2 Peter - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

According to the previous verse, the false teachers and their reversionistic followers had
a full knowledge of the way of righteousness and had lived the Christian way of life for
some time. But in their arrogance and negative volition, they turned away from the truth
and embraced the heresy and depraved lifestyle of the cosmic system. So it was
happening to them (Intensive Perfect tense) just as the true proverb or maxim stated:
“The dog returned to his vomit and the sow which had cleaned itself to mud wallowing.”
Maybe it doesn’t mean much, but “dog” is in the masculine and “sow” is in the feminine.
The dog is polluted on the inside, the sow is polluted on the outside. Both animals had
gotten rid of their own brand of filth, but both returned to the very filth they had
previously rejected. This is a perfect metaphor, partially from Proverbs 26:11 and
perhaps the rest from Hellenestic Jewish proverbs, that describes reverse-process
reversionism. In this context, believers are living like dogs and hogs even though they are
truly His sheep.
As positive Christians they turned from their sins and walked “the way of righteousness”
for awhile, but as negative Christians they returned to their sins old with relish. There is a
big difference between a dirty sheep and a filthy sow. Note: I did not put a comma in this
passage before the word “and” because that would make it two proverbs instead of one
proverb – and proverb is singular in the Greek. Again, the false teachers and their
followers are Christians. Once upon a time they had an epignosis of the truth; unbelievers
never have an epignosis of the truth. Some commentators ignore all the references in 2
Peter that require the false teachers to be Christians. They cannot imagine a believer
choosing to live like a dog or a hog, although I have personally known dozens (if not
hundreds) who are doing that very thing!. Either they have lived in an ivory tower too
long or they are totally divorced from reality. Christians who are not following the
protocol plan of God for the Church Age can self-destruct and enter polarized
fragmentation. One pole is legalism, the other pole is antinomianism. These believers are
destroying themselves by engaging in antinomian behavior.
The early church had this same problem. They had “great difficulty understanding how a
Christian once converted would ever deliberately turn away from the gospel and leave
the community (Hebrews 6:4-6) … To throw this life of love aside and to turn back to a
senseless life of indulgence is the awful tragedy 2 Peter struggles with. This regression is
its own punishment.” (D. Senior) It is the fact that they once were growing Christians,
with an epignosis (full knowledge) of the “way of righteousness” that makes this such a
painful issue for Peter in the first place! The “way of righteousness” can only be lived by
a Christian because it requires the indwelling and filling of the Holy Spirit, which
unbelievers do not have. The central tragedy and warning of this entire epistle is that
some Christians can become false teachers and actually entice other Christians to join
them in sin! There are hundreds of warnings in the NT directed toward weak or newlyconverted
Christians. If there was no chance that a believer could fall into any of these
sins, why would God spend so much time warning believers to avoid them? Hello? You
present the gospel to unbelievers, you don’t warn them about bad behavior.
RELEVANT OPINIONS