2 Peter 2:14, “14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!”
In yesterday’s article, I ended by explaining that the false teachers described in Peter’s second epistle did not leave the church but revealed their deception by feasting with his audience (2 Peter 2:13). These false teachers needed to admit their denial of essential doctrines such as the Second Coming and their need for personal holiness but refused to do so. Instead of leaving the visible church, these false teachers viewed themselves as genuine Christians and celebrated the fellowship meal that followed the celebration of the Lord’s Supper in the Early Church.
What makes false teachers so dangerous is that many of them refuse to be honest, and leave the church. Instead, these false teachers stayed in the visible church and worked their way into power to effect the change they want to see. They claimed to be genuine Christians while holding to a faith that is very different from the one given in the Scriptures. It is not hard to draw lessons from this in our own day, where we see people teaching falsely across the board on Christian theology, morality, and sexuality promoting doctrine that is contrary to that which is found in the Scriptures.
With the rise of homosexuality and transgenderism in our culture, among much more, we are seeing people endorse enthusiastically behavior that the Scriptures repudiate. This should not surprise us for the false teachers in Peter’s day did the same thing. In 2 Peter 2:14, Peter speaks of false teachers as having “eyes full of adultery” (2 Peter 2:14). What Peter means is that these false teachers were always looking for women with whom they could commit adultery with.
Genuine Christians have a desire to be faithful to the Scripture’s teaching on marital fidelity and sexual relations only within the covenant marriage relationship. These false teachers though promoted adultery and sensuality. As we examine the character of teachers in our churches, we should be very alert to those who would subtly or overtly promote a view of sexuality that is not in line with biblical sexuality lest we and others are led astray.
In our day, most of us realize our need to leave a church where a leader is not promoting a view of sexuality not in line with the Scriptures. Even so, 2 Peter 2:14 is primarily a warning about false teachers and how we should be aware ourselves lest we are found to be full of adultery. With the ever-increasing sexualization of everything in our culture, we cannot run away from this issue but only face it head-on with the Word of God and the gospel of the grace of God. If you struggle with sexual sin, please talk to your pastor, find an accountability partner that is the same gender as you, and daily read the Word, and spend time in prayer that your eyes and thoughts would be pure.
Dave Jenkins is happily married to Sarah Jenkins. He is a writer, editor, and speaker living in beautiful Southern Oregon. Dave is a lover of Christ, His people, the Church, and sound theology. He serves as the Executive Director of Servants of Grace Ministries, the Executive Editor of Theology for Life Magazine, the Host and Producer of Equipping You in Grace Podcast, and is a contributor to and producer of Contending for the Word. He is the author of The Word Explored: The Problem of Biblical Illiteracy and What To Do About It (House to House, 2021) and The Word Matters: Defending Biblical Authority Against the Spirit of the Age (G3 Press, 2022). You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, or read his newsletter. Dave loves to spend time with his wife, going to movies, eating at a nice restaurant, or going out for a round of golf with a good friend. He is also a voracious reader, in particular of Reformed theology, and the Puritans. You will often find him when he’s not busy with ministry reading a pile of the latest books from a wide variety of Christian publishers. Dave received his M.A.R. and M.Div through Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.
