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1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Christ, 1. What is the importance of recognizing that God has given us everything To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have we need for a godly life? received a faith as precious as ours: 2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of 2. What does Peter mean by participating in the divine nature? Jesus our Lord. 3. What importance does Peter give to increasing in these qualities?

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, Display perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and When you look at Peter’s list of eight Christian virtues here and compare to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they it to your life, what do you see? Are you growing increasingly in those will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if any of you do not have them, you are nearsighted and blind, and areas? In what areas do you need to make a more lavish effort? Have you have forgotten that you have been cleansed from your past sins. you been a bit stingy lately or are you genuinely making every effort to grow in these important Christian virtues?

Growing up in my hometown, I went to a junior high that I rather enjoyed. As a student, though, there were certain places in that building that I could not go and many things that I could not do. There was always one room in particular that students weren’t allowed to go into, and I always wondered what it looked like. I finished my last day at school, however, without ever having seen that room. About ten years later I graduated from college with a degree in education, returned to my hometown, and actually got a job at that same junior high, although it was now a middle school (meaning it was grades 6-8 rather than grades 7-9). Now that I worked at that building I could go into that room, the mysterious teacher’s lounge. In fact, there was nowhere in the building that I couldn’t go. I could actively go into every part of the building and participate fully.

Although this analogy falls far short of the things that believers have in Christ that Peter is referring to here, it still does help us to understand somewhat the case he is making. Believers are no longer on the outside looking in. Once we have entered into Christ, we have full access to God. There is nothing of His presence that is denied to those in Christ. As Peter begins what we know as his second letter, he reminds the saints of that fact. False teachers had arisen, telling Christians that they could basically live however they wanted and do whatever they wanted. Peter will masterfully remind his readers that they don’t need to follow anything as empty and crass as that sort of teaching. What they need is to realize their status in Christ and the fact that because of this, they have full access to every spiritual blessing and full knowledge of the creator God.

There is some controversy among the biblical experts as to whether or not this book of 2 Peter is actually written by Peter. There are significant stylistic and language differences between the two letters ascribed to Peter but it was common in the first century to have someone else record and even add shape and style to the words of one dictating a letter. With that said, this letter which no one argues came out of the first century church somewhere, says that its author is Peter. That’s good enough for me, and will be the assumption as we continue on through this letter.

Peter opens this letter in standard first century fashion, mentioning as he did in his first letter that he is an , but also adding that he is a humble of . He is writing to a community of believers who share in the gospel, the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ (some translations give the wrong impression by implying that “God” and “Savior Jesus Christ” are distinct terms, but the TNIV gets it right here when it makes clear that Peter has called Jesus Christ both God and Savior). Their faith and Christian community is every bit as valid as any other and Peter blesses them with a standard Christian blessing of in . Peter believes that the abundant aspects of the life of Christ come through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. This knowledge refers, in part to increasing intellectual knowledge, but far more importantly to the knowledge that comes through having an intimate and personal relationship with God. The motivating foundation of the Christian life is to encounter God on a personal basis which then enables us to have a deepening relationship with Him and worship Him in every aspect of our lives.

Peter’s opening verses here have confounded some commentators and many Christians over the years and left many spiraling into theological debates over minute points. His overall point, however, is what should be kept in view. God has believers . We have the tools necessary to succeed in becoming like Christ. How has done this? Through , the very life of Christ. This is not something we earn or achieve but something to which we have been called and given by God. The life of Christ is a gracious gift from God and the only thing that can reconcile us to Him. Through the life of Christ, God has fulfilled all of His great promises (2 Cor. 1:20). Everything the ever promised about God fixing the problem of evil and exalting those loyal to Him have been fulfilled and are available to those who would lay down their own lives and take up Christ’s.

It is through the fulfillment of these promises that . This is one of those phrases that have sent theologians scrambling for explanations, but again, if we keep in view the larger point, Peter’s words become quite clear. We needn’t bog down over what he means by participating in the divine nature beyond knowing that he is thinking of the life of Christ that we all share. What the TNIV doesn’t make very clear here, is quite clear in the original language. We participate in the life of Christ only we have . This doesn’t mean that we take action that earns our status in Christ but Peter refers to the repentance or the willingness to die to self that must be done to receive the life of Christ. A simple analogy might help this make more sense. If I am in a car heading in one direction and am called to get in the only car that is going in the right direction, I must recognize that fact by getting out of the car I’m in and getting into the other one. That doesn’t mean I earned my place in the other car, I was simply given the free will to recognize or reject it as the correct car. So it is with the life of Christ. We must first escape the world by repenting and dying to selves so that we can accept God’s gracious and free gift.

Once we have entered into that life, however, there are responsibilities that come with that. For the that we have escaped the world through God’s gift of salvation, we should to excel in the life of Christ. The Christian life certainly begins with faith in the life of Christ and the faithfulness of God but it doesn’t end there. The word that Peter used which is translated “make every effort,” is the root word from which we get our word choreography and it was used when an extravagant effort was put forth to produce a Greek play. His inference is that Christians should be intentional and lavish in the time and effort they spend in developing their Christian virtues rather than just sliding by on the minimum effort.

To , Peter charges Christians with growing in seven other aspects of the spirit-directed life. It’s not that we create these virtues by our own effort, for as he says in verse 8, that

Dig Deeper we should in these because it is God who has given us everything we need. Our responsibility is to embrace and grow in what God has given us. The virtues that Peter described could rightly be discussed in the ascending order that he lists them, but in giving the list in the way he has, Peter used a device common in the first century world. We should not suppose that he means to imply that each virtue must be mastered before being able to move on to the next. The characteristics he describes are certainly related but in a much more organic and comprehensively connected manner.

After faith, Peter calls for growing , a word which meant for something or someone to fulfill their true purpose; growing of the divine standard of the life of Christ; growing by submitting to Christ as Lord and avoiding temptation; growing , a word that is the same word used of Jesus’ patient endurance of the cross (Heb. 12:2); growing , a word that carries the meaning of putting loyalty to God above all else; and finally growing in the two great aspects of the Christian life, love of one another ( ) and the of God.

Peter does not question or concern himself with whether or not Christians have these qualities, he assumes that they do. The issue is whether they are growing in these spiritual gifts or rendering themselves due to a lack of growth. If they do not have them, like presumably the false teachers to whom Peter will turn shortly do not have, then they show that they are intentionally until it causes them to be spiritually . Those who are not growing in the life of Christ also show that they have that at their baptism, they were from their and their old life. The entry into the life of Christ at baptism (Rom. 6:1-4) gives one the opportunity to leave their old, sinful life behind and to start afresh and anew in the only life that will ever be in the presence of the Father and experience the resurrection (John 14:6). Discover

10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election 1. What does Peter mean by urging his readers to make their calling and sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich election sure? welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2. Why is Peter so eager to build up and strengthen his readers at this point in his life? 12So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. Display Peter knew that a wise Christian leader needed to shepherd people in the present but also to set things up for continued strength in the future. Do you take the time to do that or do you just live moment by moment? Planning for the continued spiritual strength of your family, ministry, and church takes time, effort, and planning. What are you waiting for?

During my first year of teaching and coaching high school basketball I realized that the inner-city charter schools in Milwaukee got the short end of the stick. There really was no equitable outlet for the kids in those kinds of schools to compete on a level with the regular public high schools. To try to solve this inequity I had the opportunity to begin an athletic conference for charter and alternative high schools. It was difficult but very rewarding work. As the years went on, we developed more and more conferences and eventually became a state athletic association that organized sporting events all the way up to state championships for charter and alternative schools. Many people were pleased at the success that we had had in creating this organization and the statewide attention that we had begun to attract. I knew, however, that, although gratifying, the real measure of success would be if it would go on and continue to grow and be strong after I was no longer running the organization. After seven years, I finally stepped down and handed the reigns of the whole operation over to other people. I did everything in my power to make sure that things would go well after I left. Having things go on well after I was no longer around would be the true sign that we had built something worthwhile. Sadly, that particular entity has had increasing problems since then to the point that it barely even exists only five years later, proving that I didn’t prepare things as well as I might have hoped.

Peter apparently knew that his time for active ministry in the present age was drawing to a close. He was well aware, however, that it was vitally important that the Christian communities to whom he was writing would continue to go on strong and faithful long after he left. He wanted to make every effort according to the abilities and opportunities that the Lord had given to him to set up the Christian community to stand strong in their life of Christ. Peter had been called by Jesus to feed His sheep and Peter is bound and determined to do that as best he can as his days come to a close, and even more importantly, long after that.

In the last section, Peter urged Christians to make ongoing and intense efforts to grow in their spiritual maturity and virtues. He exhorted them to take up the gifts that God had given them and to increase them through their own obedience and submission to God, reminding them that God has given believers everything they need to stay in Christ. He made clear that there is no room in Christ for spiritual immaturity or stagnation. They would either increase and grow in the image of Christ or they would become ineffective and unproductive. This hearkens us back to Jesus’ words to “Consider carefully what you hear. . . With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” ‘The word had been given to those following Jesus, but he urged them to take it, obey it, and grow it in their lives, to put it to use. If not, even what they had been given would be taken away from them, presumably by Satan (Mark 4:15).

This provides us an understanding for Peter’s words to their . If, as some claim, election means that God chooses some to be saved regardless of their will and with no possibility of losing or leaving their salvation, while others are selected for damnation, then this verse causes some problems. Peter’s point is the same as Jesus’ in Mark 4. Christians have been given the word and now it is up to them to take advantage of it, to plant it in good soil, and allow it to grow into the true life of Christ. The Christian community are the elect (a term that was applied to Israel in times denoting them as the corporate people of God). This means that God had always predestined a people in Christ (Eph. 1:3-14) but it does not mean that God has selected who would be in that body without any regard for their own free will. There are, in fact, two reasons Peter gives for making their election sure and continuing to increase in their growth. The first is negative. They should be eager so that they and open themselves up by becoming so ineffective that they simply leave themselves vulnerable to being taken away by Satan. The second is positive. They . This verse is a demonstration of the common Christian theme of “already but not yet.” Christians are part of the kingdom of God, the rule and reign of the almighty, but look forward to the time when Christ returns and establishes His kingdom fully in the renewed creation (Matt. 19:28; Rev. 21:1-5). This is the time that Peter was pointing to in verse 11.

Peter makes it clear that he will continue to remind them of the demanding call of the life of Christ they it well and are . Peter is no doubt comforted that they are firmly established. The word he uses here is , the same word used by Jesus when he told Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen [ ] your brothers.” He could take encouragement in the fact that he had done precisely what Christ called him to, but that didn’t remove the need to take on the false teachings that might continue to hound the Christian community after Peter has died. So, that is what he will do with much of the remainder of this letter.

Peter plans to continue to their and call them to the authentic life of Christ as long as he lives in . It was not uncommon in the early church to refer to life in the present age as a tent, stressing the temporal aspect of life before death and resurrection. This is precisely what Paul calls it in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 as he discusses the fact that while he is in the tent of his body in the present age, he is looking past the time when he will be in the presence Dig Deeper of God after death and without a body (what he called being naked), and looks forward to the time when he will receive his resurrection body and be in the age to come with God forever. Peter alludes to this same truth but does not develop the topic any further because it is not his primary topic at the moment.

Peter knows that he will put his present life as the Lord Jesus Christ had to him. How did he know though? The simplest answer is that Peter put together the circumstances that were whirling about his life with the prediction that Jesus had made to him that he would die a martyr’s death (John 21:18-19). Through the discernment of the Holy Spirit, Peter evidently knew that his time was drawing to a close. So, in these few verses, Peter has commended his readers for their spiritual maturity (v. 12) which would remove the danger of them becoming offended by his reminders, but he has also given his letter a “dying man’s” earnestness, which gives credence and reinforcement to his letter.

Peter is committed to doing everything he can to see to their continued growth and establishment in the gospel as he says he r his (a common idiom in the first century for death) they . Some think that Peter may be referring to ensuring that the gospel of Mark is written down, although it is far more likely that Mark was already written at this point. His point is probably that his purpose in writing the current letter is to provide the sort of ongoing instruction and strengthening after his death that he has in mind. Peter is not only their shepherd now, he wants to continue to feed the Good Shepherd’s sheep long after he has gone to be with the Lord where he will await the resurrection and the age to come. Discover

16We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and 1. Why does Peter make the point that they do not use cleverly invented stories? coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the 2. Why is the fact that he is an eyewitness so important to Peter? Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." 18We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on 3. What does the transfiguration have to do with the future of God’s Kingdom? the sacred mountain.

19And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they Display were carried along by the Holy Spirit. This early Christian community was firmly established in their faith, yet they were still susceptible to false and clever stories. Peter’s call is for them to root themselves in the reliability of the Scriptures and the testimony of the apostles. Do you know the Bible well enough to immediately recognize clever, but unscriptural ideas? There are new ones popping up all the time, so be prepared.

“No, I’m serious. He really is a nice guy.” Yet she still didn’t seem convinced. A friend of mine was asking me about who she should vote for in the upcoming elections for senator and she mentioned that one of the candidates seemed a little aloof to her. I couldn’t tell her how to vote but I could tell her that he wasn’t that way at all. In fact, I thought he was a very nice and thoughtful individual. She wasn’t convinced, though despite my words and wanted to know why I was so sure about this guy anyway. Then I told her what I probably should have started the conversation with. I knew him. I had coached against the man several times in various summer basketball tournaments years before, although he was quite a bit older than I was. I had witnessed this guy do an incredibly thoughtful and kind act that no one else knew about, so he wasn’t doing it for attention. In fact this was several years before he ran for office. His team had just upset mine in a major tournament, mostly due to the fact that he had out-coached me. My young players walked dejectedly to the locker room and were quite distraught once they were in there. This man walked by our locker room and heard their angst. He came all on his own and offered my players some incredibly encouraging words that lifted their spirits a bit and got them ready for the remainder of the tournament. He didn’t have to do that, but he did. It was a genuine act of kindness that demonstrated the true character of the man. Suddenly my friend took my opinion far more seriously. Why? For the simple reason that I was an eyewitness. I wasn’t just speculating or passing along hearsay. I knew what I was talking about.

Peter is calling the Christian community to follow straight down the path of the example and life of Christ to which we have all been called. Peter, being quite a bit smarter than I was that day, however, lays out an important fact right here near the beginning. He isn’t just passing along made-up stories or clever hearsay. No, what he is calling them to is something that he witnessed. If he is calling people to lay down their entire lives and live the life that Christ has called Christians to live, Peter knows that people aren’t going to rely on myths or made-up stories. They want to hear from reliable eyewitnesses, people who were there and can verify that what they are relaying is true and accurate, people who know what they are talking about. Nobody fits that bill better than Peter does. He was there and eyewitness testimony always gives more credence to an account.

Peter now sets his sights on the false teachers to whom his attention will turn for the rest of this letter. He begins here by setting up clear distinctions between true apostles that can be trusted and the false teachers who would attempt to lead believers astray. First of all, says Peter, true teachers of the word do when they told the saints t. No, they weren’t making up complex theories that attracted followers for the sake of building up their own little groups of followers. They were of the of Christ, and now served as heralds of His glory and His kingdom.

It appears, although we can’t know all the details, that the heart of the false teaching that Peter is taking on in this letter centered around the second coming of Christ. They were apparently teaching that the final form of the Kingdom had already arrived (cf. 1 Cor. 4:8) and even that the hope of resurrection had already taken place (as in 2 Tim. 2:18). This is a situation that is mirrored today in the teachings of those who hold to the full preterist position (although the preterists also have many differences with the teachers Peter is confronting). Full preterists rightly understand that much of the prophecies of Jesus found in , Mark 13, and Luke 21, as well as much of Revelation, have more to do with the destruction of the Temple that took place in 70 AD than in the “end of the world.” They go beyond that, sadly, and teach that Christ will not return to judge the earth, enact the resurrection, inaugurate the age to come, and fill the earth with the very presence of God, joining heaven and earth together as they were made to be. In short, they say that there is no second coming. This position in our day, as in Peter’s, robs of the great Christian hope and Peter knew the danger of that. He will destroy the foundations of this false reaching with two primary reasons that believers can be sure that Christ will indeed return to restore all things (Matt. 19:28). The first is the eyewitness testimony of those who saw the transfiguration, and the second is the fact that the prophecies of Scripture are reliable and back up what Peter saw at the transfiguration.

Christ is not just some pretender to the Messianic throne. Peter was there when God honored Christ by calling him His , and wrapping him in the of the cloud (Mark 9:7) that played such a key role in revealing the presence of God to the people of Israel. Peter says that he was there and heard this . In so doing, Peter uses the words from Psalm 2:6, which says, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.” Peter is drawing attention to the fact that Jesus’ kingship and right to rule and judge the world was confirmed at the transfiguration. This was not only a fulfillment of that prophecy, it was a foreshadowing of the second coming when Christ will return to judge, restore, and rule over His earth. Thus, the second coming and the transfiguration were closely connected in Peter’s mind. The transfiguration was the time when the glorious nature of Christ was revealed showing him to be the majestic king of the earth, and Peter was there. He saw it all and simply cannot and will not forget it.

The false teachers were evidently attacking both the teachings of the apostles and the Old Testament prophets, but Peter is about to show how they compliment and Dig Deeper strengthen one another and leave the false prophets with nothing to stand on to verify their claims. The context of Peter’s words here would lead us to believe that he is referring specifically to the words of the prophets concerning the kingdom that was to be established by the Messiah. They add validity to what Peter and the other apostles saw. Rather than following the darkness of false teachings that would lead men and women away from God’s kingdom and towards a self-reliance that puts the onus on humans, they would to pay attention to the of true teaching. The prophets spoke often of a time when God would judge the world and bring His people into His kingdom to live with Him forever. The transfiguration, which served as a foreshadowing of Christ’s ultimate glory, shows that the prophets words can be fully believed at a literal level.

Peter’s point in verse 20 has to do with gaining the correct understanding of the words of the Old Testament prophets. Peter wants his readers to understand that when they read the Old Testament prophets they are not reading something that they have just made up on their own. True prophecies and the true word of God have never come from someone’s own ideas, f . The prophets spoke from God as did the apostles, according to Peter. They never spoke their own opinions It’s probable that the false teachers were claiming that the apostles and the prophets had merely spoken their own opinions. They then presented clever and complex teachings to draw people to their doctrines. It is, in fact, the false teachers who are putting forth their own opinions as they have never spoken from God or been . This may leave us wondering why Peter’s word would be anymore convincing than the false teachers. This is precisely the point that Peter has so deftly made. The false teachers are teaching a version of the Christ and His Kingdom, but they are not eyewitnesses and have impugned the testimony of the prophets. Peter and the apostles are eyewitnesses and stand vindicated by the words of the prophets which came from God Himself. As clever and deceptive as these tales might be, they really have no legs to stand on. Discover

1. What characteristics of these false teachers does Peter offer up in verses 1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false 1-3 that should offer clues that they do not belong to the way of truth? teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will 2. Why does Peter bring up historic examples of God’s judgment during follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3In their greed his discussion of the false teachers? these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. 4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected , a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if he condemned the cities of by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the Display ungodly; 7and if he rescued , a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was There are false teachings all around us just waiting for us to let down our tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9if this is so, guard. One thing that most of them share in common is that they sound then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for good. Do you know the word of God well enough to spot a destructive heresy the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10This is especially true of those as soon as you hear it? Do you hold tightly to the truth and realize that part who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. of doing so means knowing the truth well enough to spot false teaching?

No one thought he would actually go that extreme. We had arrogantly gone through the class, doing what we wanted, not thinking that our professor would actually judge and discipline anyone. We had a huge assignment in, of all classes, an undergraduate class called Introduction to the . I had actually completed the assignment but hardly anyone else in the class had. Without thinking much of it and certainly not fearing my professor at all, even though he had warned us many times against cheating, I allowed a couple of friends of mine to copy the long workbook assignment. What I didn’t know, however, is that they then went and allowed several other people to copy the work, who then went and allowed many more to do so. In the end, about twenty people in a class of twenty-five or thirty had copied what was originally my work. The first two friends of mine that I had actually allowed to copy the work were the only two that were smart enough to put the answers in their own words, though, everyone else had copied the work word-for-word, and the professor easily spotted it. Suddenly we found out that the teacher was more than willing to bring quick judgment down on those who had cheated. He gave everyone a zero on this major assignment and dropped everyone involved’s grade down a full letter for the class. This included me because he had no way of telling who did the original work. I didn’t fight it because I knew that, even though I had done the work, I had allowed the cheating.

What surprised me, though, was two years later, when I heard some freshmen talking about their Introduction to the New Testament class. One of them mentioned that he hadn’t finished a big assignment and said that they should find someone who had finished to copy the rest of the answers. The other student said there was no way he would do that because he had heard that some students had done that a few years before and had all been punished swiftly. I don’t think at the time I appreciated the fact that our failings and subsequent punishment had served as proof of the professor’s willingness to punish wrongdoers and serve as a deterrent, but I can appreciate it now. When you look and realize that someone is perfectly capable of judging and punishing wrongdoers it really does make you take pause and think twice about doing something like that again. It also provides you a sense of security in knowing that if you continue to do right and others do wrong, they will receive the justice that they deserve.

God has used prophets and teachers throughout the history of His people, but that has always called for discernment, because just as there have always been genuine prophets there have also always been false prophets. Peter paints a broad picture of the false teachers, without getting too specific here, but he is careful to call them false teachers rather than false prophets. There be no significance to that change in language but it might indicate that these false teachers were impugning prophecy altogether and claiming no prophetic ministry for themselves in their denunciation of the second coming of Christ and the reality of the age to come and their call to live a libertine lifestyle.

Peter lists several aspects of these false teachers that can be briefly examined. First, They are secretive and devious, trying infiltrate the Christian communities under the cover of darkness rather than carrying out their business in the light. This should serve as a first warning of the nature of their teaching. Second, they will actually deny the sovereign Lord who bought them at a steep price. Peter is certainly sensitive to this charge having experienced denying Christ himself for a brief time. The form of their denial likely involved both their false teachings and the practices of living however they wanted because they taught that Christ was not going to return in judgment. Third, the result of their teaching is the destruction of judgment that they bring on themselves (Peter will demonstrate in chs. 2 and 3 that he uses the word destruction to denote judgment rather than annihilation of some sort). Fourth, people should not be surprised that . False teachings are often popular because they appeal to human’s base nature. Fifth, their actions cannot be simply ignored because they a bad reputation. We can all probably think of the difficulties that have been caused by false teachings as we try to present the truth of the gospel. False versions of Christianity don’t just lead others away from the truth, they become identified with Christianity by non-Christians and give the truth a bad name. Sixth, their motivation is simply greed, although Peter doesn’t elaborate on whether it is material greed, greed for attention and status, both, or something altogether different. Whatever it is, they stand guilty of going after selfish gain at the expense of others, an act that is quite contrary to the Christian ethic of putting the interests of others ahead of their own. Finally, their method is to Christians with , in contrast to the true apostles who do not teach “cleverly invented stories.”

How can Peter be so sure that ? Because God has a long history of properly brining justice and judgment to the unrighteous and delivering the unrighteous. Sometimes it happens on a timetable that we might not hope for, but it happens nonetheless. It would be easy to view this section as little more than a threat on the part of Peter, but it is much more than that. The false teachers have denied that God will bring ultimate judgment, and so, believers can rest assured that they can use their freedom and forgiveness in Christ to live however they might like. To this heresy, Peter offers up three example of God bringing justice to evildoers, justice that foreshadowed and points to the ultimate judgment that will come when Christ returns. The very thing they were denying is precisely what they should fear and are very much in danger of.

The first example comes from Genesis 6:1-4, with Peter also apparently taking information from the ancient Jewish book of as a reliable source (it seems unlikely that Peter would view the information from as mythological and put it right beside his other two examples with no differentiation between them). The angels who left their God-given domain and had offspring with human women were punished by being held in , a specific word that Peter borrows from Greek mythology to distinguish

Dig Deeper from other “areas” of hell. involved in that situation, nor did He withhold judgment on the of the same time. He brought the on its ungodly people, but protected . Peter denotes the small number of those saved through the flood as he does in 1 Peter 3, perhaps to stress that often times unrighteousness and false teaching become quite popular and the righteous may well find themselves in the minority. In the same way, with fire, (Peter uses a word that actually means “pattern,” showing that there is a pattern of unrepentant sin that will lead to judgment) . Yet he rescued Lot, a righteous man (righteous here means basically that he never lost his basic loyalty to the Lord). Peter says that Lot was and by what , using grammar that implies in the Greek that Lot brought that torment on himself by his own choices. This might imply that if the community of believers reaches the level of being tormented by the false teaching at hand, it is because they have allowed it to get to that point.

If all of this , says Peter in verse 9, then it should be quite clear that . Peter invites his readers into the category of godly men and assures them that God will rescue them from whatever trials they may face, all the while holding the unrepentant for . Peter says, curiously at the same time they are in the present. What he most likely means is that false teachers like these men are actually being punished in the present, whether they realize it or not, by missing out on the life of Christ, the true destiny and purpose of human beings. These men who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and continue to rebel against and despise the authority of God will certainly face the same judgment that God has shown throughout history He is quite capable of enacting. Discover

Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; 11yet even 1. Why does Peter spend such a significant amount of space dealing with angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous the character of these false teachers? accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. 12But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures 2. Why is rooting oneself in the truth of the word of God so vital in the of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will Christian faith? perish.

13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. 14With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! 15They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Display son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man's Peter wasted no time and minces no words in facing the threat of false voice and restrained the prophet's madness. teachers to the Christian community. Are you as committed to the truth and to the community of God? Would you be prepared to stand up against false ideas in your community with the same strength and conviction that Peter did?

Robert E. Lee was a rising star as a Colonel in the Army of the Unites States of America in the late 1850’s. He was well respected, had a great reputation, and everyone believed it was just a matter of time before he moved up to the highest levels and ranks of the US Army. Yet, Lee was a Virginian and when Virginia attempted to secede from the Union at the outset of the Civil War, the army felt that they had to move fast. The one thing they knew was that they did not want a talented man like Lee going with Virginia and leading an army, at any level or rank, against the Union army of the United States. So they offered Lee a unprecedented honor. They offered him a generalship, and to be the commander-in-chief of the entire Union army. Lee eventually turned down the honor and decided to side to with his native Virginia, standing in rebellion against the United States. In the eyes of the Northern supporters (granted this analogy would be quite a different one from the Southern point of view), Lee had been given a tremendous opportunity to serve his country but had instead squandered it so as to put his own personal interests first.

There is nothing worse than someone who has been given great opportunity to serve others in an honorable way only to waste it for their own personal choices or desires. In Lee’s case, the situation was not at all clear cut in his mind as to who was right and who was wrong, and to whom he should be loyal. In Peter’s eyes, however, when it comes to the false teachers that he is confronting, the issue was quite clear. They had, at one level or another, the opportunity to serve God and his people in the kingdom of God, but had thrown that all way. They decided, instead to revel in their own arrogance and serve themselves. Rather than serving the people in the kingdom of God, they set about to use them, deceive them, and do a great deal of damage by leading them astray.

Peter launches a direct attack against the character of the false teachers, using harsh and direct language that leaves no question as to where he stands in relation to these men. This stands in stark contrast to the mind set of our culture today which constantly tries to make irrelevant matters of an individual’s character, especially in the world of leadership and politics. Yet, Peter understands something that should be instructive to us. The character of a person matters. We can never know what an individual might do in any given situation in the future despite what they might say, but we do know that character directs actions. If you know a person’s character, you know what kind of actions he or she will take and whether you can trust them or not. Peter knows exactly what sorts of actions these men will take because they are . They will act recklessly and will not be slowed by any appeal to truth, logic, decency, responsibility, or loyalty to God or His people.

As evidence of their brazen self-centeredness, these men show no respect for . At first glance this might not seem like much of argument. Wouldn’t it be better to demonstrate that they don’t show respect for Christ or His people, someone that everyone would agree should not be slandered? Why would Peter pick this as an argument? Because you can often tell the most about someone by the respect they show towards the lowest beings, those that would be least worthy of respect in anyone’s eyes. No beings were more reviled in Peter’s day than the fallen angels who had rebelled against God. Yet, says Peter relying on Jewish traditional sources such as and , even angels, (he doesn’t specify whether they are more powerful than humans or fallen angels or both), . We don’t know exactly how they slandered spiritual beings, but it likely had to do with denying that they existed or mocking that their sins might put them at the mercy or in the realm of such entities. So, in their slander of these beings, they were really slandering God as well.

Slandering is never a good thing for true people of God, even against the unrighteous, but these men pushed it one step further by speaking falsehoods in did . They are like , a common biblical symbol for one in opposition or rebellion against God. They don’t understand because they are willfully ignorant of God’s truth and, as Paul says in Romans 1:21, “their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” Whereas in Paul’s example humans exchange the truth of God for beasts, these men have so rejected God and are so self-focused that they have become the beasts, . And those , their only fate is to .

Those who seek after their own interests to the of others will reap what they have sowed in the form of their own . They are so depraved that their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. This has long been a charge against the evil, as in passages such as Isaiah 5:11 which says, “Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine.” They are blots and blemishes, the exact opposite of what Peter calls Christians to be in 3:14, “make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” They revel in their own while they went on feasting with the true believers. Christians have always been called to put the interests of others ahead of their own (Phil. 2:4, cf. 1 Pet. 2-3) and they were clearly not doing that. It’s not just that they have reveled in their own pleasures, but they do it while brazenly sitting at the love feast and Lord’s Suppers with other believers, making a mockery of them (cf. 1 Cor. 11:20).

Dig Deeper Rather than having eyes that are fixed on Jesus (Heb. 12:2) they have , which literally reads, “having eyes full of adulterous women.” They are creatures of lust in every area of their lives. Whether it be for women, money, or pleasure, . They (a word used for bait in hunting) . Peter has already declared that true believers are people who should be “firmly established in the truth” (2 Pet. 1:12), but they go after those who are unstable precisely because they have failed to ground themselves, or have not yet had sufficient time to ground themselves in the timeless truths of the Christian faith. Knowing biblical truth is not a luxury but a necessary preventative against false teaching. They are not just greedy, charges the venerable apostle, they are . Peter’s phrase in the Greek would literally read that they have hearts that have been “trained in greed.” His point is that they are devoted and consistent and worked at nurturing their greed for a long time. Peter says that they are an accursed brood, which literally means “sons of curse.” It was common biblical language to refer to someone as a son of something that was the primary quality of their character (John 17:12; Eph. 2:3; 1 Thess. 5:5).

As a way of really driving his point home, Peter says that they have left the straight of the true Christian faith and have . Why the comparison with Balaam? Balaam was a much reviled character in the Old Testament who tried to entice the people of Israel away from God and into immorality (Num. 25:1-9; 31:16; Rev. 2:14). Balaam was a common example as one who put his own personal honor and material gain over the interests of God’s people. He, like the false teachers had an incredible opportunity to serve God and His people, but instead squandered it by putting his own sensual desires first. Balaam was not rooted in the truth to the degree that he had to be rebuked and have his madness in rebelling towards restrained God by a donkey, a beast. These men have demonstrated that they are even worse than Balaam because they, rather than being by a , they have become beasts. Discover

17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest 1. Why does Peter use such descriptive metaphors in relation to the false darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by teachers? appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they 2. Why is Peter so concerned that the teachers have targeted young and themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered spiritually immature Christians? him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit,"and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud." Display Are you ever enticed with versions of Christianity that offer only good things and prosperity. They are certainly out there. True Christianity demands dying to self. James says that he will show his faith by what he does (Jam. 2:18) while Paul calls us to be living sacrifices (Rom. 12:2). Could you truly make the statement, “I will show you my faith by my sacrificial life”?

If you’ve ever used the internet, you’ve probably seen those ads that pop up that inform you that you are the millionth customer on a website or that you have been chosen as a special winner for doing one thing or another. They then inform you that you have won an incredible prize for free. The prizes are usually something pretty incredible too, like a new laptop, a flat screen television, or a vacation of a lifetime. What could be better than winning an incredible prize like that for doing virtually nothing? This is why” free” is one of our favorite words in the English language. Yet, if you look carefully, you will always see a tiny asterisk (*) behind the word free. If you click on it to go claim your ‘free” prize you realize that it was little more than an empty promise. It’s not free at all, despite the promises of being free. In fact, you have to choose from several offers which usually involve having to pick three or four choices from a list of 10 or 15 items. These are things like signing up for subscriptions to a magazine or a paid website. If you do that, you will be taken to another page full of more choices, which are more expensive and involved and find that you have to pick several options from that page. Once you have completed that you will be taken to another page and given 5 or 6 offers, of which you must choose 1 or 2, and the things on this page are usually quite expensive. What you find out is that in order to complete the steps necessary to claim your “free” prize, it winds up costing you about as much as you might have paid for the original prize and obligates you to many other memberships and fees. The promise of a free prize turns out to be quite the opposite.

False teachers are dangerous for two primary reasons. The first is that what they are teaching contains portions of the truth, making it difficult to distinguish it from the genuine truth. The second is that the portion of false teachings that are indeed false, sound so good, promising freedoms and privileges that attract many. Peter’s targets here, no doubt, were impressive teachers who maintained enough of the truth to sound plausible, but Peter is more concerned here with the second aspect of the draw of false teaching. They have made all sort of promises about the freedoms and opportunities available to someone who would embrace their teachings. What Peter is so forceful in point out, however, is that those promises are completely empty. The promise of freedom that they offer turns out to be not just an empty promise, but a trap right back into the slavery of sin that Christians are supposed to have escaped.

Beginning in verse 17, Peter turns from dealing with the character of the false teachers directly to dealing with the impact that their teachings have on others. Peter uses two incredibly colorful and descriptive metaphors to describe the hollow and empty reality of the false teachers. They are, he says, . Springs were a vitally important thing for a people who lived in and were quite familiar with the desert. A spring could be the only thing that stood between a sojourner and death. So, to come across a what looked like a spring, only to find that there was no water would be devastating. These teachers were like the men of Jeremiah 2:13 who rejected the Lord’s spring of living water to dig their own wells that contained no water. Peter gives another picture of empty promises with the imagery of mist clouds . These clouds though, rather than bringing life-giving water, evaporated and would actually, in that part of the world, be a sign that dry weather was in the offing. Combining these two metaphors gives a clear picture of Peter’s point. These teachers have given the promise of great things but they deliver nothing because their promises are empty.

The fact that they mouth empty, boastful words and appeal to the lustful desires of sinful human nature should serve as a warning that this is not true Christianity. The true calling of the Christian life is to lay down one’s own life and enter into the life of Christ, being fully prepared to go through trials, suffering, and persecution for the benefit of others and to more fully realize the life of Christ in our life. Any teaching then, that is not one-hundred percent consistent with the call to a sacrificial life (Rom. 12:1) is not the real thing. Peter offers further evidence that these teachings are not the real thing. True gospel teaching will find a home in those that are “firmly established in the truth” (2 Pet. 1:12), but these teachings entice people are are . In other words, they prey on the young and spiritually immature Christians who do not seem to know any better. They turn their heads with their fine-sounding arguments and their empty promises that have no substance. If they were truly offering up truth, then why would it not be accepted by the spiritually mature?

The brand of freedom that they promised (which probably involved both freedom from any real judgment and complete freedom from any real moral constraint) is shown to be what it is by doing nothing more than looking at the lives of the teachers themselves. If they were teaching true freedom then they should demonstrate that freedom. Instead, however, their lives display men who are slaves to their own sin, their own pleasure-focused life, their own lusts, and their constant need for more. , but no Christian should be mastered by anything other than Christ because our life is His.

Dig Deeper In verses 20-22 Peter turns to the fate and reality of these false teachers. They had made it. They had entered into the life of Christ and . Yet, they have turned away from the forgiveness that exists in the life of Christ. Not only have they turned away from and rejected the teaching of the true gospel, they have misled and turned others away as well. The charge against those who would mislead others has always been clear and stiff (Matt. 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2). Having known the truth and turned from it leaves them worse off than if they had just never know at all. Peter echoes Jesus’ warning about the state that Israel would be in if she were swept clean by his work but never really embraced it, leaving themselves open to a worse fate than in the beginning (Matt. 12:45; Luke 11:26). He says that .

Their lives have been reduced, in many respects, to demonstrating the truth of two old proverbs. The dog and the sow might have undergone a purging or cleansing, but this never overrides their true nature. They quickly return to familiar habits; the dog , while the sow returns to . The dog had gotten rid of the food that was making it sick and the sow had gotten rid of the mud, but the dog is lured back by its instinct to eat everything and the sow by its desire for the pleasures of mud. Peter has already called the false teachers beasts (:12), and here his point is clear that they have returned to the lure of sin even though they had been cleansed by the blood of Christ because they valued their own sensual desires over true freedom. There can, perhaps, be no sadder commentary than that. Discover

1Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as 1. Why does Peter desire for his readers to recall the words of the prophets reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2I want you to recall the words and the apostles? spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. 2. What similarities do you see between scoffers of our day and Peter’s day? 3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he 3. How does Malachi 3:1-5 serve to help us understand this passage? promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. Display Do you go about your day-to-day decisions with the coming presence and judgment of God in mind? How does remembering that one day the earth will be filled with the consuming presence of God effect the way we go about our lives?

She had been divorced since her son was two years old. He was now ten and it had been just this newly-single mother and her son living alone for eight years. She had not given a second thought to the prospect of raising her son alone. She was sure that she well knew what was best for her son and how to best raise him. Her philosophy was simple. He was going to know nothing but love, which also meant that she did not want to discipline the young man at all. That seemed to work well enough for the first year or two, but things quickly began to turn sour. She found that her parenting techniques weren’t working and now she had a rude, disrespectful, and increasingly violent young man on her hands. His father, was sure that his wife had no clue how to parent, and he was equally sure that he he did know how to do it well. So, he convinced the boy’s mother to let the boy come and live with him. The father’s approach was almost the exact opposite. The boy didn’t need a bunch of love and affirmation, he needed discipline and to be toughened up. So he set about providing a stern environment that would whip this ten year old boy into shape. The problem is that that extreme didn’t work either. Truth be told, neither of the parents were right. The truth of what was needed didn’t lie in the extremes but somewhere in the middle of the two.

As people have approached this passage in Peter, there are two primary interpretations of this passage and the continuation of it that we will examine tomorrow. One group says that Peter is writing a prophecy of the time when Christ will return and destroy the present earth with fire, taking His people into heaven with him to reign with him in a spiritual state of existence forever. The other interpretation says that that interpretation is completely wrong. Rather, they say, Peter was referring symbolically to the destruction of Jerusalem (which came to pass in 70 AD) that Jesus predicted in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. They argue that rather than being the end of the world, it is simply a symbolic description of the judgment of Jesus that came on Jerusalem in 70 AD and the final end of the Old Covenant. So which one is correct. In the full sense of things, I don’t believe either view is correct completely. The truth lies somewhere in between.

Peter has clearly laid out the character, motivations, and effects of the false teachers, but it wouldn’t be the most effective thing to do that for the entirety of the letter. So, he now turns to teaching some truth to balance the false teachings. He hasn’t clearly delineated the false teachings but he wouldn’t have had to because his initial readers were already familiar with them and subsequent readers don’t really need the details, even if we might like them. What we do need is precisely what Peter has given us, the truth.

Peter points out to his (literally the “beloved ones,” showing that they are children of the beloved one) that this is his second letter to stimulate them to wholesome thinking. Somewhat obscured in the TNIV is that Peter is actually telling them that he is writing to stimulate or kick into gear their “pure minds.” He is, in other words, giving them a compliment that basically means he wrote his letters to remind them of how great they are in Christ and to live up to that status. Peter refers to this as his second letter to these recipients, but that does not necessarily mean that the first letter to which he refers is what we know as 1 Peter. For instance Paul apparently wrote at least four letters to the Corinthians but only two were preserved as part of the Bible. One circumstantial piece of evidence that 1 Peter is not the letter to which Peter refers is that he appears to know the recipients of 2 Peter quite well, while that is not the case in 1 Peter. Ultimately, the best that can be said is that we don’t know whether he is referring to the letter that we have in our or another letter.

To what does he want to stimulate their pure minds? To the great motivating hope of the Christian faith. The time when God would once-and-for-all restore His perfect creation and fill His world with His presence (Matt. 19:28; cf. 1 Cor. 15; Rev. 21). He particularly calls their minds to the fact that this is not some brand new teaching. The in the past spoke often of that day (for one example see Mal. 3:1-5; Isa. 65:17-25; 66), as have the of the New Covenant. What is the command given by our Lord that Peter speaks of? He does not use the plural of the word, so doesn’t appear to be referring to any list of rules. Most likely, Peter refers to the totality of conforming to the life of Christ and being transformed into the image of Christ (Col. 3:10) which is at the very heart of the Christian gospel (cf. Matt. 5:48; Heb. 12:14).

After urging his readers to remember the truth in the first two verses, Peter warns them again of the false teachers, particularly in verses 3 and 4 of those who will scoff at the second coming of Christ. The early church used terminology indicating that the last days was the time beginning at Pentecost, so Peter makes it clear that just because Jesus has come to earth as a man doesn’t mean that scoffing against God’s plan of redemption for the world will end; it will just take a different form. Mockers like these men don’t generally lay out thorough and logical arguments against the truth of God’ reality, as much as they do belittle it and try to make those who believe in it feel stupid or superstitious. Peter probably views these men as particularly dangerous because mockers who come from without pose a certain set of problems, but mockers from within, who claim to hold to the same teachings and faith that the Christian community does, pose a far more dangerous set of problems. Just as a clock that is five minutes off will fool many more people than one that is three hours off, false teachers from within the Christian community that hold to parts of the faith while denying and mocking others, can be especially dangerous and deceiving.

These men were mocking the coming and justice of the Lord by claiming that the world was at it always was and always will be. They were apparently denying the belief that the present age would, at some point, come to a close and be transformed by God into the glorious age to come. This is where the two teachings mentioned earlier miss the point. It’s not that Jesus is coming back some day to destroy the physical universe, replacing it with a spiritual existence. Nor is it true that Peter is referring here to simply the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD. Jesus will return and judge the earth but not by annihilation by fire. He did certainly come in judgment on Israel in 70 AD but that served as

Dig Deeper vindication of Jesus as the Messiah and a guarantee that he would return one day as the king of His whole creation. The mistake comes in one side going to the extreme of thinking that Jesus’ coming will only be spiritual while the other side goes to the other extreme, claiming it to be only physical. Both are wrong because His return will involve the very act of brining the heavens (the spiritual realm) and the earth together again.

The false teachers were going to the extreme of claiming that God would not return in a physical way. To sum up their beliefs, it seems that they believed that Jesus would rule in a spiritual sense from heaven, would never return physically to earth, and that those in Christ were spiritual beings and did not need to constrain themselves physically and morally. , says Peter, that long ago God did intervene in the physical universe. Hearkening back to Genesis 1, Peter says that God the earth . He also the earth by flood in the days of Noah. This makes clear that Peter is using the word translated as “destroyed” here in the sense of judgment, because God clearly did not annihilate the earth in the time of Noah’s flood. He laid it bare in judgment, destroying the evil elements that had been judged by Him to be unacceptable.

Just as God intervened physically in the universe then, so He will again as He has promised. By the same word that created the universe and brought the great flood, so will the present age, both spiritual and physical be brought under judgment. The earth will be filled with fire, which is common biblical language for the presence of God (Deut. 4:24; Ps. 97:7; Heb. 12:29). In 1 Peter 1:4-5, it says that Christians have an “inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” The consuming fire of God will be a refining moment for the people of God but (Mal. 3:1-5). This is a moment that will lay the entire universe bare in judgment before a holy God, as we will see in the next section. Discover

8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a 1. Why does Peter say that a thousand years are like a day? thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not 2. What correlation does Peter make between the return of Christ and the wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. coming judgment with how believers should live and order our lives?

10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a 3. What, according to Peter, is the home of righteousness? roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13But in keeping with his promise we are Display looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. Take at look at your own life; a good, long, hard look. Will the things with which you have filled your life stand up to the consuming fire and judgment of the presence of God? Peter says that we should live holy and godly lives because of this coming day. How are you doing?

He had messed up in a big way this time and he knew it. The young man had made a poor choice and had disobeyed his parents and now he knew that he was going to face the wrath of their judgment. That might have been bad enough but what made it even worse in his mind was waiting for his punishment. His parents told him that they needed to talk things over and would let him know “later” what his punishment would be. Later? Didn’t they know the mental anguish that he was going to go through having to wait and wonder? His little sister was also waiting. Except she had been the offended party in this whole situation and she couldn’t wait for her parent’s punishment to come down on her older brother. For both of them, the waiting seemed like forever. In fact, the parents were intentionally waiting, giving their son some time to think about what he had done and giving him a little more chance to repent for his behavior. The first day went by with no punishment handed down, and by the afternoon of the next day, the boy’s anguish began to turn to comfort, thinking that perhaps his parents had forgotten and there would be no judgment. At the same time, the little sister became more and more anguish. Where was the rightful and just punishment? Had she been forgotten? Would there no justice? They both underestimated their parents. They had said that there was going to be a reckoning and, in fact, there was. It was just on their own time for their own reasons.

False teachers had developed theories that didn’t at all coincide with the apostolic teachings of the gospel. They were claiming that Christians needn’t worry about God intervening into human affairs through judgment and that there would be no such thing as the return of Christ to inaugurate the age to come. After all, history had been rolling on for thousands of years with no discernible judgment from God. The present age, they claimed, was all there is, all there was, and all there ever would be. Yet, Peter is very clear. Do not mistake the Lord’s patience in brining final judgment to mean that He had forgotten, or that there would be no judgment at all. Like wise parents, God has reasons for delaying His justice. They are His reasons and He will not be rushed. As Peter describes the certainty of that judgment, he does so in terms that are very Jewish and apocalyptic (a very specific type of literature that used very symbolic, colorful, and cosmic language.)

The first thing that Peter reminds his dear readers is that God views time very differently from human beings. If we don’t get the justice we think we deserve in a day or two, we grow impatient. God is outside of time, however, and can see the whole scope of history. He sees the big picture. Think of it like a train. Time is like a train whizzing by. We are inside a tunnel and can only the small portion of the train that is directly in front of the tunnel at the moment. God, though, is on top of the tunnel and can look down and see the entire train of time all at once. Thus, what might seem like an incredibly long time of waiting for us, is nothing for God. He understands, we don’t. In fact, with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. Peter is teaching here about the patience of the Lord in judgment and this verse (which is a quotation from Psalm 90:4) should not be taken out of context and be applied to things like the length of the six days of creation or anything else that is outside of Peter’s point. Peter defends God’s righteousness against human impatience by pointing out that Rather, His delay in judgment is for the benefit of those very people who would stand in rebellion against God and mock His patience. and will allow just the right amount of time for that to happen for the most people possible.

Peter says that just when people are getting comfortable, thinking that the judgment of God is not coming, it will come like a thief (1 Thess. 5:2)). , he ways will come quickly, with no warning. Some get confused here thinking that because the day of the Lord was a clear Old Testament concept of the righteous judgment of God being brought to bear in the physical universe that there is one Day of the Lord that must be identified. The fact is that there were many days of the Lord that all point to the ultimate, but clearly not the only, day of the Lord. The destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD was clearly a day of the Lord that fulfilled many aspects of Old Testament prophecy but it was only a pointer. It could not and should not be considered as the final and ultimate day of the Lord, a mistake that those of the full preterist school of biblical interpretation make today. It is quite clear in passages like 1 Corinthians 5:5 and 2 Corinthians 1:14, that the day of the Lord does not refer to the destruction of the Temple, but looks forward to the return of Christ, the end of the present age, and the onset of the age to come.

In fact, Christ will return to judge the entire cosmos, which Peter describes in the inclusive categories of the , the , and the . His point, using very apocalyptic language, is that the present age will come to an end. The heavens, or the spiritual realm, as a distinct and separate category will . But what about the elements being destroyed by fire? Doesn’t that mean that God is going to destroy the entire earth by fire and usher in a new spiritual age where we all go to the location of heaven forever? Not quite actually. Peter has made clear in his first letter, that the salvation for which we hope is being kept in heaven until the day of it’s coming (1 Peter 1:3-5). That is the day when God’s presence will fill the earth, reuniting the realms of heaven and earth. Much of our understanding of this passage hinges on how we understand “elements” and “laid bare” in verse 10. The term that Peter uses for elements is used in five other biblical passages (Col. 2:8, 20; Gal. 4:3, 9; Heb. 5:12). Although the word can mean the basic elements and atoms that make up the universe, in all of the other biblical passages in which it is used, it refers to the basic principles that the world operates by. As we have already seen in previous passages, God was the consuming fire of the Bible (Deut. 4:24; Isa. 33:14; Heb. 12:29). But what about “laid bare”? Other older versions have this word translated as “burned up,” but the TNIV gets closer to the meaning with “laid bare.” The way that this word is used commonly in Jewish texts and other first century writings seems to indicate that this is a word that implies judgment and purging. NT Wright says of this passage in “The Dig Deeper Resurrection of the Son of God,” that “the writer wishes to stress continuity within discontinuity, a continuity in which the new world, and the new people who are to inhabit it, emerge tested, tried and purified from the crucible of suffering.” He goes on to say that Peter is not describing the physical destruction of the universe, that the consuming fire of God is “not simply to consume, but also to purge.”

Verse 11 becomes clear then, if we recall that Peter has used “destroyed” to denote the revealing judgment of God throughout this passage. He’s certainly not that God will return one day to destroy the physical universe, annihilate it, and begin an age of solely spiritual existence. This, in fact, would encourage the false teachers who were arguing just that point, saying that what was done in the physical realm did not matter. No, says Peter. What we do now, should be done in light of God’s reality in the age to come because everything and everyone will be judged in the presence of God and only the pure will stand up to that fiery judgment. The day of the Lord will bring about the revealing judgment of the , and the principles of the world will (cf. Mal. 3:1-5).

We look forward to the time of the coming of this salvation, when God will renew and restore his creation and put things to right (Matt. 19:28). This will be the time of the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-5; Rom. 8:18-25). It is the restored universe, the new heaven and earth that is the home of righteousness and the hope of all of those who love God. This is the reality in which Christians should live in light of, anticipating with our actions, realizing that when the consuming fire of the presence of God comes, the heavens, the elements and principles of the world, and the earth will be laid bare in judgment, with only those things in Christ will remain in the age to come (cf. Col. 1:15-20). Discover

14So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to 1. What impact does the impending return of Christ have practically on the be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15Bear in mind that our Lord's communities of Christ? patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in 2. Why does Peter believe that being firmly established in the Scriptures is them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, so important? which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

17Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. Display Would you be able to recognize as false, teaching that was 98 % correct. Our society seems to be quite comfortable with something that is 98 % pure. Yet, biblical teaching that is anything other than 100% pure is quite dangerous. What steps do you take regularly to firmly establish yourself in the truth of the word of God? Do you spend as much time doing that a you do watching TV, movies, or talking on the phone?

“Okay, thanks for help. We’ll see you soon.” I had just gotten off the phone with my friend’s wife. She had given me directions to meet them at their new house for the day. Truth be told, though, I had a little trouble understanding her directions. They sounded pretty difficult to follow. I don’t consider things like “go down about a mile or two and turn at the left just after the big brown house,” as legitimate directions that can be followed by any normal human being. What she had given me, though, was the address of our destination. With this information I was able to go on the internet and get directions that included distances, cardinal directions, and street names. Now these were directions that made sense. These were directions that could be understood and followed. As we were leaving, however, I realized that I was pretty tired and was going to catch a little nap while my wife drove. She looked at the hand-written directions and the printed set from the internet, and actually grabbed the hand-written ones. “What are you doing,” I asked her. She responded that she was grabbing the driving directions and was ready to go. She actually preferred the directions that I found to be rather confusing. I kind of laughed, and it was then that I realized that the directions were actually the same. They were saying the same things, just in very different ways. If followed properly, they would both get us to the same exact place.

As Peter concludes his letter of exhortation, reminding his readers that they should hold tightly to the promise of the return of Christ and the reality of the age to come. His letter, if we were to put it side by side with any of Paul’s letters, is quite different and unique in the scope of the New Testament. Yet, Peter tells us something quite instructive. The things that he has written about are the same sorts of things that Paul has written about in his letters. They might look very different on the surface, but they are actually the same in all of the ways that matter. Peter and Paul, we soon realize, share a common theology, they just say it in very different ways. If followed properly, they will both get us to the same exact place.

Once again Peter reminds his readers that the genuine Christian community orders themselves according to the hope of resurrection and the age to come. Paul echoes that sentiment in 1 Corinthians 15:58 when, after a long explanation of the resurrection and the coming age, he says that Christians should, “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” The point of these two great Christian apostles is not so much that Christians should keep things ship-shape because Christ is coming back one day and we don’t want to be found out-of-order (although that is certainly true). The primary point is that the Christian communities hold tightly to the belief that Christ will return one day and bring the restoration of the universe with him, the age to come. Our lives and communities in the present age should be lived in light of that reality and anticipate it. The way we live now should demonstrate for people and be a shadow of the values of heaven and the age to come.

This is why we should . As communities that are called to live out and demonstrate the love and forgiveness of God and be people who do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven, imagine what damage we do when we spiral instead into petty jealousies, lack of forgiveness, gossip, bitterness, selfishness, and become people perfectly comfortable with doing our own will rather than His. It would be about as effective as a light that is not plugged in. A light that offers no light is worthless. A Christian community that offers no taste of the age to come is equally pointless. The fact that Jesus has yet to return in the fullest sense should not cause us, as it did the false teachers that Peter has been referring to, to imagine that God will not eventually judge the entire universe against the standard of His holy presence. Instead we should realize that the delay in the onset of the age to come means salvation for many. It gives us all the more opportunity to demonstrate God’s ministry of reconciliation to the world (2 Cor. 5:16-21) and draw them into His great plan of setting the world to rights.

Peter’s words in the second half of verse 15 and verse 16 serve as quite instructive for those who would interpret what he has written in chapter 3 as being a description of the fiery end of the entire physical universe as we know it, ushering in a purely spiritual existence. Peter says that . Not only does this inform us that Peter’s recipients had at least some of Paul’s letters and were quite familiar with them, he also reminds his readers that Paul writes the same things concerning the same that Peter has. Nowhere in any of Paul’s letters do we find anything remotely like the fiery destruction of the physical universe. Rather, Paul speaks often of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15; 2 Cor. 5), the age to come (Eph. 2:7; 1 Tim. 6:19), the renewal of the universe (Rom. 8:18-25), and the reconciliation and new creation (2 Cor. 5:16-21). What we quickly realize is that Peter has been speaking of the same sorts of things that Paul wrote about but in a very different way. Paul, as the apostle to the Gentiles, became immersed in Gentile language and culture and tended to speak and write in terms that Gentiles could understand. Peter, on the other hand, has written about the same things, but in a very Jewish way, using very Jewish terminology and imagery. We have very different looking writings, but they get us to the exact same place. Christ will return and bring the resurrection and the age to come with him.

Peter also warns that Paul’s . This should serve as a bit of a solace for those who find the Scriptures difficult to comprehend at times. Even an apostle, a man who spent three years learning from Christ, concedes that Paul’s writings can easily be taken the wrong way. This is why it Dig Deeper is so vital for Christians to be firmly established in the truth and people who take study of the Bible as a serious calling for every believer. It is who Paul’s letters, as they do . With this, Peter has informed us of two important details; one of which is clearly stated and one can be implied. First, is that Peter, writing around 62 or 63 AD, already considers Paul’s writings as Scripture, meaning they were seen on par with the Old Testament Scriptures, a remarkable situation when we consider how early this was written. The second thing that we can imply from Peter’s statement is that the false teachers were apparently the types of ignorant and unstable people to whom Peter was referring, meaning that they were twisting Paul’s writings for their own benefit and gain. It appears that this was not an uncommon occurrence in the early church. 2 Thessalonians may have been written as a corrective to those who misunderstood 1 Thessalonians; Paul himself needed to correct things the Corinthians were saying that may have been twisting his own teachings (cf. 1 Cor. 6:12)’ James may have written the second chapter of his letter to, in part, correct those who were twisting Paul’s teachings on grace and justification. Those who twist Paul’s writings, or any Scriptures, for their own benefit, will find, sadly that it really does no benefit to them in God’s reality, but leads to .

Peter concludes his letter with incredibly wise advice for any saints any where. We must always be aware and on for those that would twist the Scriptures. If we do not exercise discernment and a constant desire to know the Scriptures better, we will be our , it’s really just a matter of time for believers that don’t take the study of the word of God seriously. Rather than being in constant danger like this, we should know the word of God and allow ourselves to of the life of Christ that God has made available to us. What an amazing God we have. Discover

1Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, 1. Why would Jude not mention that he is a brother of Jesus Christ? To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ: 2. If Jude knew what he was going to write about, but changes his mind 2Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance. due to the leading of the Spirit, why do you think he would have let his readers know what he was going to originally write about?

3Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Display Do you so greatly value the life of Christ that you would instantly drop what you were doing to help someone who was struggling with a false teaching? Would you be equipped to help them? Would you show the same love, care, and concern that Jude shows here? Would you be prepared to do so?

Last year I was preparing to teach at a biblical teaching conference in the Midwest known as the UnConference. It was the second annual gathering of this conference and I had very much enjoyed the first one. From the completion of the first UnConference, I had known what I wanted to teach about at the second one. I spent the next several months preparing the material that I was going to teach. Not everyday of course, but from time to time. As the time for the second UnConference approached, something became very clear to me. I was praying one morning and I had the very clear realization that I needed to teach on something else that was more pressing. Although I was personally invested in my original topic, I realized that God had other plans, and that the young college students who attended this conference had differing needs than what I originally planned. So, with this growing realization in mind, I changed the topic of my entire teaching track and taught on this entirely different subject. I had been eager to teach on one topic, and I still hope to get a chance in the future to teach on that topic as thoroughly as the format of the UnConference allows, but through the leading of the Holy Spirit and from discerning the current state of affairs, I felt that I needed to teach students on how to correctly discern the word of God and contend for the faith despite the morass of false and confusing teaching that young people will face everyday.

Apparently, Jude, while sitting down to write this letter, went through a similar process. His original intent was to write about something encouraging and uplifting. And although that is important, God had clearly laid something on his heart. Jude likely had the same choice to make that I did. He could go ahead and write about what he wanted to originally, effectively ignoring the leading of the Spirit and disregarding his own better judgment in favor of doing what he might prefer. Or he could do what he did. Rather than going with his original intent, Jude writes to warn his readers of false teachers and urges them to be on their guard against such poisonous venom.

We don’t really know all that much about Jude, the author of this short letter. We do know that there are six separate men identified in the New Testament as Jude, but it would appear that this Jude is none other than the younger brother of Jesus. As he begins this letter, though, he curiously does not identify himself as such, but only says that he is . It would have been a bit unusual in the first century to mention a brother at all in the opening of a letter rather than your father unless your brother was uniquely significant. James certainly would fit that bill. He was not a follower of Jesus during his lifetime but quickly became one following the resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 15:7). James became well known as the leader of the church in Jerusalem and a primary pillar of the early Christian church. His reputation was so good, even among non-Christian Jews that he was known by them as James the Just. Certainly James was an important figure, but no would argue that he was more important the Jesus Himself. So, why then does Jude only call himself rather than a brother. The most likely explanation is that being his brother was of little importance in the kingdom of God. It didn’t confer any type of special status or privilege. Being a servant of Christ, however, was important. In fact, it is noteworthy that neither James nor Jude make mention of their status as brothers of Jesus, but both call themselves servants. The fact that they were Jesus’ siblings was of no spiritual importance, but that they were servants was important. The word for “servant” could also be translated “slave,” and certainly signified a status of humility and subservience to Christ. The title also could be used, however, to indicate a role of leadership, following the examples of Old Testament leaders who were also called servants such as Moses (Josh. 14:7; 2 Ki. 18:12) and David (Ps. 18:1; Ezek. 34:23). Thus, Jude is certainly indicating that he is a fellow humble Christian, but he writes this letter as a leader, one who serves and represents Christ and has something important to impart to the Master’s sheep.

Jude writes . Notice as we go along in this short letter, Jude’s affinity to describes things in trios. Here he writes to those called, loved, and kept. Those who have been called are those who have received God’s call of salvation in Christ Jesus and have entered into the life of Christ. They are the ones that are in Christ and are loved by God as His own sons and daughters. Those who are loved by the Father are those that are preserved spiritually in Christ until He returns and brings to completeness our transformation into the image of God (Col. 3:10). It is Christ who will bring those in Him into eternal life, the age to come (Jude 1:21). It is to these beloved Christians that Jude blesses them with (note again the trio of categories). Mercy likely refers to the undeserved grace and favor that God lavishes on those in Christ. He also blesses them with the peace that comes from a restored relationship with God as ones who have taken part in the new creation, and to understand and embrace the love that God has for His children.

In the first two verses Jude has masterfully summarized the comfort and benefits of the salvation that belongs to those in Christ. This is what he wanted to talk about. This is clearly what motivates Jude and makes his soul soar. He has entered into the life of Christ, receiving and experiencing the reconciliation between God an man. Sometimes, though, maybe even oftentimes, God calls us to do what He wills rather than what we will. As much as Jude wanted to write a letter of comfort and encouragement, one that would strengthen their faith and love for God, and no doubt, do his soul a bit of good as well, God had other plans. He has called to Jude’s attention to a dangerous false teaching that has emerged.

Scholars are divided as to why 2 Peter and Jude are so similar, but they certainly are connected in one way or another. It is not of the greatest significance of how they are related and we will likely never know the answer for sure, but the scenario that seems likeliest to me is that Jude found himself dealing with a groups of churches that were facing the same or very similar kind of heresy that Peter had written about in 2 Peter. Rather than reinventing the wheel, Jude borrowed liberally, and where appropriate from 2 Peter, while adding his own thoughts and crafting the material to meet his particular needs. From here on out, however, we will consider Jude by itself rather than constantly look back and attempt to find significance in it’s similarities and differences with 2 Peter.

Dig Deeper

If there is a singular theme in Jude, we find it in verse 3. Jude urges his readers . The word that Jude uses here that is translated “contend” comes from the world of sports. It was a word used when someone competed fiercely to win or for their position (cf. 1 Cor. 9:25). The word came to be used often in the New Testament for those who made an vigorous defense of the true gospel (cf. Col. 1:29; 1 Tim. 4:10; 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7). It is the general faith, the truth of the gospel message, then, that Judge urges them to fight energetically for.

Why do they need to contend for the faith? Because there are false teachers, wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15), who have concealed their real nature and purpose and have secretly slipped into the fellowship. These men, although seemingly sincere (and these men may have even thought that they were sincere), were more concerned with their own pride, egos, and drawing followers than with defending the faith. Jude says four important things about these false teachers. First, as is clear from the Old Testament (vv. 5-8, 11), from traditional Jewish literature (vv.9, 14-16), and from apostolic teaching (vv. 17-18), the of these men has long been and established as something that would take place. No one should be surprised that there were false teachers then. Second, They are , meaning they deny God practically by their actions and teachings. Third, they have changed God’s into . Fourth, they deny the sovereignty and lordship of Jesus Christ by calling people to live in a manner not in keeping with the life of Christ. Clearly, Jude knew not just Jesus as a sibling, but he knew the life of Christ as a servant and did not take kindly to men who would deny the truth of that life to the followers of Christ. Discover

5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time 1. Why might Jude have appealed so often to writings and traditions delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And outside of the normal cannonical Scriptures? the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment 2. Why does Jude say that Sodom and Gomorrah “serve,” in the present on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding tense, as an example rather than in the past tense? towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, "The Lord rebuke Display you!" 10 Yet these people speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are What are the roles in your life that God has placed upon you. We have many roles the very things that destroy them. and domains that stretch from our roles in marriage, to the moral and ethical restraints God has placed on His people. Do you embrace those roles or do you constantly seek to subvert and get around those roles? Spend some time thinking about the roles that God has given you and how you can bet fulfill them?

Everybody has a role. This is an important concept to remember. The tricky part, however, is usually not in remembering that in whatever we do, we each have a role. The hard part is often in sticking to the proper role. We have a tendency to want to define our own role, our own place rather than the one given to me. I know this all too well. One summer I had taken a job that I absolutely loved giving tours at a major historical site in my hometown called the Lincoln Tallman Restorations. The house is the only private residence still standing in Wisconsin today in which Abraham Lincoln stayed and spent time. I loved giving tours of this incredible historical site, but one weekend they were having a fundraising arts and crafts sale on the grounds. I did not at all agree with this and thought it was exploitative. What really angered me though, if I’m being honest, was that the female tour guides were placed in the house to give tours to the many visitors that weekend, while the male tour guides were asked to be in charge of picking up trash during the event. There was no way that I was going to do this. This was not the role I wanted and so, in essence, I refused to do it. I found quickly that I was not as valuable as I thought, and refusing to fulfill my proper role got me in trouble rather quickly. When we are given a role by an authority figure, not staying in that role is simply wrong.

Jude is certainly dealing with the dangers that false teachers are presenting to the recipients of his letters, but it seems that he is particularly concerned with them going outside of their bounds. Teachers in the kingdom of God have been given a serious role with a great deal of responsibility. When teachers go outside of that role and begin to teach things that appeal to their own desires rather than the truth, a major problem results. Jude is very clear that the Lord does not stand for or take kindly to those who go outside of their appointed role or domain, and, in fact, always brings the appropriate judgment on those that reject God by rejecting their proper roles.

Looking back through the Old Testament and Jewish traditional literature, one thing becomes quite clear. When people rebel against God and go outside the roles that Has has laid out for them, the only sure thing that will ensue is appropriate and just punishment. Jude makes this point quite clear as he again shows his affinity for describing things in threes. Here he describes three historic and well know, at least at the time, examples of rebellion against God and the subsequent punishment.

Jude makes clear that he is going to talk about things that he expects his readers , but he wants to them of these things. They need to be on their toes and not think that because they have entered into Christ that their subsequent behavior doesn’t matter. It will matter for the false teachers and it would matter for them if they step outside of their domain, which is the life of Christ. , God , and that might have seemed like the end of things, but it wasn’t. This wasn’t, we should note, because of some failing on God’s part, but because they . Their appointed role was as the people of God but when they stepped outside of that role, they received the just punishment of not being able to enter into God’s promise land. Indeed the whole generation was kept out of the promised land, save for Caleb and Joshua.

For the second example, Jude turns to something mentioned briefly in Genesis 6:1-4, but is expounded upon in the book of 1 Enoch, a very popular book during the first century. Jude refers to the sons of God of Genesis 6, the fallen angels who left their appointed domain and went in and had offspring with human women. The angels that are in heaven (that is those that remain in God’s presence and loyal to their appointed role) were not to marry (Matt. 22:30; Mark 12:25), but these angels did and were punished with , being kept . These angels rebelled, motivated by pride and lust, and that had been given to them by God. Instead, they abandoned their proper dwelling. And so, they discovered the same thing that the Israelites of the Exodus did. Those who rebel against God and step outside of their proper domain will suffer the consequences of those choices.

Jude’s third example also comes from the Old Testament, the account of Sodom and Gomorrah. In a similar way that the angels previously referred to stepped outside of their proper domain due to arrogance and lust, so did the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. As the account in Genesis 19 makes clear, the men of these towns went outside of their proper domain and . The stepped outside of God’s created domain by engaging in the unlawful behavior of homosexuality and, although they didn’t know it, were so full of lust that they attempted to have sex with angels. Because of this, the of these towns by fiery destruction stands to this day as an example of the that awaits those who rebel against God.

that the beings in the three examples Jude has given rejected God and stepped outside of their proper domain, so have the false teachers. Jude is not claiming that the sins are the exact same, although, there certainly are similarities. He is saying that just as they rebelled against God, so have the false teachers. His charges against them are threefold, which at this point, should come as little surprise.

First, Jude says that on the justification and . They certainly would not have thought of themselves as

Dig Deeper ungodly or in rebellion against God, false teachers rarely do. Often part of their appeal is that they appear so sincere and are always so confident. Why would they be so confident and what does Jude mean when he talks of their dreams. The term he uses clearly refers to spiritual visions. These men were evidently claiming to have had revelatory visions that served as the basis for their teachings which included sexual freedom.

Second, they rejected authority and slandered angels, particularly fallen angels. We simply don’t know how they were slandering , but it may have had to do with either a denial of their existence or a denial that they would ever find themselves in the situation of judgment that these beings did. Even , Jude says, wasn’t so foolish as to slander the devil when they were in dispute over the . Again, with this story, Jude steps outside of the Biblical testimony and appeals to the Jewish traditional book, , that has since been lost to history. It is from there that Jude draws the point that the great angel Michael would not slander Satan, but left that for the Lord to do. Jude’s point is that Michael wouldn’t slander things that he well understood, but these men are so ridiculous that they slander things about which they clearly . If the greatest of the archangels would not speak evil of the most evil of beings, then any human should tread lightly when thinking of speaking evil of any angel.

Third, these men have so given into their own desires and unthinking lusts that they have reduced themselves so far below the standard of being a human being that they can be compared to nothing more than that live . Their preference for their own base lusts over their God-appointed domain will lead to their own judgment and destruction. Discover

11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into 1. Why would Jude have chosen to compare the false teachers to Cain, Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These men are Balaam, and Korah’s rebellion? blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; 2. Why do you think Jude changed what he was going to write about and autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the made such a point to oppose these false teachers so fiercely? sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These men are Display grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. One of Jude’s criticisms of the false teachers was that they made promises and claims on which they did not deliver. Christians, by virtue of our name, claim that we will be followers of Christ that love one another deeply. Do you and your Christians community truly do that in a biblical fashion, or is it closer to a rain cloud without rain?

“I can’t believe you would do that to us.” There was an annual competition between classes at the school at which I taught. The goal of the competition was to collect coins and raise money for charity. Each class competed against one another and it always created a bit of fun as the classes not only competed but strategized to try to outdo the other teams. They did this to the point of engaging in a bit of espionage against one another, and would even entice students from other classes to collude with their class in order to help them win in exchange for a share in the pizza party that the winning class received at the end of the week. The students from my class had, all on their own, convinced a young man from another class to tell them his class’ strategy in order to counteract it and defeat them. He had agreed it and provided valuable information. His class was bluffing, trying to convince the other classes that they had a big stash of coins that they were going to drop into their jars on the final day of competition. The reality was, they didn’t have much at all. This allowed my class to not worry about that class which we otherwise would have done, and concentrate on putting pennies, which counted as negative to a team’s total points, into the jars of classes that were real threats. When the winners were announced and they began to celebrate their win with the pizza party, this young spy was welcomed into the party. A young lady from his class was somewhat miffed, however. She couldn’t believe that he would have done that to his own class. He said that he knew his class wasn’t going to win and so he wanted some pizza. She went on to call him names, somewhat with a good-nature, but names that made her point (some were more appropriate to the particular situation than others, but she wasn’t exactly a history buff). She declared that he was a “Benedict Arnold,” a “Hitler,” a “snake.” Everyone knew what she meant by these titles, because they carry a certain meaning in our culture to the point that they can be used as adjectives and almost everyone will understand the point. Certainly Benedict Arnold, the American traitor during the War for Independence, and snake made the point that he was a traitor. Hitler wasn’t really appropriate technically, but even his name has become somewhat synonymous with wronging someone, so it fit somewhat.

As Jude continues to describe the character and natures of the false teachers, he does something very similar to that young lady at my old high school. He uses cultural examples that had become so familiar to everyone in his world that they had virtually become adjectives. Their names now carried much more of the symbolic meaning that had become associated with their previous actions. Thus, just as Hitler and Benedict Arnold have come to mean things that go far beyond the men themselves, such as evil and traitorous, Jude uses three examples from his day to show just what kind of men these false teachers are.

, says Jude, to the false teachers. This was a word usually reserved for the judgment announced on a rebellious people or individuals by the prophet of God. Jude thus invokes the wrath of God on those who would teach the gospel falsely. Jude uses three cultural examples (a pattern of threes which should be quite familiar to us) to demonstrate in clear terms for the people exactly what kind of men these teachers are. They are nothing to be exalted or followed. Rather, . Cain had become a common cultural symbol for one who murdered his brother, one who corrupted others (Jewish historian Josephus claimed that Cain “inited to luxury and pillage all whom he met, and became their instructor in wicked practices.”), as well as a selfish cynic and skeptic (The ancient document, the Jewish Targum presented Cain as believing that “There is no judgment, no judge, no future life; no reward will be given to the righteous, and no judgment will be imposed on the wicked”). Jude, then, makes the point that like Cain, who murdered his brother, the false teachers are murdering the souls of the believers that follow them, as well as corrupting others in the process, and denying the judgment of God. His other two examples continue the assault. They are like , who had become a notorious example of greed and inciting Israel into pagan practices (compare Num. 25:1-2 and Num. 31:16). They are also like those that were . Jude makes two points with linking these teachers to Korah’s rebellion. Just like those involved, they are engaged in heresy and rebellion against God-appointed leadership, and, he says, in that rebellion. They will suffer the same fate, but in a sense, because they have gone the way of Korah, they have already been punished with those men. In other words, they are as good as punished; it’s a done deal.

Rather than being a part of the body of Christ, loving one another (John 13:34-35), and proclaiming the message of the gospel in the death of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 11:26), these false teachers have become quite the opposite. They denigrate the very purpose of the love feast and the observance of the Lord’s Supper that took place as a part of those feasts in the first century. The words that the TNIV renders “blemishes” also means “hidden reef” and is probably the better understanding. If it is “blemish” then Jude’s point is that they are a stain on the fellowship rather than the spotless and blameless individuals that Christians are to be. If it is hidden reef, which seems to be more in line with Jude’s context, then he is suggesting that they are like hidden reefs that rip open the bottom of a boat; they lie in wait, with designs of sinking the faithful.

Jude continues on with five more descriptions of these false teachers just so that there can be no misunderstanding what kind of people they were dealing with. They are , meaning that rather than being godly leaders and caring for God’s people, they were only concerned with their own interests. They are , promising something on things which they do not deliver (cf. Prov. 25:14). They are . They had been dead in their sins, but made alive in Christ. Sadly, by rebelling against God’s truth, they have returned to their state of spiritual death (cf. Heb. 6:4-8; 2 Pet. 2:18-22). , by which Jude uses concepts from Isaiah 57:20, meaning that they continue to pile up their shameful ways with no

Dig Deeper end. Finally, Jude says . Ancient people believed that anything in the sky should display order, so a wandering planet (which they had difficulty in explaining) came to be viewed as something for which there was no pattern, no accounting and was symbolically caused by evil angels (although some believed that literally). Jude may be connecting them again to evil angels, but his primary point is that they are unstable and unreliable. This instability will result in their own judgment.

Jude chooses to strengthen his overall point by turning once again to the ancient book of Enoch. The quote he takes from that writing makes sense for it backs up two things that Jude has claimed about these hucksters. They are ungodly and will suffer the condemnation of the Lord. Further stressing Enoch’s righteousness and reliability as a prophet is that he was the seventh, or the complete number, from Adam (Jews often counted inclusively, meaning that Enoch is the seventh if Adam is included in the counting). Enoch clearly, according to Jude, prophesied about the certain destruction of ungodly men, and he makes the connection that these false teachers number among that group, but does not necessarily imply that they are the only ones. They are like the Israelites in the wilderness; They complain against God’s leadership and the way that God has chosen to work, following their own fleshly lusts rather than the life of Christ. In fact, rather than following the genuine life of Christ which has everything to do with sacrificing one’s own life for the benefit of others (cf. 1 Pet. 2-4), they do everything for their own desires, their own pleasure, and their own advantage. When set up against the genuine life of Christ to which believers are truly called, there simply is no comparison. Discover 1. Why is Jude so insistent that the Christian community build themselves 17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 up before addressing the effects of the false teachers? They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and 2. Why do you think that Jude calls for mercy for those who have had do not have the Spirit. doubt instigated by the false teachers?

20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21 Keep yourselves in God’s love and mercy of Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. Display Jude calls Christian to the incredible challenge of hating teachings that To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious oppose the true gospel, while still showing mercy to those who hold to those presence wihtout fault and with great joy—25 to the only God our Savior be glory, teachings. Think about other religions or even other political views. Have you majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and found the balance of biblically opposing those philosophies or teachings while forevermore! Amen. still showing mercy and kindness to the people who espouse those beliefs?

One night while I was in college, it was well past midnight, and for some reason a bunch of us thought that it would be a great idea to go cliff diving at a place about twenty minutes from our campus. Once we got there, I realized, as it was my first time, that the cliff was about forty feet up from the water. Oh, and did I mention it was pitch black because it was well after midnight. At that point, I wasn’t really planning on actually jumping, until I realized that a bunch of young ladies had also come to the cliff to watch the group of guys jump in. With that pressure, of course I had to jump. So I went in without being able to see the water at all. Once I got into the water, we were trying to swim out when one of the other guys yelled that there was a water moccasin, a type of poisonous snake common in Oklahoma, in the water. I quickly found my way to the shore and got out but one of my friends couldn’t get himself out of the water. He had found a piece of shore that was a couple of feet above the water, and in the dark he couldn’t find his way up the bank and out. He called for help, and although I wanted to get far away from the water and that snake, I went over to help him. I was in such a rush that I simply reached down to help him out without stabilizing myself first. As soon as he grabbed my hand and pulled, we both went right back into the water where the dangerous snake was lurking somewhere.

Many people read the book of Jude once or twice and then don’t really go back to it very often, assuming that it is simply a tirade against false teachers that doesn’t hold much value or interest for a church or individual that is not directly battling false teachers. That’s not really true, though. Jude does spend a great deal of the letter dealing with characterizing and describing the false teachers but he also, in this last section, offers timeless advice for those dealing with false teachers; advice that is so wise and timeless that it offers great guidelines to anyone helping another Christian out of sin or struggles. Jude’s basic advice in this section can be boiled down to this: Help others out of their struggles but because Satan is always lurking in the form of false teachers, temptations, etc., make sure that when you reach down to help someone else that you are firmly braced and ready for the task at hand. If you’re not, you both might wind up in the water.

Jude makes it clear that he is turning his attention from the false teachers and fully onto his readers as he addresses them as , literally beloved ones (a word that finds its roots in the word ). Jude specifically has three things that he urges believers to do. First, he wants them to remember that the apostles had predicted the kind of false teaching that they are now encountering. Second, they need to commit themselves to their own spiritual growth and security. Third, they need to be willing to reach out and help those who have been affected by the false teachings and have found themselves swayed by them.

When Jude tells them to , we should remember that in the biblical thinking, to remember something was not just an act of the memory but also of the will and actions. If you remembered something, you lived in accordance with its ideals. Specifically he wants them to not be rocked by the appearance of false teachers who are denying the return of Christ and who are far more interested in exalting their own . They need to remember and order the life of their community as ones who know that false teachers will come and need to be dealt with. Jude appears to take his wording loosely from 2 Peter 3:3, but it is possible that this is something that other apostles who had helped establish or visited these churches also taught when they were there. The apostles taught that the days following Pentecost until Christ returned would be the last days and that they should be prepared for scoffers and false teachers. The men that are now threatening them fall into those warnings. They are the ones who the body and mock God. These men, says Jude, follow , which is a single word that literally means “soulish.” Paul uses this same word in a negative sense to contrast someone who is animated by their own soul and desires rather than someone whose will is animated by the Spirit. What Jude implies with the first part of verse 19, he states explicitly in the latter half. . Based on Jude’s earlier mention of their visions and dreams (v. 8), this may be a direct counter-claim to their assertions that they were more spiritual than others. Not only are they not spiritually advanced, they do not have the surefire mark of a Christian at all, the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:8-10).

The first thing that one must do when facing false teachers as these believers were, is to secure their own spiritual footing. If you are going to help others that have been affected by false teaching, as Jude calls them to, then you had better know what you believe firmly or you too might be drawn in. As a biblical teacher I have had to examine and confront many false teachings and have experienced this in reality. False teachers usually have well thought out arguments for their little niches, and quite often these are areas that Christians haven’t thought through in detail. I have had to help several people who thought they were going to help someone out of a false teaching but who were not firmly established in their own biblical understanding and were sucked in by the very false teaching that they were hoping to counter. False teachings are so effective precisely because they are clever, usually very thorough, quite convincing, and they appeal to things that people like to hear or make sense to us. We must be rooted firmly in biblical truth in order to stand up to the assault of false teaching. 5th century theologian, Gregory Nanzianzus argued that for this reason only trained theologians and teachers should confront other teachings. Although it’s probably not necessary to go that far in guarding against false teachings, each believer must be prepared in the truth before trying to help someone entangled in heresies.

Jude gives four separate commands to those preparing to help others. First, they are to . Jude addresses this to the entire body, not just individuals, as the new Temple of God. The body must build itself up in the faith as those set apart from the world. Second, believers should as opposed to those who don’t pray at all or pray prayers that are directed by their own soul and desires rather than the Spirit. Third, he says to , meaning be careful to remain in the life of Jesus Christ, the full revelation of God’s love, and not wander back to our old way of life (cf. Jn. 15:9; Eph. 4:22-24). Fourth, he urges them to remain in

Dig Deeper the life of Christ so that they will be brought to , the life of the age to come that believers are to partake in now, but look forward to full consummation of the age to come when Christ returns.

Jude urges the believers to specifically reach out to three separate groups. He says to to those who have heard the false teachings and have been thrown into confusion and . Usually these are well meaning people who simply want to follow the truth but are not yet firmly established and have trouble discerning the truth for themselves. He also urges them to reach out and snatch up from the fire (Jude uses imagery here from Zech. 3:1-4) those who have gone past doubt and begun to embrace the teachings as their own. Because they have begun to embrace these heresies, they are literally standing on the brink of hell as they prepare to walk out of the genuine life of Christ. Finally, he says to show for the influence of the false teachers that might influence others or even themselves. By showing mercy to this final group, Jude likely means to keep praying for them and show kindness where they can. What is this final group, though? Again using language from Zechariah 3, Jude describes those who have been corrupted by their own fleshly desires and are wearing clothes that have been soiled like a diaper. Christians, Jude is saying, must hate the false teachings and be uncompromising in their opposition to it, while at the same time, showing love and mercy to those entangled in the false teaching.

Jude brings his short letter to a close with one of the most beautiful doxologies in the entire Bible. He balances the earlier exhortation for believers to stay in Christ with the truth that God is able to and to present us in Christ . God has given us all that we need if we will only remain in Christ. It is to God alone, accessible the life of , that we ascribe What a God we serve!