2 Peter 2: Slaves of Corruption

Today’s reading is 2 Peter 2.

Jesus told a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:39-40, ESV). Peter’s warnings about false teachers in 2 Peter 2 build on this principle. Peter said these false teachers promise freedom, but are themselves slaves of corruption. If we follow them, we cannot possibly find freedom. They don’t have it. They don’t know it. They cannot lead to it.

Everyone wants freedom. Sadly, not everyone understands freedom. That is, not everyone understands what kind of freedom is actually beneficial. Most people want the freedom to pursue sensuality and fleshly passion. They want the freedom to pursue whatever feels good at the moment. That, however, is not freedom. Not true freedom. That path leads to corruption. It leads to slavery.

Granted, not everyone who follows this path goes as far down it as they possibly can. But we need to know that folks who follow that path end up being so enslaved to their fleshly passions that they destroy relationships. They end marriages. They lose jobs. They become so enslaved they cannot say, “No,” to their own desires and end up losing so many things they claim to value more than their fleshly desires. These are the stories of men who abuse their children after they’ve apologized a hundred times and promised to never do it again. These are the stories of women who cheat on their husbands but don’t want their husbands to know because they supposedly love their husbands more than anything. These are the stories of people who gamble away their paychecks, drink their marriages into ruin, doomscroll their lives away on social media. They claim and promise freedom, but they are slaves to corruption.

True freedom, the freedom we all need, is the freedom to be what God has designed us to be. It is the freedom to do what God has called us to do. Since the fall, the passions of our flesh wage war against us. When we cave to sin, our passions become a terrible taskmaster. Jesus, however, demonstrated what it means to be truly what God has designed. He demonstrated what it means to be truly human, glorifying God.

Of course, His own life sets the stage for why many abandon the freedom He demonstrated. Because He lived in a world surrounded by people unconcerned about God’s call and design, they maligned Him, persecuted Him, and ultimately executed Him. Admittedly, that doesn’t seem, on the surface, to be freedom. But that is one of the points Peter addressed in his first letter. Yes, Jesus died in the flesh, but He was made alive in the Spirit (see 1 Peter 3:18). Jesus entrusted Himself to the God who brings true justice (1 Peter 2:23). He knew there was more to life than what can be seen, heard, tasted, touched, smelled in this life. True freedom is about the life in the Spirit, not a life of fleshly passions. True freedom is about the life that will go on when this life is over.

And in this discussion about freedom and corruption, we see the connection between Peter’s two letters. In the first letter, we read about the persecutions from those outside the visible church. In this letter, we’ve read about the attack by false teachers who appear to be part of the church. But what gives these false teachers their success? Their talk of freedom promises escape from suffering. Their talk of freedom promises freedom from sacrifice. The external attacks and the internal attacks interlock and draw Christians away.

True freedom is not letting our senses lead us around by the nose. True freedom is being able to say, “No,” to the flesh just like Jesus did in the wilderness temptations. It is being able to say, “No,” to the flesh just like Jesus did on the cross. It is being able to say, “Yes,” to resurrection and life eternal. This realization gives us guidance and direction regarding false teachers. Sensuality is not God’s way. Teachers who encourage us to look within ourselves to figure out who we are and follow that are leading us astray. Teachers who teach us to follow our own hearts and our own consciences are leading us astray. Teachers who tell us to do what feels right are leading us astray. Teachers who are telling us to dismiss all authority and be a rule unto ourselves are leading us astray.

We shouldn’t be surprised they lead us to corruption. They are themselves slaves of corruption. They are blind leaders. They will fall into the pit. And if we follow them, we will too.

Remember, partaking of the divine nature doesn’t come from getting to know ourselves; it comes from knowing Jesus. Following Him is what will make us most truly ourselves. Following Him is what will make us what God has designed us to be. In that, we will become truly free.

Praise the Lord!

Next week’s reading is 2 Peter 3.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

What do you want to share with others from 2 Peter 2?

2 Peter 2: Don’t Be Overcome

Today’s reading is 2 Peter 2.

As we continue our walk through 2 Peter this week, we will do something a little out of the ordinary. We will begin by commenting on the end of the chapter today and then back up and work through the earlier parts of the chapter the rest of the week. We do this because we need to know where Peter is going and what is at stake in all he writes.

In last week’s look at 2 Peter 1, we considered the need for diligent cooperation with the work of God as we grow in maturity. At the end of 2 Peter 2, we learn why this work is important. Giving all diligence to add the Christian qualities to our faith, increasing in them, and making our call and election sure does not determine the difference between getting an A+ in Christian maturity versus an A-, but between succeeding and failing, between eternal life and eternal destruction. The fact is spiritual growth is always dynamic and never static. We are either progressing or regressing.

It is true, none of us can grow to maturity by our own effort and strength. Only by God’s grace can we gain maturity. However, refusing to put in the effort is tantamount to abandoning the grace God offers. Though we at one time escaped from the corruption in the world, we will fall back into the world. That does not mean we will simply miss out on some earthly blessings. Peter says if we are again entangled in the defilements of the world and overcome by the corruption, our latter state is worse than our first state. The first state was being lost, hopeless, without God. Peter says we would even be better off if we had never known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn back from it.

He then calls on Proverbs 26:11 to explain how foolish and how horrific such enslavement is. In such a state, we are like washed pigs going right back to the mudhole. Worse, we are like dogs returning to eat their own vomit. Whatever the dog ate made him sick the first time. Now it’s going to eat it again. How foolish! Yet, if we do not make every effort to grow and mature as Peter instructed in chapter 1, God will allow us to drift back into the corruption from which He freed us.

As we’ve learned before, whatever measure we use, God will measure back to us and give us more besides. But if we refuse to put in the reps, if you will, God will let even what strength He has given us atrophy.

With this in mind, I’ll ask you to take seriously what Peter has written both in what we read last week in 2 Peter 1 and what we will read this week in 2 Peter 2.

Trust God. He knows what He’s talking about. If you give up or procrastinate or apathetically live your life, don’t be surprised when you fall. However, if you apply diligence, even when your diligence doesn’t measure up to others’, He will grow you. He will multiply your efforts. He has given you all you need. Give Him all you have.

Tomorrow’s reading is 2 Peter 2.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does 2 Peter 2 prompt or improve your praise of God?

Psalm 96: Let Heaven Rejoice and the Earth be Glad

Today’s reading is Psalm 96.

The Lord is Creator and Judge. We should be glad. God’s people should be glad. All nations should be glad. But not only that…

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it!

Psalm 96:11-12a (ESV)

Be prepared, in two weeks we will be right back to this point. Psalm 98:7-9 ends in almost the exact same way. What is this about? Is it just poetic language? Why would the heavens rejoice or the earth be glad?

Do you recall God’s words to Adam when he capitulated to Eve’s sin in the garden? “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I command you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you…” (Genesis 3:17, ESV). Adam was not cursed alone because of his. The ground, the earth, the land was also cursed. In fact, all creation was cursed. God’s creation of heaven and earth had been very good, but Adam’s sin perverted the entire order of things.

Keep reading Genesis and come to the days of Noah when every intention of the thoughts of the hearts of men was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). Moses records, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth” (Genesis 6:11-12, ESV). Perhaps God is merely using metonymy here. Perhaps by figure of speech He says the earth was corrupt meaning only the inhabitants on the earth were corrupt. However, He seems to be saying because of the wickedness of the earth’s inhabitants, the earth itself was defiled and corrupted. Notice additionally passages like Numbers 35:33-34: “You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the LORD dwell in the midst of the people of Israel” (ESV). Consider passages like Deuteronomy 21:23; 24:4 which both demonstrate when the people sinned in the land, they defiled the land. Notice Jeremiah 2:7-8, God rebuked Israel and Judah saying, “And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit” (ESV). Idolatry defiled and corrupted not merely the idolaters but also the land on which they worshiped idols.

In Romans 8:19-25, Paul carries on this concept explaining all creation was subjected to futility in Adam’s sin. Creation is hoping to be set free from the bondage of corruption just as we are. In other words, when God judges the earth, He will set all things aright. The earth, the heavens, in fact all creation, will rejoice because the corruption and defilement we continue to bring upon God’s creation will be judged, condemned, burned up, and set right. In the new heavens and new earth, righteousness will dwell (2 Peter 3:13). The creation will no longer groan under the bondage of our corruption. Whatever the nature of that new heavens and earth ultimately is (and when we argue too much about that, we are likely grasping beyond our reach), God’s justice, righteousness, and holiness will pervade. There will be no groaning, only joy in the presence of God’s vindicated and complete rule and guardianship.

Praise the Lord! Be glad and rejoice. The heavens will, the earth will, let us start now.

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 96.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 96 prompt or improve you hope in God?

Do Good to Everyone

Today’s reading is Galatians 6.

I look forward to the day when I read through the Bible and quit discovering statements I’ve taken out of context. That may not happen until eternity, but I look forward to that day too. Too often, I get caught up in debates and issues (and those must be dealt with), make a specific application (and usually they do apply), and lose sight of what was actually being said in the original flow of the text, forgetting that the debate application was actually secondary in the passage.

For instance, Paul tells me to “do good to everyone, and especially to those of the household of faith.” This verse gets dragged out in discussions about benevolence and social gospel as if Paul laid down a legal stipulation for Christian living. We argue about the verse making our various cases for what the lines and nuances of the rule are. This is an odd approach for a verse in a letter all about how we won’t be saved by keeping a list of legal stipulations.

Galatians 5:10 begins with “So then” (ESV). In other words, this is a concluding statement. Paul has just told us some things leading up to this admonition. Why is he telling us to do good work for all? Not because of how beneficial doing good to others is to them, but because of how beneficial doing good to others is for us. When we take the opportunities presented to us to do good for others, we are sowing to the Spirit. The Spirit will take those seeds and grow His fruit which ultimately results in eternal life if and only if we take the opportunities we have to do good.

The hindrance is doing good is work. It is tiresome, toilsome work. It is often inconvenient. It is often a sacrifice. Further, we can spend a long time doing it without seeing results. And again, we aren’t talking about the results in the lives of others, but in ourselves. However, Paul says, if we keep on sowing to the Spirit, we will eventually reap the Spirit’s life. If we keep doing good with every opportunity we have, especially when we do so for those in the household of faith, we will see corruption fading and life growing in us. We will see progressive victory over the works of the flesh and increasing growth of the Spirit’s fruit.

I get it. I often want to take time off. I’d often rather put off until tomorrow doing good. But don’t grow weary. You’ll gain the fruit, you’ll reap the life if you take today’s opportunities and do good with them.

Tomorrow’s reading is Galatians 6.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Why is doing good tiresome and wearying?
3. What excuses do we make to put off doing good for others, especially for the household of faith?
4. What advice would you give others to provoke us to keep up doing good as we have opportunity?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?