2Peter 2:17-19 - What Deceivers Deliver

17-19 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.


Who are waterless springs? False teachers are waterless springs. Why? Because they promise life-sustaining water and deliver nothing. It is the ultimate in false advertising. "Here is the Son of God, here is His body for you to feast upon, here is His Word," they say - and then they deliver not Jesus Christ the Lord, but another Jesus, which is no Jesus at all. And for this desecration, God has reserved for these people the gloom of utter darkness so that they sow what they reap. For utter darkness is what they speak from and utter darkness is where they will end up.

Who are mists driven by a storm? These are false teachers. Again, clouds promise refreshing rain but these false teachers are like the storm that blows the clouds past before their refreshment can rain down upon the earth. Refusing to enter themselves, they add this to their sins - that they hinder and/or prevent the entrance of others.

And they do this by appealing to fleshly weaknesses in young or non-believers. They dress worldly values and affections in a spiritual cloak. They give a good show. They make a big splash. They talk a good talk. But they do not know the Lord and the power of His resurrection, having their own minds and desires focussed on the things of the world - desiring acclaim and power and riches - and teaching their acolytes to do the same. They approve of that which is earthly, not living by laying up treasure in heaven.

In doing this they are often loud, boastful and foolish - making claims unrelated to and unsupported by any sound Biblical understanding. The freedom they hold forth is libertinism rather than liberty. Only the indwelling Spirit of God can make a person hate his life, set his mind utterly on things above and live solely for the sake of His Lord. Only the Spirit of God can so move the will and the heart that a person rejoices in his loss of worldly freedom and embraces with thanksgiving his enslavement to the Son of God and His will. Only the Spirit of God can make a man willing to die to self so that he may live unto Christ. The false teachers never do this. They sometimes talk about it, but they never do it. By their fruits shall you know them.

I say again that any teacher who preaches a gospel that leads the hearers to indulge in worldliness, carnal passions, mere human ambitions, methods and objectives is preaching another Jesus and another gospel and is accursed. Such teaching springs from the carnal and worldly hearts of the false teachers and is the very evidence that betrays their inner corruption.

The world has overcome these dry wells because they never left the world, despite their words and their promises. They are still enslaved to the world, to their own corrupt carnal natures and to their father, the Devil. But Christ says of His people, "In the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" {John 16:33}. And again we are told, "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" {1John 4:4}.