2 PETER
In This Section:
2 PETER 2:18-22, 2 PETER 3:14-18
2 PETER 2:18-22
As we approach this section, we need to recognize that Christians in every generation must be aware of the danger of false teachers. They exist, and because of what they do, they will try to influence God's elect. Peter knows this as an apostle who has received true prophetic insight as one of God's true teachers of the true knowledge of God. He knows false prophets are coming to infect the church in his generation. This is one huge reason why he wrote 2 Peter. Peter has a burden laid upon him by the Spirit to remind the church to be grounded in the true knowledge of God. When God's people are grounded, the false prophets become evident as being false. At the same time, Peter wants the true Christians to be assured of being Once Saved In Eternal Spiritual Salvation (OSIESS). Being assured that one's salvation is secure is the anchor that keeps God's children from being needlessly swayed off kilter by fear based contingency theories for being accepted by God. God accepts all His elect in Christ in true grace that required a very high price to be paid for their security. God, in his sovereignty, has made sure that the elect will get saved, do get saved, and will remain saved everlastingly in real everlasting life. Any other doctrine is the doctrine of a false prophet. Yet, there are people in our day who think that Peter suggests that truly regenerated miracles of God can become un-miracles. They preach insecurity in Christ where everlasting life as part of the definition of salvation is not really everlasting after all. They are adherents to the error of the Not Eternally Saved Theory (NEST). Some of these people like to use 2 Peter to build their unstable foundation. What they teach is false. This is why we need to recognize what the problem is, and then we need to be edified with the true knowledge of God in respect to it. In the prior section we examined the first part of 2 Peter 2. In this section we will examine the next passage that is sometimes used to build the NEST,
18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape fro m the ones who live in error, 19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 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. 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. 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." 2 Peter 2:18-22
As we explore the danger of false prophets who deny the Master who bought them in respect to the warnings of 2 Peter in conjunction with the fact that Peter is not warning the elect of any danger of supposedly losing everlasting life, we must recognize that the false prophets that Peter is talking about, are described through the whole chapter as not being saved. In other words, when Peter warns of the false prophets, Peter is not talking about a true Christian that is merely mistaken in His doctrine. Peter makes this clear in his flow of thought. As Peter ends chapter one, he talks about God's true prophets who, in turn, relate the truths of God. Peter explains that God's true prophets are in direct contrast to the fakes. The fakes are insidious infiltrators who corrupt the church. Coming into chapter 2, Peter warns that such false prophets, (who are historically and contextually, apostate Jews) are coming. They, like the false prophets among ancient Israelites, will deny Yahweh, the Master of the universe, who bought them. In light of this, they will introduce destructive heresies. Starting in 2:1, Peter compares the apostates who do not hold to the true New Covenant of Yahweh to apostate Jews of the Old Covenant period. Peter alludes to Deuteronomy 32 as his central analogy. His point is that such people are destructive to the true church. But they will experience a worse destruction upon themselves too, both prophetically at the annihilation of Jerusalem in AD 70, and also in spiritual judgment before the throne of Christ that all must face. xxxWe further see their description as unregenerate people where they malign the way of truth, 2 Peter 2:2. Their judgment from long ago is not idle. Their destruction is not asleep, 2 Peter 2:3. They are the unrighteous being kept under punishment until the day of judgment, 2 Peter 2:9. It is punishment like God did to angels that sinned when He cast them into a holding place called tartorus and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment, 2 Peter 2:4. It is punishment like God did to the ancient world "when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly" 2 Peter 2:5. It is punishment like when God "condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, ... having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter," 2 Peter 2:6. The unsaved people that Peter warns about, in like manner to the Sodomites, torment the souls of the saved-righteous day after day by their lawless deeds, 2 Peter 2:7-8. They "indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties," 2 Peter 2:10. They are like "unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed (which is a direct contrast to being regenerated and born again in Christ) 2 Peter 2:12. They revile where they have no knowledge. They will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, 2 Peter 2:12. They are suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they (as the unsaved) carouse with "you" who are the true Christians, 2 Peter 2:13. They have eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin; they entice unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed; they are accursed children, 2 Peter 2:14. They demonstrate that they are unsaved accursed children in that "forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;" 2 Peter 2:15. They are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved, 2 Peter 2:17. We notice that Peter says these false teachers have forsaken the gospel. They have gone astray into the apostasy that is so reminiscent of Israel as a majority throughout its tumultuous history. They are slaves of sin. They are not slaves of righteousness. They are not bond slaves of the promised Messiah. They are lost. This brings us to our primary section under study which is 2 Peter 2:18-22.
One reason that the NEST speciously thinks that this passage teaches insecurity in Christ, is the difficult pronoun referencing that Peter uses to describe the two different groups of people in his flow of thought. As we shall soon see, the verse that this pronoun difficulty hinges upon is verse 20. The question is whether Peter goes on talking about the unsaved false teachers through the rest of his point as those who are overcome by the defilements of the world and enter into a worse state than the one that preceded escaping by the knowledge that Jesus is the Messiah; or whether Peter is talking about spiritually saved people in the true church in verse 20 and onward, who have been influenced by the false teachers. We will consider two interpretations of this so that we will recognize the interpretive problem.
/A/
One interpretation suggests that Peter is referring to a main group of evil teachers that he has been describing from 2:1. In this interpretation, Peter is said to refer to those same unsaved false prophets who influence the true church. The references are seen as,
"they [unsaved false teachers] entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality," 2 Peter 2:18
" the ones [unsaved false teachers] who live in error," 2 Peter 2:18
"... they themselves [unsaved false teachers] are slaves of corruption;" 2 Peter 2:19
"For if, after they [unsaved false teachers] have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," 2 Peter 2:20
"they [unsaved false teachers] are again entangled in them [contaminating defilements] and are overcome," 2 Peter 2:30
"... the last state has become worse for them [unsaved false teachers] than the first." 2 Peter 2:20
"For it would be better for them [unsaved false teachers] not to have known the way of righteousness" 2 Peter 2:22
According to this interpretation, Peter has established that these particular people of all these pronoun references are not spiritually saved people, and never were spiritually saved people. This is based upon connecting them to Peter's description of the unsaved infiltrators just before he flows into these sentences. The unsaved infiltrators are said to have escaped from the pagan culture in finding temporary pleasure in being among the true church community (cf. v. 20). They have done this according to getting some knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Messiah and knowing what the way of righteousness is; yet Peter does not say that they have actually embraced Jesus as personal Lord Savior Messiah in the miracle of regeneration. Simply knowing doctrinal material concerning the gospel, and having a fascination with Christianity means little if one is not a miracle of God. False prophets can know the way of righteousness, yet not believe it. False prophets can be fascinated with the church, but their fascination is insidious. So being lost, as the lost sheep of the house of Israel, they are again entangled in the defilements of the world that they love in demonstrating their complete rejection of Christ as the true Lord and Savior. They are overcome, and so their final state, then, is worse than when they were first there among the lost world culture without knowing anything about the true Messiah. Going on with what Peter says, for them to have known the way of righteousness of the Messiah and His New Covenant, and yet to still turn away from the holy commandment of Christ, is like coming out of their previous filth and poison only to return to the poison as if it is something better than Christianity. Their whole life is one big error of missing the mark of God's standard of righteousness, which is the righteous mark of salvation in Christ. We need to keep this in mind, because Peter also refers to another group in his exhortation. Peter is pointing out how the unsaved false teachers corrupt this other group which are the true Christians who embrace the true knowledge of God in saving faith. They are identified as,
"those [spiritually saved people] who barely escape from the ones [unsaved false teachers] who live in error," 2 Peter 2:18
Notice the two groups. "Those" certain Christians are like spiritual babes who are victimized by "the ones who live in error." The false teachers make enticing promises to the real Christians, as we read,
"19 promising them [spiritually saved people] freedom while they themselves [unsaved false teachers] are slaves of corruption;" 2 Peter 2:19
With this in mind, the first interpretation explains that Peter is saying to be aware of the same unsaved false teachers he has been speaking of in the rest of the chapter from verse 1. The danger is that they are infiltrating the church communities with their immorality and false beliefs springing from a dead spirit. Their immorality is the tainting influence that they have upon certain Christians who have already barely escape from the sin filled death of those unsaved teachers. Peter says that the true Christians "barely escape," which means that they actually do escape in God's miracle preservation demonstrated in perseverance of the saints. According to this view, the false prophets promise the Christian converts "freedom" as they entice true Christians by fleshly desires and sensuality in licentiousness. In reality, the false prophets are not really free themselves, being slaves of "corruption" according to verse 19 which is the same "corruption" of lostness of 1:4. This particular word for unsaved corruption is phthoras in the Greek and is a very important and distinct word that Peter has chosen to make his specific points. Notice 2:19
"19 promising them [spiritually saved people] freedom while they themselves [unsaved false teachers] are slaves of
corruption [phthoras];
for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved." 2 Peter 2:19
Being slaves of phthoras-corruption they are always overcome by their lostness, but they escape defilements of the lost world culture, in a certain manner, by being familiar with the basic teachings of the Christians; and so what did they do? They entered among the church community of the early Christians. The defilements they escape from is a different Greek word than their state of corruption. Those defilements is the word miasma. So, lets keep the distinction in mind; those spiritually dead people have not actually escaped the phthoras-corruption of the curse of lostness that Peter explains in 1:4 and 2:19 of which the saved have escaped. Those lost ones only temporarily escape from the miasma-defilements of which they go back to, and they teach others to go back to. To really grasp what I am saying, we must examine that other place where Peter explained how Christians escaped the phthoras-corruption of lostness which is different from pollution-miasma. Notice how Peter explains what the spiritually saved do,
"4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption [Gk. phthoras] that is in the world because of sinful desire." 2 Peter 1:4
The Christians who partake in the divine nature of Christ through the indwelling Spirit of salvation have escaped out of the phthoras-corruption of actual personal lostness that everyone born in the world of Adam inherits initially. That phthoras-corruption exists in the lost world because of the sinful desire of spiritual deadness that permeates the unregenerate hearts of the lost. This is why it is important to see the distinction in this view--the escape of the false teachers does not come from the miracle of being spiritually saved, but rather it is a temporal escape from pollutions of the lost world culture by getting into association with God's true church in cursory pious knowledge of the way of righteousness of the holy commandment that was handed on to them, as Peter says, in verse 21. So, once again, the scenario in this view is seen in such a way that the false infiltrators had learned the way of righteousness from someone which is the holy commandment handed on to them to love the Messiah as Lord and Savior, and to truly love his people which are the spiritually regenerated body of Christ (church). But, as is described in the previous verses, they manifested their true hearts among the Christian community that they associated with, took pleasure in, and even had refuge among. But while among the true church they manifested what? Their fakeness. They turned out to be tares (darnels) among the true wheat field. But they were not simply pretend weeds that claimed to be true wheat. They are also influencers that make the true wheat sick with false teachings. As part of the manifestation of their wicked unsaved hearts, they were teaching, as a Christian doctrine, license to be sexually immoral. The big point in this interpretation is that mere head-knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, with the way of righteousness in respect to the holy commandment, does not save anyone spiritually. You must receive the good news in the gift of faith (cf. 2 Peter 1:1), and truly be regenerated as a miracle work of God. An analogy that would apply to this first interpretation is that throughout history (and even in our day) there have been people who either grow up among the Christian community, or are around the Christian community and its message, or they have entered into seeking fellowship with the true church, and yet they are immoral and ungodly in their beliefs that spring from their falseness. Many of them will try to teach their false views to true Christians. Often, they are like chameleons who blend into fellowship. They have heard sermons. They have learned some Christian talk. They have learned knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they have known the way of righteousness as data they have heard in respect to the commandment of Christ. They have learned how to act like Christians when they want to. Sometimes they end up shocking everyone by admitting that they were never saved. Sometimes they think they are saved because they are spiritually blind to the fact that they are lost which is the case with apostate Jews. The fakes only temporarily escape the contaminations of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the way of righteousness of the law of love that they find in true church communities. Though the fakes seem pious to us truly saved ones, and seem interested in Christianity in awareness of the holy commandment handed down to us, they are impostors. Since they are not saved, they are not convicted of sin, so naturally they seek to entice others by fleshly desire and by sensuality. Keep in mind that all sin is a transgression of the law of love which includes sins of fleshly desire, sensuality, and fornication. For example, whenever someone fornicates, they not only sin against the other person, but they also cause that other person to sin too. The point is that such people exist and come to Christians as false teachers. Consequently there are vast multitudes of unsaved people in our day who take charge of churches. They call themselves pastors, or teachers, or prophets. Sometimes they don't give themselves a label. But they spread their false beliefs to others. They obviously want to associate themselves with Christians. For the false teachers of Peters' prophecy, the last state of ending up among apostate Jews is worse for them than back when they were merely among Israel with no exposure to the true knowledge of God. Now, 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.'" 2 Peter 2
The reflects the ancient proverb,
"11 Like a dog that returns to its vomit, is a fool who repeats his folly." Proverbs 26:11
And so, they along with the rest of the apostate Jews in Jerusalem, were destroyed, or taken into captivity in AD 70 at the destruction of rejecting Israel, of which Peter alludes to in the next chapter, (cf. chapter 3). It is a worse state than when these immoral apostate Jews had first been enlightened with the truth of the gospel. According to this interpretation, Peter's metaphoric animal analogies suggests that the infiltrators, corresponding to their true nature, were never actually saved. In other words a dog is a dog, and characteristically a dog with an unchanged dog nature returns to its own vomit. In like manner, an unsaved person returns to the unsaved lifestyle according to their unregenerate nature, no matter how long the temporary charade lasts. A pig is genetically a pig according to its nature. And so, no matter how much the pig gets in among the true saved sheep in apparent separation and escape from the lost culture of unclean swine, his unsaved pig nature leads him to go back and wallow in the mire of fleshly desires, sensuality, and promises of freedom, but in reality he is in the slavery of the contaminants-miasma, because He still has the corruption-phthoras, in himself (cf. 2 Peter 1:4); therefor He is demonstrated as being enslaved to that exact same thing which he is overcome to reveal his true unregenerate nature. He even promotes it through teaching. In like manner, John says of similar fakes that he dealt with in the Asian churches,
"19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us." 1 John 2:19
/B/
Now let us take a look at the other interpretation. This one sees much the same thing, but it interprets the details around Peter's pronoun shift at verse 20 a bit differently. According to this view, Peter starts out speaking of the unsaved false prophet infiltrators he has been doing since verse 1. The fakes entice true Christians by using fleshly desires, and by using sensuality in their tactics, 2 Peter 2:18. Peter's warning is in respect to certain unstable Christians who can be enticed to pollute themselves with the sinfulness of the world. These Christians, in poetic language, had already "barely escaped from the ones who live in error" back when they got spiritually saved and became part of the Christian community, 2 Peter 2:18. Though the spiritually saved ones "barely escape" they actually did escape because they are truly saved. This is why Peter clarifies with the word "barely." It is like saying,
"I barely got through by the seat of my pants."
Or
"I barely escaped the fire, but I still smell like smoke."
The point is that now these kinds of Christians are contaminated by worldliness and the false doctrines of the false teachers. They don't just smell like smoke, they are soiled by the smokey soot of error and sin. Part of the seduction of the false teachers is that the spiritually saved have been promised freedom, 2 Peter 2:19. True Christians already have freedom, but true Christian can, and do, give into the seduction of licentious compromise. Consequently, they are entangled by the sinful defilements of the world that they were saved from spiritually. Nevertheless, they do not actually lose eternal spiritual salvation. To recognize this, the pronoun progression is seen this way in the section of verses:
"those [spiritually saved people] who barely escape ..." 2 Peter 2:18
"19 promising them [spiritually saved people] freedom ;" 2 Peter 219
"... after they [spiritually saved people] have escaped the defilements ..." 2 Peter 2:20
"... they [spiritually saved people] are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them [spiritually saved people] than the first." 2 Peter 2:20
21 For it would be better for them [spiritually saved people] not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment ..." 2 Peter 2:21
Remember that I said that the shift verse that is found in the pronoun interpretation is verse 20. It is seen this way,
"20 For if, after they ..."
[This reference right here to "they" is interpreted to be true Christians in this second view,]
"20 For if, after they [spiritually saved people] have escaped the defilements [sinful contaminations, Greek miasmata] 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."
It is pointed out that Peter uses the unique Greek word for the many miasma-defilements that the spiritually saved escape from in the true knowledge of God by the Spirit. Keeping unsoiled by those contaminates is best practiced by being separated from the world and immersed among the body of Christ. The point is that miasma signifies the various ungodly pollutions of the world that can contaminate Christians. This is an important nuance to recognize, because it is still seen as an intentionally different Greek describer word than the Greek word phthoras for corruption used earlier in 1:4 to signify those who escaped the spiritual death corruption in regeneration which is the same phthoras-corruption used immediately before verse 20 to describe the lost teachers. Let's quickly consider those both again. First 1:4,
"4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption [phthoras]
that is in the world because of sinful desire." 2 Peter 1:4
The Christians who partake in the divine nature of Christ through the indwelling Spirit have escaped (already in the past in salvation) the phthoras-corruption of the world. That phthoras-corruption is the state the lost world culture because of the sin filled desire of lostness that permeates the unregenerate, dead, hearts of the lost. The statement in verse 19 directly before our verse which is 20 ties this to the unsaved false teachers,
"19 promising them [spiritually saved people] freedom while they themselves [unsaved false teachers] are slaves of
corruption [phthoras];
for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved." 2 Peter 1:19
Then, according to this interpretation, it is a "worse" state for Christians to go back and live in the various miasma-pollutions of worldliness that contaminate the believer; but there is a big shift in meaning that this interpretation sees for the word "worse." Namely, it is not interpreted to be a worse state in the sense of losing everlasting spiritual salvation. In other words, lostness is the worst state for anyone to be in. It is not worse to be lost in a final state if being lost was your first state because lostness is the same state no matter what. Indeed, being lost is the worst state for anyone to be in. So, rather it is seen to be a worse state for a Christian to be enticed to accept as normal and good what is really defilement-miasma that comes from the world of corruption-phthoras, and then follow the enticement in leaving the holiness standards (that Peter listed in 2 Peter 1:5-8 of the true knowledge of God) out of your walk. In such a worse state, saved people malign the truth with their lifestyles that have embraced the deception of the unsaved false teachers. This also puts them in a position of being chastised by God toward holiness. Such chastisement is severe, and so such a state adds to making the whole situation worse than when they were following God's way according to the true knowledge of God for life and godliness, where the truth is not maligned, and chastisement is not needed. All this is in accordance with what Peter wrote next in the flow of thought,
"21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, ..."
[In other words, it would have been better for the Christians to not have known the righteous way of acting according to the holy, (Gk. hagios) commandment that was handed to them.]
"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. 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." 2 Peter 2:18-22
According to this interpretation, Peter is speaking of turning away from manifesting the righteous way of the holy commandment of Christ that is in accordance to what Peter urged earlier in his first epistle, and also earlier in this one, and also mentions again in a couple more verses in the flow where he says,
"I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles." 2 Peter 3:1-2.
The commandment of the Lord and Savior is that you love Christ in manifesting that love for Him through obedience to Him as Lord, Savior, and Messiah, and love one another as Christ loves you. In the first epistle Peter urged the saved people with an allusion to this commandment,
"Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere affection of the brothers, fervently love one another from the heart, because you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God." 1 Peter 1:22-23
Fervent love is the manifestation of the love that is already there in the Christian's heart. The commandment then, is to be steadfast and manifesting outwardly the way of righteousness that is in the commandment. It was spoken by the apostles, and taught earlier by the apostle Peter in chapter 1 when Peter said that Christians need to supply their Christian lives by,
"5 ... applying all diligence, in ... brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 1:5-8
All Christians are under the jurisdiction of the King. His Law is the Law of love. It is supernomianism. It is written in our hearts, but we must manifest it. Manifesting supernomianism is to be manifesting the delicious fruits of the Spirit out of our hearts through our actions. On the other hand, all sin is a transgression of the Law of Love, and so whenever a Christian sins, they are not turned toward the way of righteousness. Instead, they are turned away from the righteous way to the old sin way that they are spiritually saved from. All sin is to sin against God or against others which is to turn away from the holy commandment in the act. In the epistle that Peter sent before this one, Peter wrote of how freedom in Christ could be, but should not be, used as a covering for the same thing (cf 1 Peter 2:16, ie. "evil"). Remember, Peter started out reminding these same Christian people about escaping the corruption of the world,
"9 you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 because you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2:9-10
The escape, in this context, is to be called out of darkness into His marvelous light. Peter goes on and says,
"11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers ..."
[because they are a holy nation as the people of God]
"... to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, ..." 1 Peter 2:11-12
According to this view, this is the same kind of meaning that Peter is intending in his second epistle in the passage we are studying. So, what this means for this other interpretation in respect to the animal analogies in the legacy of Proverbs 26:11 is that the metaphor of dog and pig simply represent sin-actions. In respect to the saved, it would be metaphorically like a regenerated pig abstaining from wallowing in the mire of sin it was saved out of. Mire is what defiles the pig's life in his new nature in Christ. It is metaphorically like a regenerated dog deciding not to eat its own vomit of sin any longer. Vomit is not the nutrition that we should feed upon in living the life of Christ. Vomit is not the way of righteousness of the holy commandment. It is the way of foolishness. The ancient proverb fits for the foolish Christian,
"11 Like a dog that returns to its vomit, is a fool who repeats his folly." Proverbs 26:11
But we must remember that Peter wrapped up that earlier point in his first epistle when he said,
"16 Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God." 1 Peter 2:16
In this interpretation, the evil infiltrators that Peter warns of now, are using the doctrine of freedom in Christ to sin as they wish to create a false hybrid doctrine that Peter already warned against beforehand in his first epistle. Even though the true Christians have escaped the contaminating pollutions of the world through the true knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they get tangled in those contaminates, using freedom in Christ as a covering for evil, thus they are overcome with the horribleness of sin. A connection is made for this interpretation by pointing out that Peter goes on in chapter 3 with more urging toward holiness for the truly saved as they await the promise of the coming of the Lord. It is a time that Peter says that they will "be found by Him." We notice that Peter says,
"14 ... be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." 2 Peter 3:14-18
The same word that Peter uses here for the "unprincipled men" when he warns of their error, is used in 2:7 to describe the false teachers. This further indicates that the heretics he is talking about in chapter 3, who distort Paul's teachings are the same false teachers of chapter 2. Paul the apostle also wrote about being found living in godliness at the coming of Christ, and Paul also wrote about our freedom and forgiveness in Christ. On the coming of the Lord, Paul realized the need to clarify the importance of personal sanctification for true believers. The sense is that Christians do not want to be found living in sin and doing something sinful when Christ comes in the parousia. On freedom in Christ, Paul also realized the need to write,
"you were called to freedom, brothers; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh" Galatians 5:13
The main point is that the false prophets that Peter is talking about turn freedom in Christ into a false philosophy that manifests itself in most everything being an opportunity for licentious sins of the flesh. So, according to this interpretation, Peter is exhorting the church to be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, not living in sin, when He comes again in the parousia. To sum up I will reread the passage through the lens of each view. First the unsaved false prophet view:
"18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they [unsaved false teachers] entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those [spiritually saved people] who barely escape from the ones [unsaved false teachers] who live in error, 19 promising them [spiritually saved people] freedom while they themselves [unsaved false teachers] are slaves of corruption [phthoras in the Greek--also found in 1:4 to describe the unsaved]; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they [unsaved false teachers] have escaped the defilements [a different Greek word than corruption. Miasmata means sinful contaminations] of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they [unsaved false teachers] are again entangled in them [contaminating, polluting, defilements of the deception of the lost] and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would be better for them [unsaved false teachers] not to have known the way of righteousness [knowledge of the righteousness that comes from salvation and the true knowledge of God], than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment [of the Lord to believe in Christ as Lord and Savior in love for Him, and love the church] handed on to them. 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. [The unregenerate go back to the world they are more fitted for" 2 Peter 2:18-22
Then the spiritually saved people view:
18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they [unsaved false teachers] entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those [spiritually saved people] who barely escape from the ones [unsaved false teachers] who live in error, 19 promising them [spiritually saved people] freedom while they themselves [unsaved false teachers] are slaves of corruption [phthoras in the Greek--also found in 1:4 to describe the unsaved]; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they [spiritually saved people] have escaped the defilements [a different Greek word than corruption. Miasmata means sinful contaminations] of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they [spiritually saved people] are again entangled in them [contaminating defilements] and are overcome [they lead a life marked by worldliness], the last state has become worse for them [spiritually saved people] than the first. 21 For it would be better for them [spiritually saved people] not to have known the way of righteousness [that comes through salvation and the true knowledge of God], than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment [ of showing love for Christ and the true Christian community as the law of Christ, ie. "the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles." cf. 2 Peter 3:1-2] handed on to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT," {11 Like a dog that returns to its vomit, Is a fool who repeats his folly." Proverbs 26:11} and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire." 2 Peter 2:18-22
I find merits of plausibility in both views despite the pronoun controversy. But, the bottom line is that both interpretational views agree with the rest of scripture which proclaims the great doctrine of being Once Saved In Eternal Spiritual Salvation (OSEISS). So Peter's point is not that the teaching is false, and so because it is false, then Christians who make mistakes, or fall into sin, are the kinds of false teachers of damnation. Rather, Peter's point is that the false kinds of teachers he is talking about are, themselves, false Christians. Knowing this should edify all of us in respect to the real danger of false prophets who deny the Master who bought them. They are clever. They are persuasive. They are enticing, but when we are grounded in the truly knowledge of God for life and godliness, we can discern who they are, and we can discern what they are doing to avoid their error.
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2 PETER 3:14-18
"... be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men [lawless people] and fall from your own steadfastness, 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." 2 Peter 3:14-18
What the NEST declares concerning this alert to the soon coming of Christ in the destruction of the apostate Jews who perished in the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70, is that those who are truly spiritually saved, can be led away from Christ, and therefor, reject him. To walk away from the salvation that one supposedly had beforehand is said to be falling from one's own steadfastness, and be doomed forever in fiery hell.
The NEST is wrong.
Instead of warning about insecurity in Christ, Peter is warning, in this chapter, of the coming wrath of God when Christ makes His triumphal visitation in the parousia. Peter is encouraging the true believers to be spotless and blameless when Christ returns. The patience of Christ in waiting a few years before coming back in destructive glory, should be considered a good thing, because the time frame means salvation for more Israelite souls, and it means that Christians have time to repent from sinful lifestyles of the world. Paul the apostle taught these eschatological facts in many of his epistles. This is what Peter is alluding to. We see in 1 Thessalonians, Paul wrote concerning the coming of Christ and Christian's being found spotless and blameless at that time,
"12 and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you; 13 so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His set apart ones." (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13)
And in 1 Thessalonians 5:23,
"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
And as an urging to his special disciple, Timothy,
"13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and to Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ," (1 Timothy 6:13-14)
In the meantime, Peter in 2 Peter 3, is encouraging the true Christians to do the same thing, and also,
"17... knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." (2 Peter 3:17-18)
The steadfastness that Peter is talking about is abiding in correct doctrine, and with it, correct Christian living. Peter, like Paul, is not talking about losing spiritual salvation. Peter is talking about the Christians of that generation avoiding error, (verse 17). He is talking about growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, (verse 18). He is talking about avoiding sensual licentiousness of the so called freedom that the false prophets are teaching. He is talking about effort toward sanctification; in being spotless, and being blameless until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore we recognize that this passage does not remotely teach that one can lose salvation, keep salvation secure through self effort, or gain salvation by meritorious effort.
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FOOTNOTES:
(1) The commandment that Timothy is to keep is the one from 1:18, to fight the good fight, "18 This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight,"
