2Peter 2:14-16 - Nature of Deceivers

14-16 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

One could understand this to start by speaking of literal adulterers. People who do not restrain their eyes from entertaining any self-gratifying thought. People who, though betrothed to another, are constantly entertaining the idea of intimacy with illegitimate partners in their minds. There are such people. So weak is the human mind and so great the call of the flesh to matters sexual that improper sexual thoughts must be constantly guarded against by every saint, especially men.

But the Bible everywhere uses the concept of adultery as a figure for unfaithfulness towards God Himself. That is the carnal nature of man. It is his natural condition when the Spirit of God is not in him.

Now, these false teachers are described in such a way. Either they are uncontrolled in their lustful appetites (though they may hide them well), or they are simply unredeemed people being led about by their self-serving carnal desires, which are enmity with God. All unbelievers are adulterers. Their allegiance is owed to God, but is given to self. And even believers need to be trained up in righteousness so that they understand what mental unfaithfulness is, as well as that sort of outward infidelity which is only the manifestation of the inward condition.

A mind which is after the flesh and any of its desires cannot please God. In fact, to set the mind on the flesh is death. {Romans 8:6} And these teachers are described as those insatiable for sin and trained in greed. Outwardly, as I have said before, such people may seem to be nice and kind and oh so spiritual. But inwardly they are ravening wolves.

In today’s world we are surrounded by these people. People who take and twist the Word of God in order to gain a following or to get the world’s riches. They do it quite openly. And people flock by their thousands and thousands to see and hear their blasphemies. These are the "unsteady souls" of which Peter speaks. Are these followers true children of the living God? Or are they tares and chaff and goats made for destruction? We cannot judge the end of their souls.

What we can do is to warn them in love, to teach the real truth, to be on guard ourselves. We can encourage those who speak the truth and earnestly reason with those that need correction, if necessary turning them over to Satan to receive the due penalty of their error. We can avoid listening to, supporting financially, or otherwise giving the impression of approval to those who preach another gospel and another Jesus. Rightly Peter describes such as "accursed," just as Paul did in his own letters. {Galatians 1:8-9}

The error of Balaam, son of Beor, was that he was willing to prophesy against God’s people for money. He preferred what this world had to offer above faithfulness to God. If you see an evangelist today who lives high on the hog - whose people live high on the hog - who wears expensive and ostentatious clothes and has hair transplants, who travels and lodges first class as an expense of the ministry, using funds given for the furtherance of God’s kingdom, who lives in a multi-million dollar home with servants and hangers-on, who has numerous expensive automobiles and so on and so on - if you witness these things in a professing minister of God’s gospel then avoid such persons like the plague. Don’t stop to think about it. Don’t rationalize it. Don’t listen to their own self-deceptions and self-justifications. They have followed the way of Balaam.

Such people do not operate outside the purview of the Lord God Almighty. They have no real power to thwart His purposes, though they are accursed for their own perverted hearts. God is able to use even such a thing as a dumb donkey to prevent them from their desired ends - and they themselves will come to naught. See how people sow what they reap. Balaam behaved like a "natural brute beast" and was thwarted by just such a beast. God then used Balaam for His own ends, causing him to speak rightly, though against his will. But his true nature rose again to the fore when he counseled the Moabites to intermarry with Israel and thus to pervert Israel’s dedication to purity with God. Fittingly, Balaam found his end under the judgment of God's sword {Joshua 3:22}.