Open the Bible UK Daily

Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

2 Peter 3:3
This is what the first Christians experienced; it’s what we experience today; and it will be the experience of the church until Christ comes.
When the New Testament refers to the “last days,” it includes all the days between Jesus’ first and second coming (see Acts 2). So, don’t be surprised by antagonism toward the gospel. By nature we do not seek God, we do not love God, and we cannot please God.
Rejecting God’s Word (scoffing) and choosing your own way go together. If you want to follow your own desires, you have to reject God. You have to put yourself and your own agenda in first place in your life. The sinner would prefer a world without God, because he wants to be his own god. Paul says, “Men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:18).
Unbelief and rebellion are the default position of the human heart, “The mind that is set on the flesh [i.e., the nature we are born with] is hostile to God” (Rom. 8:7). “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh” (8:5). The idea that sinners really love God and are seeking after Him, if only they could find Him, is completely false.
Peter has been telling us that in Christ we have “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). That means we need to find in Christ the strength, patience, wisdom, and grace to live in a world that does not see His glory, does not believe His Word, and does not follow His way.

Are you prepared to follow Jesus in this Christ-rejecting world?

The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgement.

2 Peter 2:9
There is a great promise here for the Christian. You love the Lord and you grieve over sins—in you and around you. God knows how to rescue you from trials. And He will rescue you. You can count on that.
We learn something else here: There is a punishment for sin that begins now. Sin brings the misery of its own consequences in this life. The way of the sinner is hard, but it gets worse if you refuse to leave this path: God holds the unrighteous for the day of judgement (2:9).
Can you feel the weight of these words? If you love your sins, and refuse to turn from them, then right now this is what God is doing in your life: He is continuing your punishment, and He is holding you for the day of judgement.
This is not what you want God doing in your life. You want to be with the godly who grieve their sin, repent of their sin, and turn, on account of their sin, in faith to Jesus Christ crucified.
You wonder, How can I change? I try to change and then I go back to what I was before. I am just like the dog that returns to its own vomit. I am unrighteous. How can I be godly?
You cannot change on your own. But you can come to Jesus Christ today, because God’s “divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (1:3).

Which did you most need to hear today, the promise or the warning?

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.”

2 Peter 2:22
The dog goes back and sniffs around. It is intrigued; it loves the vomit. The pig goes back and wallows in the mud. Why? Pigs love mud. And the unrighteous love sin. That’s why they keep going back to it.
The washed pig looks better, but it goes back to the mud. The dog feels better (you always feel better after you throw up), but it goes back to the vomit. The pig looked better, the dog felt better, but a dog is still a dog and a pig is still a pig. The only change is a change in appearance.
Peter says, “That’s the counterfeit Christian.” You had some kind of religious experience that made you look better or feel better, but you remained the same person you were before, and if that’s the case, your position is worse off than at the beginning (2:20).
Perhaps you are familiar with the truth. Other people may think you love Christ, but you know that’s not true. Your familiarity with the truth will make you more resistant to Christ than others who have never heard. Every time the gospel is preached, we are drawn nearer to Christ or we move further away. Our hearts are made softer or our hearts are made harder.
Don’t let that be true of you: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Heb. 4:7). Turn to Christ today and embrace Him as your saviour. Don’t let your familiarity with the gospel make you harder.

What is familiarity with the truth doing in your life? Drawing you nearer to Him? Or moving you further away?

Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (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).

2 Peter 2:7-8
Here is one “hidden” mark of a genuine believer. It cannot be known for sure in others, but you can be sure of it in yourself.
Be careful not to make false judgements about others. Peter writes about those who deny the Lord (2:1). But Peter denied Him three times. So, if you were to say, “He’s a counterfeit!” you’d be wrong. There will be many surprises in heaven—who’s there and who’s not.
Lot chose to live in the city of Sodom, and he experienced a great deal of unhappiness there. Some decisions in life have lasting consequences—where you live, what career you choose, who you marry. A bad decision may bring you sorrow, but it cannot stop God’s grace in your life.
The mark of a righteous man living in an unrighteous world, Peter says, is that he is “distressed” and “tormented” day after day. He is distressed over sin in the world around him. And he is distressed over sin in his own soul. The distinguishing mark is not that Lot was without sin. The evidence that Lot was a righteous man was that he grieved over sin wherever he saw it.
Your distress over the sin around you is a clear mark of God’s grace in your life. A true Christian grieves over sin wherever he sees it. That includes the sin in your own soul. A counterfeit Christian takes it very lightly. It doesn’t bother him.

Are you distressed by the sins you see around you? How about by your own sins?

There will be false teachers among you.

2 Peter 2:1
Peter’s plain statement reminds us that the church needs to be protected. Among the many wonderful people who come through the doors of the church each year, there will be some who would do the church more harm than good.
They may seem like the nicest of people, but they do not believe in the authority of the Bible or in the exclusivity of salvation in Christ. We must welcome such people, because they need Christ as much as we do, but we must not allow them to have influence in the church.
If what Peter says here is true, this means that sceptics will always be able to point to hypocrisy and inconsistency in the church. They’ve always done it and they always will. One of the strangest reasons for not following Christ goes like this: “I’ve seen people in the church who are hypocrites.” You will not follow Christ because some people who claim to do so are hypocrites?
The existence of the counterfeit is never a good reason for rejecting the genuine. Peter says, “Of course there are counterfeit Christians. Of course there are teachers who do the church more harm than good. What else would you expect in this fallen world? Grow up! Don’t be naïve! Don’t miss what’s real, simply because you have seen the counterfeit.”
You might be able to make a case this week to someone who’s hiding behind this excuse!

Do you know someone who has rejected Christianity because of hypocrisy?