False Teachers

Q. I was recently studying 2Peter Ch 2 when the following verses kind of hit me strange:

20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Do I understand that if we were sinners then came to Christ then sinned again, we are worse off than before? I came to Christ 5 years ago but know I sin every day…does this mean I am worse off than before? Sure, I am trying to walk like Christ but we all, as humans, sin.

A. Your own experience tells you that your interpretation of the passage can’t be correct.

All of 2 Peter 2 has to do with false teachers, who know the gospel but have only an intellectual understanding of it, not an emotional commitment to it, and have misrepresented it to others. In other words although knowing the way to salvation, they haven’t taken it themselves, nor have they led others to do so. They’re in a worse state than before because they can no longer claim ignorance when they are called to account, and because they’ve helped lead others astray as well. In Matt 7:13-23 Jesus addressed the same issue. His point was that it’s not what you say that matters, nor even what you do, but Who you have in your heart.

Everyone continues to sin after being saved, though not as blatantly and not as frequently, because salvation doesn’t take away our sin nature. That’s why the Bible says, whoever believes will be saved, not whoever behaves. It’s also why 1 John 1:9 is so important to us. “If we confess our sins, He is just and faithful and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”