2 Peter 2:3,4 - False teachers condemned

2:3

“In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories”. How true of some prosperity teachers. People using the gospel as a means to enrich themselves is nothing new. It happened two thousand years ago, and it happens now. The worst thing is that it is often the poor whom they exploit. As Peter says here, “their condemnation has long been hanging over them”. They will one day have to give an account to God for their behaviour, and there will be no fooling of Him.

We should note how seriously the New Testament treats false teachers and false teachings. This is an area where most branches of the church have seriously lost their way. There are of course two extremes. There are some operating so-called discernment ministries who seem to delight in finding fault. This is not the way to go, but the church must treat sound doctrine and teaching as a serious matter, and servants of the gospel should be expected to teach accurately.

2:4

We now enter a section which is similar to Jude, and contains one or two that, to us, seem rather odd references. However, the primary emphasis is on judgement on those who defy the Lord and seek to mislead His people. There are so many who seem to think that judgement went out of the window with Jesus. Such people just haven’t got a clue, and have not read the New Testament. The New Testament, including, even especially, the words of Jesus are full of judgement.

The fallen angels may be a reference to Gen 6:1-4. Jude quotes from the Book of Enoch, which rather adds to the Genesis account. It is also possible that Peter is referring to the fallen angels we read of in Revelation. The word used for “hell” is tartarus, and this is its only occurrence in the New Testament. The word was used by the Greeks for a place where evil spirits were sent to be punished. As an aside, this is a warning about being careful in how we interpret the word hell in the Bible. The English word is used in different translations to translate different Greek words. If a preacher starts giving fancy stories on some Biblical reference to hell then check it out very carefully, he may be doing nothing more than putting together some superficially clever ideas which actually have little basis in Scripture.