Intro to 2 Peter 2:10b-22

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/11/2025 8:34 PM

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  Intro to 2 Peter 2:10b-22

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  2 Peter 2:10b-22

            Message of the verses:  Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties,

11 whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.

12 But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where * they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,

13 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 carouse with you,

14 having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children;

15 forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

16 but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.

17 These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.

18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from 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."

            John MacArthur writes the following for his introduction to these verses:

“Faithful shepherds protect their sheep.  They work hard, day after day, to instruct, reprove, correct, and train God’s people (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17)—leading their flocks on the path of truth (Ps. 119:105).  Like the Good Shepherd Himself, they stand guard even when spiritual enemies threaten (Acts 20:28-32; cf. John 10:13-14).  Cowardice is not a consideration for them; neither is compromise.  After all, they have received a divine commission, to ‘shepherd the flock of God [until] the Chief Shepherd appears’ (1 Peter 5:2, 4).

            “Because they love the truth and genuinely care for the health of their congregations, genuine shepherds are always leery of false teaching.  They recognize the deadly nature of Satan’s lies—spiritual fabrications designed to deceive, divide, and ultimately destroy God’s people.  That’s why faithful pastors proclaim truth and expose error with such tenacity.  They realize eternity is at stake.

            “Along these lines, the Puritan John Owen wrote:

“It is incumbent on them [pastors] to preserve the truth or doctrine of the gospel received and professed in the church, and to defend it against all opposition.  This is one principal end of the ministry…And the sinful neglect of this duty is that which was the cause of most of the pernicious heresies and errors that have infested and ruined the church.  Those whose duty it was to preserve the doctrine of the gospel entire in the public profession of it have, many of them ‘spoken perverse things, to draw away disciples after them’.  Bishops, presbyters, public teachers, have been the ringleaders in heresies.  Wherefore this duty, especially at this time, when the fundamental truths of the gospel are on all sides impugned, from all sorts of adversaries, is in an especial manner to be attended unto. (Works, ed. William Goold [Johnstone and Hunter: Edinburg, 1850-53], XVI:*1f.  Cited in J. I . Packer, A Quest for Godliness {Wheaton, ILL.: Crossway, 1990] 64).

            “In other wards, godly church leaders take an aggressive stand against false teachers and their doctrines.  They cannot embrace or tolerate error in the name of love, nor can they simply ignore it.  Instead, they are called to ‘refute those who contradict’ (Titus 1:9).

            “Peter himself was a concerned pastor (1 Peter 5:1-4), responding to false teachers with rhetorical fury.  In fact, many years earlier, Jesus had charged him specifically to feed God’s people (John 21:15-17).  Now, in penning his second epistle, Peter reserved the strongest words of divine rebuke for those who would substitute spiritual poison for the pure milk of the Word (cf. 1 Peter 2:2).  His pointed description completes the portrait of false teachers begun in 2:1-3.  (As the previous section did, so this one closely parallels Jude’s epistle.)

            “In this passage, the Holy Spirit does not specifically identify the targets of Peter’s criticism.  The text does not even give a detailed description of the exact errors being refuted.  It follows, then, that the apostle’s diatribe was intended to be applied generally to false teaching in any form and at any time.  Those who propagate doctrinal deception invite the highest levels of divine denunciation—condemnation that is deserved for at least fiver reasons:  their presumption, their  practices, their premium, their prophecies, and their perversion.”

12/11/2025 9:03 PM