20251130 2 Peter 2:10b-17 False Teachers’ Total Distortion of God’s Perfect Plan

While living in Australia, I attended a French High School. When new teachers arrived from France, we welcomed them by introducing them to Vegemite, and Australian delicacy. We would tell these French Teachers that Vegemite was delicious and similar to a product they had in France, called Nutella. We spread a thick layer of Vegemite on a slice of bread and told them this is what they should eat for breakfast from now on. I remember the expression on the face of one of these teachers after tasting that delicious vegemite sandwich. It was the expression of disgust! While Nutella is sweet and creamy made with hazelnuts and cocoa, and is high in sugar and fat, vegemite is a salty, bitter, and malty spread made from yeast extract, and it is a rich source of vitamin B!

When I think of 2 Pet 2:10-17, I think Peter feels similarly about false teachers, as my French teachers felt about vegemite. When all you have known is Nutella it is hard to imagine anyone genuinely liking vegemite. When you have tasted the goodness of God and marvel at God’s purposes for this world and humanity, any intentional opposition to God will stir up strong emotions. This is what we have in our text. It is a strong passionate critique of false teachers.

The language in this passage is intense. Peter calls people "unclean," "irrational animals," and "waterless springs.” The reason for such a strong tone is that the false teachers he's describing aren't just wrong; they work against the goodness of God.

Our text focusses on the False Teacher’s Total distortion of God’s plan. We will begin with God’s Perfect Plan, we will turn to the False Teachers’ Total Corruption of God’s Plan, and end with our personal pursuit of purity in God’s Plan.

First, we look at God’s Perfect Plan (Selected verses from 1, 2 Peter, and Bible Overview)

The language in our text is not all the Bible has to say about false teachers. They are humans made in God’s image. They possess dignity. God loves the world. God loves his enemies. The harshness of our text also reveals something about God. God is passionate about his plan.

He is a defender of those susceptible to being taken advantage of. Because God stands for goodness, justice, love, and mercy the consequences are severe for those who stand in his way. The intensity in our text reveals God’s passion for his good plan of salvation that false teachers try to sabotage.

To understand why false teachers are so abhorrent, we need to taste how good God’s perfect plan is. I will highlight God’s will for the world from 1 and 2 Peter, and then I will offer a brief overview of the Biblical picture of God’s perfect plan.

1 and 2 Peter

Peter’s letters teach what God wants for us. According to 1 Peter 1:3-5, a Christian is born again and possesses a living hope and an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. According to 1 Peter 1:8-9, the Christian experiences knowing Jesus intimately which leads to a “joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.” According to 1 Pet 1:15-16, God wants us to be like him, “holy”. According to 1 Pet 2:9, God saved us from darkness to live in his marvelous light – to be a people that proclaims his excellencies! According to 1 Pet 3:8-9, the result of God’s work in Christian community is unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind, forgiveness and we use our words to bless each other. According to 2 Peter 1:3-4, God has given us everything we need to life a godly life to partake of the divine nature! This is what God wants for us. This is why false teaching that robs people of enjoying God's blessings is so devastating.

Biblical Overview

Another way to know God’s perfect plan is to remember the four movements of the biblical story, Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation. In Creation, we see God’s love in his abundant provision for humanity. The problem of sin in the world and our hearts could not be a worse problem. Sin affects our thoughts, our desires, our emotions, our passions, and our loves. Our sin leads to lies, violence, oppression, and loneliness. Despite our willful rebellion and treason, God is so committed to us. Sin ruptured our relationship with God, others, and within ourselves, but God is committed to Redemption. In Christ, God takes the punishment we deserve for our sins, judgment and death. God gives us his Holy Spirit to start to enjoy restoration with God, within ourselves, and with others. The joy of our salvation that we enjoy now is a foretaste of the future culmination of all things when we will enjoy eternal bliss in the presence of God forever!

This is why false teaching is so horrible. False teaching robs us from the goodness of God. It distorts the goodness of God and the justice of God. It robs God from our worship and it robs people from God’s blessing. The good news of the gospel is the declaration of divine peace God offers sinners that will one day lead to world peace.

The most loving thing we can do is call false teaching out, to stop the spreading of destructive lies. False teachers walk in the footsteps of the world’s first false teacher, the devil himself. This was the first point, God’s perfect plan makes false teaching so abhorrent.

Second, we look at the False Teacher’s Total Corruption (2 Peter 2:10b-17)

In Greek, our text is made up of three sentences: 2 Pet 2:10b-11, 2 Pet 2:12-16, and 2 Pet 2:17. The themes of these sentences are the False Teacher’s corrupt view of God, their corrupt existence, and their corrupt destiny.

2 Peter 2:10b-17

2 Pet 2:10b-11 First, the False Teachers had Corrupt View of God.

The first sentence describes the false-teacher’s relationship with God. Instead of being submissive, they are bold. Instead of seeking God’s will, they are self-willed. They have no fear of God. Their arrogance is seen when they slander “the glorious ones.” This likely refers to evil angels. The point is that judging angels is arrogance on display. This kind of judgment belongs to God alone.

The arrogance of false teachers stands in contrast to what God wants for us. According to Micah 6:8, “What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

2 Pet 2:12-16 Second, the False Teachers had a Corrupt Existence.

The second sentence, 2 Pet 2:12-16 speaks to the total corruption of false teachers. Their mind, their destiny, their desires, their behavior, their impact on those around them are all marked by corruption.

2 Pet 2:12 addresses their thinking, they are irrational. Peter speaks of false teachers as if they were animals. God made human beings distinct from the animals. Uniquely, we are made in God’s image to have a relationship with God, and represent God to the rest of creation. Their denial of God’s will for their lives makes them no different than animals. He calls them “creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed.”

2 Pet 2:13 addresses their actions. They are so lost, their moral radar appears to be nonexistent. Sins that people tend to practice in private, they practice openly during the day.

2 Pet 2:14 addresses their desires. Their hearts are trained in greed, they have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin.

2 Pet 2:14 also addresses their impact on others. They deceive and lure unsteady/weak souls. Rather than building up, they tear people down.

2 Pet 2:15-16 alludes to a story found in the book of Numbers in which a prophet was rebuked by a donkey to highlight the folly of his ways.

In contrast, to the lives of these fall teachers, some of the marks of true Christianity are found in Rom 12:9-21. Let love be genuine. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. If your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

2 Pet 2:17 Third, the False Teachers had a Corrupted Destiny

2 Peter 2:17 offers the image of a waterless pit. This is a useless pit. It offers not the life-giving water it was intended for. The image of a midst driven by a storm reveals the lack of foundation. In contrast to the instability of false teachers, the judgment is sure, the gloom of darkness is kept for them. Peter announces here the sure judgment of false teachers. He expressed this judgment differently in 2 Pet 2:12, 14.

According to 2 Pet 2:12 false teachers “will be destroyed in their destruction,” and 2 Pet 2:14 called them, “accursed children.” They will reap what they sow. As they work against God’s purpose in this life, they will not be part of the restored New Heavens and New Earth.

Application

So what do we do with a text like this? Do we know “irrational animals” who are part of this church, who hate God, hate people, and seem to be suffering all kinds of inner turmoil?

This text helps us to recognize false teachers in our midst. It focuses mainly on the way they act. We should not label people we disagree with as false teachers unless their words and actions are destructive and prevent people from enjoying God’s blessings.

The gospel is the best news that all our hearts most need. The gospel offers eternal life to all who recognize their sin and flee from the wrath of God to trust and find refuge in Christ because of what Christ has already fully achieved on our behalf on the cross to forgive sins.

False teachers lie about what it takes to be made right with God, or they dismiss the importance of repentance. They draw the attention away from God and onto themselves.

On one hand, I would say go easy on people, give teachers the benefit of the doubt, and remain alert. These questions can be helpful to identity people who may risk being or becoming false teachers.

Is a teacher humble? I don't mean that they express self-deprecating false humility. Rather, do they appear to be aware of their sin and their dependence on God. When a person is aware of their own sin and dependence on God, they will be slow to judge others.

Is a teacher amazed by God’s person and work? Do they get excited when they talk about God? Or do they try to steal the show away?

Do they know the Bible, love it, and seem to want to be a lifelong students of the Bible? Or do they disregard the word of God and promote their own theories and perhaps immorality?

Do they build people up or tear people down? Do they seem to love and care for people, or are they making a great name for themselves? Our text describes false teachers. There can be something unhealthy about false-teacher hunters but we do want to be informed and aware about what false teachers look like.

Third, we look at our Our Personal Pursuit of Purity.

There is more for us to draw out of this passage than just avoiding false teachers. The ways Peter describes false teachers are inversions of how the Bible speaks of Christians elsewhere.

In contrast to the way Peter describes false teachers, we must worship God, be rational, knowledgeable, truthful, sexually pure, building up unsteady souls, generous, knowing that we are destined for glory.

Another angle that we must pursue to promote the purity of the church is cultivating an environment where false teachers cannot thrive. We avoid celebrity culture in the church.

I remember talking with someone I met about their church. And he went on and on about how amazing his pastor was. He insisted that I should visit their church to be really impressed by their pastor. I asked what was something that was meaningful to him from a recent sermon. He said, I don’t know but you should have been there to see it.

In another church, the pastor had gone through some hardships, and church members were starting to compare this pastor to Job. It was really alarming how they so wanted to see themselves and their church at center of what God was doing that their pastor almost became a biblical character.

Often really famous people like Ravi Zacharias, Marc Driscoll, Bill Hybels get to behave badly, abuse unsteady souls, because Christians gave them a stage where they almost became too big to fail. Because the success of a ministry relied on very gifted individuals, the church or ministry was more willing to overlook their flaws to see the ministry succeed. In a way, it can be our own pride that allows harmful teachers to get away with what they do.

Let’s love each other. We humbly notice each other’s strengths and gifts. We can acknowledge them privately. It is good in the church to prevent pathways to fame. Authority must be divided up. We want to be a people that longs to hear God’s word preach no matter who the preacher is. We want our community groups to be marked by love and the joy of being together. We expect to encounter God in our corporate worship, which leads us to repent and commit to living for him as his servants in such a way that God gets all the glory. Don’t talk about how great your church is but how great your God is.

Conclusion

So it is clear that Peter feels more strongly about false teachers than the French do about vegemite. Peter is not a hater. His strong and harsh passionate tone reveals how much he loves God’s vision for healthy Christianity and the enjoyment of God’s gift of eternal life.

Isa 65:17-19 shows us where all history is going, the False Teachers rob people from this: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. 18But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.”

Like Peter, we can be sad and angry when anything gets in the way of people enjoying God’s blessing. We can start with our own sin and narcissistic tendencies. We can also be grieved by false teaching in this world.