Second Peter 2:1 talks about false teachers denying the Lord who bought them. What does this mean?

First, note that Peter says these false teachers bring heresies,which, as we have seen previously, refers to divisions within the Body of Christ.

And what is it they teach which brings these divisions? According to Peter, their primary error is that they “deny the Lord who bought them.” Most translations render it in such a fashion, but I must say that such a translation is hopelessly weak.

Denying the Master who Redeemed Them

A better translation might be, “denying the Master who redeemed them.”

The word Peter uses for “Lord” or “Master” is not the typical kurios, but is rather despotēs. It is where we get our word “despot,” which has more negative connotations today than it did in Peter’s day. Back then, it referred to a Master who owned slaves.

The word “bought” is the Greek word agarazō, which in a Master-slave relationship refers to being redeemed (cf. Rev 5:9, 14:3-4). So what is Peter saying? He writes that these false prophets, these false teachers, these bringers of divisions, have been redeemed by Jesus their Master, and yet, as shocking as it sounds, they have the gall to deny Him!

Denying Christ

And what is the significance of their denial? Here is where the text gets even more interesting. The word that Peter uses for “deny” is arneomai, which is exactly the word used in the gospels when Peter denied Jesus (cf. John 13:38; 18:25, 27). Certainly when Peter wrote this sentence, he was thinking of his own earlier actions and behavior in denying his Master who redeemed him.

And if the words of Jesus in John 13:10-11 where He says that Peter is already “clean” means that Peter was justified and had eternal life, then what all of this means is that Peter recognizes that it is very possible for a redeemed and justified follower of Jesus Christ to be a false teacher and deny their Master, just as Peter himself had done.
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Yesterday we looked at several passages in Scripture that talk about “heresy” and we saw that heresy does not exist–at least, not the way we think of it today. I argued that according to Scripture, there is no such a thing as “heretical teaching” in the way the idea is used in churches today. Calling something “heresy” is a bogeyman tactic used to scare and control others.

We looked at a few passages that mention “heresy” in which we saw that biblical heresy is actually the division and separation that sometimes occurs within the Body of Christ. Heresy is not false teaching, but the destruction of unity within the Church.

The primary passage in Scripture which seems to challenge this view is 2 Peter 2:1.

Heresy in 2 Peter 2:1

Second Peter 2:1 is the closest we come to a designation of “heresy” as a doctrine or teaching condemned by God with the consequence that those who believe it are condemned to eternal damnation. In this text, Peter equates false prophets and false teachers with the destructive heresies they bring and writes that just as their teachings bring destruction to the church, so they themselves will face destruction.

But in light of what we have seen of the other uses of the word airesis in Scripture, it is best to see first if that meaning fits here, and if so, we should seek no other meaning.
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Many church leaders want doctrinal statements, membership classes, sound teaching, and seminary degrees as a way to shield their church from false teaching.

But as church history and personal experience reveal,  no church can completely guard the minds and hearts of the people who attend that church from different theology and dangerous ideas. To the contrary, it seems that the more a church tries to completely control what people hear, read, and think, the more cultish they become. And one of the defining characteristics of cults is that they are full of false teaching.

So in other words, the more you try to protect against false teaching, the more likely you are to fall into it.

This doesn’t mean we should’t teach, warn, and seek to protect, but we must recognize Whose job it is to protect the minds and hearts of other believers.

The Holy Spirit Guides Us into Truth

Just as judging others is an attempt to do the job of Jesus, so also, trying to protect the minds and thoughts of others is trying to do the work of the Holy Spirit. We can and should teach, warn, admonish, correct, and even instruct, but only from the position that we ourselves can be taught, warned, admonished, corrected, and instructed.

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