God’s Word for You
2 Peter 2:17-19 waterless springs
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, July 31, 2022
17 These people are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. The deepest utter darkness has been reserved for them.
Solomon said, “Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts about gifts he does not give” (Proverbs 25:14). This is more than just a matter of empty promises. The garden of God’s kingdom must have the water of the gospel to survive, otherwise they will dry up and wither (Isaiah 1:30; Job 8:11). So false teachers give the impression that they will bring what people need, but they are like the high-flying cirrus clouds, the mare’s tails that never bring any rain of their own. Such false teachers have “deepest utter darkness reserved for them.” Damnation in hell is not a deficiency of God’s grace, nor is it an absolute decree of God as if he destines many to damnation without any regard to the working of the gospel or his word. Scripture only present’s man’s own guilt as the reason for damnation, and unbelief in particular, for which man has only himself to blame (Matthew 23:37). As the prophet says: “Your wickedness will punish you” (Jeremiah 2:19). And in another prophet: “You are destroyed because you are against me, against your helper” (Hosea 13:9). False teachers had the opportunity to serve God and benefit his people, but they only devoured them and thumbed their noses at their Judge.
18 They speak bombastic nonsense, and by appealing to the sensual passions of the flesh they entice people who are barely escaping from those who live in error.
This is a terrible truth. Luther explains it this way with his usual clarity: “When a child that has been baptized and has escaped from all sins and from the devil, and has been taken out of the old Adam and put into Christ, begins to reason, it is soon caught in a snare and led into error. One should teach people faith, love, and the holy cross. But [false teachers] come along and boast of their works” (LW 30:189).
Those works of the false teachers, along with their worship of human reason as if it were the queen of the house and not the serving girl, are precisely the kind of bombastic nonsense Peter is talking about. The Scriptures must reign supreme in our hearts, not anything within us. Not our reason, not our opinions, not our wishes, and certainly not our sinful passions. But those things are the whole monarchy of false teachers.
19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For a man is enslaved by whatever masters him.
The promise of freedom can only be made through the cross of Jesus Christ. Any other path, and every other path apart from the cross, does not lead to freedom but to slavery in sin all over again. The devil loves to betray wondering, wandering souls with will-o’-the-wisp promises that have no basis in Scripture at all, teachings that are masked as doctrines but aren’t even based on anything but folk tales and ignorance. Those teachers are worse than useless because of the souls that they lead astray.
Every morning a dozen women walk past my office window, enslaved by a false vow with no basis in the Bible, and even violating the Bible’s clear words: “The Spirit clearly says,” writes the Apostle, “that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth” (1 Timothy 4:1,3). And we confess these words with the whole church:
“Just as no human law can alter or abolish a command of God, neither can any vow alter a command of God. Women who are unable to keep their vows of chastity should marry. If they are unwilling or unable to keep their chastity, it is better for them to marry than to fall into the fire through their lusts, and they should see to it that they do not give their brothers and sisters occasion for offense” (Augsburg Confession XXIII:24-25).
And the confessions of the church say other things like this about the vows of nuns, but many more about the vows of monks and so-called celibate priests. For the evils of these vows are clear to everyone inside and outside the church today. And the introduction of celibacy as an enslaving and corrupt false teaching should never have been made in the first place. Its wickedness violates the estate of marriage, and does nothing at all to benefit the church.
When Peter teaches us that a man is enslaved by whatever masters him, he means any sin that is left unchecked and unrepented. These things become elevated to the point where the sin becomes more important to the sinner than Christ, and he is on his way to having a hardened heart. It is a deadly serious danger to become enslaved to a sin, just as it is a danger to become enslaved by a false doctrine. This is why we must continue to keep our preaching and teaching simple and clear, proclaiming law and gospel, sin and grace, justification and sanctification. Let us always proclaim Jesus our Savior, and the rescue from sin. This is the true and only path to everlasting life.
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.