2 Peter | Practical Teaching on Coming Conditions

Session 9 | 2 Peter 2:15-22

2 Peter 2:12-22 | A Specific Word About Specific False Teachers

Verses 12-14 -- see session 8
Verse 15 --
- Continuing to note the specifics (prophetically) of the coming false teachers, Peter says that they have forsaken the right way and are gone astray.
- As throughout this passage, the present tense should be interpreted in its future“in the future."
- The word forsaken, both in Greek and English, implies that the right way was known but rejected (rather than ignorance the right way). Compare Hosea 14:9.
- Peter illustrates using **Balaam *****the son *****of **Bosor. Who is he, and what do we know about him?
  - He is definitely the Balaam of Numbers 22-23.
  - In Numbers, he is called **Balaam the son of **Beor (Num. 22:5).
    - According to Bullinger, the Greeks pronounced the Ayin“s" sound.
  - Many believe that he is the same as **Bela the son of **Beor in Genesis 36:31-32.
    - If so, he is mentioned on the famous Tel-el-Amarna tablets as a Hittite king.
  - His death is recorded in Joshua 13:22.
  - His problem: he loved the wages of unrighteousness, having taken payment to curse Israel.
Verse 16 --
- Balaam was rebuked for his iniquity.
  - This rebuke came from the Lord by way of a dumb ass speaking.
  - The record of this is found in Numbers 22:21-31. T
- his miracle forbad the madness of the prophet.
  - The word madnessπαραφρονία [paraphronia], a compound word of para (along side) and phren (understanding), thus the implication that Balaam was outside of solid thinking.
Verse 17 --
- Speaking directly once again about the false teachers, he uses a metaphor to describe them: wells without water and clouds that are carried with a tempest. That is, they give hope but never deliver.
- The teachers are promised the mist of darkness. A similar phrase is used of false teachers in Jude 13.
Verse 18 --
- These future false teachers will **speak great swelling words of vanity. **These words sound good but mean nothing.
- These teachers will allure, that is deceive or beguile*** ***(as translated in verse 14).
  - Those who will be deceived were clean escaped from them who live in error.
  - The phrase clean escaped is fully escaped. This shows the scope of the beguilement in the last days.
- The allurement will come through two tools:
  - The lusts of the flesh - an almost sure way to allure.
  - Also ***through much ***wantonness - The Greek word is translated lasciviousness“unbridled lust" (Strong's Enhanced Lexicon).
Verse 19 --
- These future teachers will **promise them **liberty but they are servants of corruption.
- It is not uncommon, in the history of man, to find wonderful offers from those who cannot deliver.
- Peter gives a natural truth: of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage.
- In the future day of which Peter warns, men and women will be overcome by false teaching, and be therefore in bondage to that teaching.
- This can serve as a reminder to us: be careful not to enslave yourself, especially by false teaching.
Verse 20 --
- This verse stands in stark contrast to the dispensation of grace and the assurance of salvation provided in our dispensation.
- Note, for example, the following:
  - Their escape is in the active tense, thus works based.
  - Their escape is through the knowledge of the Savior, with nothing said about faith.
  - Their potential entanglement with the pollutions of the world leads to a devastating ending. There is no assurance of salvation in this at all.
Verse 21 --
- What can the holy commandment delivered unto them be other than the Law given to the Jewish nation? To see this as the dispensation of the grace of God (Eph. 3:2) would require the greatest hermeneutical gymnastics, it seems.
- The word knownἐπιγινώσκω [epiginosko“to know thoroughly and accurately" (Bullinger).
- In what way is it better for someone to have never known the Gospel of grace? I find it impossible to reconcile this verse with our dispensation. Anyone who believes in eternal security would have the same challenge.
- Psalm 85:8 also warns about turning from the Law. This truth is also clearly seen in Psalm 125:3-4. Compare also Ezekiel 18:24.
Verse 22 --
- Peter closes with a colorful reminder of this truth, citing, in part, Proverbs 26:11.

About this episode