God Speaks
But there were false prophets, too, in those days, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly tell their lies about God, turning against even their Master who bought them; but theirs will be a swift and terrible end. 2 Many will follow their evil teaching that there is nothing wrong with sexual sin. And because of them Christ and his way will be scoffed at.
3 These teachers in their greed will tell you anything to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago and their destruction is on the way. 4 For God did not spare even the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell, chained in gloomy caves and darkness until the judgment day. 5 And he did not spare any of the people who lived in ancient times before the flood except Noah, the one man who spoke up for God, and his family of seven. At that time God completely destroyed the whole world of ungodly men with the vast flood. 6 Later, he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into heaps of ashes and blotted them off the face of the earth, making them an example for all the ungodly in the future to look back upon and fear.
7-8 But at the same time the Lord rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a good man, sick of the terrible wickedness he saw everywhere around him day after day. 9 So also the Lord can rescue you and me from the temptations that surround us, and continue to punish the ungodly until the day of final judgment comes. 10 He is especially hard on those who follow their own evil, lustful thoughts, and those who are proud and willful, daring even to scoff at the Glorious Ones without so much as trembling, 11 although the angels in heaven who stand in the very presence of the Lord, and are far greater in power and strength than these false teachers, never speak out disrespectfully against these evil Mighty Ones.
12 But false teachers are fools—no better than animals. They do whatever they feel like; born only to be caught and killed, they laugh at the terrifying powers of the underworld which they know so little about; and they will be destroyed along with all the demons and powers of hell.*
13 That is the pay these teachers will have for their sin. For they live in evil pleasures day after day. They are a disgrace and a stain among you, deceiving you by living in foul sin on the side while they join your love feasts as though they were honest men. 14 No woman can escape their sinful stare, and of adultery they never have enough. They make a game of luring unstable women. They train themselves to be greedy; and are doomed and cursed. 15 They have gone off the road and become lost like Balaam, the son of Beor, who fell in love with the money he could make by doing wrong; 16 but Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey spoke to him with a human voice, scolding and rebuking him.
17 These men are as useless as dried-up springs of water, promising much and delivering nothing; they are as unstable as clouds driven by the storm winds. They are doomed to the eternal pits of darkness. 18 They proudly boast about their sins and conquests, and, using lust as their bait, they lure back into sin those who have just escaped from such wicked living.
19 “You aren’t saved by being good,” they say, “so you might as well be bad. Do what you like; be free.”
But these very teachers who offer this “freedom” from law are themselves slaves to sin and destruction. For a man is a slave to whatever controls him. 20 And when a person has escaped from the wicked ways of the world by learning about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then gets tangled up with sin and becomes its slave again, he is worse off than he was before. 21 It would be better if he had never known about Christ at all than to learn of him and then afterwards turn his back on the holy commandments that were given to him. 22 There is an old saying that “A dog comes back to what he has vomited, and a pig is washed only to come back and wallow in the mud again.” That is the way it is with those who turn again to their sin.
Source: The Living Bible: BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: This chapter appears to describe my nation (USA) at this point in history as if Peter were reading our newspapers or watching our newscasts. Wicked, evil people are propagating and disseminating ideas and actions that are contrary to righteousness and truth as set forth in the scriptures. They have secretly introduced destructive heresies and are now actively promoting them. Many are following their shameful ways and bringing the way of truth into dispute. These “teachers” are exploiting people with stories they have made up. Condemnation is hanging over them and their destruction is on the way. Some people in the world are like Satan and the host of angels who rebelled along with him. They have been and will remain rebellious for all their existence. Some are like the people before the great flood: the thoughts of their hearts and their resulting actions are only evil continually. Many are like Lot whose righteous soul was tormented by the filthy lives of lawless people he witnessed daily. The situation is especially dire for those who have come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord but have again become entangled with and been overcome by the world. They are worse off than they were before.
Prayer: Dear gracious and merciful God, please rescue Your people from the false philosophies, ideologies, and sinful behaviors permeating our society. It is leading us down the path of judgment and destruction like Satan and the angels who rebelled, the culture before the great flood, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In each of these cases, by Your grace, You reserved at least a remnant–2/3 of the angelic hosts, Noah and his family, and Lot and his daughters (because of Abraham’s intercession). My nation deserves Your judgment of death for the violence and blatant lawlessness; for the rampant disrespect for authority (even in the home); for the murder of unborn children as well as the physical and sexual abuse of so many of the children who do live; for deceitful business practices of all kinds; for perverted sexual practices (even in our churches); for selfishness and greed in every area of life; for the government’s arrogant disregard for its citizens, its own laws, and the God-honoring principles on which it was founded; for those charged with disseminating information who are covering up or promoting falsehood; for those charged with protecting and educating children who are instead leading them into destructive thoughts and actions; for those charged with promoting excellence, beauty, respect, and enjoyment who instead are propagating dissention, ugliness, disrespect, and misery. Even those of us who claim to be Your followers blaspheme, slander, and mock things we don’t understand or fear. For some, their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight (gay pride parades or wholesale looting of stores). Their eyes are full of adultery. They never stop sinning. They seduce the unstable. They are experts in greed. They love the wages of wickedness. They mouth empty and boastful words, appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature. They follow the corrupt desires of their sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant men slander celestial beings. As a nation and as individuals, we all deserve Your wrath. You have every right to destroy us all in devastating judgment, wiping the USA and the whole human race off the map; however, there are many (millions? Only You know the exact number.) who have been made righteous by placing their faith in Christ alone to save them. As Abraham pleaded with You for Sodom and Gomorrah, I plead for my nation and world, “Will You sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from You! Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?” It was for that very reason You sent You Son, Jesus the Messiah, to earth to die in our place to satisfy Your judgment of man’s sin. Lord, please draw many people to believe on Jesus Christ and to love one another. For Your glory, Lord. AMEN
Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, which one of these He wants you to work on or something else more personal that He points out.)
- I will read, contemplate, and pray the prayer above aloud, meaning it in my heart.
- I will, after reading each sin listed above, repeat aloud, “Jesus suffered and died for that sin. I receive His forgiveness and apply His righteousness to that situation. I will cooperate as He deals with the problem. I will praise God whatever happens.”
- I will receive the Lord’s forgiveness as I confess any of the above sins in which I have participated and any others that I’ve done that aren’t listed.
- I will ask at least one person I trust to agree with and join me in praying this prayer of repentance.
Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.