2 Peter 2 explained: A Warning About False Teachers

False teachers are coming (vv. 1-3)

Just as ancient Israel had prophets who spoke falsely, Peter says the church will have teachers who quietly bring in ideas that wreck faith and excuse loose living. He says greed drives them and they use made up stories, and their judgment is already on its way even if it seems slow.

Three warnings from the past (vv. 4-8)

Peter points to angels who sinned and were held in darkness (the word used is Tartarus, a Greek name for the lowest place of punishment), the flood in Noah's day, and the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah. In two of these God also rescued someone: Noah and seven others, and Lot, who was distressed day after day by the depraved and lawless deeds he saw and heard around him.

God rescues and judges (vv. 9-10a)

The point of the examples is that God knows how to bring faithful people through hard times and how to hold the wicked for judgment. Peter says this applies most of all to people who chase their cravings and reject any authority over them.

Mocking what they don't understand (vv. 10b-12)

These teachers boldly insult heavenly beings, probably spiritual powers such as angels, though scholars are not sure exactly whom Peter means. Even mighty angels leave that kind of judgment to God, so Peter compares the teachers to animals acting on instinct.

The way of Balaam (vv. 13-16)

At the church's shared meals these people indulge themselves openly, look at others with lust, and lure people whose faith is still unsteady. Peter likens them to Balaam, a prophet in the book of Numbers who was willing to curse Israel for pay and was stopped when his own donkey spoke to him.

Empty promises of freedom (vv. 17-22)

Like dry springs and mist blown away by a storm, they promise much and deliver nothing, offering freedom while being ruled by their own cravings. Peter says those who came to know Jesus and then slide back into this end up worse off, like a dog going back to its vomit or a washed pig going back to the mud.

Key verse: 2 Peter 2:1

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the people in verses 20 to 22 were genuine believers who fell away, which some take as evidence that salvation can be lost, or people who only seemed to believe and never truly changed.

Something to think about

When someone promises you freedom, how can you tell whether it is the real thing or just a different kind of trap?