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Peter’s second letter was written to remind the Lord’s people of the truth of God’s Word and the certainty of His promises. In this second chapter, Peter warns against false teachers who distort the Word of God and lead people into sin. We need to understand that recognizing and resisting false teaching and moral corruption are essential for living faithfully until the return of Yeshua the Messiah.
But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.
Peter reminds us that false prophets are not new. But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. If false prophets infiltrated God’s special people Israel – and they did – they can and will infiltrate Messiah’s community. Therefore, we must be discerning and vigilant.
How false prophets operate: They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. A heresy is a false teaching that deviates from essential biblical truth. A heresy can deny a truth. A heresy can twist, pervert, or corrupt a truth so that it means something different. Or a heresy can introduce a non‑biblical idea that leads people away from the truth.
Some examples of today’s heresies:
Denial of the Trinity: God is not one Being in three eternal Persons. There is no Trinity. The Father, Son, and Spirit are not persons, but modes. The Father, Son and the Spirit are not united. They are three separate gods.
Denial Of The Deity Of Messiah: Yeshua is not fully God. He is a created being, a man, a prophet, a moral teacher only.
Denial Of Biblical Inspiration: The Bible is not fully inspired, accurate, or authoritative. The Bible contains human religious ideas rather than God‑breathed truth.
Extra‑Biblical Authority: The Apocrypha, papal decrees, church councils, revelations or prophetic claims are equal to or greater than the authority of Scripture.
Multiple Ways Of Salvation: Faith in Messiah is not necessary for salvation. Other religions or covenant identities are sufficient for eternal life.
Universalism: Everyone will be saved. Condemnation on the Day of Judgment and people being sent to Hell are rejected.
Works‑Based Salvation: Salvation is earned through good works, human effort, sacraments, or law‑keeping. Grace alone through faith alone is denied.
Moral Revisionism: Biblical sexual ethics and moral standards are redefined to align with the culture. Behaviors the Bible calls sin, like homosexuality and abortion, are affirmed as righteous.
The Prosperity Gospel: Faith guarantees health, wealth and success. Lack of wealth and suffering are signs of weak faith.
Heresies are destructive because biblical truths are matters of life and death. Heresies destroy our precious faith, damage our relationship with God and our relationship with the community of God’s people, corrupt our character and ruin our lives.
One of the most serious heresies is denying the Master who bought us. They will … even deny the Master who bought them.
To deny the Master – Yeshua – attacks the heart of the Gospel, the Good News about our salvation. Christianity/Messianic Judaism stand or fall on who He is and what He accomplished through His life, death, and resurrection. Denying the Master means denying Yeshua’s identity as the Lord, denying His authority, His saving work, and His rightful ownership of our lives.
When someone denies that Yeshua is the Master, or denies Him by redefining Him as less than the sinless, risen, ascended God‑Man, they undermine the foundation of the faith. And when the foundation collapses, the structure collapses.
Messiah Yeshua is the Master who bought us. He has absolute authority over us because He bought us, redeemed us, paid the ransom for our deliverance that we could never pay. To deny the Master who bought us is rebellion against the One who owns and redeemed us.
They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. God’s judgment on those who falsify the truth is certain and, when it comes, sudden. The destruction of false teachers who teach destructive heresies will not be delayed. God’s justice will make sure that false teachers will not escape punishment, no matter how long they appear to prosper.
Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. Things go with things. Evil teaching and shameful immorality are connected. False teachers don’t stay within theological boundaries or sexual boundaries. False teaching corrupts moral living.
Those who teach the Bible are in positions of influence. They influence how others think and live. When they teach what is false and live immorally, many others follow. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality.
And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. The lies and corruption of false teachers and those who follow them affect people outside the community of faith. Outsiders see the hypocrisy – people claiming to follow God while living immoral lives – and they mistakenly blame God and His Word rather than the evil deceivers. That keeps people away from God and the truth – which is a terrible thing.
Things go with things. False teachers don’t stay within theological boundaries or sexual boundaries. Now Peter informs us that they don’t stay within financial boundaries. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money.
False teachers are greedy. Instead of being faithful to God and storing their treasure in Heaven, they crave money and the luxurious lifestyle it can buy. Their greed motivates them to manipulated God’s people by making up clever lies to separate from their money for the financial gain of the false teachers. For example, the prosperity teachers teach people to give money in order to receive heath and wealth. This shifts the focus from faithfulness and holiness and storing up treasures in Heaven to material gains on Earth.
False teachers are evil, dangerous and destructive – and they will be among us. So, how do we identify them? By knowing the truth. By not deviating from the simple Gospel, the message of salvation; by remaining within the teaching handed down by the apostles, the Lord’s representatives; by refusing to add new teachings that contradict the faith once delivered to the saints; by observing their lives for signs of sexual immorality, dishonesty, greed, and manipulation for money or power. By their fruits we are able to know them.
Peter has exposed the false teachers – their destructive heresies, their sexual immorality, and their greed. Now he informs us that judgment is coming for these evil men. He reminds us how God punished similar evil in the past. He punished fallen angels, the generation that lived before the Flood, and Sodom and Gomorrah. And along with judgment for the wicked, Peter wants us to know that God preserved the righteous.
For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into Tartarus, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment. And God did not spare the ancient world – except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood. Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority.
The first example: God’s judgment of fallen angels. For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into Tartarus, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment. Moses informs us that in those the days leading to the flood, the “sons of God” took human wives, and the Nephilim, which means the “fallen ones,” were the result. An ancient interpretation, held by many early Jewish and Christian teachers, understood these “sons of God” to be fallen angels who abandoned their proper domain and engaged in sexual immorality with human women. God punished them for that grave sin and imprisoned them in Tartarus – a place of deep confinement – which aligns with what Luke, John and Paul call the Abyss. It’s not Sheol/Hades, where human souls go after death, and it’s not the final Lake of Fire/Gehenna/Hell. It’s a “supermax” prison facility where the worst of the fallen angels are being held until the final judgment. Peter’s point: If powerful heavenly beings who sinned are imprisoned in Tartarus – then rebellious and immoral human teachers who distort God’s truth will certainly not escape God’s judgment.
The second example: God’s judgment of the people who lived before the Flood. And God did not spare the ancient world – except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood. Moses describes a world filled with violence and wickedness. Humanity had become so morally and spiritually corrupt that “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” God’s judgment came in the form of a world-wide flood. God did not spare the ancient world – but He did spare Noah and his family. For years, while building the ark, righteous Noah warned his generation of God’s coming judgment. He was a lone voice of truth in a corrupt culture. The world ignored and rejected him. Finally, God’s judgment came, and all the people of the ancient world were destroyed – but God protected Noah and his family.
The third example: God’s judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. Sodom and Gomorrah were corrupted by sexual immorality, violence, luxury, pride and defiance of God. God reduced them to ashes. Their destruction was sudden and complete. Peter lets us know that God made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. The false teachers, who, behave like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, will receive a similar judgment.
Again, Peter emphasizes that in the midst of judgment on a corrupt society, God preserved the righteous remnant. But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. Lot was surrounded by sexual perversion and shameful immorality and spiritual decay. He did not ignore or dismiss or encourage the culture’s wickedness; he was sickened by it, tormented by it. God destroyed Sodom but He rescued Lot.
Peter’s conclusion: So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. Peter gives us three truths to help us resists the false teachers and their greed and immorality.
The first truth: judgment for the wicked is certain. God will judge sinners. Powerful angels were judged. The ancient world was judged. Sodom and Gomorrah were judged. History proves that God punishes sinners – in His time and in His way. Therefore, the false teachers who promote sexual immorality and despise God’s authority will also be judged.
The second truth: God knows how to rescue the righteous in the midst of corruption and judgment. Noah and his family were preserved. Lot was rescued. Christians and Messianic Jews who resist the false teachers and remain faithful will not be abandoned. The Lord rescues, preserves and ultimately vindicates those who are faithful and stand firm.
The third truth: He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. There are degrees of reward and there are degrees of punishment. To whom much is given, much is required and the punishment for failure is more severe. God is especially hard on those who claim to belong to Him but falsify His teachings, indulge in twisted sexual desires and despise His authority.
So don’t be influenced by the apparent success of false teachers. Don’t follow their examples of sexual immorality and greed. Don’t be taken in by their false teachings. Don’t think that because they have not yet experienced God’s judgment they never will.
Who are some of the false teachers within the Church today? Those who support homosexual and lesbian marriages. In America, they are known as the mainline Protestant denominations like the Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Disciples of Christ, and American Baptist Churches USA. These denominations represent roughly 15-20% of the American church.
One more thing: the situation of the people Peter was writing to, who were living in a pagan culture that was sexually immoral and hostile to biblical authority – is very similar to our situation today. The elites of Western civilization – in media, academia, entertainment, and the arts – also promote sexual immorality and reject God, His Word and His authority. Their influence is pervasive.
So how do we stand firm in a time when elements within the Church are corrupt and the culture is corrupt?
Know what the Word of God really teaches about sexuality, holiness, and authority. Study it carefully.
Be part of a community of Yeshua-followers, led by God-ordained leaders who teach the truth. Isolation wears down our defenses. Isolation weakens us.
Speak the truth with courage and compassion.
Support politicians, media, artists, educators, writers, and leaders who reflect biblical values.
Let’s pray:
Heavenly Father, as Your great servant Peter warned in his second letter, protect us from false teachers who distort Your Word. Give us discernment to recognize false teachers and false teaching. Give us the grace to resist immorality and greed. Thank You that when You judge wickedness, You are able to rescue the righteous. Rescue us like You rescued Noah and his family, and Lot. Help us to live holy and righteous lives, and stand firm until we die or until the glorious return of Your Son. Amen.