Read with Me
2 Peter 2:20-22 (HCSB)
For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, “a sow, after washing itself, wallows in the mud.”
Listen with Me
The unscrupulous men that Peter is writing about, those who have an agenda contrary to God’s and who lead others astray and wreck the faith of those who are still learning to follow in Jesus’ steps, are simply doomed. God does not overlook or take lightly the destruction of those souls for whom Jesus suffered and died. The consequences will be paid.
Some of these men were pretenders. They professed a faith that they had never had in order to gain materially from the children of light, unaware of the real consequences of their actions because their spiritual eyes and ears had never truly been opened, and their hearts were dead because of sin. In a sense, they were very much like the seven sons of Sceva in Ephesus, Jewish exorcists who tried to earn money by using the name of Jesus as a magic formula, and who ended up being victimized themselves by the demon they had hoped to cast out (Acts 19:13-16).
But as tragic as these men were, there was another class of deceiver that was even more tragic. These men had once been saved by faith in Jesus and had escaped the corruption of the world. But then, overcome by greed and a desire for a high reputation, they entangled themselves again in the sin and corruption from which they had been delivered.
Peter’s statement about these men is that their end will be far worse than their beginning, before they had even known Jesus. Peter understood that an even harsher judgment awaited them because they had set themselves up as teachers, and had used that office to lead people out of the way of life and into the way of destruction (James 3:1). And he clearly understood that for those who are truly saved and turn away, there is little to no chance of them being restored to faith, because they are intentionally crucifying Jesus all over again (Hebrews 6:4-6). Peter likens them to a dog who returns to its vomit, consuming again what had been cast aside, and to a washed sow that, having experienced cleanness, chooses to return to its filth.
Pray with Me
Father, as people we tend to want to believe the best about other people and to see situations in the most positive light. We want to believe either that it is impossible for those who are “truly” saved to ever turn away from the path, or we want to believe that even those who turn away and who lead others astray will still be saved in the end. But Your word tells us something different. As discouraging as this might be, we need to take these words as they are intended: as a two-fold warning. First, we must never follow people who try to lead us astray, claiming extra biblical truth or a new “revelation”. And second, we must never allow ourselves to become one of those people and thus bring powerful judgment against ourselves. Help me, Lord, to simply follow You, to simply walk in Your ways and lead others in them, and to always seek Your glory above my own. Amen.