Truth & Falsehood (Second Peter 2)

Okay, we are getting back into 2 Peter this Sunday night, so I wanted to post something reviewing where we left off.

Second Peter is a book for people with questions, doubts, and frustrations about their faith.

In Paul’s message on 2 Peter 1:12-21, we discussed the questions, doubts, and frustrations that we sometimes have with the Scriptures as they have been delivered to us. After all, isn’t it possible that we are all just following a bunch of cleverly invented stories? I think we can all benefit from engaging with this question.

For Peter’s audience, the Old Testament Scriptures delivered from God by the prophets were trustworthy and true, and he affirms this in his letter. But weren’t there also false prophets in Israel? Weren’t there false teachers in Peter’s day? And aren’t there false teachers in our day? How do we discern if someone is trustworthy and true? This is the subject of Chapter 2 in Peter’s letter.

Any discussion or discourse on false teachers assumes that there are such things as truth and falsehood. But what is truth? This is a question that humanity has wrestled with for thousands of years.

Philosophers have proposed at least three theories of truth: (1) correspondence theory, which says: “A statement is true if and only if it corresponds to the facts” (Velasquez, 427); (2) coherence theory, which says: “A statement is true if and only if it coheres or fits in with that system of statements that we already accept” (Ibid.); (3) pragmatism, which says: “A statement is true if and only if it effectively solves a practical problem and thereby experientially satisfies us” (Ibid.).

There are strengths and weaknesses to each of these theories. For the most part, I would say that the Scriptures use something like correspondence theory: “truth” is what corresponds to reality, to the way things are. “Falsehood” is what is deceptive, what does not correspond to reality.

What do you think?

There is a group of teachers whose lifestyle and teaching Peter believes to be deceptive. Commentator Peter H. Davids suggests that they may have been Epicureans. Whatever the case, their lifestyle and teaching do not correspond to what we have in Christ, and Peter does not want them influencing the congregations to whom he is writing.

They secretly introduce destructive heresies (v. 1). What is heresy? Mary Veeneman says: “I usually define heresy as a belief that is so fundamentally problematic it renders human salvation via Christ impossible” (source).

They bring the way of truth into disrepute (v. 2). They are lovers of money, likely exploiting the gospel for financial gain (v. 3). They despise authority (v. 10); oftentimes when someone despises authority, it is so that they can set themselves up as an authority instead.

Clearly, their influence is destructive. Peter spends over half of the chapter (vv. 13-22) talking not about the content of their doctrine (which he addresses briefly in vv. 1-2) but about the content of their lives. We must not miss this: false living is false teaching.

Here is the best definition of teaching I have ever heard: “Teaching is causing someone to learn.” Teaching is more than just the transfer of information. False teaching, the kind that Peter is concerned with, is more than the transfer or proclamation of false doctrine, although it includes that, to be sure. Simply put, false living is false teaching. And this is Peter’s concern (see esp. vv. 13–14, 17–20). He does not want these false teachers to influence otherwise healthy, growing congregations.

So what is the application for us? In 1 Tim 4:16, Paul says to Timothy: “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Some people are really good about watching their doctrine. They quote verses such as Jude 3, Gal 1:8-9, etc. This is good and necessary. Some people are really good about watching their lives. They quote verses like James 1:27, Micah 6:8, etc. This is also good and necessary.

But if we are in Christ, we must watch our life and doctrine closely. We dare not preach a false gospel with our doctrine, but we also dare not preach a false gospel with our lives. False living is false teaching. Therefore, let us watch our life and doctrine closely. Let us strive to have a positive, godly influence on all those around us, by God’s grace.

As we learn to cling to Jesus instead of ourselves, his lifestyle and teaching will become our own.

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