2 Peter 2:1-10: A Warning Against False Teachers (Part 1)

2 Peter 2:1-10: A Warning Against False Teachers (Part 1)

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of 2 Peter, and today the next passage we come to is 2 Peter 2:1-10. It says,

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.

May God bless the reading of his Word.

 Let’s pray: Father, we find it written that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Help us to view your word that way this morning—not merely as an interesting subject for study or as a helpful resource for various situations but as our very life. May we experience it as that, through the ministry of your Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

You don’t have to live very long in our society to figure out that there’s a nearly endless variety of scams that con artists will use to try to swindle money out of people. I remember one time, way back in the day when people actually answered their phones when an unknown number was calling, I received a phone call offering me a free cruise to the Bahamas. And they said that in order to get this free cruise, I just had to take a short survey about myself. Now, usually, I would have politely but firmly told them that I wasn’t interested and would have gotten off the phone pretty quickly. But on this particular occasion, I think I had some time to kill, so I decided to play along for a few minutes. I think I was mostly just curious how long it would take these scammers to ask for my personal information and what excuse they’d present for needing those details about me. So, I took their survey.

The survey consisted of random questions about my interests and preferences. And just like they promised, it was very simple and relatively short. Then, after the survey, they congratulated me on earning the free cruise and started to enthusiastically paint a picture of how wonderful it was going to be—and they sounded very excited about it. But of course, I was still waiting for them to ask for my personal information.

And sure enough, they told me that the cruise was mine but that I just needed to pay a tiny little fee of less than a hundred dollars to cover the taxes for this cruise. And of course, in order to pay that small fee, I would need to give them my credit card information. So, obviously, having had my curiosity satisfied, I kindly told them thanks but no thanks and hung up the phone. And I thought I had outsmarted them.

However, in the days and weeks after that conversation, I started receiving an avalanche of telemarketing calls trying to sell me various products. And I eventually figured out that all of the products these telemarketers were trying to sell me were related to the survey questions about my interests and preferences that I had answered on that one phone call. So, basically, that original scam artist didn’t get my credit card information, but they did get some useful information about my interests and preferences that they could apparently sell on the open market to any interested party. So, even though I initially thought I had outsmarted them, they actually ended up outsmarting me. And it was quite the ordeal getting my number removed from all of those marketing lists.

Yet it’s important for us to be aware that there are other kinds of con artists as well—including spiritual con artists. And these spiritual con artists aren’t anything new but have actually been around ever since ancient times—as we can see in our main passage of Scripture today here in 2 Peter chapter 2. This chapter is all about spiritual con artists whom Peter refers to in verse 1 as “false teachers.” And Peter’s writing in order to warn us about these individuals and tell us a few things about them so that we can recognize them for what they are and hopefully avoid getting duped by their schemes.

By the way, these false teachers don’t just appear out of nowhere. They’re part of an orchestrated attack by Satan on God’s people. In fact, in 1 Timonthy 4:1, Paul specifically says that the ultimate source of the false teaching he was combating was “deceitful spirits” and “demons.” That’s where the false teaching was ultimately coming from. Also, in John 8:44, Jesus refers to Satan as the “father of lies,” so it shouldn’t be surprising that Satan will try to use lies to attack God’s people and ultimately undermine the advance of the gospel—that is, the message of Jesus. So, that’s something we should expect and be prepared for. And that’s precisely what Peter helps us do in this chapter.

The main idea of this chapter is that false teachers are a continual threat to the welfare of God’s people. Again, false teachers are a continual threat to the welfare of God’s people. And we’ll take two Sundays to look at this chapter. Today, we’ll be looking at verse 1 through the first half of verse 10. And as we look at these verses, we encounter four characteristics of false teachers that Peter draws our attention to. We’ll spend the rest of our time this morning talking about these four characteristics of false teachers. They are the method of false teachers, the mark of false teachers, the motive of false teachers, and the destiny of false teachers. 

The Method of False Teachers

So, first, let’s look at the method of false teachers, which we find in verse 1. Peter writes, “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.”

So, Peter warns us that, just as there were false prophets in Old Testament times, we should expect to encounter false teachers in New Testament times. And notice where we’ll find them. Peter states that “there will be false teachers among you.” These false teachers won’t just be found outside the church but will actually infiltrate the church quite successfully in order to spread their false ideas.

Peter then states that they’ll “secretly bring in destructive heresies.” That’s the method of these false teachers. They won’t be open about the fact that their teachings are contrary to the Bible or that they’re bringing “destructive heresies” into the church. Instead, they’ll seek to smuggle those “destructive heresies” in “secretly.” They’ll disguise their false teaching with a lot of the things that are often associated with true teaching. They’ll quote Bible verses and talk in lofty and eloquent terms about God and grace and salvation and say a lot of things that sound really good.

And it’s important to recognize that a lot of the things they say might genuinely be really good. They’ll teach a lot of things that are genuinely biblical. However, they’ll mix in with these sound biblical teachings other teachings that are quite contrary to the Bible and, in many cases, downright heretical—and that’s the danger. The good and biblical teachings that they at least give lip service to are laced with the poison of false teaching.

And just like with regular poison, it doesn’t take much of it to cause tremendous harm. For example, if you knew that a plate of food was comprised of 90% healthy food and 10% arsenic, I’m guessing you probably wouldn’t touch it. You probably wouldn’t even touch it if it was only comprised of 1% arsenic. And why is that? Well, it’s because we all understand that just a little bit of poison is enough to kill us. And it works the same way with false teachers. Even if there isn’t anything explicitly unbiblical about 90% of what a false teacher says, it’s the 10% that’ll get you.

And false teachers know how to disguise the 10% so that it sounds a lot like the 90%. You might think of these teachers as professional smugglers. They know how to smuggle dangerous teachings into the church just as skillfully as any cartel operator anywhere in the world. They’re masters of disguise. That’s why, in Matthew 7:15, Jesus describes them as those “who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” And so often, people fall for it. Especially in our society, people have a way of being persuaded by a teacher’s charisma and are often therefore all too willing let the actual content of that teacher’s teaching go unexamined. As long as the teacher claims to be a Christian and talks about God and sprinkles in a few Bible verses every now and then, many people just assume that the teaching is biblical. 

As a result, false teaching spreads and wreaks havoc wherever it goes. Notice, back in 2 Peter 2:1 how Peter describes the unbiblical teachings that these false teachers propagate. He refers to them as “destructive heresies.” By the way, just so we’re clear, it’s best to understand the word “heresy” here not as reference to all doctrinal errors but rather to errors that are especially significant and harmful and that undermine the gospel.

So, if you’re in Community Group and someone misinterprets a passage of Scripture and says that the third toe of the beast in Revelation represents one thing while you’re convinced it represents something else, that doesn’t make them guilty of heresy, okay? “Heresy” is a word that’s best reserved for teachings that undermine the central gospel message of Christianity and therefore that must be regarded as contrary to orthodox Christian teaching. And we can see that understanding of heresy evidenced in verse 1. Peter states that these heretics are, in effect, “denying the Master who bought them”—that is, they’re, in essence, denying Jesus. What they’re teaching amounts to a denial of the Christian gospel. So, we should only regard something as “heresy” when it amounts to a denial of the gospel—or a denial of one of the key doctrinal pillars that supports the gospel. 

And as I said, these heresies wreak havoc wherever they go. Peter refers to them as “destructive.” They destroy churches, and they destroy people’s lives. You know, sometimes people imagine that a person’s doctrinal beliefs are relatively inconsequential and therefore not very important. Yet we see here that that assumption couldn’t be more wrong. Heretical teachings destroy people’s lives. They lead people to worship a false God and trust in a false Savior and therefore have a false hope for eternity. They also often give people false expectations for what their earthly lives will be like and therefore result in all kinds of spiritual carnage and fallout and disillusionment. They’re “destructive” in so many ways.

The Mark of False Teachers

Then, after that, having described the method of false teachers in verse 1, Peter moves on to identify the mark of false teachers in verse 2—which, as we’ll see, is sensuality. Peter writes, “And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.”

So, false teachers will often be incredibly popular. Even before the days of YouTube and other social media, Peter says here that they’ll have a large following. And the reason for this is, of course, that they’re telling people what they want to hear. Paul says it well in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, when he writes, ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Wow. Isn’t that a timely warning? Isn’t that something that could have been written…yesterday? When it comes to the human heart, not much has changed in the past 2,000 years. Many people who identify themselves as Christians nevertheless have “itching ears,” Paul says. Just like we might sometimes experience a physical itch and an overwhelming desire to scratch that itch, many supposed “Christians” have “itching ears.” And according to Paul, this leads them to “accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.” They want to hear teachers and teaching that affirms their own sinful desires and will therefore gladly support such teachers and donate money to their ministries.

Yet, as we can see back in verse 2 of our main passage, the problem with these teachers isn’t just their teaching. It’s also often their lifestyles that lead people astray. Peter writes that “many will follow their sensuality.” That’s quite often a defining mark of these false teachers. Their lives are characterized by “sensuality,” which is a term that, in the original Greek, most often refers a person totally abandoning themselves to sexual sin. In addition, it’s interesting to note that this Greek word translated “sensuality” is actually in the plural form, indicating that the sexual deviancy of these false teachers took on many different forms. These teachers indulged not just in one kind of sexual immorality but in many kinds of sexual immorality.

It's also worth noting that false teachers being sexually immoral is a rather widespread theme in the New Testament. It’s frequently spoken of in numerous New Testament books as a defining characteristic of false teachers. For example, in Jude 4, we find this warning: “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Also, in Revelation 2:20, Jesus says this to the church of Thyatira: “But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality….”

And returning to 2 Peter, we actually find additional references to the sensuality of these false teachers later in the chapter. In 2 Peter 2:14, Peter states that “They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin.” Then, yet again, down in verse 18, we read this warning: “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.”

And the underlying principlethat we can observe from all of these citations is that deviant doctrine and deviant living go together. Where we find one, we should also expect to find the other. And there are a couple of reasons for that. First of all, it just makes sense that those who are readily willing to compromise in one area are also often all too willing to compromise in other areas as well.

Yet, in addition to that, there’s also a causal relationship between deviant doctrine and deviant living. And that causal relationship goes both ways. One the one hand, deviant doctrine often leads people to indulge in deviant living. You might compare it to cattle and the fact that what cattle are fed has a significant impact on the kind of meat they produce. If you want cattle to produce meant that has a lot of fat and marbling and is also very flavorful, you’ll want to make sure there’s a lot of grain in their diet. What they eat has a tremendous impact on the kind of meat they produce. 

Similarly, the doctrinal beliefs that we “feed on,” so to speak, will always have an impact on the way we live. Our lives will inevitably be an expression and a manifestation of our doctrinal beliefs. For example, if there’s a deficiency in our view of God—let’s say there’s something lacking in our view of God’s holiness—that diminished view of God’s holiness will eventually find its way into our lives. It’s inevitable that we’ll be much more tolerant of sin in our lives and much less committed in our pursuit of personal holiness. And that’s the case with every other deviant and unbiblical belief as well. We always end up living out our beliefs. So, deviant beliefs result in deviant living. 

Yet, it also works the other way as well. Not only does deviant doctrine lead people to indulge in deviant living, deviant living often leads people to embrace deviant doctrine. When someone desires to think of themselves as a Christian and yet is also committed to persisting in a certain sin, they’ll end up disregarding whatever biblical teachings conflict with their desired lifestyle. They might simply say that those parts of the Bible aren’t from God or they might come up with very…creative interpretations of certain biblical passages that suit their lifestyle.

It reminds me of the kind of scene you’ll sometimes see in various movies when someone’s trying to steal some sort of priceless artifact. The artifact will, of course, be surrounded by lasers that are moving back and forth throughout the room and that are designed to detect the presence of any intruder. So, the person stealing the artifact will have to very skillfully duck and jump and dance around and contort their body in all sorts of ways in order to avoid the lasers and avoid being detected. And that’s a lot like what many people will do with the Bible as well. You’ll have a biblical passage that’s pretty clear about something, but they’ll find a way to dance around and avoid the passage’s obvious meaning and instead try to make the passage sound confusing. They’ll then come up with a very clever re-interpretation of that passage that accommodates the lifestyle they desire to pursue. And I don’t think any of us need to think very hard in order to come up with examples of how people are doing that in our society today.

So, all of that to say that deviant doctrine and deviant living always go together. Wherever you find one, you should expect to find the other. And that’s certainly the case with false teachers—as Peter reminds us here in verse 2. He states that “many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.” In other words, non-Christians will point to the moral hypocrisy of these false teachers and be like, “See? I told you that Christians are hypocrites.” And they’ll feel justified in their rejection of the gospel.

The Motive of False Teachers

Then, as we continue on into verse 3 of our main passage, we read about the motive of false teachers. So, we had the method of false teachers, then the mark of false teachers, and now we have the motive of false teachers. And that motive, simply stated, is greed. Peter writes in the first part of verse 3, “And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.

So, that’s the motive for the things false teachers do. It’s not like they’re just innocently trying their best to interpret the Bible and happen to stumble into some incorrect interpretations and unknowingly propagate teaching that’s unbiblical. No, they understand exactly what they’re doing and are doing it because they desire to be rich. That may not be the only reason they’re peddling false teaching, but it’s a big reason.

And we can certainly see that today, can’t we? Perhaps the most obvious circle of teachers in which this desire is on full display is among those who propagate what’s often known as the Prosperity Gospel. The Prosperity Gospel—which is really no gospel at all—teaches that God wants every one of us to enjoy abundant health and wealth and prosperity in this life. And it encourages Christians to purse these things as what can only be described as the central focus of their lives. I doubt most prosperity preachers would actually say it that way, but that’s nevertheless the level of emphasis they place on earthly health, wealth, and prosperity.

Of course, in order enjoy these blessings, believers have to demonstrate their faith in God by donating to the prosperity preacher’s ministry. After all, someone has to pay for the private planes and luxurious penthouses these prosperity preachers need in order to engage in their ministry, right? And the way these donations are often described is in the language of planting a “seed.” If you want to see a harvest of wealth in your life, you have to first plant the seed of a donation to the prosperity preacher’s ministry.

And apparently, as you can see from this screenshot of one prosperity preacher’s website, there are actually different kinds of seeds you can plant. Starting with most affordable seed, there’s the $25 “Mission Seed,” then the $88 “Double Blessing Seed,” the $273 “Recovery Seed,” the $333 “Hidden Riches Seed,” the $360 “Turnaround Seed,” the $500 “Favor Seed,” the $800 “New Beginning Seed,” the $1,000 “Triple Favor Seed,” and if you really want to go big, the $5,000 “Boaz Anointing Seed.” I don’t know if that one will somehow get you retroactively inserted into the direct lineage of the Messiah or what, but that sounds like a pretty significant seed.

Now, obviously, I think the vast majority of us in this room understand that this is absolutely ridiculous. But the thing that makes this so sad—and really so shameful—is that it’s directed primarily to those who are destitute and impoverished and so desperate for relief that they’ll basically try anything. So, these charlatans are basically targeting the most vulnerable people—not only in the United States, but even more around the world, especially in Third World countries—and offering them false hope and scamming them out of what little money they have. The Prosperity Gospel is like a cancer that started in the United States and has now metastasized and spread worldwide.

Also, I’ve used one particularly obvious example of a religious con artist trying to scam people out of money, but keep in mind that the greed of false teachers isn’t always so obvious. There are a lot of false teachers saying a lot of false things who don’t put this kind of ridiculousness on their website but who still do quite well for themselves in the form of book royalties, speaking fees, and other similar sources of revenue. There are plenty of ways to get rich from false teaching that don’t involve inviting people to “sow a seed”—so we have to be ever vigilant and aware of the fact that false teaching comes in all kinds of forms and can be found in all kinds of places.

The Destiny of False Teachers

Then, finally, as we move forward in our main passage, we see the destiny of false teachers. In the final part of verse 3, Peter states, “Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” You know, as I was describing the way false teachers today like prey on the poorest and most vulnerable people in society, perhaps you felt a sense of indignation at the thought of such shameful conduct. After all, the way false teachers take advantage of people is enough to make anyone with any decency at the very least upset and perhaps even angry. And we might wonder, “Will these charlatans ever get what they deserve?” Well, according to the Bible, the answer is a resounding “yes”—and not just from the IRS investigating their personal finances, but from God himself. Again, Peter reminds us, “Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

Then, in verses 4-10, Peter uses various examples from the Old Testament to demonstrate that God won’t fail to punish the wicked. These examples include the angels who rebelled against God, the wicked population of the earth in Noah’s day, and the violent and sexually deviant people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Peter’s point is that God’s shown time and time again how committed he is to punishing wicked people. So, we can be absolutely certain that, just as God punished wickedness in all of these instances, he’ll likewise punish false teachers today for their wickedness. As the saying goes, justice delayed isn’t justice denied. The day is coming when Jesus will correct every falsehood, right every wrong, expose every charlatan, and punish everyone who’s acted wickedly.

Conclusion

Yet I’d be negligent in my God-given task of properly expositing this passage of Scripture if I didn’t also remind you that that punishment will be inflicted not only on false teachers but also on everyone who’s ever acted wickedly. And unfortunately, that includes you and me. Even though we may have never taken advantage of the destitute as prosperity preachers so shamefully do, the Bible teaches that we have rebelled against God in other ways. We’ve done things God’s prohibited and failed to do things God’s commanded. Essentially, even though God’s been so good to us and blessed us so abundantly, we’ve rejected God and his rightful authority over us and have been determined to live life our own way. So, because of our sinful rebellion, we deserve to be punished in hell for all eternity.

However, praise God that that doesn’t have to be our destiny—because, in his mercy, God’s provided a way for us to rescued from the punishment our sins deserve. Since we were utterly helpless to save ourselves, God the Father sent us a Savior in the Person of his own Son, Jesus. Jesus came to this earth as a human, lived a perfectly sinless life, and eventually died on the cross in order to pay for our sins. In his death on that cross, Jesus endured the full force of the punishment our sins deserved so that we wouldn’t have to face it. He was then raised from the dead and is therefore now able to save everyone who puts their trust in him for that rescue.

And along those lines, I’d really like to emphasize—especially in light of this morning’s message—that we’re not saved simply by having a correct intellectual understanding of biblical doctrine but rather through personal faith in Jesus and as we put our full trust and confidence exclusively in Jesus for salvation. That means you might be able to identify every major heresy making its rounds in our society today and masterfully articulate from the Bible exactly why each heresy is so wrong and yet still not be headed for heaven because it’s all just intellectual for you. You’ve never actually put your trust in Jesus for salvation.

One way I often like to describe it is by comparing it to the kind of trust a skydiver places in his parachute. The skydiver isn’t just intellectually assenting to the idea that the parachute can ensure a safe landing. He’s actively entrusting himself to that parachute. That’s the sense in which we have to trust in Jesus if we want to be saved from our sins and spend eternity in heaven. So, have you ever done that? Have you ever not just given mental assent to basic facts about Jesus in your head but actually embraced Jesus and trusted Jesus in your heart? Friends, there’s a very real danger that people in this room will—to borrow a classic expression—miss heaven by eighteen inches. That’s the approximate distance from your head to your heart. Eighteen inches can mean the difference between you spending eternity with Jesus or without Jesus. Don’t miss heaven by eighteen inches.