False Prophets And Teachers
FALSE PROPHETS AND TEACHERS
2 PETER 2:17-22
It may seem that Peter is laboring the point but his purpose is that we should be prepared for false teachers.
The tragic description continues. The worst aspect about these false prophets and teachers is the way they fail those who put their trust in them. Two pictures are used. “Waterless springs” (17): for the implications, see Job 6:15-20. In the drier Mediterranean lands travelers plan their route by known springs and wells. If one of these fails, it means, possibly, death. From these false prophets and teachers comes a sound as of abundance of water springing up, but when one comes to them, one finds only wind. Then they are “mists driven by a storm.” On the wings of the storm wind, a mist covers the parched land which longs for rain. When the sun comes out again, it is clear that all that has come is a humidity that has merely raised false hopes. The sun is hotter than ever and the mist has vanished into nothingness. The proverb quoted in 2:22 indicates that these false prophets and teachers had never been changed. They had genuinely been drawn to Christ and had found much in the teaching of his messengers that fascinated them. But instead of submitting themselves to him as Lord they tried to force him into their systems and philosophies.
This description will be valuable to us only as we first look to see how far we have been tainted with the danger. It is so easy to demand that Christ should conform to our emotional experiences—and others’ also—or to our preconceived ideas of what they should be. If we have been truly born again, this will lead merely to our making true Christianity revolve around an experience instead of Christ. All those who come to us with infallible recipes for blessing or signs of spirituality fall into this category. Alternately, we will so emphasize one aspect of truth that the whole picture of Christ becomes distorted, or much truth is excluded from the framework we have so strictly drawn. Most of our sects and divisions are due to this. The great danger is that if we persist in this course, we shall find our sense of our own importance so growing that the Person of Christ grows dimmer and marginal. Finally, we worship not him but our idea of him. Once that has happened, only the grace of God can set limits to the evil into which we may fall.
When we have judged ourselves, we will be better fitted to estimate Christian teachers around us. Beware of teachers who make themselves the measuring-rod of truth and condemn all who do not conform. Beware of teachers who exalt their experience above the Scriptures and who let the moral law of God sit lightly on them. Beware of teachers who seem to have one eye on their hearers’ purses. Such teachers may be all right, but they stand in slippery places.