2 Peter 2 - Creatures of Instinct
The worst kind of sin is that which looks the best.
Read / Listen to the chapter:
Read the chapter in an outlined format
2 Peter 2 (ESV)
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, 1
0 and especially those
who indulge in the lust of defiling passion
and despise authority.
Bold and willful,
they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,
11 whereas angels,
though greater in might and power,
do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.
12 But these,
like irrational animals,
creatures of instinct,
born to be caught and destroyed,
blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant,
will also be destroyed
in their destruction,
13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing.
They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime.
They are blots and blemishes,
reveling in their deceptions,
while they feast with you.
14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin.
They entice unsteady souls.
They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!
15 Forsaking the right way,
they have gone astray.
They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor,
who loved gain from wrongdoing,
16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm.
For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.
18 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.
19 They
promise them freedom,
but they themselves are slaves of corruption.
For whatever overcomes a person,
to that he is enslaved.
20 For if,
after they have escaped
the defilements of the world
through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
they are again entangled in them and overcome,
the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21 For it would have been better for them never
to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22 What the true proverb says has happened to them:
“The dog returns to its own vomit,
and the sow,
after washing herself,
returns to wallow in the mire.”
Read the chapter on BibleGateway
Previous DIG DEEPER posts on 2 Peter
2 Peter 1 Summary
In chapter 1, Peter emphasized the importance of relying upon the prophetic Word of God.
But not all who claim to be prophets of God are what they claim to be.
Although you need to be aware of them, and always remain on guard for unbiblical teaching, be assured that God will rescue the godly and bring these liars to justice.
The second half of this chapter passage is a long and brutal takedown of people who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority (v10).
Peter pulls out all of the stops in the second half of this chapter, comparing unrepentant sinners to: unreasoning animals (v12), and a Hebrew turncoat whose sin was rebuked by an unreasoning animal (v15-16).
He finishes with two proverbs showing sinners in the most disgusting way possible: a dog eating its own vomit and a washed sow rolling in the [mud] (Peter doesn't use the 'G rated' word the translations do in v22).
Interestingly, the proverb about the dogs comes from Proverbs 26:11, but the proverb about the sow is an ancient Greek proverb.
Even pagans can sense the disgusting filth of sin.
Dig Deeper
Certainly Peter had no idea what life would be like in our day and age, but the reason he seems so prescient is because temptation keeps following the exact same pattern it has all throughout history: promising freedom, but delivering slavery.
The serpent successfully used this deception against Adam, and continues to do so even today. It's just that now the temptation is so much more blatant and obvious than in previous generations, but the resulting slavery to depravity is no different.
Be reminded again by these biting words from Peter that the freedom the world promises is not freedom at all. True independence for humanity has never been possible, as Peter notes by quoting an often used saying that "people are slaves to whatever has mastered them."
Be grateful that God, through Christ, has set you free from sin, so that you can enjoy the true freedom of becoming a slave to righteousness (Romans 6:18).
AAA Prayer :
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Father in heaven, you know how to rescue the Godly from trials (v9)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Ask for God's strength to help you flee from the disgust of sin (v1-22)
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
