2 Peter 2:1

The chapter opens with “But”, the small Greek connective dé, which can mark addition, sequence or contrast. Here it sets up a contrast. In 2 Peter 1:19–21 Peter has spoken of “a more sure word of prophecy”, given by God through his prophets. Having laid that firm foundation, he turns to the danger that grows up alongside it, and the rest of 2 Peter 2 describes these teachers, their methods and their judgment.

“There were false prophets also among the people” points back to Israel. Moses told Israel how to test a prophet who tried to lead them after other gods (Deuteronomy 13:1–5), and in Jeremiah’s day the LORD said, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not” (Jeremiah 14:14). Peter’s readers, who were probably believers in Asia Minor, knew these accounts, and they gave them a pattern for understanding the new danger. Jesus had warned of the same thing: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15).

“There shall be false teachers among you” uses ésomai, the ordinary future of the verb “to be”, “will be”. Peter is foretelling what is coming, so the church should expect false teaching as Israel met false prophecy. The word for false teachers, pseudodidáskalos, joins pseudēs (false) and didaskalos (teacher), and Strong’s defines it as “a spurious teacher, i.e. propagator of erroneous Christian doctrine”. These are counterfeits who present themselves as real instructors. The words “among you” place them inside the fellowship, which is what makes them so dangerous. Open opposition from outside is easy to see, while a teacher who sits among the believers and uses their language is much harder to spot.

The rest of the chapter fills in their portrait. They are greedy, sensual, arrogant and scornful of authority, and they promise freedom while they are themselves slaves of corruption. Peter calls them “wells without water” (2 Peter 2:17). In the early church, ideas that later grew into Gnosticism were beginning to spread, with a split view of spirit and matter, a denial of Christ’s full humanity or deity, and a belief that moral laws do not bind Christians, which is called antinomianism. Teaching like this fits the men Peter describes, who turned freedom into an excuse for immoral living.

“Who privily shall bring in” translates pareiságō, to bring something in alongside, quietly and by stealth. The false teachers present their errors as truth. They may reinterpret Scripture, stress some parts of it and pass over others, or bring in new “revelations” that gradually wear away what the church believes. Because the error comes dressed in familiar words, and often from trusted people, believers need discernment.

The word for heresies, haíresis, first meant a choice, and then a school of thought. In the New Testament it came to mean a faction that divides the church, or a teaching that departs from what the apostles taught. The KJV’s “damnable” translates apṓleia, which Strong’s defines as “ruin or loss (physical, spiritual or eternal)”. These are heresies of ruin. They strike at the heart of the gospel, they put the souls of those who accept them in danger, and they split the body of Christ.

At the centre of their error is what they do with Christ. To deny, arnéomai, is to refuse, disown, or say no. The word for Lord here is despótēs, “an absolute ruler”, which stresses Christ’s full authority and his ownership of his people. “Bought” is agorázō, the ordinary word for buying, used figuratively for redeeming. So Peter pictures the false teachers turning their backs on the Master who paid for them.

The price was his own life. Jesus came “to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), he is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and his people were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18–19). Paul says the same: “ye are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20). Denying the Lord who paid that price is apostasy, and it is deep ingratitude as well.

Such a denial can be open, as when someone rejects Christ’s deity or his atoning death. It can also be practical, through immoral living or through teaching that empties his grace and authority of their force. Jude brings the same charge against “ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4). Any teaching that lessens Christ’s deity, undermines his redeeming work or makes his grace unnecessary is an attack on the foundation of the faith. He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), and to deny him is to lose all three.

The verse ends with “and bring upon themselves swift destruction”. Their ruin is their own doing, the harvest of what they have chosen. “Swift” is tachinós, and it stresses that this judgment is certain and close at hand. Peter is speaking of God’s appointed time, which need not mean an immediate judgment in this life in every case. The destruction is spiritual and eternal ruin, and it comes from Christ, whom God ordained “to be the Judge of quick and dead” (Acts 10:42).

Verse 2 tells what these teachers will bring about. The word for “many”, polýs, means a great number, so their influence will be wide. “Follow” is exakolouthéō, built from “out of” and “to follow”, which describes people who give themselves to these teachers and copy their ways. Paul foresaw the same falling away: “in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy 4:1).

“Pernicious ways” is again apṓleia. It describes the false doctrine together with the immoral living that goes with it, paths that end in spiritual ruin.

“By reason of whom” makes the link plain. When many who claim Christ visibly follow these teachers, the world blames the faith itself. “The way of truth” uses hodós, way or road, for the whole Christian faith, its teaching and the righteous life it calls for. “Evil spoken of” is blasphēméō, to vilify, slander, speak impiously or blaspheme. The church was young and already widely misunderstood, slandered and persecuted, and corruption inside it gave its critics fresh material. Paul makes the same charge against Israel: “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written” (Romans 2:24).

Since Jesus is the way and the truth (John 14:6), when the way of truth is slandered it is Christ himself who is reviled. How God’s people live affects how the world sees him. Paul calls believers to live “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15), holding to Christ, the chief corner stone on whom the church is built (Ephesians 2:20).

Verse 3 names what drives these teachers. “Covetousness” is pleonexía, which Strong’s defines as “avarice, i.e. (by implication) fraudulency, extortion”. It is the craving for more, especially money and possessions, gained at the expense of others. Their spiritual talk covers a plan to profit.

Their method is “feigned words”. The word is plastós, “moulded”, and so artificial or made up. These words are shaped to fit what the teacher wants, through persuasive speech, flattery or twisted doctrine, and they are meant to deceive.

“Make merchandise of you” is emporeúomai, which Strong’s gives as “to travel in (a country as a pedlar), i.e. (by implication) to trade”. The false teachers treat believers as goods to sell or customers to work, a source of income in place of souls to care for. In the Greek and Roman world, many schools and cults competed for followers, and teachers often charged fees. Some were honest, but sophists and charlatans used clever speech for gain and preyed on the gullible, and new churches full of young converts were easy targets. Paul warned Titus about men “teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake” (Titus 1:11).

Jesus is the opposite of all this. “Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). He came to serve and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). He is the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep, while the hireling runs away (John 10:11–13). Against the feigned words of the false teachers stands the Word made flesh, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), whose words “are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

The verse closes with two matching phrases about God’s answer to these teachers. “Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not” uses ékpalai, “of a long time” or “from of old”, for a judgment that was settled long ago. “Lingereth” is argéō, to be idle, so the judgment is at work and will be carried out. “And their damnation slumbereth not” uses nystázō, to nod off or fall asleep. Peter speaks of judgment and ruin as if they were watchmen on duty, awake, alert and ready, and the two phrases together make a strong declaration that their end is certain.

Peter then proves it from history. God judged the angels who sinned, the old world in Noah’s day, and Sodom and Gomorrah (2 Peter 2:4–9). Paul speaks of those who store up “wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Romans 2:5), and the Father “hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22). Christ will judge those who lead others astray for gain, and those who follow him will find eternal life and freedom from all such exploitation.

Peter’s warning calls every believer to watchfulness. The Bereans “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11), and the better we know God’s word, the more readily we notice when it is bent. John tells us, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Jesus gave a test as well: “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15–20).

So it is right to look at a teacher’s life as well as his words. Does he show humility, integrity and real love for people, or do greed, pride and a hunger for power show through? Teaching that promises quick riches or easy answers, especially when it asks for large sums of money, deserves particular care. We can pray for wisdom, rely on the Holy Spirit, and listen to mature believers who warn us.

Peter’s words also turn back on us, because our own conduct reflects on the way of truth. We are to live in a way that adorns the gospel, so that God’s name is honoured. And through all of it we hold to the Lord who bought us. The false teachers deny him, but he paid for his people with his own blood, he is still their Master, and the judgment on those who prey on them is already awake.