God’s Word for You
2 Peter 2:14-16 The sins of false teachers
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, July 30, 2022
14 They are always on the lookout for an adulteress. They never stop sinning. They seduce unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. They are cursed children. 15 They left the right way and went astray.
Beware of false teachers! Peter knows that no matter how many warnings he gives, it won’t be enough for some. There will always be a few who will be swayed by false teachers, often based on nothing more than the heretic’s smile, or eyes, or haircut. And the wicked man uses these things because he is “always on the lookout for an adulteress.” Peter could have said, “They’re all adulterers,” and that would have been the same idea, but this is the common sin among them all. They will always be out to gratify their sinful desires, and they will take advantage of any woman who is in the least bit interested, or vulnerable, or wanton, or whatever.
“They seduce unsteady souls.” Here Peter transitions perfectly from carnal, sexual sins into other temptations, since flocks are often ready to follow a new voice, and people can be talked into all manner of sins when they are “unsteady souls.” In many cases, this is not an obvious sin from the second table of the law, but a hidden one from the first table. Here is where Christians are lured into false forms of worship, strange ideas about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, baptisms for the dead (1 Corinthians 15:29), setting up extra rules for baptism and knocking down what the Scriptures teach about fellowship and the Lord’s Supper and salvation through faith in Christ alone.
“They have hearts trained in greed.” Again, Peter could have just said, “They are greedy,” but they use such detailed schemes and grift that they betray a training in greed. Do you want to get rich quick? Become a false pastor, one who is not called by the church, but is a hireling, who isn’t answerable to God (he thinks) but who is free to say anything people expect him to say and then take their money. These are scoundrels who think that if a man isn’t careful with his money, then he doesn’t deserve to have it and it should be taken from him. His own proverb will be laid on his head: If he isn’t careful to take the path of eternal life, then he doesn’t deserve to have it and it will be taken from him. Forever.
“They are cursed children.” This is probably a Hebrew phrase, because it echoes out of the Old Testament in statements like: “A brood of sinners” (Numbers 32:14), “A cursed and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land” (Job 30:8), and “The arrogant are cursed; they stray from your commands” (Psalm 119:21). And God says in the commandments: “punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me” (Exodus 20:5). If it is God himself who curses, what can be done? Sinners flee like Adam scurrying away under the canopy of Eden. The only response is to repent, but a false teacher doesn’t think he needs to repent, and so judgment is upon him.
They have followed the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved wages from wrongdoing. 16 But he was rebuked for his personal wrongdoing by a speechless donkey that spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
The story of Balaam is in Numbers 22-24. The incident with the donkey is in Numbers 22:21-34. Dr. George Stoeckhardt reports that “Some of the older interpreters say the ass merely protested by crying “Ia, Ia!” (Hee haw, hee haw!). But [this] New Testament report of the miracle rejects such an interpretation and insists on retaining the miracle as reported in the Old Testament. Peter states in unmistakable terms that the ass, naturally speechless, spoke with human voice.” Through the human speech of an inhuman beast, the pagan prophet was kept from his “wages from wrongdoing.” His madness from money drove him to do anything he could be paid to do. He was rebuked by a donkey, and he hardly seems to have been surprised to hear the animal speak, as if his personal surroundings had become so perverse because of his sinfulness that such a thing didn’t seem too strange.
Satan had once used a dumb animal to tempt believing Eve into sinning and bringing a curse on all people. Now the Lord used a dumb animal to keep unbelieving Balaam from compounding his sin and cursing God’s people.
Peter has shown us how dangerous it is to yield any part of Christian doctrine; the straight teaching of the Word of God. Once anyone leaves that safe harbor…
1, He will drift into spiritual disaster (“they have left the right way and went astray,” vs. 15).
2, He will fall deeper and deeper into sinful, moral ruin (“always on the lookout for an adulteress; they never stop sinning” vs. 14).
3, He will shipwreck his salvation, and fall into everlasting judgment (“the wages of wrongdoing… they are cursed” vs 14-15).
Holy Father, keep us on the lookout for false teachers, and for the smoldering rise of false doctrine wherever it may appear. Keep us firmly fixed on your word in our hearts and in our ears, and bless us with pastors and teachers who prepare us for Christian living, but especially for eternal life through faith in Jesus our Savior. Amen.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.