II PETER 2:1-22 Lesson # 4
IDENTIFYING FALSE TEACHERS
I. Greetings:
II. Introduction:
Note: The chapter we will look at today concerns false teachers or false prophets. People who say they speak for God but really do not. This problem with false leadership is not new with the Christian Church, but was a problem in the Israelite community as well. Jeremiah, Elijah, etc. had to deal with false prophets. False prophets do not seem to change much. The characteristics of false prophets in the Old Testament times, at Peter’s time and in our time are much the same. We will look at what Peter has to teach us so we will not be mislead nor harmed.
Q What did you come up with in your own reading of chapter 2? What is a false teacher?
An = Let them answer and either have someone be the “scribe” and write down their views or put them up on a white or chalk board. When everyone has had a chance to share, review their characterization of false prophet. See if you can work it down to a short series of words, so it can be more easily remembered.
III. There Will Be False Teachers: II Peter 2:1-3
Note: Peter is concerned about those to whom he is writing, and so he states some facts that they need to know. This is not unlike a mother warning her daughter that there are men out there that will lie to her, or a father telling his son that drugs are out there and there are folks who will want to sell them to you and hurt you. Peter tells them that there are false teachers whom they will hear and will need to be aware of.
>>>> Have someone read II Peter 2:1-3.
Q The false teachers of Peter’s day were like what false leaders in the Old Testament?
An = The false prophets. Men who said they were hearing messages from the Lord, but their messages were false and not from the Lord.
Q According to verse one what do false teachers do?
An = They introduce secret heresies and even deny their Master who bought them.
Note: These teachers teach what is false or “off-base”, and they even deny their Master. Now, the obvious meaning of Master would be the Lord Jesus, and the other possible meaning would be their Master the Devil. If their master was Jesus then they are believers who became disloyal and denied the Lord. We have plenty of examples of this in youth leaders, pastors, Bible teachers who are Christians but for a variety of reasons start teaching what is off and even deny the Lord. When one looks at 2:20-22, it appears that these leaders/teachers were first believers who had experienced the power of the Lord.
Their master could be the Devil, if you combine this verse with 2:10-12. These later verses speak of the arrogance of these false teachers and their lack of fear of angelic powers. They could be betraying Satan.
I would favor seeing “Master” as referring to the Lord, but what is very clear is that they are disloyal as well as wrong in their teaching.
Q Why would someone teach “secret” teachings?
An = The wrong loves the darkness and the truth loves the light. Beware of someone who has “secret” teaching. Jesus Christ taught the Sermon on the Mount to the disciples but openly in front of the multitudes (Matthew 5:1-2) and Jesus reminded those who arrested Him that He openly taught them daily in the Temple (Luke 22:53).
Q What else will these false teachers do in verses 2-3?
An = They will use sensuality and bring the way of truth into disrepute, and they will exploit people with words because they are greedy. Watch out for the teachers, preachers, etc. that use a form of sensuality or are greedy.
Note: There are many people today who are “gun-shy” of the truth because of false teachers. Leaders who used sensuality and have brought undeserved disrepute on the truth of the Lord.
Q What would such “secretness”, or such “sensuality” or a “greediness” look like today?
An = Let them answer if they can, but strongly steer them away from “smearing someone without facts, and keep them away from gossip. You want them to be insightful Christians, not judgmental folks who cannot see the log in their own eye.
Q How can we be careful that these three traits are not part of our lives?
An = Let them answer if they will, and you might wish to be vulnerable here about your own struggles as a leader.
Q What is the fate of such leaders according to verse 1 and 3?
An = Swift judgment is coming and their destruction is not idle.
Q Why is it important or helpful that we know the fate of false teachers?
An = So we do not think they will get away with it. So we do not lose hope in justice, and so we are not tempted to be like them.
Note: Peter is seemingly very concerned that his readers think it does not matter whether one is a loyal to the truth. Proof of this is that he launches into a fairly long attempt to persuade them that “truth matters”, by referring to past examples….
IV. Examples Of Past Just Judgments By The Lord: II Peter 2:4-9.
>>>> Have someone read II Peter 2:4-5.
Q What are the two examples given in these two verses?
An = Angels and the ancient world at the time of Noah.
Q What is the difference between these two examples?
An = The “angel example” stresses that even angels who sinned will be judged. The “Noah example” mentions the judgment of the ungodly but stresses that Noah, a preacher of righteousness, is saved or persevered. So we have judgment and preservation.
>>>> Have someone read II Peter 2:6-8.
Q What example is given in these verses? What does this story stress?
An = The example of Lot and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The stress is on the rescue of Lot and the reason he was rescued.
Q How did Lot respond to the corruption all around him? Do we respond this way?
An = He was oppressed and tormented. It brought pain to Lot to see the conduct of those in his community. He not only did not participate with them, but was moved and affected by the lawlessness and degradation of those around him. Perhaps, Lot was used to so much more, something so much better, having lived in the company of Abraham all those years. He was afflicted and distressed by evil. He was not emotionally detached.
>>>> Have someone read II Peter 2:9.
Q What is stressed in the summary of these three episodes?
An = The Lord is able and active to both “rescue” and “punish”. It is the action of the Lord that Peter stresses. It does matter how we act and behave because the Lord will be involved in judgment.
Now that Peter is assured they believe what he is speaking about is important he details what to avoid. He will describe false teachers in greater depth.
V. Description Of The False Teachers: II Peter 2:10-22.
A. What are They Like: II Peter 2:10-19
>>>> Have someone read II Peter 2:10-12
Q What are these false teachers like, what do they do, according to verses 10-11?
An = They do two things: indulge the flesh, despise authority. 1) The false prophets in the Old Testament were also indulgent. One must control their physical desires to stay a preacher of the truth. The history of church proves over and over again how good men can be harmed when their desires get the better of them. Remember, Paul, who “beat his body under” lest after having called others, would himself be cast away (I Corinthians 9:27, Luke 9:25).
>>>> Have someone read I Corinthians 9:27.
One must also control one’s arrogance. Authority must be respected. The sign of a poor teacher is one that does not have respect for authority. When this gets into the spiritual area it opens up these teachers to foolishness that will bring about their destruction.
Q How does Peter describe their punishment in verse 12?
An = They are punished like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct. Peter does not have respect for leaders that have no control over their desires or no knowledge of respect. They are no better than squirrels in his opinion.
>>>> Have someone read II Peter 2:13-16.
Q Which character from the Old Testament does Peter use as a counter-example or anti-type?
An = Balaam. He was rebuked by a donkey. This fits Peter’s view of the animalistic, brutish, and less than human behavior of false leaders.
Q Why did Balaam seek to be a false leader?
An = Balaam really did know the Lord, it was not lack of experience with God, or knowledge on his part, but what tempted him was “greed”. See verse 15. Balaam wanted money. Remember, the man who betrayed his Lord, Judas, did it for money.
Note: What is sad is Judas sold his Lord, and therefore his soul, so cheaply. If you know many cases of this in modern times, you will see that this is often still the case.
Q What is being stressed in verses 13-14?
An = Greed, but also a life style that is undisciplined: carousing (partying day and night), adultery, never ceasing from sin, enticing unstable souls. A disciplined man does not constantly party, not control his sex drive, or try to bring down the weak, or easily influenced ones. A strong, disciplined individual tries to help the weak or unstable souls. These people are self-indulgent and self-absorbed.
>>>> Have someone read II Peter 2:17-19.
Q What does Peter say about their teaching or words in verses 17 and 18?
An = They are empty, vain, arrogant, useless: springs without water, mists driven by a storm.
Q What is their appeal according to verse 18?
An = It is sensual desire, and it is aimed at those who are already weak, those who barely have escaped error.
Q What does Peter mean in verse 19?
An = If we are overcome by anything, it is our master.
Q Can you give examples of things that are not overcome, and therefore enslave those who do not overcome such actions or habits?
An = Let them give their answers. Try to get them to focus not just on false leaders they might know but also on themselves.
B. What is Their Future: An Oracle of Woe. II Peter 2:20-22
>>>> Have someone read II Peter 2:20-22.
Q What is Peter saying here?
An = It does appear that these teachers lose their salvation (2:20), though a Calvinist would say they were never truly saved (2:22). However, I do not think Peter is trying to settle the problem of once saved, always saved. Peter is a man who is passonionately concerned about people, not theological concepts that are to be debated. Peter laments for people, real people who have lost their way!!
He laments that they have lost their footing. They had the means to succeed against corruption and did not use it. They had the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but like a pig went back into their former filth.
Peter is pronouncing Woe on them. He is trying to warn against such teachers and to let us know that by their actions, leaders prove their true colors, even after a good beginning.
Peter is merely rephrasing what his Lord had taught him.
>>>> Have someone read Matthew 7:15-20.
Homework: For next week read chapter 3 of II Peter. Try to answer two questions: 1) Why would someone mock the concept of the “Second Coming”?
2) What is Peter’s goal, or desired affect on his readers? Starting in verse 8, what is his hoped for results?