13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. 14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! 15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. (2 Peter 2:13-16)
In our text today, Peter reminds us these false teachers will experience the law of reciprocity for their behavior which included the desire to harm others, openly displaying irresponsible partying, adultery, seduction of the vulnerable, and greed. Such is life, what we sow is what we reap.
Can you imagine there were "teachers" like this in the church in Peter's day. My question is why did they have a following? We shall see why as we work through today's text.
Peter is about to die and these are his last words. He is warning the believers to not follow these so called teachers. In v.15, Peter tells us that these "false teachers" followed the way of Balaam, not the examples of the afore mentioned Noah and Lot.
This brings up a very important point: God always gives us good examples to follow. Now, Noah and Lot were not perfect, by they believed in the God of the Bible and they were defined by Him at times. And, even though they had their own problems, this life is about emulating their faith. This merely underscores that it is not the amount of our faith that makes us right with God, it is the object of our faith.
Note the words they, these and them. These words describe the false teachers. It is healthy to distinguish those who are not defined by God from those who are. Conclusion: we must be careful who we walk with and are influenced by in a given day.
These "false teachers" went to way of Balaam. The story of Balaam is found in Numbers 22. The Israelites had left Egypt and were approaching the land of Moab, Balak, the king, was afraid of them and sent for Balaam, a prophet, and offered him money (Numbers 22:7) to come and curse the Israelites.
The story of Balaam illustrates that he loved gain from someone willing to pay for his prophetic services. These false teachers were charging the believers of their day for their special teaching. Having paid for their teaching, these believers took their teaching more seriously!
According to 2 Peter 2:15 these false teachers "had left the straight way and wandered off." I find it instructive that throughout the New Testament God warns us about the things that would derail us from following Him. In today's text, we are warned about "leaving the straight way." There will always be those who challenge God's narrow truth. The people of Noah's day said that.
We leave the straight way when we forget the God who placed the knowledge of Himself in us. We leave the straight way when we are not careful to evaluate, to think deeply, to be guided by the word of God.
To help us to stay on the straight way, each day we must be careful to be framed up by the definitions of God on a given subject. In addition, it is a good practice to find people who are defined by God's culture and learn from them.
In order to lead the orchestra, we must turn our backs to the crowd.
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