Judging False Teachers | 2 Peter 2:1-10
Peter refutes fives reasons that people might give for listening to a false teacher: (1) their profession; (2) their persuasion; (3) their position; (4) their popularity; and (5) their persistence. This sermon is part 4 in "A Fisherman's Truth," Bryan Craddock's series of verse-by-verse sermons on 2 Peter.
Fishhooks have been around for thousands of years. They were first made of shell or bone and then of metal. People learned to hide them in an enticing piece of bait. Once they felt that nibble and set the hook, they could pull in their catch and enjoy their dinner.
Now this is not what Jesus had in mind when he called Peter to be a fisher of men. There is no hook hidden in the gospel of Christ. Biblical evangelism presents spiritual truth without deception. When Jesus offered salvation and eternal life, he did not conceal the commitment that is required or the opposition that his followers would face.
Once you come to know God, you become a target, and the evil one uses two basic strategies, either intimidation or enticement. Peter wrote his first letter to help us overcome the intimidation of persecution whether verbal or physical. He argued that the hope of salvation enables us to persevere under suffering.
In his second letter, Peter equips us to overcome the evil one’s enticement. He seeks to strengthen our grasp on the truth so that we don’t take Satan’s bait. In chapter 1, he explains the privileges of knowing God, the commitments that are required of us, and the sources that we should draw upon: the apostles’ teaching and witness that make up the New Testament, and the prophetic word that we call the Old Testament.
In chapter 2, he alerts his readers to the coming of false teachers. He begins in verses 1-10 by assuring us that God will judge and destroy false teachers. But his intent in doing so is to help us judge them for what they are. So, he refutes five reasons that people might give for listening to false teachers. They seem like common sense ideas, but they fall short of true biblical discernment.
In his Pastoral Epistles, Paul teaches that we should follow leaders with godly character and sound teaching (1 Tim 3:1-7; 6:3; 2 Tim 1:13; Tit 1:5-9). We should use this standard in choosing a church. It should even guide our selection of the books that we read and the people that we listen to online. But it is not easy to make those determinations, so people often resort to using the inadequate reasons that Peter identifies.
At first, they think of them as shortcuts, indicators of godliness and sound teaching. But when problems arise, those reasons become excuses for the lack of godliness and sound teaching. In almost every church scandal, you will find that people have used them to overrule the biblical qualifications for spiritual leadership. Now a disqualified teacher is not the same as a deliberately false one. But if we use these inadequate criteria, we are liable to take the bait of false teaching at some point and to find ourselves on the hook.
Their Profession
One of the most vivid descriptions of false teachers comes from Jesus himself. It sounds like something from a cartoon, but it makes the point well. Matthew 7:15 tells us that toward the end of his Sermon on the Mount, he said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
False prophets or teachers never identify themselves as such. They profess to be followers of Jesus, and some people assert that we should never question anyone’s profession. But in 2 Peter 2:1, Peter says,
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.
The word “among” is key here. False teachers seek to blend in, but they also cause dissension. That is the meaning of the Greek word “heresies” in other contexts. It is used to refer to groups like the Pharisees and Sadducees who separated from one another over different beliefs. Early in church history Christians started using the word heresy to refer to unorthodox views of who Jesus is. Those who denied his deity or his humanity were considered heretics. But is that what Peter has in mind here when he refers to false teachers “denying the Master who bought them”?
It is clear that distorted views of Jesus had already arisen in the church by the time that the Apostle John wrote his first letter. In 1 John 4:2, he says, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” Then in verse 20 of chapter 5, he says,
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
The humanity and deity of Jesus are both necessary for our salvation. If he is not fully human, then he could not die in our place for our sins. If he is not God, then his death could not atone for more than one person. [7] But that raises another question about 2 Peter 2:1. In what sense were these false teachers bought by Jesus?
Despite their identification with Jesus’s followers, the mention of their destruction and judgment shows that they will not be saved to enjoy eternal life. Some might argue that they lose their salvation, but 1 John 2:19 indicates that such people are never truly saved. There John says,
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
So, the false teachers of 2 Peter 2:1 are bought by their Master in the sense that the entire world has been purchased by Christ. John speaks of this as well. In 1 John 2:2, he says, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Since the sacrificial death of Jesus is sufficient for all, it demands a response. Everyone should bow before him as their Master. If we do, then he sets us free from condemnation and rescues us from our bondage to sin. That seems to be the real problem that Peter sees with these false teachers. Whatever they taught about Jesus, even if it was orthodox, their behavior denied his lordship over them. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matt 7:16).
So, someone’s profession of faith should be supported by sound belief and godly behavior. That leads to a second reason that people might listen to false teachers.
Their Persuasion
In the old story of the Pied Piper, a man plays his magical pipe to lure rats away from a town. When the residents refuse to pay him, he takes revenge by luring their children away. Of course, you do not need magic to be persuasive. Some people are just likable and believable. But as in the story, that ability can be used for good or evil. So, persuasion is not a good enough reason to listen to someone.
Peter looks at the persuasion of false teachers from four perspectives. In 2 Peter 2:2-3, he says,
And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 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.
First, he gives us the perspective of the people who are being misled. They are drawn to follow the sensuality of false teachers. Other translations say pernicious ways, evil teaching, or depraved conduct. But the term simply refers to a life given over to desire. In 2 Timothy 4:3, Paul warns that people will accumulate teachers to suit their own passions. False teachers appeal to people’s felt needs, whatever they may be--affection, acceptance, fun, security, power--the list could go on and on. So, people are drawn to them because it feels right. Truth is minimized.
Next Peter says that because of false teachers the way of the truth will be blasphemed. He could be referring to the teachers saying blasphemous things. But the way that he phrases it suggests that he is showing us a second perspective, that of skeptical outsiders. They recognize the influence of false teachers for what it is, a manipulative appeal to people’s desires. But they regard that deceitfulness as representative of Christianity as a whole. So, they mock and blaspheme the way of truth.
Peter gives us a third perspective, looking into the hearts of the false teachers. He says, “In their greed they will exploit you with false words.” They are driven by the desire to gain money, attention, and power. So, they do not necessarily believe the things that they say. They are willing to lie to exploit people. It’s like a business transaction. They sell whatever people want to hear.
Peter ends verse 3 with the divine perspective on false teachers. Their persuasion will not spare them from God’s judgment. He says that their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. They are not beyond God’s sovereign control. Their destiny is part of his good and perfect plan. They will serve his purpose even as the Pharaoh of the Exodus did, and they will be held accountable for their actions.
So, we should not listen to someone just because they are persuasive. Now that does not mean that sound teachers should be obnoxious or rude. We should reflect the character of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit. We are called to be sincere. In 2 Corinthians 2:17, Paul says,
For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
As Peter continues in 2 Peter 2, he presents three specific examples of judgment in one long sentence. None of them relate directly to false prophecy or false teaching. But I think that each one highlights another insufficient reason for listening to false teachers.
Their Position
A lot of people spend their lives climbing ladders to reach the next level. It could be a rank, a title, a degree, an experience, or a certification. There is nothing inherently wrong with such things, but they are not necessarily reliable. They can be faked or made up. So, false teachers often use them to position themselves as legitimate authorities.
The Apostle Paul addresses this problem in 2 Corinthians 11:12-13. He says,
And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
So, someone’s position or title alone is not a good enough reason to listen to them. Peter makes this point by using fallen angels as an example. They held the highest position imaginable. But in 2 Peter 2:4, he says,
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…
This is the first of three conditional statements that Peter uses to set up a conclusion in verse 9 about the certainty of God’s judgment of false teachers. But what angelic sin is he talking about? There are two possibilities.
First, he could be referring to the initial rebellion of Satan. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 refer to a cherub who sought to exalt himself like the Most High God, the very first attempt to jockey for position. In fact, Satan’s deception of Eve in the Garden of Eden is the original false teaching. Revelation 12:4 indicates that a third of God’s angels follow Satan. These passages say that they are thrown down out of heaven, but they do not make any mention of chains or imprisonment.
So, some interpreters take the view that these angels in 2 Peter 2:4 are imprisoned spirits that Peter mentions in 1 Peter 3:19. There he connects them with Noah and the Flood, and we will see that he also mentions that event here in 2 Peter 2. As Genesis 6 tells that story, it begins by saying that the sons of God took wives from the daughters of men. If those sons of God were angels, then their intermarriage with humans is the sin that Peter is referring to here in 2 Peter 2:4. But there is no mention of any angelic imprisonment in Genesis 6, so we cannot be certain about this view either.
Peter’s point is the same no matter which interpretation you choose. The lofty position of angels does not spare them from facing God’s judgment. Since that is the case, you should never rely on someone’s position or rank as proof of their truthfulness. Paul explicitly makes this point in Galatians 1:8 by saying,
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
It may sound like hyperbole for Paul to speak of messages from angels, but history shows that his concern was justified. Muhammad founded Islam after claiming that an angel appeared to him. Joseph Smith made a similar claim as the basis for Mormonism. It is entirely possible that both men did see angels. But that does not mean that they should have listened to them. Since those revelations contradict the gospel, they should have been rejected. If those angels were real, then they were fallen angels seeking to lead people away from the truth. Position does not necessarily equate to truthfulness.
Their Popularity
Back in the 1800s when a circus came to a town, they would parade down the main street with musicians playing from a bandwagon. Everyone would rush to join the crowd. No one would want to miss out. So, today we still talk about the Bandwagon effect. Advertisers and politicians try to take advantage of it, and false teachers do as well.
Here again, going along with the crowd is not necessarily wrong. God can work in crowds of people. On the Day of Pentecost, for example, three thousand people repented and were baptized. But popularity alone is not confirmation that the truth is being spoken.
Peter makes a powerful case against popularity in his next example of God’s judgment. In 2 Peter 2:5, he says,
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…
We may not think of Noah as a herald or a preacher. Genesis 6 does not record any proclamations that he made, but he devoted himself to building a massive ark and gathering all the animals. Hebrews 11:7 says that his actions condemned the world. But people must have noticed and asked him about it.
Apparently, no one listened. They rejected God’s standard of righteousness. They did not believe that he would bring judgment. They chose to continue in their ungodliness. So, out of an entire world of people, only Noah and his seven family members were saved from the flood.
Who would you be more inclined to follow, a multitude or one man and his family? Jesus also warns us about following the crowd. Matthew 7:13-14 tells us that he said,
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
In the pursuit of truth, we must be willing to stand in an unpopular minority.
Their Persistence
Some people insist that older is always better. They might say it about cars, homes, clothing, or other products. Perhaps they are skeptical of innovation, or they love antiques and the sense of history that they carry. They have stood the test of time.
I have heard a similar argument used for selecting a church or theological beliefs. In fact, some denominations regard tradition as authoritative. But age does not necessarily equate to truthfulness. Some bad ideas are like cockroaches. They are very hard to kill. So, we should not take the persistence of a teacher, a church, a denomination, or a belief as an indication of God’s affirmation.
Peter makes this point with a third example of judgment. It is his third condition, building up to his conclusion. In 2 Peter 2:6-8, he says,
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; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (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)
Lot, the nephew of Abraham, was a newcomer to Sodom. The city had probably been there for several generations, and the people’s immoral behavior was probably not new. Now Genesis 19 does not present Lot in the most positive light. But when the men of the city surround his house and demand to have sex with the men who have come to him, he urges them not to act so wickedly. Peter makes it clear that Lot’s righteous soul was tormented by what he had seen and heard in the city.
So, the question is not why God brought destruction upon them, but why he waited so long. Peter does not give us an answer here. In verse 9 of chapter 3, he tells us that the Lord is patient, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. God shows grace and mercy even as people persist in ungodliness, but Peter’s point here in chapter 2 is the certainty that judgment will come. He asserts that conclusion in verse 9 and the first part of verse 10 by saying,
then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
One day the difference between truth and error and between righteousness and unrighteousness will be made clear. The Lord will rescue the godly and punish the unrighteous. Until then, do not mistake persistence for truth.
___________
We must keep growing in our knowledge of truth and our discernment of error. Every profession is not genuine. Persuasion can be misused. Position and popularity are not reliable, and persistence itself can be condemning. God will judge false teachers, but until he does, we must recognize and reject their influence.
We will see that Peter has more to say about their tactics in the rest of chapter 2. For now, let me ask—Who are you following? Do you consider yourself a Christian because it is the popular thing to do among your family and friends or because of some persuasive person? To be a Christian is to know God and to follow Jesus. That belief and commitment must be direct and personal. If you have never done so, I encourage you to start following Jesus.
If you are following him, then seek to grow in practicing discernment. Reading Matthew 7 might be a good place to begin. There Jesus gives us helpful guidance. Perhaps you know someone else who needs to grow in discernment. Encourage them to read the Word and to evaluate what they hear by it.
May we build our lives on the rock of God’s Word!
Reflect
What criteria have you used in determining which teachers to listen to?
Do your criteria need to change? If so, how?
How could you encourage a fellow believer to use biblical discernment?