Thoughts on 2 Peter 2

 Today’s reading: Isaiah 23; 2 Peter 2

It is kind of crazy to me just how much ink Peter spills on false teachers here…

Warning his readers against false teachers, or warning them not to follow that wayward path themselves, sure, that seems entirely reasonable, but to go on as long as he does, speaking as strongly as he does the entire time, it just drives home how strongly Peter felt about the issue. But for as surprising as it is to me that he spills so much ink on it, when I look around at the church today, I really can’t say that I’m surprised.

Peter is not talking about non-Christians who see the gullible church community as a source of gain, but previously true believers who get caught up by their sinful desires and turn on their faith for gain. He specifically calls out that these people had previously “escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” but then later were “again entangled in them and overcome.” These are/were true believers, people who know the truth and have experienced freedom in Christ, only to turn back to their sin, using their knowledge of the truth and their position in the community to draw away “those who are barely escaping,” those new believers who are just making a start of their faith and turning away from their former sins.

The church today is full of these people.

On the one hand, there are the obvious examples of famous pastors/teachers/authors who have abandoned the true gospel and preach instead a false prosperity gospel, declaring that the more you give to their church or organization, the more you will be blessed by the Lord. These are people like Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, and others, whose books and teachings line the shelves of Christian bookstores and whose names are maybe more well known than any other pastors or teachers to those outside the church. And along with these national/international figures there are myriad others operating at a more local level, not yet famous enough for their names to hold national recognition, but doing the same work, seeking to build their own kingdoms here in this world rather than building on the true foundation in Christ.

Along with the infamous prosperity gospel, there has been a rising tide in recent years of pastors and teachers building massive congregations and followings on the basis of unbiblical, but culturally popular, theology. These people will take any and every teaching that is culturally unacceptable, or even just disliked, and re-work the Bible to not teach what the rest of the church claims it to be teaching. You see this with questions of sexuality, gender identity, pornography, drug use, abortion, marriage, etc. Essentially any teaching our culture finds unpalatable can/will be added to the pile in order to continue to gather a larger following, letting people feel good about themselves for going to church, while affirming every sinful aspect of their lives. And again, for as many large/famous churches as there are doing this, how many more are operating at a local level, building their numbers one compromised doctrine at a time?

And none of this is even including those who are doing these same kinds of things without any official role or title. I have seen many of these people over the years, who come to know the Lord, but then will not step away from their sin, and instead start quietly trying to convince other newer believers to follow them into the same things. Someone who comes to the Lord but then sees the church as an avenue to meet a boyfriend or girlfriend, drawing others into sexual sin. Or someone who won’t step away from their drug use, but instead finds other Christians struggling with the same desires and finds partnership for their sin rather than encouragement to keep moving toward the Lord. Much like the angels Peter references from 1 Enoch who wanted to sin, but wouldn’t do it alone, finding the strength in their numbers to rebel against the Lord, so too these people draw others to sin along with them to justify their own wayward desires.

And as prevalent as these things are today, I have to imagine it was no less of a problem in Peter’s day, which makes sense of why he spills so much ink on it. This is not a small issue, and is not something the church can afford to ignore or refuse to condemn for the sin that it is.