2 Peter 2:1

"The people" in view are God’s people in Old Testament times, the times to which Peter had just been referring (2 Peter 1:19-21). False prophets in Old Testament times sought to lead God’s people away from the revelations of the true prophets (cf. Numbers 22-24; Jeremiah 6:13; Ezekiel 13:9). False teachers in Peter’s time would try to lead God’s people away from the teaching of the apostles. These men-they were typically males in Peter’s day-would arise from the believers (cf. Jeremiah 5:31; Jeremiah 23:9-18; Acts 20:29). The term "false prophets" (Gr. pseudoprophetai) may refer to those who falsely claim to be prophets of God and or those who prophesy falsely. Likewise "false teachers" (Gr. pseudodidaskaloi) can refer to those who claim to be teachers of God’s truth but whom the churches’ leaders do not recognize as teachers and or those who teach falsehood. This is the only place that this Greek word for false teachers occurs in the New Testament.

Peter’s contrast between false prophets in Israel and false teachers in the church may suggest that teachers in the church had replaced prophets in Israel. However other references to prophets and teachers in the New Testament indicate that both were present in the church, and both were present in Israel. The contrast intended, therefore, must not be between former prophets and present teachers but between the true communicators of God’s Word and the false. In Israel prophets were the more prominent communicators of God’s truth whereas in the church teachers were. In Peter’s audience Jewish rabbis and other teachers who professed to communicate God’s truth posed the greatest threat to the Christians. By comparing false teachers in the church with false prophets in Israel Peter was saying that just as there were those who misrepresented God in Israel so there would be those who misrepresent Him in the church.

"Secretly introduce" literally means to bring in alongside. The heretics would seek to add some other teaching to the orthodox faith and or some other teaching as a substitute for the truth (cf. Galatians 2:4). The implication is that they would seek to do this in some underhanded way. They would unobtrusively change the doctrinal foundation of the church and thereby make it unstable. "Heresies" refers to ideas inconsistent with the revealed truth of God.

These men would go as far as even repeatedly or typically denying (present participle in Greek) teaching and practices associated with Christ. The inconsistency of their position is that they deny the Person they profess to submit to as Christians, their Master (Gr. despoten) Jesus Christ. Peter himself had denied Jesus three times, so he did not want others to follow his example.

When Jesus Christ died, He paid the penalty for everyone’s sins and redeemed (purchased, Gr. agorasanta) every human being in this sense, even unbelievers (John 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:4-6; 1 Timothy 4:10; Acts 17:30; Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 2:2). This verse supports the doctrine of unlimited atonement, the view that Jesus Christ died for everyone, not just for those whom He would later save. One limited atonement advocate believed that the whole case for unlimited atonement hangs on this verse. [Note: Gary D. Long, Definite Atonement, p. 68. For an analysis of Long’s arguments, see Andrew D. Chang, "2 Peter 2:1 and the Extent of the Atonement," Bibliotheca Sacra 142:565 (January-March 1985):52-63.] This is an over-simplification. Another writer said, ". . . no assertion of universal redemption can be plainer than this." [Note: Henry Alford, Alford’s Greek Testament, 4:402.]

Peter was not claiming that all the false teachers were Christians. In view of how he described them, most of them appear to have been unbelievers (cf. 2 Peter 2:4-6). However some of them could have been believers. Peter could have made it clear if he had in mind either unbelievers or believers exclusively, but he did not. Therefore the warning concerns any false teacher, unbeliever or believer. Of course, frequently only the teacher himself knows whether he is an unbeliever or a believer; others cannot tell.

". . . New Testament writers sometimes use the language of Christian conversion for such people [non-Christians] on the basis of their appearance." [Note: Moo, p. 154.]

The destruction of these heretics will be swift in the sense that when their judgment descends it will be sudden, not that it was about to descend shortly after Peter wrote. They were saying that the Lord was slow in coming to exercise judgment (2 Peter 3:9). Yet their own judgment was imminent (Gr. taxinen). Their spiritual rather than their physical destruction seems to be in view primarily. In the case of Christian false teachers who departed from the truth they previously embraced, they too brought sudden spiritual ruin on themselves. This ruin would come on them at Jesus Christ’s judgment seat (2 Corinthians 5:10) if not sooner.

"Ironically, the false teachers incur judgment by teaching that there will be no future judgment and thereby leading themselves and others into immorality." [Note: Bauckham, p. 241.]

". . . ’destruction’ for leading others to ’destruction’ is inevitable." [Note: Moo, p. 93.]

"False teachers are better known for what they deny than for what they affirm." [Note: Wiersbe, 2:447.]