Devotional on 2 Peter

2014 – Yosemite National Park

Not the most encouraging chapter in the Bible

2Peter 2: Their evil will boomerang on them.

If you’re looking for some comforting, uplifting, encouraging words from the Bible, I suggest you skip 2Peter Chapter 2! This is full blown “hell, fire, brimstone” preaching. Peter is writing to scattered believers who are under considerable pressure from outsiders who don’t understand their faith. Now, to top that off, there are so-called “teachers” traveling here and there pretending to be Christians but are actually hucksters trying to get out of gullible believers anything they can. Peter warns his readers about such people and then he lowers the boom on these unprincipled predators. He takes us back to some of the Old Testament stories of God’s judgment: Sodom and Gomorrah and the Great Flood. He describes the false teachers in the worst of terms: insolent, brutes, loudmouths who are headed for “a black hole in hell.” Peter’s words are so heated that you can practically warm your hands above the page! The thing that has him so riled up is that these predators are preying on God’s people. Peter is good and mad and, according to him, so is God. Apparently, God takes it personally when individuals take unfair advantage of his people. Directly stated, he’s not going to put up with it. On one hand, there’s an encouragement here for believers to be prudent in who they allow to influence them in spiritual matters. On the other hand, there’s a warning for any who try it. Even though Peter uses every description he can think of in describing what’s coming for such people I can’t help but come away thinking that the actual judgment of God will be even worse.

Take Away: Be careful who you allow to influence you in spiritual matters.

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