Those Who Are Barely Escaping (2 Peter 2:18)
Jul 30, 2018 11:38:38 GMT -5
John, frienduff, and 2 more like this
Post by tlsitd on Jul 30, 2018 11:38:38 GMT -5
...Speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error...For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. (2 Peter 2:18-20 ESV)
(For when) they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error...For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. (KJV)
I was thinking on this Scripture this morning. The second chapter of 2 Peter concerns false teachers among Christians in the last days.
Two of the most significant things about this chapter, in my opinion, are the kind of false teachers that these men are, and the kind of people who are being led astray by them.
First, the false teachers are men who used to be saved but fell away from the faith and died spiritually again---for the love of money (2 Peter 2:3, 2:15). These are the same kinds of false teachers that Jude addresses in his epistle: men who---like the people of Israel whom God saved out of Egypt but who rebelled against Him and were destroyed for their rebellion after being saved (Hebrews speaks about the same subject, as does 1 Corinthians chapter 10), and like the holy angels who used to serve God but rebelled against Him and were cast down from heaven and became unholy angels (demons)---were saved but later fell through sin and rebellion and became "twice dead", and were uprooted by God from His land for being unfruitful. (See Hebrews 6:4-8).
Second, the people who are being led astray by these false teachers are Christians of a poor spiritual condition, described as being "barely escaping" (or "clean escaped" from) the defilements of the world. These can be naive new Christians who don't know their God very well yet, and so believe false teachings about Jesus, and who have more of an appetite for worldly and carnal things because their minds have not been much renewed yet and such things hold more appeal for them than they would for the spiritually mature. They can also be Christians who are simply choosing to serve the flesh rather than the Spirit and who have their hearts set on themselves and the desires of the sinful nature, such as the apostate Christians described in 2 Timothy 3:1-5. 2 Peter 2:14 describes them as "unsteady souls"---people whose hearts are not steadfast toward Christ and thus are tempted by what these false teachers are preaching.
(...Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (James 1:14) and, ...The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions... (2 Timothy 4:3))
These teachers are obviously telling the people who are listening to them the things that they want to hear. The scary thing is that, because they are fallen, ex-saints, they are probably more convincing than people who never knew Jesus at all---perhaps even being men of reputation and influence among Christians, who formerly served the Lord Jesus Christ and did many notable things for Him but forsook Him and are now spiritually dead and are serving money and themselves, for their own glory, teaching heresies.
And, as Jude explains in his epistle on the same subject, these men creep into the church "unnoticed" (Jude 4), which tells you a lot about the spiritual condition of the church in the last days, that they would accept such people, considering the doctrine of the faith (which Jude urged the church to contend for), and what the Lord said about wolves in sheep's clothing and trees being known by their fruit. (But if you don't rely on the supreme authority of the Bible or believe in objective Scriptural truth, you'll accept and believe anything. And so it is with many Christians today.) The fact that men like the false teachers described in Jude could creep in among believers unnoticed and feed on the sheep without fear tells you what the attitudes and desires of these saints are like, and how much discernment they have.
The key to avoiding being enticed and deceived by such teachers is found in the last two verses of 2 Peter (and is related to the exhortation in the first chapter of the epistle, in verses 3-10):
You therefore, beloved knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3:17,18)
Know your God, increase in His grace (the power and desire and all of the spiritual provision necessary to do His will, which God increases with the exercise of our faith), and don't serve the sinful nature or make provision for its desires. No one who knows and loves God is attracted by the things that these false teachers are teaching; it's Christians who don't who are in danger of being led astray by them.
I don't think any of the believers here at Narrow Way fall into the category of the "barely escaping" (or "clean escaped") described in 2 Peter 2:18. If they did, they wouldn't be on this forum. But this might be a helpful read/reminder for any guests to whom it might apply, and also to new believers.
It's also a good reminder even to those of us who are not this way that it is possible for Christians to fall away from Christ to their destruction. We may not be enticed by "sensual passions of the flesh" or deceived by doctrines of false "grace" and unconditional eternal security (aka OSAS), or by the "prosperity gospel/word of faith" teaching (which I believe are some of the destructive (or "damnable") heresies referred to in 2 Peter 2:1, which are potentially deadly), but that doesn't mean we can't be tempted or deceived by other things.
Any desire or attitude of our sinful nature is a potential snare to a Christian, even to mature ones who love the Lord. So the admonition at the beginning of 2 Peter (1:3-12) is important for and applicable to all Christians, because we all have the sinful nature. (And that nature never gets any better, unfortunately; it'll be just as depraved and contrary to God til the day we leave this body, or are changed, as it was before we were born again. We can never make peace with it; its desires and attitudes must be daily crucified by the grace of God, as often as they arise, lest we be led astray by and potentially destroyed on account of following them.)
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:16-21)
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:21)
(For when) they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error...For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. (KJV)
I was thinking on this Scripture this morning. The second chapter of 2 Peter concerns false teachers among Christians in the last days.
Two of the most significant things about this chapter, in my opinion, are the kind of false teachers that these men are, and the kind of people who are being led astray by them.
First, the false teachers are men who used to be saved but fell away from the faith and died spiritually again---for the love of money (2 Peter 2:3, 2:15). These are the same kinds of false teachers that Jude addresses in his epistle: men who---like the people of Israel whom God saved out of Egypt but who rebelled against Him and were destroyed for their rebellion after being saved (Hebrews speaks about the same subject, as does 1 Corinthians chapter 10), and like the holy angels who used to serve God but rebelled against Him and were cast down from heaven and became unholy angels (demons)---were saved but later fell through sin and rebellion and became "twice dead", and were uprooted by God from His land for being unfruitful. (See Hebrews 6:4-8).
Second, the people who are being led astray by these false teachers are Christians of a poor spiritual condition, described as being "barely escaping" (or "clean escaped" from) the defilements of the world. These can be naive new Christians who don't know their God very well yet, and so believe false teachings about Jesus, and who have more of an appetite for worldly and carnal things because their minds have not been much renewed yet and such things hold more appeal for them than they would for the spiritually mature. They can also be Christians who are simply choosing to serve the flesh rather than the Spirit and who have their hearts set on themselves and the desires of the sinful nature, such as the apostate Christians described in 2 Timothy 3:1-5. 2 Peter 2:14 describes them as "unsteady souls"---people whose hearts are not steadfast toward Christ and thus are tempted by what these false teachers are preaching.
(...Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (James 1:14) and, ...The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions... (2 Timothy 4:3))
These teachers are obviously telling the people who are listening to them the things that they want to hear. The scary thing is that, because they are fallen, ex-saints, they are probably more convincing than people who never knew Jesus at all---perhaps even being men of reputation and influence among Christians, who formerly served the Lord Jesus Christ and did many notable things for Him but forsook Him and are now spiritually dead and are serving money and themselves, for their own glory, teaching heresies.
And, as Jude explains in his epistle on the same subject, these men creep into the church "unnoticed" (Jude 4), which tells you a lot about the spiritual condition of the church in the last days, that they would accept such people, considering the doctrine of the faith (which Jude urged the church to contend for), and what the Lord said about wolves in sheep's clothing and trees being known by their fruit. (But if you don't rely on the supreme authority of the Bible or believe in objective Scriptural truth, you'll accept and believe anything. And so it is with many Christians today.) The fact that men like the false teachers described in Jude could creep in among believers unnoticed and feed on the sheep without fear tells you what the attitudes and desires of these saints are like, and how much discernment they have.
The key to avoiding being enticed and deceived by such teachers is found in the last two verses of 2 Peter (and is related to the exhortation in the first chapter of the epistle, in verses 3-10):
You therefore, beloved knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3:17,18)
Know your God, increase in His grace (the power and desire and all of the spiritual provision necessary to do His will, which God increases with the exercise of our faith), and don't serve the sinful nature or make provision for its desires. No one who knows and loves God is attracted by the things that these false teachers are teaching; it's Christians who don't who are in danger of being led astray by them.
I don't think any of the believers here at Narrow Way fall into the category of the "barely escaping" (or "clean escaped") described in 2 Peter 2:18. If they did, they wouldn't be on this forum. But this might be a helpful read/reminder for any guests to whom it might apply, and also to new believers.
It's also a good reminder even to those of us who are not this way that it is possible for Christians to fall away from Christ to their destruction. We may not be enticed by "sensual passions of the flesh" or deceived by doctrines of false "grace" and unconditional eternal security (aka OSAS), or by the "prosperity gospel/word of faith" teaching (which I believe are some of the destructive (or "damnable") heresies referred to in 2 Peter 2:1, which are potentially deadly), but that doesn't mean we can't be tempted or deceived by other things.
Any desire or attitude of our sinful nature is a potential snare to a Christian, even to mature ones who love the Lord. So the admonition at the beginning of 2 Peter (1:3-12) is important for and applicable to all Christians, because we all have the sinful nature. (And that nature never gets any better, unfortunately; it'll be just as depraved and contrary to God til the day we leave this body, or are changed, as it was before we were born again. We can never make peace with it; its desires and attitudes must be daily crucified by the grace of God, as often as they arise, lest we be led astray by and potentially destroyed on account of following them.)
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:16-21)
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:21)