Question for today: How did the second part of verse 12 strike you?
12 These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed. 13 Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception[e] even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. 14 They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. 15 They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor,[f] who loved to earn money by doing wrong. 16 But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.
17 These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. 18 They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. 19 They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. 20 And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. 21 It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. 22 They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.”[g] And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”
Footnotes:
e. 2 Peter 2:13 Some manuscripts read in fellowship meals.
f. 2 Peter 2:15 Some manuscripts read Bosor.
g. 2 Peter 2:22 Prov 26:11.
5 comments:
A failure to understand our purpose - a purpose that is not of the world - will lead to our destruction. This is a convicting passage to me; bare metal in its observations. I am a slave to what controls me.
Father, free me from myself and the world around me. Help me understand You and Your ways, so that I do not lose sight of who I am and why I am here. Amen.
tba [from London]
It is amazing how people live without purpose and focus only on what satisfies them... however, as I write this I often find I am guilty of this in certain parts of my life. As tba mentions also "we are a slave to what controls us".
Lord, my prayer is that I keep my eyes on You and your purpose versus myself and my wants.....
I agree with tba and dsc about being "slaves to what controls us".
Lord, help me resist my sins and keep my eyes on you.
LT
2 things-
First, have to agree with dsc and lrt. In the context of grad school, I'm certainly a slave to what controls me.
Second, as for v12 there are lots of false teachers around me both intentionally and unintentionally malignant who scoff at that which they don't understand. Often, my choice of lifestyle (family first, work second) is what's being scoffed at.
Father, thank you for my family ,and the struggles you have given me, as they are all reflections of the incredible gifts of a loving family. Help me to continue to focus on the good that sometimes makes life hectic. In Jesus' name,
amen
CRB
tba nailed it for me. And...I certainly understand were crb is coming from.
Father be with us
cas
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