Last night we continued our study of 2 Peter by working through chapter 2. Here’s the notes:
First, we worked our way in to the second chapter, to see how it fit into the overall message Peter was trying to convey.
1:3-15 — Peter wants us to be constantly growing in our knowledge of God, and our experience of the things God has freely given us. his will benefit us eternally.. See 3:18
3:17 — He wants us not led away in error.
3:1-2 — He wants us to remember the Prophet’s predictions (OT) and Apostles commands (NT) (1:12-13)
1:16-18 — …because they preach the truth from God—they saw the promises before they happened,
1:19-22 — …which lined up with and confirmed the OT, which was from God.
2:1 — …But, just like when those OT prophets spoke from God, and there were false prophets right next to them, so now there are false teachers right next to the Apostles.
So in Ch 2 we have a pitfall described in 3:17 – the error of the wicked which we must watch out for.
1-3
There are such things as false teachers.
The issues:
v. 1 They’re not from God. (parallel with False Prophets, not the Apostolic message). They deny God. They will bring destruction on themselves.
v.2 They gather followers, leading to destruction. They cause the true way to be looked down on
v.3 They deceive and exploit
4-9
The “angels who sinned” – see 1 Peter 3:18-20, Jude 5-6, Gen 6.
The point is v. 9. – God delivers the righteous and punishes the wicked.
- Even angels were judged for sin (v.4)
- Noah’s time: world judged for evil, Noah delivered (v. 5)
- Lot’s time: Cities destroyed, Lot delivered (v.6-7)
10-16 …those under judgment are: arrogant, ignorant, lustful, and dangerous. ( Here’s the quote I read from Richard Bauckham’s commentary on the false teachers’ pagan skepticism in 2:10-11: “It is not likely that the false teachers slandered the [angles]…The most plausible view is that in their confident immorality the false teachers were contemptuous of the demonic powers. When they were rebuked for their immoral behavior and warned of the danger of falling into the power of the devil and sharing his condemnation, they laughed at the idea, denying that the devil could have any power over them and speaking of the powers of evil in skeptical, mocking terms. They doubted the very existence of supernatural powers of evil.” (p. 262))
17-19 they have only empty promises
20-22 The end of their teaching, and of their own lives, if they don’t turn, is bondage and destruction. They came to know he way of righteousness, and experienced Jesus’ freeing power …but turned from the “holy commandment” (see 3:2) – the true (Apostolic) message about Jesus. See Matthew 12:43-45, Matthew 24:48-51; Luke 12:47-48
Final Thoughts:
- This language is shocking in our day. But we need to keep taking in scripture to get a clear picture of God.
- The Apostles knew they had the true message about Christ. They could clearly see how serious it is to mess with that message….
- See Genesis 3:15. If you don’t know Christ: This is a whole world-view that is totally different than what is typically believed today. It assumes there are things we can know about what is spiritually, eternally true, and that those things matter. It recognizes that there is much more to life than just what Science can describe or what we may experience on a “typical” day. And if there is…you must come to know it.
- We shouldn’t be surprised by different teachings about Christ.
- Teaching matters. Getting the message right matters. How? Keep checking it against the written record of what the Apostles taught about Jesus, and the prophets in the OT. Try to stay as close to it as you can. It has practical effects for our life now, and eternal consequences.