The Epistle of 2 Peter chapter 2
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:
I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is my sincere Prayer that you are being Blessed even as you read this email.
Today, we study the Second Epistle of Peter chapter 2.
2:1-3 The opposite of true revelation is the message of false prophets and false teachers who deceive God’s flock and bring in damnable heresies. These heresies (unorthodox teachings) include and open denial of Christ Himself. Denying the Lord that bought them indicates that Christ’s atonement potentially extends to all men, including these false teachers who reject Him. Therefore, they will experience destruction because they themselves will be deceived by their own teaching and continue to reject the way of truth.
2:3-9 Future universal judgment of this world is illustrated by the reference to the flood (Gr. kataklusmon, “cataclysm”) of Noah’s day which came upon the old world, that is, the antediluvian world. The universal extent of the Flood is assumed by the author as an illustration of coming is sued to illustrate the fact that God will deliver His own from the coming universal judgment at the end of this age. The deliverance of Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah is used to illustrate the fact that God will deliver His own from the coming universal judgment.
2:10-17 False teachers are polemically described as cursed children, literally, “children of a curse”; wells without water, unable to satisfy the spiritual thirst of men; and clouds that are blown about be every wind of doctrine (see Jude 12).
2:18-22 False teachers are further called servants of corruption because, despite their profession of salvation, they have become entangled in the world and overcome by it. Therefore, their latter end is worse that their beginning profession, because they have now embarked on a course of action that denies their profession of Christ. The illustrations of the dog and the sow vividly portray their folly.
Yours in Jesus Christ,
Bishop William B. Caractor