2 Peter 2:20-22 says...
Today's verses are 2 Peter 2:20-22, which read,
20 - For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again, entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
Remember that the "they" that is referred to here are the false teachers and leaders that Peter is warning his readers about. The false teachers sound like the thorny or shallow soils of the Parable of the Soils that Jesus taught to His disciples. They tasted the ways of the Lord and saw that they were good but it was "just" an escape from the "defilements of the world" and not a total surrender to Jesus Christ. The knowledge of Jesus got them out of a bind that they were in but it was not a total transfer to be a slave of Christ.
Sounds like a diet to me. I have been on many of them over the years. "I will do this for awhile to make myself healthy." What would happen is that I would lose the needed weight but then I would go back to my old ways and end up more unhealthy than when I started the diet. It was "just" a diet and not a total surrender to a different way of life. What Peter is talking about here is more important than a diet though.
21 - For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.
Why would it have been better if they had never heard the message of Jesus? I think it would be safe that if they had never heard that they would not have been able to twist it and deceive others to follow another gospel while disguising it as the gospel. We are commanded to love God and love others and commissioned to go into all the world and make disciples of Jesus. They turned that into a love for self and making disciples that benefit them and all in the name of Jesus deceiving others rather than loving them. Maybe that is why Peter says this next.
22 - It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A dog returns to its own vomit," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire."
Peter gives two very graphic word pictures here. I have witnessed both of these in my lifetime. I think the dog picture trumps the sow picture in grossness. The point is that they are repeating something they have done before rather than charting a new course because of Christ and what He has done.
Having heard and having knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, what describes your life? Is it a transformation because of it or is it "just" an escape for a while until things get better and you don't need Him any longer? Peter has spent a whole chapter warning us about false teachers and leaders but I would hate it if we would see it as something about "them" and not something about "us" or what we are capable of when our eyes are not laser focused on Jesus.
"Lord, today I recommit myself to you on my end to be a servant of the Most High God. You have shown me the way and have sacrificed Your life once and for all so that I might live wholly for You here and for eternity. May the ways and devices of the false teacher be not just a warning for me to watch out for but also a warning for me of what I could be. Amen."
Pastor Adam
20 - For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again, entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
Remember that the "they" that is referred to here are the false teachers and leaders that Peter is warning his readers about. The false teachers sound like the thorny or shallow soils of the Parable of the Soils that Jesus taught to His disciples. They tasted the ways of the Lord and saw that they were good but it was "just" an escape from the "defilements of the world" and not a total surrender to Jesus Christ. The knowledge of Jesus got them out of a bind that they were in but it was not a total transfer to be a slave of Christ.
Sounds like a diet to me. I have been on many of them over the years. "I will do this for awhile to make myself healthy." What would happen is that I would lose the needed weight but then I would go back to my old ways and end up more unhealthy than when I started the diet. It was "just" a diet and not a total surrender to a different way of life. What Peter is talking about here is more important than a diet though.
21 - For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.
Why would it have been better if they had never heard the message of Jesus? I think it would be safe that if they had never heard that they would not have been able to twist it and deceive others to follow another gospel while disguising it as the gospel. We are commanded to love God and love others and commissioned to go into all the world and make disciples of Jesus. They turned that into a love for self and making disciples that benefit them and all in the name of Jesus deceiving others rather than loving them. Maybe that is why Peter says this next.
22 - It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A dog returns to its own vomit," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire."
Peter gives two very graphic word pictures here. I have witnessed both of these in my lifetime. I think the dog picture trumps the sow picture in grossness. The point is that they are repeating something they have done before rather than charting a new course because of Christ and what He has done.
Having heard and having knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, what describes your life? Is it a transformation because of it or is it "just" an escape for a while until things get better and you don't need Him any longer? Peter has spent a whole chapter warning us about false teachers and leaders but I would hate it if we would see it as something about "them" and not something about "us" or what we are capable of when our eyes are not laser focused on Jesus.
"Lord, today I recommit myself to you on my end to be a servant of the Most High God. You have shown me the way and have sacrificed Your life once and for all so that I might live wholly for You here and for eternity. May the ways and devices of the false teacher be not just a warning for me to watch out for but also a warning for me of what I could be. Amen."
Pastor Adam
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