The Fifth Sunday of Easter (NTA)

2 Peter 2:1-22

1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (2 Pe 2:1–22). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Jesus tells His disciples a parable about Wheat and Weeds.  God lets the Wheat grow up with the weeds, so that he does not destroy the weeds.  But be certain that when the harvest comes, he will deal with the weeds.  St Peter explains that there will be many False prophets and false teachers.

These false teachers and false prophets will grow up along side the wheat.  But St Peter tells us just like the Angels that have fallen and been chained in Hell these false teachers will face judgment.  St Peter recalls the sins of the Earth before Noah.  He also points to Sodom and Gomorrah.

God allows these people to live on earth.  He gives us difficulty and suffering in order to call us to repentance.  But everybody will finally have their day in court.  All these teachers and the saints of God will stand up on Judgment Day.  The False Teachers will point to their own works and have to defend themselves for their sins.  But as for the Saints we look to our Judge and to the one who stands in our place.

Jesus Christ died for the forgiveness of sins.  Jesus has taken on this penalty which the fallen angels face and those swept away in the flood along with those destroyed in Sodom.  Jesus pays this penalty for us.  He does this so we can have life.  But watch out for weeds and the false prophets standing next to the apostles and standing next to true Christians today.