2 Peter - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

occasionally occurs whether we understand it or not. It is always sin, sometimes residing
in one party, sometimes in both parties to the conflict. As in Peter’s reference, there is
always arrogant presumption involved. False teachers are not afraid to malign the
reputations of the legitimate teachers. The progressive present means they start out
whispering snide comments, but escalate their verbal attacks to the extent necessary to
destroy the authority of the legitimate pastor or teacher in an effort to replace them.
Sometimes the intent is to eject the legitimate pastor or teacher and enter the place of
authority themselves. At other times, several false teachers under a false system called
“plurality of elders” will conspire to remove a good man from office in favor of their
political candidate. This usually happens when the legitimate pastor has taught something
that irritated them or made some sin they harbored manifest to the other members of the
congregation. I have seen a “plurality of elders” force a legitimate pastor out of office. I
actually interviewed these so-called elders during the conflict using questionnaires, as an
attempt to get to the bottom of the issue and hopefully to return things to normality.
Unfortunately, what I found out was that every one of these “elders” knew less about the
Word of God than most children in our Bible classes. Their conspiracy was successful,
but the divine discipline that came afterwards was not pretty.
RELEVANT OPINIONS
They are sexually corrupt and they are spiritual anarchists … Both Peter and Jude
intimate that these godless people are engaging in homosexual practices similar to those
pursued by the Sodomites. (S. Kistemaker) The picture in this verse is of unrestrained
pursuit of pleasure with no sense of guilt because of the total loss of all conscience
toward authority, authority that speaks to whatever conscience the unrighteous may have
left but in these extreme cases is totally lost ... They have a lack of respect for the things
of God, a willingness to intrude into the church and twist the meaning of Scripture to suit
their ends. They have no fear of accountability, boldly taking matters into their own
hands. (W. Baker) Let us not look at this as if the Spirit of God were describing some
lower strata of humanity of the distant past, from which the masses have arisen in
religious or cultural attainment. Peter is not discussing either the heathen world, or the
world where the light of the gospel of Christ has never penetrated. He is actually
discussing what we call “the Christian world.” In the midst of this religious apostasy
diabolical inventions for the destruction of mankind have been fostered. (T. Westwood)
By their teaching and their way of life these wrongheaded Christians also despise
authority. (D. Senior)
The rulers of the church would naturally rebuke the false teachers, and these would
naturally reply in unmeasured language. (C. Bigg) The false teachers are headstrong,
rebellious against the will of God, and reckless of the consequences. They are
contemptuous of other people, be these human or divine. They are self-willed; the sensual
man always is, for in the last analysis self is all that matters to him. His hell is this, that
his world contracts until the only thing he has left is the self he has corrupted. Who can
say that 2 Peter is irrelevant to our generation? (M. Green) The word rendered “daring”
occurs nowhere else in the NT. These daring, self-willed men despise all lordship, all