2 Peter 2

Peter warns that just as there were false prophets among Israel, so “there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them.” Many will follow their sensuality, and they will exploit believers with “false words” out of greed — but “their condemnation from long ago is not idle.” Peter shows judgment is certain by three examples: God did not spare the sinning angels, nor the ancient world (sparing only Noah), nor Sodom and Gomorrah (rescuing Lot), and so “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment.” He then describes the false teachers in scathing terms: bold, blasphemous, “irrational animals,” “blots and blemishes” who revel in deception, “having eyes full of adultery,” “hearts trained in greed,” following “the way of Balaam,” “waterless springs” for whom “the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.” They promise “freedom” while being “slaves of corruption,” and for those who escaped the world’s defilements only to be entangled again, “the last state has become worse for them than the first.”