Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

II Peter 2:20-22 NKJV

20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.

22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

It seems strange that the evangelical church pays so little attention to false teachers and fails any longer to warn its members against prevalent heresies when the New Testament is so replete with the teaching of this responsibility. This failure is not without present ill consequences which promise to be even more destructive to the church’s true interest.

As the southern border of the US is flooded with illegals so the boundaries of Christianity have been overwhelmed with weak, erroneous and deliberately heretical teaching.

Peter in the final verses of this 2^nd chapter describes the nature of the case with false teachers.

2:20 – There is always a good effect to Bible truth. In this verse, Peter states that it furnishes an avenue of escape from worldly conduct. One of the great ends of the law and the gospel is to restrain lawlessness. These false teachers have experienced this benefit. Lawlessness is never without its destructive consequences. But for these men the escape is temporary. They return to corruptive practices and are completely given over to them. They are “entangled” in them or hung upon them.

2:21 – The result of the return is that they are worse off than if they had never known

better. The simple meaning here is though ignorance of the law is no excuse, willful

disobedience is far more provocative and will meet a sterner response.

2:22 – The adversative “but” in vs 22 introduces a cardinal principle of Biblical theology.

Man is a subject of his nature and will always act according to his nature.

The dog in the illustration acts exactly according to his nature. He does what he does

because that is what the nature of a dog is and that is what a dog does. The sow does

what she does because she is a sow and loves to wallow in the mire. It matters not that

she may be washed and have a bow placed on her, give her freedom where there is a

mud puddle and she being a sow and not being at all affected by the bath will return to

the mire.

The certain intent of Peter is that the false teachers, no matter what at any time their appearance may be, when they are discovered to be false teachers they are acting according to their nature.

The Scriptures are concerned with this matter of man’s nature. Peter’s quote is from Proverbs. It is not something new interjected in the argument. The Lord teaches this in His illustrations of the bitter fountain and the briar. Neither of these can give out other than what they are. So do not expect a refreshing drink from a bitter fountain or pleasant fruit from a briar bush.

What is the conclusion? You may change someone’s personality and adjust their emotions while never involving their nature. But two things must be said. The change of personality and emotions have a temporary nature to them. And this will never satisfy God’s demand. He demands a new birth, a new creation, and nothing short of a completely new life. This is God’s changing of the fallen depraved nature to one of life and goodness.

Do not accept anything short of this change for yourself.