The Apostasy And The Falling Away

Continuing on in 2 Peter 2, we find Peter describing people who have fallen away, among which are "false teachers" and "wolves in sheep's clothing" who are with us today. Please do not let the description of these people have you thinking you can recognize them easily. Multitudes are following after them. They are in different stages of apostasy and in many of the churches teaching and preaching. They are or have fallen away as they once escaped "the world’s corruptions through a full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Messiah,h they are again entangled and conquered by those corruptions. As a result "their last condition is worse than their former one".

2 Peter 2 ISV

9...the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials and to hold unrighteous people for punishment on the day of judgment, 10especially those who satisfy their flesh by indulging in its passions and who despise authority.

Being bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to slander glorious beings. 11Yet even angels, although they are greater in strength and power, do not bring a slanderous accusation against them from the Lord.

• 12These people, like irrational animals, 
• are mere creatures of instinct that are born to be caught and killed. 
• They insult what they don’t understand, 
• and like animals they, too, will be destroyed,
• 13suffering harm as punishment for their wrongdoing. 
• They take pleasure in wild parties in broad daylight. 
• They are stains and blemishes, 
• reveling in their deceitful pleasurese while they eat with you.
• 14With eyes full of adultery, they cannot get enough of sin. 
• They seduce unsteady souls 
• and have had their hearts expertly trained in greed. 
• They are doomed to a curse.f 
• 15They have left the straight path and wandered off to follow the path of Bosor’sg son Balaam, who loved the reward he got for doing wrong. 16But he was rebuked for his offense. A donkey that normally cannot talk spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s insanity.
• 17These men are dried-up springs, 
• mere clouds driven by a storm. 
• Gloomy darkness is reserved for them. 
• 18By talking high-sounding nonsense and using sinful cravings of the flesh, they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. 
• 19Promising them freedom, they themselves are slaves to depravity, for a person is a slave to whatever conquers him.

20For if, after escaping the world’s corruptions through a full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Messiah,h they are again entangled and conquered by those corruptions,i then their last condition is worse than their former one. 

21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to know it and turn their backs on the holy commandment that was committed to them. 

22The proverb is true that describes what has happened to them: “A dog returns to its vomit,”j and “A pig that is washed goes back to wallow in the mud.”k

               Onward Christian Soldiers