Yesterday, I, Pastor Todd, shared on identifying false teachers and how to avoid becoming one based out of 2 Peter 2. You can hear the whole sermon here. Today, I’d like to give a short reflection on some of the key ideas in 2 Peter that I didn’t have time to expound on yesterday. Those ideas are the link between the false teachers’ attitudes compared to three OT punishment accounts: 1. Fallen Angels. 2. Noah’s Contemporaries 3. Sodom and Gomorrah. Each group was guilty of particular sin(s) that Peter is charging the false teachers with. So here are the ancient groups and their sin(s) related to the false teachers.
Fallen Angels
The most notable sins of the Fallen Angels were Pride and Rebellion. The literary accounts we have of these beings are: Gen. 6:1-4; Jude 6; Rev. 12:7, 1 Enoch (Peter is discreet in referencing this). According to the Gen. 6 account, the Elohim (Sons of God) looked down and saw that the women of the earth were beautiful. So they went down, married them and had offspring. Their offspring were the Nephilim–giants and hero warriors of the primeval ancient world. Jude 6 and 1 Enoch give more detail regarding what happened to these rebellious and prideful Elohim. They were chained in a pit until the day of judgement. 1 Enoch spells out they were bound to jagged rocks.
We know that 1 Enoch is not canonical. Though it does give us some insight into understanding Jude. But Peter’s reference here (whether an angelic binding happened or not) is connecting the sins of pride and rebellion to God’s judgment. The biggest characteristic of pride is putting the self above all else, including God. Pride makes us the focus and center of existence. Rebellion is a sin that naturally accompanies Pride. For if I am the center of the world, then what I want is more important than anything else. Therefore, I have a right to anything I want. Even if that right goes against the commands of my creator. Such a fate is rightly judged both by God and by most of human society.
This is what the false teachers were doing. They were perverting the teachings of the Apostles and the Holy Commandments for their own gain. They used the church’s platform to make money. They looked at all the women in the church as potential bed-mates. They used their influence to convince others to “do ye likewise.”
Peter, being a pastor, leveled a scathing charge against these false teachers in his letter because he knew the dangers of false teaching. He and Paul had been dealing with different types of false teachings from the beginning. One time, it was even bad enough to warrant the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. To Peter, this was no laughing matter and to him, the Church needed to be defended and protected.
Noah’s Contemporaries
The sins of Noah’s contemporaries may have been related to pride (putting self first). But it shows up more in terms of apathetic disobedience. God had given mankind certain commands for living. But they shirked it for their own devices. Jesus described them as “marrying and giving in marriage” until the water came down. All signs point to their wickedness not necessarily being on par with the annual murder rates of Chicago, but more on part with apathy. These people simply didn’t care about God. They didn’t have time for God. They were busy doing their own thing, living their own lives. This is one thing that clearly incenses God. We see this in John’s address to the Laodicean church in Revelation. He was going to remove their lampstand because they were apathetic (a.k.a. Lukewarm). Apathy is one of the greatest killers to a faith community.
In terms of the false teachers Peter is combating, their apathy for God’s word has led them to do pretty much what they want with rationalizations to justify it. Peter refers to this group as “denying the master who bought them.” This means that they had gone through a salvation experience. At one time Jesus was their Lord. However, what most likely happened was they slowly grew apathetic in their faith. They wandered back into the sensual/materialistic habits they were saved from. They continued to give lip service to Jesus, but denied them with their lifestyles. They abandoned the ethics of Christianity and turned their energies against the community for their own sensual fulfillment–culminating with extortion and viewing every woman as a potential bed-mate.
Much like the fate John warned Laodicea of and Noah was delivered from, so Peter is charging against the false teachers. Their apathy will warrant their utter destruction, namely because it has opened to them a plethora of other sins with which they had become entangled.
Sodom and Gomorrah
The final group Peter compares the false teachers to is the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. The linking sin here is the unquenchable appetite for sensual experience. The men of Sodom wanted to sexually defile the angelic visitors. They had experienced so much sexual depravity that they needed something more novel to fill their lustful hunger. So it is with the false teachers that are among the church. Like we mentioned earlier, they were already looking at all the women as potential bed-mates (potential adulteresses). Peter references their lusts upwards to 7xs in this chapter. They had already been given over to extreme sexual expressions and still wanted more, because it wasn’t enough. And they were developing false doctrines to justify it. “Spiritual connection through sexual union” is and has been the teaching of many pagan cults in the past. It is no surprise that it also shows up in the church. Lust loves to dress in religious garb–from cult prostitutes in the Old Testament to Pagan fertility rites, elevating the sexual experience to a spiritual experience has been the style for millennia. So it is with the false teachers in Peter’s day.
So those are the three OT comparisons to the false teachers in 2 Peter. What is notable, however, is that when Peter is leveling the sins against the false teachers, He also accentuates God’s primacy for salvation. The only difference between Noah & Lot and their fated contemporaries is that Noah & Lot responded to the Divine Intervention. Any and all of us fight the above sins on a regular basis in one way or another. The way we keep ourselves from becoming like the false teachers is by heeding the conviction of the Holy Spirit and holding to the teachings of Scripture. Hopefully, you are part of a Bible believing church where the teachers are committed to the inspiration of the Bible. I know if you’re at TGP, that is the case. God’s grace is never too small to save. To avoid being caught in the snares of sinful nature like the false teachers, keeping our walk with God alive and vibrant along with diligently reading and studying God’s word is a great start.
I hope today’s post was encouraging and empowering for your walk. And I hope it helped you better experience our Lord’s