False Teachers
Peter now takes on a rather serious tone. He speaks about false prophets and false
teachers. He says that they will
come. He says that they are inevitable. He’s right.
There are people out there who for self-centered reasons will take
advantage of people who believe. There
are also people who for misguided reasons will simply teach falsehood thinking
they are teaching true faith.
There is a real danger of false teachers in our midst. Peter says that many will follow their
sensuality. Many will follow their
charisma. Many will be swayed by
personality, fancy speech, incredible stage presence, glorified buildings, and
so forth. Many will miss that it is not
the trappings of the man that make the teacher but rather the teachings of the
teacher that make the man. People will
be pulled down the wrong path out of their own desire to simply follow. They choose poorly.
What’s really cool is why this is so important for Peter. Yesterday I mentioned that Peter is writing
this as he is coming close to his death.
It’s on the horizon. He can see
it coming. He’s not going to be around
for too much longer. He’s worried about
those who will be left behind. He knows
the struggles that they are going to face.
He wants them to endure. This
warning about false prophets and teachers is Peter’s heart pouring out love for
the faithful.
Judgment
Peter then reminds his readers that God knows how to punish the
worldly. Angels fell. They are kept for judgment. The people in the days of Noah refused to
believe. They will be judged. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were
decimated. God’s promise of judgment is
always met. It is not like the threat of
an irresponsible parent. God meets
people where they deserve to be met.
Righteous
However, Peter also makes a fabulous point. God knows how to be merciful to the righteous
as well. God spared Lot. God spared Noah. God can sort out the righteous from among the
unrighteous. The righteous do not need
to worry about judgment. God can judge
adequately enough to sort it out the way it should be sorted.
Pronouncing Judgments
Peter then makes a really neat and oft-forgotten point in the
paragraph that begins with the second half of verse 10. The unrighteous are all about pointing out
the blasphemes, errors, mistakes, and general ungodliness of the
righteous. The ungodly love to point out
the faults of the godly. This isn’t to
say that they are wrong in what they say.
All the righteous ones have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God. Every single one of us is flawed
and do not deserve to be counted among the righteous. But because of the blood of Christ and our
humble submission to it, we find ourselves righteous in spite of
ourselves. But the unrighteous continue
to point to us and slander the gift of righteousness that God has bestowed on
the faithful.
What really got my attention was the next part. Peter then says that the righteous don’t
return the favor. The righteous don’t
slander the unrighteous (or each other, for that matter). Not only do they not act in an unrighteous
manner; they have also learned how to trust that God can handle the task of
judgment. The righteous have learned to
focus on their own path and not talk down about someone else’s path. I’m going to confess. That’s a pretty challenging statement by
Peter. Because I’ve done my fair share –
more than my fair if I’m righteous! – of judging.
False Teachers, Part II
Peter then returns to the false teachers. That is primarily the focus of verses
17-22. Peter calls them wells without
water or mists without substance. They
flatter just to capture people’s attention but they have nothing more to
offer. And then we get to the issue of
bondage.
The false teachers to which Peter is referring were teaching
freedom – but in the wrong way. They
were teaching that if Christ forgives, then people can do anything they want
without fear. {Wow. Not going to lie. That sounds an awful lot like some of the
so-called Christian teachings of modern Western Christendom.} The false teachers are saying, “God loves you
as you are; go and be happy. God can
forgive. The blood of Jesus can cover
everything!”
Of course, the blood of Jesus can cover everything. It isn’t the words that are wrong as much as
it is the spirit of the words. Our
freedom is not a freedom of self-indulgence (See Galatians 5:13). Our freedom is not an opportunity to cover up
our inherent sinfulness. (See 1 Peter
2:16). Our freedom is to strive after
Christ and know that we don’t have to be held captive by our humanity. Yes, we will all still sin. Christ forgives. But in no way is that permission to “go forth
and sin all the more!” No. Those who teach that God will forgive
everything without looking at motivation are teaching a brand of
universalism. It is dangerous
indeed.
Many times in Jesus’ life He taught about the need to love and
forgive. Many other times He taught
about the straight and narrow way, repentance, turning from our sin, and
humbling ourselves before God. When I
approach life with a “God will forgive me no matter what I do” attitude I am
not humbling myself. I am boasting
arrogantly. That is not the person God
has called me to be. The person God has
called me to be is one who submits my sinfulness to Him and humbly repents.
How sad indeed it is when people find grace … only to keep right
on moving and enslave themselves once again in the indulgent self-centered life
of humanity. God has called us into
repentance and humbleness, not self-centered permissiveness.
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