2Pe 2:22 | KingComments | STEP | . False teachers are like “springs without water”. They promise refreshment to people who need it, but instead they give bitterness. It is no living water that comes from the spring that they pretend to be, but death. That is in direct contrast to the well of living water which is the Lord Jesus. He gives water that in each that receives it, becomes a well of water with which they can refresh others ( ). From that well false teachers have never drunk, for they refuse to believe in Him Who is the well. They can be compared with broken cisterns that can hold no water ( ). These people are also to be compared with ”mists driven by a storm”. When someone is shrouded in clouds he does not know where he is and he also is in no way able to show someone else the way. Clouds can in no way offer any guidance and orientation. Their use of language is foggy, their statements are floaty, the tone is soothing. They appeal only to the emotion. They are mercilessly and restlessly being driven by elusive forces (cf. ). You can be kept from being tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine if you heed the teaching of the gifts that are given by the Lord to His church ( ). The clouds in which the false teachers are shrouded and in which they shroud others who listen to their doctrines, will transfer in complete “black darkness”. They have shrouded themselves and others in the clouds, the black darkness is reserved for them by God. That is where they will end up too, because God will bring them there. It is the place where all light is absent. “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” ( ). In the black darkness even the smallest trace of God’s presence is missing. There is nothing worse for a person than when God has abandoned him and has totally delivered him to what he has chosen. . False teachers talk a lot but their talk means nothing. It is a load of hot air: arrogant, hollow and without content. Countless people let themselves be fooled by them and trust and build on those empty words. Their speech is full of words that activate the “fleshly desires”. Their false doctrine intrigues people because it gives them the nice feeling that they can satisfy their sexual lusts in a lawless way and that they can also limitlessly surrender themselves to all kinds of evil. Their words gain entrance in those who are still seeking the true meaning of life, because they did not find it in the company of wanderers to which they first belonged. In their search they also listen to these false teachers. Because they themselves have no handhold at all on the truth of God’s Word and are also naïve in their personal examination of it, they are caught by the greedy hands of these wicked people. . The bait that the false teachers hold out to unstable souls, is the promise of “freedom”. Freedom in every view is the highest goal to independent man. People also think that in the church of God there should be freedom. We should not be slaves of traditions. You must be able to give substance to life with God in your own way. It is no one’s business in what way you do that. You do not acknowledge authority, you determine for yourself whatever you want. That message is swallowed like sweet cake. There is no requirement to take responsibility. It is all about pleasure, about my pleasure, of course. But people who are preaching this are “slaves of corruption” themselves ( ; ). They are “overcome” by the devil and “enslaved” by him. They let themselves be used by him, but they are blind to the fact that they are nothing more than his accomplices. In their loud proclamation of freedom, they do not realize that as slaves of the devil they are his mouthpiece. However, you enslaved by God ( ) because God has overcome you by His love. That has brought you into true freedom. True freedom means that you are under the obedience of God with thereby the new nature that wants nothing more than being obedient to Him. As long as a person is not under the control of the Lord Jesus, he is not free, for the Lord Jesus alone can indeed make free ( ). . It is about those who first have been going the way of the Christian, but became apostate. They first confessed to be Christians, but they turned back to the outward uncleanness of the world, “the defilements of the world”, from which they, by becoming a Christian, escaped ( ). It is evident that with the people at issue here, everything has been only outward appearance. Their knowledge turns out to be nothing but an external, intellectual, knowledge only. People may come to the conclusion, that of all the world religions, Christendom has the best credentials. It is a religion of tolerance and loving care and freedom. That may be appealing and win a person to be a supporter of it. There is nothing of conviction of sin and repentance of it; there is no mention of any necessity of conversion to God and of salvation by the blood of Christ at all. Inwardly nothing has changed. What has attracted them in Christendom, is experienced only in a selfish sense: others must tolerate me, others must make sure that I lack of nothing, I am free to do what I like to do. They confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, but not in the way the Bible instructs us. Their confession that He is Lord, is just a lip confession ( ; ). Their confession that He is Savior, is nothing more than the confession that He is a ‘Whole-Maker’ – that meaning also is in the word ‘Savior’ – of situations they do not know how to deal with. As soon as such people come into contact with false teachers, they seem to be highly susceptible to the nonsense that these people rave about. The false idea that they have of the Lord Jesus, is a perfectly prepared basis for receiving more corrupt ideas about Him. Once they are dragged along on the trail of the false teachers, they are irresistibly drawn to “the defilements of the world” in which they were previously imprisoned and become “entangled” in them again. Once they got entangled they cannot resist anymore and are “overcome” by it. The world completely has caught hold of them again. Their situation then becomes worse than when they converted outwardly (cf. ). . The greater the privileges a man has, the greater his responsibility is to live up to them. Therefore a person who has known the will of God and didn’t do it will receive many lashes ( ). It just seems like it is only dangerous to know much of God’s Word and that it is safer to pretend that you know nothing of it. Such a perception, however, does not testify any love for the Lord Jesus and the Word of God. Peter is saying this with a view to those who complacently present themselves as Christians who know everything and where everyone can get satisfaction concerning the teaching about the truth. Of course you have to pay for it. Such people are more responsible than people who were not raised with the Bible. They have no regard for “the holy commandment” of the Lord, that is the word of the Lord to be holy ( ). They were just outwardly holy, without possessing the holy nature as a result of conversion and faith. . He who has been familiar with the meaning of Christendom and has even joined that company for a while, but yet again chooses the defilements of the world, is like a dog and a sow. Peter uses a proverb or a metaphor with two pictures that are both a truthful expression of what happens if a person has confessed the Christian faith and then returns to the world. The first picture is that of a dog. A dog is an unclean animal that, without any emotion, gluttonously and shamelessly fills its stomach with whatever it finds or gets to eat ( ). A dog knows no measure. When it has eaten too much, it vomits it out. When it gets hungry again, it eats its own vomit. This picture is applied to people who first said goodbye to the world and, by the influence of false teachers, return there. They did not find inward satisfaction in the world and abandoned it. Now they still go back to it. This proves that they inwardly have not really changed. The dog remained a dog. They not only inwardly returned to the world, the vomit. It is also to be seen in their life. Outwardly they are like the sow that returns to wallowing in the mire. You may wash a sow and make him smell nice, but as soon as it gets the chance to wallow itself in the mire, it will do that. It feels at home in the mire. That is the big difference with a sheep, a picture of the believer. A sheep may fall into the mire, but it doesn’t feel at home there and wants to get out of it again. Now read 2 Peter 2:17-22 again. Reflection: What kind of people is this portion dealing with?

‏ 2 Peter 2:22

To Turn From the Known Way

2Pet 2:17. False teachers are like “springs without water”. They promise refreshment to people who need it, but instead they give bitterness. It is no living water that comes from the spring that they pretend to be, but death. That is in direct contrast to the well of living water which is the Lord Jesus. He gives water that in each that receives it, becomes a well of water with which they can refresh others (Jn 4:14 ; Jn 7:38-39). From that well false teachers have never drunk, for they refuse to believe in Him Who is the well. They can be compared with broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jer 2:13).

These people are also to be compared with ”mists driven by a storm”. When someone is shrouded in clouds he does not know where he is and he also is in no way able to show someone else the way. Clouds can in no way offer any guidance and orientation. Their use of language is foggy, their statements are floaty, the tone is soothing. They appeal only to the emotion.

They are mercilessly and restlessly being driven by elusive forces (cf. Jam 3:4). You can be kept from being tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine if you heed the teaching of the gifts that are given by the Lord to His church (Eph 4:14-15).

The clouds in which the false teachers are shrouded and in which they shroud others who listen to their doctrines, will transfer in complete “black darkness”. They have shrouded themselves and others in the clouds, the black darkness is reserved for them by God. That is where they will end up too, because God will bring them there.

It is the place where all light is absent. “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1Jn 1:5). In the black darkness even the smallest trace of God’s presence is missing. There is nothing worse for a person than when God has abandoned him and has totally delivered him to what he has chosen.

2Pet 2:18. False teachers talk a lot but their talk means nothing. It is a load of hot air: arrogant, hollow and without content. Countless people let themselves be fooled by them and trust and build on those empty words. Their speech is full of words that activate the “fleshly desires”. Their false doctrine intrigues people because it gives them the nice feeling that they can satisfy their sexual lusts in a lawless way and that they can also limitlessly surrender themselves to all kinds of evil.

Their words gain entrance in those who are still seeking the true meaning of life, because they did not find it in the company of wanderers to which they first belonged. In their search they also listen to these false teachers. Because they themselves have no handhold at all on the truth of God’s Word and are also naïve in their personal examination of it, they are caught by the greedy hands of these wicked people.

2Pet 2:19. The bait that the false teachers hold out to unstable souls, is the promise of “freedom”. Freedom in every view is the highest goal to independent man. People also think that in the church of God there should be freedom. We should not be slaves of traditions. You must be able to give substance to life with God in your own way. It is no one’s business in what way you do that. You do not acknowledge authority, you determine for yourself whatever you want. That message is swallowed like sweet cake. There is no requirement to take responsibility. It is all about pleasure, about my pleasure, of course.

But people who are preaching this are “slaves of corruption” themselves (Jn 8:34; Rom 6:16). They are “overcome” by the devil and “enslaved” by him. They let themselves be used by him, but they are blind to the fact that they are nothing more than his accomplices. In their loud proclamation of freedom, they do not realize that as slaves of the devil they are his mouthpiece.

However, you enslaved by God (Rom 6:12-14) because God has overcome you by His love. That has brought you into true freedom. True freedom means that you are under the obedience of God with thereby the new nature that wants nothing more than being obedient to Him. As long as a person is not under the control of the Lord Jesus, he is not free, for the Lord Jesus alone can indeed make free (Jn 8:36).

2Pet 2:20. It is about those who first have been going the way of the Christian, but became apostate. They first confessed to be Christians, but they turned back to the outward uncleanness of the world, “the defilements of the world”, from which they, by becoming a Christian, escaped (2Pet 1:4). It is evident that with the people at issue here, everything has been only outward appearance. Their knowledge turns out to be nothing but an external, intellectual, knowledge only.

People may come to the conclusion, that of all the world religions, Christendom has the best credentials. It is a religion of tolerance and loving care and freedom. That may be appealing and win a person to be a supporter of it. There is nothing of conviction of sin and repentance of it; there is no mention of any necessity of conversion to God and of salvation by the blood of Christ at all. Inwardly nothing has changed.

What has attracted them in Christendom, is experienced only in a selfish sense: others must tolerate me, others must make sure that I lack of nothing, I am free to do what I like to do. They confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, but not in the way the Bible instructs us. Their confession that He is Lord, is just a lip confession (Mt 7:21-23; Lk 6:46). Their confession that He is Savior, is nothing more than the confession that He is a ‘Whole-Maker’ – that meaning also is in the word ‘Savior’ – of situations they do not know how to deal with.

As soon as such people come into contact with false teachers, they seem to be highly susceptible to the nonsense that these people rave about. The false idea that they have of the Lord Jesus, is a perfectly prepared basis for receiving more corrupt ideas about Him. Once they are dragged along on the trail of the false teachers, they are irresistibly drawn to “the defilements of the world” in which they were previously imprisoned and become “entangled” in them again. Once they got entangled they cannot resist anymore and are “overcome” by it. The world completely has caught hold of them again. Their situation then becomes worse than when they converted outwardly (cf. Mt 12:45).

2Pet 2:21. The greater the privileges a man has, the greater his responsibility is to live up to them. Therefore a person who has known the will of God and didn’t do it will receive many lashes (Lk 12:47-48). It just seems like it is only dangerous to know much of God’s Word and that it is safer to pretend that you know nothing of it. Such a perception, however, does not testify any love for the Lord Jesus and the Word of God.

Peter is saying this with a view to those who complacently present themselves as Christians who know everything and where everyone can get satisfaction concerning the teaching about the truth. Of course you have to pay for it. Such people are more responsible than people who were not raised with the Bible. They have no regard for “the holy commandment” of the Lord, that is the word of the Lord to be holy (1Pet 1:16). They were just outwardly holy, without possessing the holy nature as a result of conversion and faith.

2Pet 2:22. He who has been familiar with the meaning of Christendom and has even joined that company for a while, but yet again chooses the defilements of the world, is like a dog and a sow. Peter uses a proverb or a metaphor with two pictures that are both a truthful expression of what happens if a person has confessed the Christian faith and then returns to the world.

The first picture is that of a dog. A dog is an unclean animal that, without any emotion, gluttonously and shamelessly fills its stomach with whatever it finds or gets to eat (Isa 56:11). A dog knows no measure. When it has eaten too much, it vomits it out. When it gets hungry again, it eats its own vomit. This picture is applied to people who first said goodbye to the world and, by the influence of false teachers, return there. They did not find inward satisfaction in the world and abandoned it. Now they still go back to it. This proves that they inwardly have not really changed. The dog remained a dog.

They not only inwardly returned to the world, the vomit. It is also to be seen in their life. Outwardly they are like the sow that returns to wallowing in the mire. You may wash a sow and make him smell nice, but as soon as it gets the chance to wallow itself in the mire, it will do that. It feels at home in the mire. That is the big difference with a sheep, a picture of the believer. A sheep may fall into the mire, but it doesn’t feel at home there and wants to get out of it again.

Now read 2 Peter 2:17-22 again.

Reflection: What kind of people is this portion dealing with?