2 Peter 2:18-22
18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. 20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
False teachers speak great words that seem lofty and infinitely wise by their delivery and in promising things that make one healthy, wealthy, and wise. They use physical and emotional desires to draw converts after themselves from those who have escaped to the truth from their errors. False teachers offer what they call freedom, but that is only from having to obey God and live by His design of righteousness. Their freedom is only enslavement to sin that is the worst kind of imprisonment. They themselves have been overcome with the pollution of this world’s sin, having heard the gospel of Jesus Christ but turning away from the truth to go right back to the sin they came from because it did not allow them free will to do as they pleased in opposition to God’s word and will. They do not want deliverance from their sin, but reasoning to support living as they think best, which is sin that is treasonous before their Maker. The end of this denial of Christ and seeking pleasure is what drives them to make others twice the sons of hell that they are (Matthew 23:15) by their twisted teaching. It truly would be better for them never to have heard the gospel of life and freedom from sin’s power then to hear and disobey the gospel. They return to the corruption and sin they do not want to depart from, but will ultimately hear “depart from me” at the final judgement. This is why we oppose those creeping into the church with destructive teaching (2 Peter 2:1-2, 2 Timothy 2:16-19), to keep others from being led astray for a season, and to glorify God with the truth. We are to be valiant for the truth!
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