Remember & Pay Attention
2 Peter 2:1-22
Main Idea: Do not be led astray by those who falsely say there is another way!
“It now becomes evident why the readers needed to be reminded about the importance of a godly life and why they needed to maintain the truth of Jesus’ future coming. False teachers had arisen within the church who denied the former and questioned the latter. If there is no future coming of the Lord, the foundation for ethics vanishes, and the way is opened for a dissolute lifestyle. The words in chapter 1 do not represent an abstract thesis on Christian growth. Peter urgently responded to a threat to the churches, to false teaching that was inevitably accompanied by an evil lifestyle.” ~ Thomas Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude
I. Recognize their Pattern (2:1-3)
Deuteronomy 13:1-5: “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
II. Remember God’s Judgment (2:4-10a)
III. Remember God’s Judgment (2:4-10a)
“The words of 1 John apply well to what has happened in 2 Peter: “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2:19). Peter pointed in the same direction in the illustration of the dog and pig. In the final analysis, those who fell away never really changed their nature. They remained dogs and pigs inside. They may have washed up on the outside and appeared to be different, but fundamentally they were dogs and pigs. In other words, they were always unclean; they only seemed to have changed. Perseverance, therefore, is the test of authenticity.”
~ Thomas Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude
