2 Peter 2:1-3 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

“1Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow in their depravity, and because of them the way of truth will be defamed. 3In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.”

Destructive Heresies

Heresies are deviations from the truth, i.e. they are lies disguised as truth which are contrary to the teachings of the Scriptures taught in the correct biblical context. And heresies which are destructive are those which are damaging (harmful, detrimental) to the people who listen to them and who believe them and who apply them to their lives. And we have many preachers of “the gospel” today who are teaching lies to the people which are giving them a false impression of what it looks like to believe in Christ.

The primary and most critical destructive heresy of them all is this half-truth false gospel message of God’s grace so many of them are spreading as truth, which multitudes are believing and are holding on to as though they are truth. For what so many of them are teaching is a faith in Jesus Christ which requires only a profession of faith in Jesus and in His death and resurrection, but which makes no requirements for repentance (death to sin) and obedience to God and to His commands as part of faith which saves.

The Results

Many people today professing faith in Jesus Christ are continuing in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord believing that all their sins are now forgiven, and heaven is secured for them for eternity, but regardless of how they live. So picture this with me. The church has fallen down into a dark deep hole while a man is standing over the hole with no intention of doing anything to try to rescue her, to save her life. That is what this looks like with these false teachers lying to the people while they drown in sin.

In a sense, by teaching them that God does not require them to repent of their sins and to obey His commands they are pushing them into sin, making them believe their sins will not count against them, and that God is smiling at them even when they are engrossed in all sort of acts of immorality and wickedness and opposition to the will of God. Even so many of them who teach repentance and obedience teach it more as something we should do, but not as something required of God if we are to have eternal life with God.

Hopelessness

So what these false teachers are doing is rendering these who are caught in sin hopeless that they will ever be delivered from their sin. For, although they are teaching forgiveness of sins, they are not teaching that Jesus died on that cross to put our sins to death with Him so that we will be delivered out of our bondage to sin so we can now live morally pure and upright lives for the glory and praise of God. They are not teaching that Jesus died to free us from our sins, and so many of their followers remain in a deep dark hole with no way out, and with no one to rescue them. And that is very sad!

Not Hopeless!

But the Gospel of Christ taught by Jesus and by His New Testament apostles, taught in the correct biblical context, is not hopeless, but it is full of hope. For it promises us that by faith in Jesus Christ, which comes from God, and which is not of human flesh, that we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in Him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as servants of righteousness. But we have to cooperate with God’s work of grace in our lives in dying to sin and in obeying our Lord.

Now I have shared my testimony many times of how, at some point in my Christian life, I got talked into sinning against my Lord in ways which I would have never imagined myself ever doing. And this is why it is important that we put on the armor of God daily so that we can fight against the schemes of the devil, so that we do not give in to his allurements. But then the Lord rescued me, and He brought me back, which is where I have remained. And He chose me to take His word to the people of the world on the internet.

A New Beginning

Faith in Jesus Christ is not intended to be a continuation of the life we were already living, only now with our sins forgiven by the grace of God. For God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. For Christ “gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works” (see Titus 2:11-14 and Ephesians 2:8-10).

That is when we are at peace. That is when we have true joy, when sin is no longer holding us in bondage, but now we are following Jesus in obedience to His commands. And that is when God can truly use us in the lives of others when our lives are surrendered to Him to doing His will for our lives. And this doesn’t make us absolutely perfect in every respect, but it should mean that we are no longer living under the bondage to sin but now we are living morally pure, honest, and faithful lives to God for His service. Amen!

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

The Way of Truth Defamed
An Original Work / November 1, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

Hymn lyrics by William Williams, pub.1745
tr. by Peter Williams, pub.1771
Music by John Hughes, 1907

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven,
Feed me till I want no more (2X).

Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield (2X).

Lord, I trust Thy mighty power,
Wondrous are Thy works of old;
Thou deliver’st thine from thralldom,
Who for naught themselves had sold.
Thou didst conquer, Thou didst conquer
Sin and Satan and the grave (2X).

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of deaths, and hell’s destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to Thee. Amen (2X).

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