Read & explore together
Deliverance from False Prophets
In this part of 2 Peter, the writer warns that false teachers can appear within God’s people, harm others by their words and ways, and face God’s judgment. The passage also says the Lord knows how to rescue the godly.
Understanding the passage
The setting of these words
This teaching comes as a warning in a letter. It speaks about false teachers among the readers, describes their character and influence, and uses examples already named in the passage to show both God’s judgment on ungodliness and his deliverance of the righteous.
2 Peter 2:1–22Main takeaway
This passage teaches that false teachers are dangerous and deceptive, yet the Lord knows both how to judge evil and how to deliver the godly.
Follow the letter’s teaching
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01False teachers and their damageThe passage opens by saying false teachers will be among the readers, secretly bringing in destructive teaching and denying the Master.
Explanation
The passage opens by saying false teachers will be among the readers, secretly bringing in destructive teaching and denying the Master. Their influence is not small. Many will follow their immoral ways, and this causes the way of the truth to be maligned. They also exploit people through covetousness and deceptive words.
02Examples of judgment and rescueThe writer then gives examples: God did not spare sinning angels, the ancient world, or Sodom and Gomorrah.
Explanation
The writer then gives examples: God did not spare sinning angels, the ancient world, or Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet God preserved Noah and delivered righteous Lot, who was distressed by lawless deeds. The conclusion is clear in the passage itself: the Lord knows how to deliver the godly and keep the unrighteous for judgment.
03What these teachers are likeThe false teachers are described as defiled, self-willed, slanderous, ignorant, deceitful and greedy.
Explanation
The false teachers are described as defiled, self-willed, slanderous, ignorant, deceitful and greedy. They feast with others while revelling in deceit, entice unsettled souls, and have hearts trained in greed. Their path is compared with Balaam, who loved the wages of wrongdoing and was rebuked for his disobedience.
04Empty promises and a worse endThe passage says these teachers are like wells without water and storm-driven clouds: they promise something but do not truly give it.
Explanation
The passage says these teachers are like wells without water and storm-driven clouds: they promise something but do not truly give it. Their proud but empty words entice people, and their promise of liberty is false because they are slaves of corruption. Turning back after knowing the way of righteousness leads to a worse condition.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01According to this passage, how do false teachers affect both themselves and other people?
Look for the results named in the opening verses, including destructive teaching, immoral influence, exploitation and coming destruction.
02Which examples in the passage show both God’s judgment and God’s rescue?
List the examples one by one, then notice the conclusion the writer draws about what the Lord knows how to do.
03Why are the promises of these teachers shown to be empty?
Notice the images of waterless wells and storm-driven clouds, then connect them with the statement that they promise liberty while being slaves of corruption.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
2 Peter 2:1–22
1But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.
2Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned.
3In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not slumber.
4For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment;
5and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly,
6and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way,
7and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked
8(for that righteous man dwelling among them was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds),
9then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
10but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries,
11whereas angels, though greater in might and power, don’t bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord.
12But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed,
13receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;
14having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin, enticing unsettled souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children!
15Forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing;
16but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A speechless donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the madness of the prophet.
17These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
18For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
19promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.
20For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog turns to his own vomit again,” and “the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire.”