TEACHERS OF DESRUCTION
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 29, 2019 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: May 29, 2019 from 2 Peter 2:1-3
Theme: In order to protect what is ours in Christ, we must be on guard against the destructive power of false teachers.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
In the first chapter of his second letter, the apostle Peter had stressed the value of revealed truth. He affirmed that we have, according to the sure promises of God, we have ‘all things that pertain to life and godliness’. We’re to build upon the foundation of our faith confidently. He affirmed that the prophetic promises of God in the Scriptures are proven and reliable.
It’s because God’s prophetic word is true and reliable—it’s because of the value of revealed truth—that the apostle then goes to great lengths in the second chapter to stress how we must be on guard against false teachers. He begins with these words of warning:
But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber (2 Peter 2:1-3).
These three verses alert us that false teachers and preachers will try to make their way into the church; and that they will intentionally twist the word of God so as to teach perverse things that God never intended be taught; and who do what they do in order to take advantage of God’s people in some way. Note in those three verses how we’re repeatedly warned that the impact of false teachers is “destructive”. In verses 4-11 of this chapter, Peter goes on to assure us that God knows how to bring judgment on them for their actions. Verses 12-17 pulls the phony ‘religious’ mask off of them and shows them for what they really are. And in verses 18-22, he describes the destruction they will bring upon themselves and upon others who follow them.
False teachers are dangerous. We must heed Peter’s warning in order to preserve our growth in our faith in the Lord Jesus, and to not lose the victory in life that God wants us to have.
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First, he tells his readers that …
1. FALSE TEACHERS WILL COME (v. 1a).
In verse 1, Peter writes, “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you …” And when he spoke of the “false prophets among the people” from the past, he was speaking of the counterfeits to God’s revealed word that arose in the Old Testament era. Deuteronomy 13:1-5 speaks of this danger in the times of the Old Covenant, and of the strong measures that needed to be taken back to deal with it. Wherever God’s truth has taken root, it seems that the enemy of our souls seeks to confound that truth with error. And false teaching is just as dangerous in the New Covenant era.
It’s surprising how often the New Testament issues the warning about them. For example, in teaching about end-times events, the Lord Jesus told His that false prophets would come and deceive many (Matthew 24:23-25). Paul also warned the pastors from Ephesus that false teachers would arise as ‘savage wolves’; and that even some from among them would speak ‘perverse things’ and draw disciples to themselves (Acts 20:28-31). He urged Timothy to be faithful to preach God’s word; warning him that, in the later times, many would give heed to ‘doctrines of demons’ (1 Timothy 4:1-3). The apostle John wrote that many ‘deceivers’ would arise who would be of an ‘antichrist’ spirit—and that we need to be on the alert “that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward” (2 John 7-11).
Though the method of dealing with false prophets is different under the New Covenant than it was under the Old Covenant, the danger is still very much the same. There is so very much at stake; and we’re urged repeatedly to ‘watch’ for false teaching, and to hold faithfully to the truth. How important it is, then, that we heed this very important and oft-neglected warning from God’s word!
Now; after warning us that these false teachers will come, Peter shows us that their coming is by no means harmless. He tells us that …
2. THEY ARE VERY DESTRUCTIVE IN NATURE (vv. 1b-2).
He shows us their destructive nature in five respects:
First, he tells us that they are deceptive in their teaching. Peter says these false teachers will come, “who will secretly bring in destructive heresies”. The Greek word from which we get the word ‘heresies’ is one that originally meant “choices” or “options”; but it later came to be used for any faction that was considered divisive. Peter warns us that false teachers will bring divisive and fractious doctrines into the church that offer ‘choices’ or ‘alternatives’ to the apostolic truths that Christians have always believed. They don’t come bringing these destructive heresies openly; but rather, “secretly”—smuggling them in under the guise of something that fits in with the tradition of the Christian faith. They will manipulate things in such a way as to give off the impression that they are educated and scholarly—often using words and phrases that Christians traditionally use, but awarding a different meaning for those words than what is traditionally understood. They will justify their teaching by taking Bible passages out of context in ways that only those who are well-grounded in the Scriptures could recognize. Sometimes, they even bring attention to their doctrines by boasting of the supposed miraculous results that their doctrines or practices have brought about in the lives of others. And before the people of God know it, they are brought under bondage to a whole new set of religious rules or regulations; or are engaging in practices that our Lord forbids; or are finding themselves divided in hostility against one another. And the whole while, all these things were deceptively snuck in by ‘stealth’.
Another aspect of the destructive nature of these false teachers is that they are rebellious against the Lordship of Christ—”even”, as Peter says, “denying the Lord who bought them”. Peter may here be speaking of the universal impact of the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross; that there is is but one Redeemer for all mankind and there is only one ransom price paid for all people by Him. When it comes to those who have genuinely placed their faith in that Savior, they show the reality of their faith by the fact that they obey Him faithfully. But these false teachers will not do what Jesus says or believe as He actually taught. They treat Him as if He never paid the price for them at all; and they will not leave their sins behind; and they will behave as if they owe Him nothing; and they will even pridefully deny His Lordship over them by their rebellious disobedience.
In reading through 1 John, we find that the apostle John gives us three great plumb-lines by which to determine whether someone is a true teacher from God or a false one. They can be summarized as (1) The Test of truth (Do they faithfully believe in Jesus and teach about Him as the apostles taught about Him?); (2) The Test of Holiness (Do they faithfully live as Jesus commanded us to live?); and (3) The Test of Love (Do they faithfully love their brothers and sisters whom Jesus also loves?). These three tests are like a three-legged stool: All are necessary to prove a sincere faith in Jesus. And by them, we can identify false teachers. False teachers may talk a lot about Jesus with their words; but on closer examination, they don’t believe on Him as the Bible teaches. They end up denying His lordship over them by the way they consistently live their lives—not doing as He commands in the Scriptures. And they don’t love those who also believe on Jesus either; and, instead, inspire hostility and division among the people of God toward each other. By these tests, they prove that they ‘deny the Lord who bought them’.
Peter goes on further to show their nature by saying that they are self-destructive; telling us that they “bring on themselves swift destruction”. It’s possible to understand this to mean that, by their disobedience, and by knowingly walking down the broad path that leads to destruction, they bring temporal harm to themselves and guarantee that they will eventually make shipwreck of their own lives. But Peter may be speaking of something much more dreadful and eternal—that is that, by knowingly denying and disobeying Jesus as the only Redeemer of mankind, or by knowingly teaching others to deny and disobey His rightful Lordship over their lives, they set themselves up for eternal destruction on the Day of Judgment when the Lord Jesus returns. Jesus, you’ll remember, once gave a very stern warning that it would be better for someone to have a millstone tied around their necks and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of His little ones to stumble (see Matthew 18:6). Note, then, that Peter warns that the destruction of these false prophets will come ‘swiftly’!
And along with this, we note that they are negatively persuasive. They set an example of self-destruction that others imitate and follow. One of the most grievous aspects of false teachers is that they exercise a powerful sway over others—perhaps through their winning personalities, or through the pretend miracles they seem to perform, or through their appearance of ‘worldly success’ and ‘prosperity’, or even through their skill in tickling people’s ears and telling them what they want to hear. Peter warns, “And many will follow their destructive ways …” Not all teachers and preachers, of course, who are popular and successful are necessarily false. But neither should we assume that someone is a true teacher from God simply because he or she has a great following and appears to be prosperous and successful. Peter is clear—warning that false teachers will be powerfully influential; and that “many” will follow their destructive ways.
And finally, Peter points out the destructive nature of these false teachers by the fact that they bring a bad reputation upon the cause of Christ. Peter warns of these false teachers; “because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed”. This is one of the most subtle tactics of the devil when it comes to false teaching. It’s not simply that these teachers are themselves deceptive, and that they get sinfully-inclined people to go along with them in their destructive ways. Rather it’s that the impact of their destructive work is ‘secondary’—that is, that the unbelieving world looks on and sees how the people deceived by these false teachers, who talk ‘spiritual’ and are supposed to be representations of Christianity, end up behaving so contrary to the faith. As a consequence, unbelieving people want nothing to do with the message of the gospel that we proclaim.
So then; very far from being ‘harmless’, these false prophets bring eternal loss to the precious souls of the people that they deceive.
Notice further how …
3. THEY WILL EXPLOIT GOD’S PEOPLE (vv. 3a).
Peter says, “By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words …” The word that he uses for ‘exploit” was one that originally meant “to travel for business”; or “to make trade” of something. But here, it’s used in a negative way—as in the idea of going from place to place and taking advantage of God’s people for personal gain. The apostle Paul once warned of “useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself” (1 Timothy 6:5). Sadly, many people in churches can prove to be profoundly gullible when frauds come along. These false teachers will take advantage of that fact, and will go from place to place and ‘trade’ on them.
And then notice the means by which they seek to entice God’s people. Peter says that they will try to exploit them through “covetousness”. ‘Covetousness’ refers to a greedy desire to have something that God gave to someone else other than to us. These false teachers are themselves very covetous. In verse 14, Peter says, “They have a heart trained in covetous practices …” They’ve become skilled in the tactics of getting the things of this world that they want from people. And they persuade God’s people to be discontent and to want the things of this world with the promise of worldly prosperity and power. Satan persuaded Eve in much the same way in the garden. He deceived her and told her that God had lied to her and was holding out on her—”For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
And notice, finally, the means they use to fool the people that they entice: that is, through “deceptive words”. The Greek word that is used is one that’s easy to recognize—plastos (from which we get our English word “plastic”). To say that something is ‘plastic’ means that it is easily formed and shaped to fit the situation. It squeezes in and takes the shape of the space into which it is put. And that’s what Peter says that these false teachers will do with words. They entice God’s people by learning their ‘lingo’. They will figure out how to speak the most convincing “Christian-ese” they can, and adapt their words to the church environment; so that their false teaching will fit into the outward form of the Christian faith; but, in reality, be something completely alien to it.
Peter puts all this in the future tense; telling his readers in verse 1 that they will come; and he warns them in verse 3 that they will exploit. And that’s why we must be on the alert against them. But Peter also affirms another future-tense aspect about them; and that is that …
4. THEY WILL BE JUDGED BY GOD (v. 3b).
He writes; “for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.” To say that their judgment “has not been idle” would suggest that something has already been begun with respect to their judgment. And that’s what we will read about in verses 4-11. God has made it clear—in many places in the Old Testament—that He has always judged false prophets and false teachers. And to say that their destruction “does not slumber” would suggest a present reality about their judgment. They may think that God—if He exists—doesn’t know or doesn’t care about what they do. But God will deal—in His own time—with those who dare to make merchandise of His word, and to exploit His people for their own selfish purposes.
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That’s their sure and certain prospect. For the present, however, God only gives us this warning through Peter; and it’s so that we ourselves will not suffer loss because of them.
Our Father has provided us with all that we need for life and godliness through faith in His Son. But as we build on that faith, we absolutely must be alert to the persuasions and perversions of false teachers who will make their way into the household of God. We need to defend ourselves by keeping our daily relationship with the Lord Jesus strong and dependent, by keeping faithful in our fellowship with one another in the church family, by being consistent and diligent in our personal and corporate study of God’s word, and by trusting the Holy Spirit—together with others in the church family—for discernment.
May God Himself help us to make sure that we don’t lose the victories we have gained in our walk with His Son Jesus Christ—or lose sight of how, in Him, we have all we need for life and godliness!
EA
