2 Peter

Chapter 2

vs 12

You kind of get the feeling, not just in Peter but in lots of the letters of the NT, that heretics are not smiled upon. Now, remember Peter is the same guy who told Simon the Sorcerer "I hope you and your money both burn in hell" to put it simply. So he's got a history in this department. He has some special words here to talk about such people. The message is more than "don't slander angels" - it's the deceiving of the church of God that gets his hackles up.

vs 13

These people are the ones that are still in fellowship (feasting with you), and that's probably the worst thing about them - they are a blot and blemish on the name of your church.

Now this highlights a historical change in the church that took place with Constantine. Remember that before then, it was only those who openly professed Christianity that were allowed into churches - persecution prevented openness - and so the idea that someone can be a blot on your church is probably something we think "oh, you've got to live with that". But at the time, it was a lot more dangerous, and such people could be kicked out of the church, as much for punishment of the person as for saving the church.

vs 14

How can you spot them? Apart from their crazy talk, they're adulterous and greedy.

vs 15

Balaam was some sort of seer or sorcerer, remember.

vs 16

The idea being I guess that at least Balaam was corrected, whereas these heretics just keep going off the track.

vs 17

The word 'polemic' springs to mind about now. I'm not quite sure about the "mist driven by the storm" metaphor, but the other one is clear: pub with no beer style.

vs 18

So not only are they empty, but so are their words - because at least when people preach the gospel with wrong motives, the gospel is still being preached. But these people entice new converts into their evil ways.

I really feel for a new convert to Christianity these days. There are so many people who call themselves "Christian", and even a good number of fruit-loops in the churches too. It is really hard to sift truth from error, or in the case of disputable matters, reasonable interpretation from all-out psycho-foolery.

vs 19

So while these people call themselves "Christian", they are actually seeking depravity first. And the argument they seem to use is that of freedom in Christ Jesus, probably espousing "true freedom" - but that doesn't exist (except for God I guess). Gospel freedom is relative freedom - relative to the freedom you had as a non-Christian. Paul describes us as slaves no matter what - we just get the choice whether we are a slave of God or not, whereas we never had the choice whether to be a slave of sin or not. Sin's slavery works you to death, but God's slavery is light. He's a good master, who gives us freedom - some freedom, more freedom than we had before.

vs 20

One of those verses that suggests that if you've been a Christian and then fallen away you're in a worse position than when you started. It could be talking about the ability to lose your salvation (I don't mean lose it like you lose your keys, I mean it's like throwing your keys in the river for some hobbit to find). It could just be saying that people who have been living the victorious Christian life and have then turned away from it find it even harder to come back to. I'd have to find out more as to whether that mirrors people's experience or not before I said anymore on that.

vs 21-22

I wonder if Peter made up that proverb about the washed sow. Anyway, the proverb examples that Peter gives certainly show that he's talking about people who have become Christian but have now gone back to their old life.

But it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness at all says Peter. Does that mean that apostates are burned in a more firey hell? Does it mean that once you've been in and then out, you're out for good (so not being in is better, because at least you've got the chance of getting in)? Or is he talking about the increased difficulty of getting back to Christianity after a lapse? The greek isn't of much help (to me anyway), and you might be surprised to hear that 2 Peter receives little in the way of modern scholarly attention.