2
Peter 2:17-22 (NIV)
17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.
19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”
20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.
21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.
22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”[g] and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
This was a sobering moment for me when God showed me this scripture yesterday. If I would still allow another hint of doubt about God`s justice, this scripture definitely killed all my doubts; I will have no more doubts about His holiness and righteousness to hold us accountable for our actions. God is a holy God, and He will not tolerate any false teachings, those who corrupt believers, and those who are corrupt themselves/backsliders. God showed me this scripture after a long prayer about my frustration with my husband who sent an email for us to stop counseling to reconcile. As I saw his email, I was on my knees to find out from God what is it that I was doing wrong, and He showed me 2 Peter 2 (entire chapter).
In this second chapter of second Peter`s letter, God showed us few categories of the people: false teachers, followers of the false teachers, so called “believers”, and backsliders. All of those categories have a judgment reserved for them, and if you doubt that God judges, I can assure you that He does. I am an example of that myself; I have been one of the worst corrupter/backsliders who literally rejected God 2 years ago, and He brought me through some series of sobering circumstances to bring me down to my knees to surrender my life completely to Him. I live for Him now and serve only to Him, but there have been days when I could qualify for one of the categories described above.
As I saw that email from my husband and a response that he would be going to his church where they preach false teaching; a church where they gave him so much evil counsel that it drove our family further and further apart to the point where we are now, I realized that God is using all these facts to bring judgment. He heard the truth, but he chose to go back to the false teachings and to decide living a corrupt life.
I may sound harsh, but those are not my words, but God Himself told us what happens to those people who reject the truth and choose false teaching along with corrupting the strong believers. I remember those days when I was pressured by my husband and his friends to drink (and do other things) otherwise I considered to be strange, and he accused me of taking us in “separate directions”. Back then I succumbed to his pressure and tried to please him to save our “relationships”, but that was a lie from Satan. All it did is it took me further away from God and led me into further backsliding, until one day I cursed God and said that I don`t want anything to do with Him for putting me through such a horrible betrayal after discovering lies after lies.
When God gives us knowledge, He gives us responsibility to use that knowledge, live it out, and obey it. If I know things that are unacceptable to God because it produces destruction and disobedience to Him, but I choose to go back to my old ways and do them anyway, it would have been better for me not to know the truth, rather than knowingly disobey it. This is what God states here and in many other scriptures.
The scripture is very clear as to what happens when someone knowingly goes back to the old ways; once we know the truth and still choose to live in sin, there are consequences. God is going through these examples of how He didn`t spare the first world and only saved Noah and his family, and further gives us an example of how He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah by only sparing Lot and his family, would He not also deal with those who are wicked and reckless in their trampling the sacrifice of Jesus by their liberal and corrupt lifestyles? The answer is clearly NO; God is not going to be mocked. He is a holy God, and He will not allow us to have this fake “freedom” because He clearly states that it`s fake- it makes us “slaves to depravity”.
The verse speaks for itself and doesn`t require anymore comments. I don`t ever want to be in this place of “blackness” separated from God and His love, yet this is something that`s real for those who reject His truth.
I believe that God showed this scripture to me with a specific purpose: to warn me not to even think of going back to where I was in my old sinful ways, and to show me what happens to those who do go back to those old ways and succumb to the lies of Satan. As I was trying to negotiate with my husband to reconcile, he wasn`t yielding to change anything about our current custody order although I offered that we rescind any previous and current court orders to close the legal case and work on our reconciliation, which he turned down. Over and over I kept doubting if I miss out on God`s plan to reconcile and hold my family back from being together, and God showed me this scripture as another confirmation of His standards. God doesn`t compromise with the lies or sin, and if I started doing that again now, I would have fallen under the corrupt lifestyle most likely which He knew, so He warned me not to do anything with people like that or ever think of becoming one of them again.
How about you? Do you have some parts of your lifestyle that make you a slave of depravity, and if so, I urge you to search your heart and surrender whatever that`s wrong in your life to God. He will meet you at the cross, but He would only do that when you are authentic about that. Yield to God, and He will bless you to no end. This is a very sobering scripture for me to confirm yet another time that God is fair and just, and He will judge according to His purpose and His truth. If you don`t know what His truth is, read the whole chapter and the Gospels where Jesus lays out what a true life of believer should look like. Both letters of Paul to Ephesians and Collosians also give thorough manuals as to what we should live like as believers. God is not going to be mocked by anybody, and He reserves the “blackest darkness” for those who continue to reject Him and His standards of living.
13 They will be paid back with harm for
the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad
daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they
feast with you.[e] 14
With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the
unstable; they are experts in greed —an accursed brood! 15
They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of
Balaam son of Bezer,[f] who loved the wages of wickedness.16 But
he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who
spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. (2 Peter
2:13-16 NIV)
This is a further example of the lifestyle that`s not acceptable for those who claim to be believers. Check your heart if any of these things take toll on your life, and I urge you to realize how much destruction it causes you and to those who are close to you. Peter describes the example of Balaam and the way the donkey stopped and rebuked him. In the story as we know the donkey started to speak to Balaam telling him that it wasn`t God`s will for him to go curse Israelites because God`s plan was to bless them during that battle. In the end, Balaam saw the angel who spoke to Balaam and told him not to curse Israelites which brought Balaam to repent (Numbers 22).
Jude wrote in his letter (Jude 1:16-23 NKJV):
16These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. 17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction;[d] 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire,[e] hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Some of these people cause divisions because they don`t walk by the Spirit, and this is where I am now; me and my husband are divided because he is not walking by the Spirit. God allows us to save some people through fear and some through mercy, and I think by the depiction of the consequences for sin, Peter uses the approach of fear in his letter to get through to those unyielding hard hardened hearts. All these signs of behavior are only pointing to the last days before Jesus returns for His church. As believers, it is all the more reason for us to stand strong and to discern how to deal with mockers of God and how to pray for them or what speak to them.
If you know of someone who has a similar behavior, the best solution is to pray and ask for wisdom to guide you. My situation is unique in a sense the person that I deal with is my husband, and I don`t have that freedom to just walk away from him and never associate with him. He is flesh of my flesh and bones of my bones, and this what makes it so hard for me to endure- seeing him fighting against God (which is something I`ve done myself at some point), and not being able to do anything else other than interceding for him and for our family. If you are in a similar situation, I know that God is faithful to show His glory and to bring families together, but we must ask for patience, wisdom, and pray unceasingly.
17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.
19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”
20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.
21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.
22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”[g] and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
This was a sobering moment for me when God showed me this scripture yesterday. If I would still allow another hint of doubt about God`s justice, this scripture definitely killed all my doubts; I will have no more doubts about His holiness and righteousness to hold us accountable for our actions. God is a holy God, and He will not tolerate any false teachings, those who corrupt believers, and those who are corrupt themselves/backsliders. God showed me this scripture after a long prayer about my frustration with my husband who sent an email for us to stop counseling to reconcile. As I saw his email, I was on my knees to find out from God what is it that I was doing wrong, and He showed me 2 Peter 2 (entire chapter).
In this second chapter of second Peter`s letter, God showed us few categories of the people: false teachers, followers of the false teachers, so called “believers”, and backsliders. All of those categories have a judgment reserved for them, and if you doubt that God judges, I can assure you that He does. I am an example of that myself; I have been one of the worst corrupter/backsliders who literally rejected God 2 years ago, and He brought me through some series of sobering circumstances to bring me down to my knees to surrender my life completely to Him. I live for Him now and serve only to Him, but there have been days when I could qualify for one of the categories described above.
As I saw that email from my husband and a response that he would be going to his church where they preach false teaching; a church where they gave him so much evil counsel that it drove our family further and further apart to the point where we are now, I realized that God is using all these facts to bring judgment. He heard the truth, but he chose to go back to the false teachings and to decide living a corrupt life.
I may sound harsh, but those are not my words, but God Himself told us what happens to those people who reject the truth and choose false teaching along with corrupting the strong believers. I remember those days when I was pressured by my husband and his friends to drink (and do other things) otherwise I considered to be strange, and he accused me of taking us in “separate directions”. Back then I succumbed to his pressure and tried to please him to save our “relationships”, but that was a lie from Satan. All it did is it took me further away from God and led me into further backsliding, until one day I cursed God and said that I don`t want anything to do with Him for putting me through such a horrible betrayal after discovering lies after lies.
When God gives us knowledge, He gives us responsibility to use that knowledge, live it out, and obey it. If I know things that are unacceptable to God because it produces destruction and disobedience to Him, but I choose to go back to my old ways and do them anyway, it would have been better for me not to know the truth, rather than knowingly disobey it. This is what God states here and in many other scriptures.
The scripture is very clear as to what happens when someone knowingly goes back to the old ways; once we know the truth and still choose to live in sin, there are consequences. God is going through these examples of how He didn`t spare the first world and only saved Noah and his family, and further gives us an example of how He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah by only sparing Lot and his family, would He not also deal with those who are wicked and reckless in their trampling the sacrifice of Jesus by their liberal and corrupt lifestyles? The answer is clearly NO; God is not going to be mocked. He is a holy God, and He will not allow us to have this fake “freedom” because He clearly states that it`s fake- it makes us “slaves to depravity”.
The verse speaks for itself and doesn`t require anymore comments. I don`t ever want to be in this place of “blackness” separated from God and His love, yet this is something that`s real for those who reject His truth.
I believe that God showed this scripture to me with a specific purpose: to warn me not to even think of going back to where I was in my old sinful ways, and to show me what happens to those who do go back to those old ways and succumb to the lies of Satan. As I was trying to negotiate with my husband to reconcile, he wasn`t yielding to change anything about our current custody order although I offered that we rescind any previous and current court orders to close the legal case and work on our reconciliation, which he turned down. Over and over I kept doubting if I miss out on God`s plan to reconcile and hold my family back from being together, and God showed me this scripture as another confirmation of His standards. God doesn`t compromise with the lies or sin, and if I started doing that again now, I would have fallen under the corrupt lifestyle most likely which He knew, so He warned me not to do anything with people like that or ever think of becoming one of them again.
How about you? Do you have some parts of your lifestyle that make you a slave of depravity, and if so, I urge you to search your heart and surrender whatever that`s wrong in your life to God. He will meet you at the cross, but He would only do that when you are authentic about that. Yield to God, and He will bless you to no end. This is a very sobering scripture for me to confirm yet another time that God is fair and just, and He will judge according to His purpose and His truth. If you don`t know what His truth is, read the whole chapter and the Gospels where Jesus lays out what a true life of believer should look like. Both letters of Paul to Ephesians and Collosians also give thorough manuals as to what we should live like as believers. God is not going to be mocked by anybody, and He reserves the “blackest darkness” for those who continue to reject Him and His standards of living.
This is a further example of the lifestyle that`s not acceptable for those who claim to be believers. Check your heart if any of these things take toll on your life, and I urge you to realize how much destruction it causes you and to those who are close to you. Peter describes the example of Balaam and the way the donkey stopped and rebuked him. In the story as we know the donkey started to speak to Balaam telling him that it wasn`t God`s will for him to go curse Israelites because God`s plan was to bless them during that battle. In the end, Balaam saw the angel who spoke to Balaam and told him not to curse Israelites which brought Balaam to repent (Numbers 22).
Jude wrote in his letter (Jude 1:16-23 NKJV):
16These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. 17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction;[d] 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire,[e] hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Some of these people cause divisions because they don`t walk by the Spirit, and this is where I am now; me and my husband are divided because he is not walking by the Spirit. God allows us to save some people through fear and some through mercy, and I think by the depiction of the consequences for sin, Peter uses the approach of fear in his letter to get through to those unyielding hard hardened hearts. All these signs of behavior are only pointing to the last days before Jesus returns for His church. As believers, it is all the more reason for us to stand strong and to discern how to deal with mockers of God and how to pray for them or what speak to them.
If you know of someone who has a similar behavior, the best solution is to pray and ask for wisdom to guide you. My situation is unique in a sense the person that I deal with is my husband, and I don`t have that freedom to just walk away from him and never associate with him. He is flesh of my flesh and bones of my bones, and this what makes it so hard for me to endure- seeing him fighting against God (which is something I`ve done myself at some point), and not being able to do anything else other than interceding for him and for our family. If you are in a similar situation, I know that God is faithful to show His glory and to bring families together, but we must ask for patience, wisdom, and pray unceasingly.
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ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to hearing more from you. There are so many people who are rejecting God...and they are going to regret it! Time is winding up for this world. Like never before, people are rejecting the word of God and want to live accordingly to their fleshly desire. Our Father loves us way...to much to let us destroy ourselves. Well,He gave us free will and we must choose who we are going to serve and where we are going to spend eternity. God bless!
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to hearing more from you. There are so many people who are rejecting God...and they are going to regret it! Time is winding up for this world. Like never before, people are rejecting the word of God and want to live accordingly to their fleshly desire. Our Father loves us way...to much to let us destroy ourselves. Well,He gave us free will and we must choose who we are going to serve and where we are going to spend eternity. God bless!
ReplyDelete