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the false ones

2 Peter 2:1-22

2 Peter 2:1 But false prophets also happened among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will introduce divisive teachings, even denying the Master who bought them and will bring swift destruction on themselves.
2 Peter 2:2 Many will follow their depraved ways, and the truthful road will be maligned because of them.
2 Peter 2:3 They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.
2 Peter 2:4 Because if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but threw them into Tartarus and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment;
2 Peter 2:5 and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly;
2 Peter 2:6 and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;
2 Peter 2:7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral ones
2 Peter 2:8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) —
2 Peter 2:9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
2 Peter 2:10 especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones;
2 Peter 2:11 however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.
2 Peter 2:12 But these people, like irrational animals — creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed — slander what they do not understand, and at their destruction they too will be destroyed.
2 Peter 2:13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions while they feast with you.
2 Peter 2:14 They have eyes full of adultery that never stop looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse!
2 Peter 2:15 They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path and have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who only cared about the wages of wickedness
2 Peter 2:16 but received a rebuke for his lawlessness: A speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
2 Peter 2:17 These people are springs without water, mists driven by a storm. The utter darkness has been reserved for them.
2 Peter 2:18 Because by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error.
2 Peter 2:19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.
2 Peter 2:20 Because if having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first.
2 Peter 2:21 Because it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the sacred command delivered to them.
2 Peter 2:22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and “a washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.”

the false ones

Having recommended the sure word given by true prophets to enlighten his readers in the dark age until Christ returns, Peter warns his readers that false prophets and heretical teachers will also lead people away from Christ. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them. Peter warns his readers not to follow them. They are on the path to sure destruction.

Just like the fallen angels who deceived the world during Noah’s time, and are now chained in Tartarus – a place of utter darkness — , awaiting judgment and destruction (4).
Just like the world who rejected Noah’s gospel – so saw destruction in the flood (5).
Just like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah (6-10).
Just like dogs returning to their vomit, or sows returning to wallow in the mire (22).

LORD, protect us from the words of those whose Christian profession is not genuine. They are heading for annihilation, and we do not want to join them.