But
there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false
teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even
denying the Lord who bought them, and
bring on themselves swift destruction.
And many will follow their
destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 2 Peter
2:1-2 NKJV
We
talked last week about the final words the apostle Peter chose to share with
the believers scattered around the country when he became aware that his life
was about to end. One of the subjects he
chose to discuss was the importance of living the godly life as a witness to an
unbelieving world which we discussed last week.
This week I want to talk a little about what we could call Peter’s final
warning to believers, and one which I believe is the most relevant to the
Church today.
After
spending most of his life serving God by spreading the Gospel of Christ and His
atonement for our sin, Peter saw a troubling future for the Church because of
the influence of false teachers who would abandon the message of Christ and
begin to teach other beliefs which were contrary to what Jesus had taught. Peter called these “destructive heresies”,
which in the day was probably the strongest condemnation he could use to
describe them.
I
will apologize in advance if today seems more like a lesson in Greek than
usual, but I think it will help us to better understand exactly how important
this message was to Peter, and why it should be to us as well. The phrase “destructive heresies” comes from the
two Greek words apōleia,
which translates as "the destruction which
consists of eternal misery in hell”, and hairesis,
which means “dissensions arising from
diversity of opinions and aims”. Clearly what Peter was warning the Church
about was the influence of those who would teach not the saving Gospel of
Christ, but rather a theology which would not only cause divisions, but
ultimately lead those who chose to believe them straight to hell.
When I read this, my first thought was that it seems clear Peter was
warning us to be suspicious of what we hear from those who teach, and not
blindly accept what is taught as being correct according to scripture. Now if that seems like it might be a strange
attitude to have, one only needs to look back to the Bereans in Acts to see
this in action.
Then
the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they
arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These
were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the
word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were
so. Acts 17:10-11 NKJV
The word for “searched” in the Greek is anakrinō, which means to
“examine
or judge, to investigate, examine, enquire into, scrutinize, sift, question,
specifically in a forensic sense of a judge to hold an investigation, to
interrogate, examine the accused or witnesses, to judge of, estimate, determine
(the excellence or defects of any person or thing)”. Now for me at least, this gives a whole new
meaning to the idea of studying scripture, and exactly how important it is to
take what we hear and compare it with what we find in scripture to see if it
agrees with what has already been revealed.
One of the first verses I can remember memorizing as a child is found in
the book of Timothy, and I’m sure many of you are familiar with it as well.
Study
to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will
increase unto more ungodliness. 2
Timothy 2:15-16 KJV
Study is the Greek word spoudazo, which means to "exert one's self, endeavour, give
diligence"; workman
is ergatēs, which means a "workman, a labourer"; and shun is periïstēmi,
"to turn one's self about for the purpose of avoiding something". Obviously the idea is clear that we are not
to just sit idly by in our comfortable seats and blindly accept whatever we
hear, but rather to take the time and effort to study, compare, and examine
what is taught in order to differentiate between what is right, and what is
false.
If we do find someone trying to teach what
Peter calls a destructive heresy, we are told to shun, or actually turn our back
on that teaching and the one who is trying to teach it. That in itself might seem not only harsh, but
to many a somewhat cruel thing to do, but I believe we need to understand that
Peter tells us clearly that this type of false doctrine leads people to
hell. It is not the saving Gospel of
Jesus Christ, and we as true believers need to stand up and fight against it.
Fight
the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also
called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many
witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12 NKJV
The word translated fight is agōnizomai, which means “to contend with adversaries,
fight, to contend, struggle, with difficulties and dangers, to endeavour with
strenuous zeal, strive: to obtain something”.
Obviously this is telling us that it won’t be easy, and we are in for a
long and dangerous fight, but it also seems perfectly clear that this is our
responsibility as believers.
O
Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions
of what is falsely called knowledge—by professing it some have strayed
concerning the faith. Grace be
with you. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:20-21 NKJV
The
warning from Peter has never been more relevant for the Church than it is today. There are many false teachers infiltrating
the Church and preaching ideas that are totally inconsistent with what is
revealed in scripture. Our
responsibility as true believers is to watch, examine, fight against, and turn
our backs on any teaching that is contrary to the saving Gospel of Christ. It won’t be easy, and it will be a fight, but
this is our calling as true believers and followers of Jesus Christ.
Keep
watching.
