 Beware these backsliders who have recanted on their faith

v.20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

v.21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.

v.22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

[Note: If they are really backsliders they are in a real mess, they would have been better off no knowing the truth to start with. As the Bible says its only animals who go back to mess.[Prov 26:11].

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: