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. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. 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. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, 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 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 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. 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 delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
If you are a parent, you know from experience that the problem with a poorly behaving child is not primarily rotten behavior, but a rotten heart. God’s word is not a tool in the tool belt to primarily fix behavior and wash the outside of the cup. It’s a surgical word that recodes our beliefs, our condition, and shines light into the darkened human heart. It exposes the sin we did not know we had. The harboring of bitterness. The lack of love. The inner selfishness at the root. The distance between what we say and what we truly believe. The don’t-go-there list. God you can have this, but don’t you dare intrude, reign, or tell me what to do here and here and here. It’s an eternally-focused and profitable word that teaches, corrects, and trains (2 Timothy 3:16) the human heart.
These are characteristics and fruit of false teachers that Peter lays out in chapter 2:
- denying the Master
- sensuality
- greed
- defiling passion
- despise authority
- willful
- insatiable for sin
- entice
- love (self) gain
The heart that is not once and for all awakened to God and God’s word (born again) as well as regularly treated daily before the cross with God’s very words will have these same tendencies.
The point here is a warning and a reality check. Sin and the human condition are not child’s play. It’s not kind of bad. It’s not one problem amongst many problems. It is the only problem. If we have a low view of sin and the depravity and desecration of God’s Name and God's supreme worth, all of a sudden... God is not that holy, hell becomes an overreaction, coming to the foot of the cross is for others not you and me (Luke 18:9-14), grace loses its tenderness, mercy becomes optional, and glory loses its heavy weight.
We humans are all very very very broken. We should marvel at how deep the rabbit hole of sin goes, and wonder why God would die for the ungodly (Romans 5:6). Let both empathy rise for our broken friends, family, church members, and enemies, and let humility bring us to our knees before our covenantally-loyal God and cross-bearing Savior and Friend. God really does love us.
"He that wishes to attain right views about Christian holiness, must begin by examining the vast and solemn subject of sin. He must dig down very low if he would build high. A mistake here is most mischievous. Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption. I make no apology for beginning this volume of papers about holiness by making some plain statements about sin. The plain truth is that a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity. Without it such doctrines as justification, conversion, sanctification, are “words and names” which convey no meaning to the mind. The first thing, therefore, that God does when He makes anyone a new creature in Christ, is to send light into his heart, and show him that he is a guilty sinner." J.C. Ryle "Holiness"