“They have abandoned the right road” is the way the Phillips translation expresses it. The apostates know the right road, the straight path that God has established, but they deliberately abandon God’s way for their own. No wonder Peter called them “natural brute beasts” (2 Peter 2:12) and compared them to animals (2 Peter 2:22). “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule!” warned the psalmist (Ps. 32:9). The horse likes to rush ahead and the mule likes to lag behind; both can get you off the right path. Believers are sheep, and sheep need to stay close to the shepherd or they will stray.
We have already learned one reason for the apostates’ godless conduct: they want to satisfy the cravings of their flesh. But there is a second reason: they are covetous and want to exploit people for personal gain. Peter mentioned this in 2 Peter 2: and now develops the thought. Not only is the false teacher’s outlook controlled by his passions (2 Peter 2:14a), but his heart is controlled by covetousness. He is in bondage to lust for pleasure and money!
In fact, he has perfected the skill of getting what he wants. “They are experts in greed” says the New International Version, and the Phillips translation is even more graphic: “Their technique of getting what they want is, through long practice, highly developed.” They know exactly how to motivate people to give. While the true servant of God trusts the Father to meet his needs and seeks to help people grow through their giving, the apostate trusts his “fundraising skills” and leaves people in worse shape than he found them. He knows how to exploit the unstable and the innocent.
There is certainly nothing wrong with a ministry sharing its opportunities and needs with its praying friends. My wife and I receive many publications and letters of this kind, and, quite frankly, some of them we throw away without reading. We have learned that these ministries cannot be trusted, that their dramatic appeals are not always based on fact, and that the funds donated are not always used as they should be. The other letters and publications we read carefully, pray about, discuss, and see if God would have us invest in their work. We know we cannot support every good work that God has raised up, so we try to exercise discernment, and invest in the ministries God has chosen for us.
As Peter wrote about the devious practices of these people, he could only exclaim, “Cursed children!” They were not the “blessed” children of God but the cursed children of the devil (John 8:44). They might succeed in building up their bank accounts, but in the end, at the throne of God, they would be declared bankrupt. “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matt. 16:26).
Covetousness is the insatiable desire for more— more money, more power, more prestige. The covetous heart is never satisfied. This explains why the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Tim. 6:10), for when a person craves more money, he will commit any sin to satisfy that craving. He has already broken the first two of the Ten Commandments, because money is already his god and idol. It is then a simple step to break the others—to steal, lie, commit adultery, take God’s name in vain, and so on. No wonder Jesus warned, “Take heed and beware of covetousness” (Luke 12:15).
I have read that the people in North Africa have devised a clever way to catch monkeys. They make a hole in a gourd just large enough for the monkey’s paw, then fill the gourd with nuts and tie it to a tree. At night, the monkey reaches into the gourd for the nuts, only to find he cannot pull his paw out of the gourd! Of course, he could let go of the nuts and escape quite easily—but he doesn’t want to forfeit the nuts! He ends up being captured because of his covetousness. We might expect this kind of stupidity in a dumb animal, but certainly not in a person made in the image of God; yet it happens every day.
Peter knew his Old Testament Scriptures. He had already used Noah and Lot to illustrate his words, and in 2 Peter 2:15–16, he used the prophet Balaam. The story of Balaam is found in Numbers 22—25; take time now to read it.
Balaam is a mysterious character, a Gentile prophet who tried to curse the Jews. Balak, the king of the Moabites, was afraid of Israel, so he turned to Balaam for help. Balaam knew it was wrong to cooperate with Balak, but his heart was covetous and he wanted the money and honor that Balak promised him. Balaam knew the truth of God and the will of God, yet he deliberately abandoned the right way and went astray. He is a perfect illustration of the apostates in their covetous practices.
From the outset, God told Balaam not to help Balak and, at first, Balaam obeyed and sent the messengers home. But when Balak sent more princes and promised more money and honor, Balaam decided to “pray about it again” and reconsider the matter. The second time, God tested Balaam and permitted him to go with the princes. This was not God’s direct will; it was His permissive will, designed to see what the prophet would do.
Balaam jumped at the chance! But when he started to go astray, God rebuked the disobedient prophet through the mouth of his donkey. How remarkable that the animals obey God, even when their masters do not (read Isa. 1:3)! God permitted Balaam to set up his altars and offer his sacrifices, but God did not permit him to curse Israel. Instead, God turned Balaam’s curse into a blessing (Deut. 23:4–5; Neh. 13:2).
Balaam was not able to curse Israel, but he was able to tell Balak how to defeat Israel. All the Moabites had to do was invite the Jews to be “friendly neighbors” and share in their feasts (Num. 25). Instead of maintaining its separated position, Israel compromised and joined the pagan orgies of the Moabites. God had to discipline the people and thousands of them died.
You can see in Balaam the two aspects of apostasy that Peter emphasized in this chapter: sensual lust and covetousness. He loved money and he led Israel into lustful sin. He was a man who could get messages from God, yet he led people away from God! When you read his oracles, you cannot help but be impressed with his eloquence, yet he deliberately disobeyed God! Balaam said, “I have sinned” (Num. 22:34), but his confession was not sincere. He even prayed, “Let me die the death of the righteous” (Num. 23:10), yet he did not want to live the life of the righteous.
Because Balaam counseled Balak to seduce Israel, God saw to it that Balaam was judged. He was slain by the sword when Israel defeated the Midianites (Num. 31:8). We wonder who received all the wealth that he had “earned” by his devious ways. Peter called his hire “the wages of unrighteousness.” This phrase reminds us of another pretender, Judas, who received “the reward of iniquity” (Acts 1:18) and who also perished in shame.
We will have more to say about Balaam when we study Jude 11, but we must not ignore the main lesson: he was a rebel against the will of God. Like the false teachers that Peter described, Balaam knew the right way, but deliberately chose the wrong way because he wanted to make money. He kept “playing with the will of God” by trying to get “a different viewpoint” (Num. 22:41; 23:13, 27). He no doubt had a true gift from God because he uttered some beautiful prophecies about Jesus Christ, but he prostituted that gift to base uses just to gain honor and wealth.
A bank officer approached a junior clerk and secretly asked, “If I gave you $50,000, would you help me alter the books?”
“Yes, I guess I would,” the man replied.
“Would you do it for $100?”
“Of course not!” the man said. “What do you think I am, a common thief?”
“We’ve already determined that,” said the officer. “Now we’re talking about price.”
The person who is covetous does have his price, and when it is met, he will do whatever is asked, even revolt against the will of God. Peter called this attitude madness. The word means “to be deranged, out of your mind.” But Balaam thought he was doing the wise thing; after all, he was taking advantage of a situation that might never come along again. But any rebellion against God is madness and can only lead to tragedy. It was when the prodigal son “came to himself” that he realized how stupid he had been (Luke 15:17).
Peter has condemned three sins of the false teachers: their reviling, their reveling, and their revolting. All of these sins spring from pride and selfish desire. A true servant of God is humble and seeks to serve others (see the contrast in Phil. 2:20–21). The true servant of God does not think about praise or pay, because he serves God from a loving and obedient heart. He honors God and the authority that God has established in this world. In short, the true servant of God patterns himself after Jesus Christ.
In these last days there will be an abundance of false teachers pleading for support. They are gifted and experienced when it comes to deceiving people and getting their money. It is important that God’s people be established in the truth, that they know how to detect when the Scriptures are being twisted and the people exploited. I thank God for agencies that help to expose “religious rackets,” but there is still the need for spiritual discernment and a growing knowledge of the Word of God.
Not all of these “religious frauds” will be discovered and put out of business. But God will one day deal with all of them! Like animals, they will be “taken and destroyed” (2 Peter 2:12). They will receive “the reward of unrighteousness” (2 Peter 2:13) to compensate for the wages they have exploited from others. As “cursed children” (2 Peter 2:14) they will be banished from the presence of the Lord forever.
They are marked men and women; they will not escape.