Was he right or wrong?
2nd Peter 2:1-3 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. (ESV)
Peter was writing this epistle from Rome, likely from prison, and likely awaiting execution for his faith in Jesus Christ. This is his last letter of warning to the church against false teachers. False teaching with just enough truth to sound like the truth, has tickled the ears of the hearers and led thousands to condemnation as a result. Peter writes here in this second chapter how those false teachers are going to pay eternally for leading people astray 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment. When you begin to teach the Word of God, you are held to a higher standard by God; no teacher worth his weight in salt takes this knowledge lightly. My study Bible puts it, “Teaching and learning involves truth and error; it becomes ingrained in the soul. And if the truth or error involves our eternal destiny, the stakes only go up. This is why Peter wrote his second epistle.”
There is more of the world coming into the church that the church going out into the world. The church is seeking to please and entertain everyone; the church is seeking to become politically correct and not offend anyone; the church is bending the absolute truths of God to please everyone; those in authority will pay the price that Peter describes in his second epistle. Do you see it all around you, especially here in the USA? These false teachers are entertaining their congregations while building themselves mansions and earthly kingdoms and asking for private planes. They are seeking to exploit and milk their followers into believing they are doing good, all the while they are headed to hell and taking many with them. They preach sensuality and the pleasure that the world measures by. Why would a preacher torn by how lost the world is in sin waste thousands or millions of dollars on anything for themselves? How far could those millions of dollars for a house, plane, or fleet of cars or toys have gone to help the poor and needy by spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ?
You may ask, how will I know if I am sitting under a false teacher? It is simple, and yet divine. If you will pray and study God’s Word diligently yourself, the Holy Spirit will open your heart to the truth. Listen to what God told the prophet Jeremiah that applies to all that will diligently seek Him. 3 ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ God was talking about all the sins of Jerusalem, but this book of Jeremiah applies to all of us as his eternal people. Jeremiah continues to write; 6 Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. If you will seek Him, just as he was telling Jerusalem, he will bring health and healing. The more time you spend seeking God in prayer and his Word, the greater the Holy Spirit grants you discernment for the world. The greater your discernment for the false pleasure of the world, the greater your discernment for the eternal things also. You are to test scripture with scripture; you are to test those preacher and teachers by studying your Bible. How will you have any possibility of knowing you might be led astray? The answer lies in the Holy Spirit and the diligent daily study of God’s Word. It is there, and only there, that He shows you the difference in truth and error.
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