2 Peter 2:1-3

2 Peter 2:1-3

Truth Terrorists

1. We must be continually on guard against destructive false teachers, so we must be able to recognize them.

• Peter warns that the truth that God's authoritative, infallible, and inerrant Word has been accompanied by false prophets throughout history. Satan lured Adam and Eve astray, worked diligently and tirelessly through the false prophets of the Old Testament, continues through false teachers in the present, and will continue to work feverishly through false teachers in the future. These teachers are always characterized by stealth and covertness. These false teachers didn't hand out their teaching in pamphlets with "False Teaching" printed in bold black letters. They "secretly introduced destructive heresies." They smuggled in false teaching by posing as something they weren't. They presented themselves as followers of Christ, but denied His Lordship, and they falsely claimed that Jesus wasn't returning to judge His creation. By doing so, they shunned His authority and led others astray by encouraging them to live for themselves. (v. 1; Gen. 3:1-6; Deut. 13:1-5; Jer. 2:8; 23:9-22; 29:8; Zech. 13:1-6; Matt. 7:15; 24:11, 23-26; Acts 20:28-30; 2 Cor. 11:13-15; Gal. 2:4; 2 Tim. 3:1-9, 13; Jude 4)

• These teachers proclaimed Christ as their Lord and Savior, but like the seed in rocky soil, theirs was only an initial intellectual or emotional response; the gospel never took root to produce the fruit of salvation, and they denied Jesus' Lordship. Jesus can't be part-time Lord of our lives; He demands complete authority. Their desire to remove the truth of Jesus' return is motivated entirely by "their sensuality," or lust, and "their greed." These false teachers were apostates, who rejected Jesus with their lives, and in the absence of the motivation to live for Christ, lived for themselves and tempted others to do the same. (Vv. 1-3a; 1:16-21; Matt. 7:13-14; 13:18-23; John 6:39; 10:27-29; Rom. 8:28-39; 13:13-14; 1 Cor. 1:8-9; 6:19-20; 7:23; 2 Cor. 12:21; Gal. 5:19; Eph. 4:19; Phil. 1:6; 1 Thess. 5:23-24; Tit. 1:15-16; 1 Pet. 4:3; Jude 4, 7a)

• By denying Christ's return as judge, these teachers attempt to detach themselves from accountability to live holy lives and appeal to the desires which lie inside us all. They successfully attempt to compel us to do all the things which our conscience convicts us to be contrary to the will of God, and they justify our ability to do these things through the freedoms gained in Christ. They "exploit" the weak and sell them lies; and their false truths bring "swift," or "sudden," inevitable and eternal destruction on themselves and others. The ultimate result is that the truth of the gospel is "maligned." Those in the word, whom Christ died for, and to whom He commands us to reach with the truth and hope of His gospel, are turned away from His truth and life because of the lives of those who claim to follow Him but live selfishly and lustfully. (Vv. 1-3; Isa. 53:5; Jer. 5:31; 14:13-15; 29:9; Matt. 7:16-23; 10:33; 18:6-7; 25:31-46; Rom. 2:24; Gal. 6:7-8; 2 Tim. 4:1-4; 1 Pet. 4:4-5; Jude 4,7)

2. We must be continually on guard against destructive false teachers, so we must be able to refute them.

• We must guard against these dangerous, sinister, and subtle heresies, by growing in knowledge and understanding of God's Word in such a profoundly deep manner, that we recognize anything contrary to His Nature and Character instantly. When we continually devote our lives to Christ, as "Master" and Savior, seeking to know Him more deeply and serve Him more fully with every decision and choice of our lives, we'll live lives continually more motivated by being pleasing and glorifying to Him. We must grow by knowing Him increasingly more to continually recognize and reject any motivation for our lives that is contrary to His good pleasure, not desiring to exalt ourselves and collect affirmations from worldly sources, but laying up our treasure with Him, so our hearts will be there also. Even as we'll surely stumble, we must continually turn to Christ, truly experiencing His grace and forgiveness, so we'll grow in our motivation to humbly submit ourselves to Him in obedience and love Him more fully. By dilligently seeking His grace to live in the way of truth, we'll continually grow to see the limitless value of the gospel in our lives, our value and worth described by Jesus' sacrifice, and the great need for His gospel of grace in the lives of others. We'll be motivated to love God with all we are and love and serve our neighbor for His glory, whomever they are. We must not only hear God's Word, we must handle His Word with deadly seriousness, holding tightly to its truth, and counting on it completely for all things in life by investing all our actions according to its truth, guarding against being agents of unbelief, and bearing gospel fruit. (Matt. 6:19-21; 7:12-18; 12:33; 18:4; 22:36-40; John 15:14-16; Rom. 12:1-3; 2 Cor. 5:9-10, 14-21; Gal. 2:20; 5:22-23; Eph. 6:10-18; Phil. 3:7-16; Col. 2:6-7; 2 Tim. 2:15-17a; Jas. 1:22-25; 1 John 2:3-6; 5:1-5)