“These people are springs without water, mists driven by a storm. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them. For by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.”
In this section, Peter starts his second round of criticisms towards the false teachers. He begins by saying, “These people are springs without water, mists driven by a storm.” Peter uses two examples of things that are empty. A spring without water might look promising on the outside, but when you go to get water, it is empty and dry. The same with mists driven by a storm. There is the promise of rain without the delivery.
He continues. “The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them.” Peter had written of their coming judgment four times prior to this. In 2:1, he writes that they “will bring swift destruction on themselves.” In verse 3, “Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.” He writes in verses 9 and 10, “… the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and keep the unrighteous under punishment, especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority.” And in 12 and 13, he writes, “But these people, like irrational animals- creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed- slander what they do not understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed. They will be paid back harm for the harm they have done.” This is the fifth mention of a coming judgement. Do you think that God takes false teachers seriously? It’s a rhetorical question, but the answer is yes.
Peter goes on to explain how these false teachers are deceiving believers. “For by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error.” Let’s look at the second half of that sentence first. Who are these false teachers deceiving? The new believers. Peter uses the phrase “barely escaped.” Douglas Moo writes in his commentary that these believers “are still in the process of escaping the entanglements of their past lives. It makes excellent sense to think that the heretics would go after new converts.” Unfortunately, today false teachers easily sway both old and new converts. The main reason for this is because so many believers are not familiar with what the Bible teaches. When a false teacher quotes a scripture out of context or claims that the Bible teaches something it does not, much of the church is biblically illiterate and falls for the false doctrine.
Now back to the first half. How do they do it? By uttering boastful, empty words. They seduce with fleshly desires and debauchery. These false teachers are appealing to the flesh. I am sure Peter is quite frustrated at this point. He had already covered this in his first letter. “Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin— in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will. For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry.” Peter has already written that this behavior is something that the Gentiles do, not the believers!
He then writes, “They promised them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.” It may seem like freedom when you first live a sinful lifestyle, but soon you become a slave to that sin. Paul understood this perfectly. This is what he wrote in his letter to Rome:
“Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:16-23)
The false teachers offered slavery to sin. This leads to death. Christ offers eternal life. When we are enslaved to Him, we will continue to grow in righteousness, which results in sanctification. We should be producing fruit, growing daily, learning what it means to be a true Christ follower. If we do these things, we will not be deceived by the false teachers.
I’m going to end with Jesus’s words from John.
“Jesus responded, ‘Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever. So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free’” (John 8:34-36).
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 