Understanding the Wickedness of the False Teacher

“But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.”

• Defying Nature 

Last week we determined clearly that God knows the righteous from the wicked and how to treat each accordingly. He is precise in his mercy but also in his fury. We saw further description of the false teacher “those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority” and that they unflinchingly blaspheme the “glorious ones.”

Now, starting in verse 12 we’re given more insight into the character and nature of the false teacher. The section of text begins by comparing them to irrational animals, but is wrapped up by an animal speaking truth to an unrighteous prophet, which I think shows the depth of the unnaturalness of the false teacher. I’ve recently been fixated on Job 38-41 where God answers Job and the enormity of what God has to say. Part of this is God showing his intimate knowledge of the workings of his creation in nature, how he cares for them and to some extent how they recognize Him in Job 38:40-39:30. In particular 38:41, “Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food?” I don’t expect an animal to have comprehension of God as we do; they weren’t made in His image and they lack knowledge of good and evil. But it seems to me that nature, and the animals in it, functioning as they were designed, points a kind of glory and praise back to their Creator. So false teachers aren’t simply called animals, which would be insult enough, they’re irrational animals. They aren’t just out of sync but pointedly counter to the perfect design of God.

• Ensnaring the Unsteady

2 Peter 2:3 told us that, “Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” In keeping with this we’re now told that they are, “creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing.” We continually see that the false teacher is digging their own grave in perverting the gospel and blaspheming against God. While sad and disturbing, the most troubling part is that we’re also told repeatedly that their teachings will catch hold, and lead some astray.

“They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime.” Revels, partying, debauchery, drunkenness – all things typically associated with being done under cover of darkness are done without regard and in full view. “They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.” This paints a picture of their openness and triumph in their deceit done right before you – they are bold and proud in their blasphemy showing their wickedness and their foolishness (Proverbs 18:2, “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion”).

“They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin.” Comparing this against what Jesus said in Matthew 6:22, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” To have “eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin” points to the darkest of minds and the blackest of souls.

“They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!” Jesus says in Matthew 18 and Mark 9 “whoever causes one of these little ones to sin…” (I have always taken this as literal children, but also baby Christians), “…it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea” (sort of combining the wording of the two passages). “They entice unsteady souls” the false teacher preys on those who are weak or new in their faith, they have “hearts trained in greed.” Why would they pointedly go after those who are unsteady? Because their doctrine is false! If we are familiar with Truth, if we’re firm in our faith, if we’re trained up in righteousness and wearing the full armor of God, then these falsehoods can’t take root. The false teacher brings upon themselves absolute disaster and ruin, but if our house is not built on the rock, we sign ourselves up to follow them.

• The Way of Balaam

“Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.”

I stopped when I got to Balaam and looked up where his account was in the bible, went to Numbers 22, backed up for some context and then read his story. When I read it the first time I missed it – I didn’t really see what Balaam had done wrong. He asked God questions, God gave him answers and he seemed to follow His instructions. Then I read it again, keeping in mind that God is perfect in all things and knowing that Balaam had to have done something wrong. It reminded me a little of how I felt reading Exodus 4:24. In verse 23 God is sending Moses to Egypt with a mission and a message, in verse 24 God is seeking to put him to death. There was such a sharp 180 that I was completely thrown the first time I read this and turned to a “Christian questions” website to try to help make sense of this. It pointed to how important the covenant of circumcision was between God and His people and here was Moses going to lead the Jews out of Egypt with his son uncircumcised – it didn’t exactly paint a picture of faithfulness to the spirit of what God was sending him to do. It also reminded me somewhat of Cain (a parallel  that I didn’t know was already made in Jude). We’re never told explicitly that Cain phoned in his offering, that his heart wasn’t in it, but we’re shown that perfect God had regard for Able’s sacrifice and not Cain’s, revealing that it was lacking. He was going through the motions, doing what he was “supposed” to do, but the sacrifice was empty, it was unpleasing before God. This ties into the message that Jesus repeats to the Pharisees over and over again, concerning their obsession with the Sabbath, with cleanliness and purity, “straining out gnats and swallowing camels.” It’s also what earned Saul his disfavor before God and led to David’s anointment as the king of Israel. It’s the spirit, the intent, the aim of what you do for God that matters – and returning to the case of Balaam, his aim was not right. It dawned on me that this is a man who, while acknowledged as a legitimate prophet, was not with the people of Israel, but at Pethor, and sought out as a diviner by the king of an enemy nation. He acknowledges the sovereignty of God, who he calls his, saying in Numbers 22:18, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the LORD my God to do less or more…” It’s like he gets it, he acknowledges who God is and yet the words of his donkey and then those of the angel of the Lord point out his true intent and the condition of his heart, “… Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me…” We see in Numbers that Balaam repeatedly appeals to God to see if he may be allowed to curse the people of Israel, only to be denied and have the curses turned to blessings. Numbers 25 shows the people of Israel committing sexual immorality and worshiping false gods. Revelation 2:14 shows us that this was Balaam’s work, advising the king of Moab to target Israel this way after the failed attempts to curse them.

Balaam is lumped in with one other where he’s mentioned in Jude – Korah. So the false teacher in likened to the first man to commit murder, a greedy, corrupt prophet who knew God in mind but not spirit and to the man who attempted rebellion against Moses, Aaron and God in the wilderness and was swallowed up by the earth itself.

The way of the false teacher is seductive, especially to ears that don’t know Truth. It is poison from those cursed and trained in greed. It’s not that they don’t know the right way, they have pointedly forsaken it to go astray. Their corruption is unrestrained – but nature, the God created world, existence itself cries against them. Their destruction is absolutely certain, and it will be terrible.

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrVSbPCMPKg