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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
2:1-22 Evaluation of False Teachers. In this fourth main section of his letter, Peter engages in a polemic against the false teachers, using biblical analogies to do so.
2:1-3 Influence of False Teachers. Just as there arose false prophets alongside the true prophets of God in OT times, so also there will arise false teachers who will try to mislead the church.
2:1 Peter describes the false teachers. secretly. They will subvert the truth by surreptitiously bringing destructive heresies into the church. These heresies will be contrary to what Christ and the apostles laid down as foundational doctrines (cf. Eph. 2:20-22), resulting in spiritual ruin rather than life. The false teachers will even deny the truth about the Master (Jesus Christ) who bought them. Peter apparently uses the language of redemption ("bought them") here in the same way that he describes the counterfeit "salvation" of the false teachers at the end of ch. 2: that is, they claimed to be "redeemed" and "saved" because they were part of the church, but their apostasy showed that they were not truly believers. Another interpretation is that Christ's death paid the penalty for their sins ("bought them") but God did not apply this payment to them because they rejected Christ.
2:2 The heresy will be characterized in part by sensuality (Gk. aselgeia, "lack of self-constraint, abandonment to immoral behavior"), which most often refers to sexual sin.
2:3 Greed drives the false teachers as well. They exploit believers with their false words for the sake of material gain. False teachers throughout history have been marked by sexual sin, a lust for money, and dishonesty. All such teachers face condemnation and destruction.
