2 Peter: Faith In A Skeptical World Exemplo

The internet age has meant that all kinds of sermons are being heard all around the world. In addition certain Christian bookstores overflow with all kinds of ‘Christian’ literature for sale. Some of it is excellent, and faithful to God’s word, but for shops ‘what sells’ often is what is offered. Recently an American scholar visited Australia and reminded his Australian audience to neither dismiss nor accept, unthinkingly, the plethora of material being published in his homeland. We suffer to the extent we lapse in our discernment. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. 

And so too, before the false teachers have a chance to promote their views and their way of life (as perhaps they had already been doing to the harm of Christians in Corinth), Peter wants to expose them plainly for what they are. Some wrongly consider 2 Peter to be a cold, harsh letter. But the large portion of 2 Peter which describes the false teachers is understandable if we take seriously the danger. In this sense, it is not cold, but shows the shepherd’s warm concern for God’s sheep. 

The false teachers are not discreet in their shameful behaviour, but parade it ‘in broad daylight’ (v. 13). In chapter 3, Peter will urge Christians to be holy, without spot or blemish; but here in chapter 2, the false teachers are ‘blots and blemishes’ (v. 13). Lacking ‘brotherly kindness’ and ‘love’, two of the traits in 1:5–7, they use and abuse others with their adultery, appetite for sin, seductiveness, and greed (v. 14). Lacking ‘perseverance’ (1:6), they ‘left the straight way’ (v. 15) and wandered off to take the senseless path of Balaam (who appears in Numbers 22–24 and Revelation 2:14). 

In the Bible, wisdom is so highly esteemed. It’s opposite, folly, is the mire in which the false teachers now exist, having left the straight ‘way’ or path. They are like Balaam, whose foolishness was exposed when God used a donkey of all creatures to instruct him! 

In chapter 1, Peter said the Christians were well ‘established in the truth’ (1:12). But he points out here in chapter 2 that the easy prey for false teachers are the ‘unstable’ (v. 14). Peter, like Paul, therefore urged Christians to be rooted and established in God’s word, making every effort to grow in their knowledge of, obedience to, and love for, Christ (1:5, 10). 

Reflection

If you are a new Christian, or a Christian who has never really studied God’s word, how could you seek to grow and be established in the truth? If you are a mature Christian, how might you nurture others so that they are established in the truth?