2 PETER 2 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 315] 2 PETER 2 (NOTES OF A READING)
Rem It would help us if you would say a little as to the import of the thought of prophecy in this dispensation. It says in chapter 1: 19, “We have the prophetic word made surer”. I suppose that refers to the prophetic truth in the previous dispensation as to Christ.
CAC Yes, clearly, I think. It is “no prophecy of scripture”; that refers to what is written, what “holy men of God spake under the power of the Holy Spirit”. It is well to take heed to it.
Rem The prophecies formed a great part of the Old Testament — “the prophetic word”.
CAC Yes.
Rem These false prophets call great attention to themselves.
CAC Well, it has been pointed out that prophetic words all speak of Christ, of His sufferings and the glories after these, and it had all been made surer by the actual vision of Christ glorified. They had seen Him glorified on the holy mount. Now the terrible fact comes to light that, notwithstanding what had been seen on the holy mount and testified by those who saw it, there would be false prophets “among the people”, that is, among Christians. We need not be surprised if we find false teachers.
Rem I suppose a true prophet would bring the mind of God to those to whom he is sent. I wondered if it was wider than prophesied events; that is, things that are to come. The prophet had in view a scene that God would bring in, all doubtless centring in Christ. In Corinthians, Paul speaks of prophesying, not future things, but things in the mind of God bearing on His people at the moment.
CAC Yes. There is a difference between the inspired prophetic word and the prophetic word as we may have it in [p. 316] the assembly; that is, we have to exercise ourselves when listening to prophecy to follow it carefully and judge if it is right. So it is on a different footing from the prophetic word in the Scriptures. You do not judge the word of Isaiah or Jeremiah; we allow their word to judge us, so it is a different character of things. These men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, and so are worthy of the most serious consideration. What we have to do with now is persons who are false teachers perverting Scripture. And their general tendency is to covetousness. Nearly all the false teachers in our day do very well by it; they get fabulous sums of money.
Ques Might it be also to get a place or a hearing, a following?
CAC Yes.
Rem It says, “Do not lightly esteem prophecies; but prove all things, hold fast the right” (1 Thessalonians 5: 20, 21). I suppose that is the right word for us.
CAC Yes.
Rem “Do ye judge what I say”. Paul used that word, he would have the saints to judge (1 Corinthians 10: 15). Scripture would provide a means by which things should be judged.
We were referring last time to the scope of prophecy, “The scope of no prophecy of scripture is had from its own particular interpretation”. The true width of the scope would balance with the whole truth.
CAC Yes, that was always to be kept in mind. False teachers pick out certain parts of Scripture to suit their ideas; it is what marks false teachers. They never take the scope of Scripture, they take isolated passages out of their context.
You can prove anything like that. But God is going to judge evil wherever it is, and false teachers are generally persons who live in a fleshly way. We do not always hear that side, but I believe false teachers lead evil lives as a general principle. But everything is going to be judged; it is one great subject of Peter’s writing in this epistle, that God’s government [p. 317] is active and unfailingly works against the wicked wherever they are. God does not spare even angels if they sin, so He certainly will not spare false teachers and those who bring in destructive heresies. They are sure to be judged.
Ques And “bringing upon themselves swift destruction”. Is it that they bring themselves under destruction morally?
CAC Yes.
Rem So this outline is itself prophetic as to what is coming in. These teachers verify what he writes. It is like what Paul says in Acts 20; all these features verify it.
CAC And it is rather noticeable that the false teachers of the present day make a great deal of the coming of the Lord, and ensnare people, showing that whatever is of God, Satan will take up and use for his own ends. We have to be careful when we listen to people, when they say a good deal that is true. If I find a person seeking to spread what is evil, I always feel I must be very reserved in what I may say to them of the truth, because they will use any truth I may put in their way to serve their master. So I should say very little. It is very little good arguing with them; you want to push the sword of the Spirit right through them! Get at their conscience; and none of them have a good conscience, you can be quite sure of that.
Rem They generally declare themselves sooner or later.
CAC This chapter is an important part of Scripture as showing there will be false teachers, and they are mostly marked by the features Peter speaks of. It is well to be warned. Peter does not speak of these people as having any hope of recovering them; there is no thought of that; they are earning what they will get. They will most certainly come under divine judgment.
Ques In reference to Noah he says, “The eighth”. Why does he add that?
CAC There was a very small minority who escaped at that time.
Ques Was it perhaps to emphasise the fewness of those [p. 318] who were right? People often boast of vast numbers. The Roman Catholics say, we are several hundred million; surely we must be right. It never does to think that majorities are right; Scripture would make one afraid of being with a great number.
CAC We certainly would not gather from Scripture that it was safe to go with the multitude, and God is all the time judging things morally. If evil teachers were all turned inside out and exposed to view as they really are, who would listen to them?
Ques Why is Noah spoken of as “a preacher of righteousness”?
CAC I suppose that was the character of his testimony; he insisted upon what was right. He was the only right man of his day, and he was a herald of what was right. But people prefer to listen to what is wrong. One great teacher of heresy in our time said before he died that the vast fortune that had come to him was because he told people there was no hell. People prefer to be told what is wrong. It is very much easier for false teachers to get money than for those seeking to spread the truth! A great deal of covetousness is mixed up with it all.
Rem It is beautiful to see that “the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah” (1 Peter 3: 20), giving an opportunity of escape.
CAC And God is doing that now, He is waiting patiently.
Rem The thought of preservation through judgment is very encouraging.
CAC Yes, you see that in Noah, and in Lot, too, though Lot was not a very noble character. He says of him, “Dwelling among them”, or ‘Settling down among them’ (see note h, Darby Translation). You would wonder that a man of any piety could settle down in such a place. Lot is a warning to every Christian today.
Rem I suppose with such the fact that their souls are [p. 319] vexed is an evidence that there is something of God in them. It is a beacon, a warning; at the same time there is the faithfulness of God in rescuing them.
CAC Lot had the wrong sort of advantage in his mind. It was all very pleasant to look at, it looked like the “garden of Jehovah” (Genesis 13: 10). Well, what sort of eyes have we got? If we are looking out for worldly or temporal advantage, we shall probably find ourselves in Sodom! We have to learn to judge of things morally and not to be impressed by the nice things that people can say, or the advantage things seem to be, but to judge of them morally, what they are in the sight of God. If believers were set on a better and fuller knowledge of Christ they would be preserved, because Satan never brings that.
Rem To execute judgment is the honour that God will put on His saints (Psalm 149).
CAC Yes.
Ques Why does Peter refer to those who despise lordship and “do not fear speaking injuriously of dignities”? He says such are bold and self-willed.
CAC The persons whom Peter has in view are governed in every way by fleshly lusts and pride, and self-exaltation of the flesh. It is not good to get on that line at all. We can test everything very simply by asking, Is it of the Spirit of God, or is it of the flesh? All these persons that Peter has before him are persons moving entirely in the flesh. It comes out in false teaching and ungodly lives, and in speaking evil of dignities; it is all part of the same manifestation of the flesh. The holy men of God spoke under the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the great safeguard from all these things, to move in company with the Spirit. The flesh will never move us on to the line of being meek and lowly in heart, will it? Man’s pretension, arrogance and boastfulness are all contrary to the Spirit of Christ, and Christians have to stand apart from them with something like horror, firstly as we find them in ourselves, and then as we find the same [p. 320] kind of thing in other people. So if we are to keep clear of all these evils, the only way is to move with the Spirit on the line of Christ. It is through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that we escape from the corruption that is in the world; and there is a danger of being drawn back into those very things that the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ brought us out of. Peter has in mind all through, the possibility of going back to the thing we were led to escape from (verse 20). It is really a chapter chiefly profitable by way of contrast; we profit from it by bringing almost every verse into contrast to what we have learned in Christ, and that is what will keep us, for there is no means of escape but by following Christ.