Wickedness Evident in Deception

Traveled to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota this past week for Barbara's routine checkup. Nothing but good news! All tests looked good. No change in the nodules in her lungs. No signs of any cancer. The ever-stoic Doctor Gores, head of her transplant team, said with a big grin that he was "ecstatic!" She is getting stronger and doing better every day. Amen. Now to today's Bible Insight, as we continue to look at Second Peter.

Once established in the church, false teachers are ruthless and they openly flaunt their sin. They "count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you" (2 Peter 2:13b). They are cruel and merciless. They are evil. Their wickedness is evident in their deception in leading others astray.

Normally you think of carousing as a nighttime activity. As it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:7, "For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night," perhaps because of the shame involved. But these people are so openly wicked, they carouse in broad daylight. They even flaunt their sin and teach their deceptive doctrines "while they feast with you" (2 Peter 2:13b).

Peter sees them as "feasting" (v. 13b) with the recipients of his letter. He likely is thinking of the love feasts in which the early church shared a meal together and took communion. They eat with you and fellowship closely with you in every way, as they seek to devour you by deceiving you with their lies and twisted doctrines.

"Carousing in their own deceptions" (v. 13b), literally means, "reveling in their deceptions." In the original Greek, the word translated, "in their deceptions" came to mean "pleasure" or "lusts" (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 12, [Zondervan Publishing House: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1981], 280). They took great pleasure in deceiving people. They even partied and celebrated their successes in leading people away from Christ.

They love the darkness rather than the light and can't seem to get enough sin. They sin to the max! Though they are untrained in knowledge, they are thoroughly trained in greed. They are known for "having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children" (v. 14). How does your heart get trained in greed? By practice!

In the Greek text, verses 12-16 are one long sentence. The phrase "having eyes full of adultery" (v. 14a), is literally, "having eyes full of an adulteress" (Ibid), meaning to desire every woman they see. It implies that the false teachers desire to turn church gatherings into times of dissipation. They are "never at rest from sin" (v. 14a, NEB). Their eyes unceasingly look for sin. They lure "unstable souls" into their web (v. 14a).

The unstable are those with no foundation. In 2 Peter 1:12, Peter spoke of his readers as being "firmly established in the truth." In 2 Peter 3:16, he will warn them of "unstable" people who will try to draw them away from the truth in which they stand. We are to resist such people.

"They have a heart trained in covetous practices" (2 Peter 2:14b), or "they are experts in greed" (NIV), is literally, "having a heart exercised in greed." The word "exercised," or "trained" (NKJV), is the Greek word from which we derive our English word "gymnasium." It relates to athletic training. In biblical thought, the "heart" refers to the center of your personality. Deep inside, the thoughts of the false teachers are filled with "greediness" or “covetousness;" literally, "a desire to have more" (Ibid). Their greed is so strong that Peter declares them to be "accursed children" (v. 14b), or literally, "children of a curse" (Ibid). In other words, God's curse is on them!

"For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Tim. 3:2-4). "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world" (1 John 2:15-16).

False teachers love the world and the things of the world. Don't let that be said of you! Shore up your love of God. Put Jesus first in all things. "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Heb. 12:2a). Amen.